Audite

For this episode I had the pleasure of taking the train into Oxford to meet the fabulous Mai Musié, the Knowledge Exchange Project Officer at Oxford University. We talked about her work at the university along with her many other projects, her own Classical education, and the importance of reframing Classics as a subject that has something for everyone. 

This is a very special episode with some very special interviewees. I went along to Pimlico Academy for the first day of our inaugural Summer School and asked a few pupils who have been taught by The Latin Programme in their schools if they wouldn't mind chatting to me about all things Latin.  You can donate to The Latin Programme here: https://bit.ly/2RlHu3C

This week I caught up with Caroline Lawrence, author of The Roman Mysteries, The Roman Quests and Time Travel Diaries to name but a few! We met in the London Mithraeum to talk about the writing process, the inspiration behind her work, and her won classical education. 

My guest this week is Maria Wyke, Professor of Latin at University College London. Maria and I we talk about everything from her own Classical education, to presentations of Ancient Rome in film, to the ways we can use the ancient world to understand ourselves. Maria also had some excellent advice for young pupils of Latin who might be asking ‘why’ they’re studying an apparently dead language.  

Over the last few months, TLP has been working with a group of Year 8s from Holland Park School at beautiful Leighton House Museum, the former home of the English painter and sculptor Fredric Leighton, to introduce the class to some subjects they hadn’t yet had the chance to tackle. Over the course of this episode, some seriously talented young people will give you a taste of what went on in their sessions through raps, poems, songs, and interviews.

My guest this week is Legonium’s Anthony Gibbins. You might already know Anthony’s work from his Twitter presence @tutubuslatin and/or legonium.com where Latin meets Lego to form fun resources for learning the language. We caught up on Skype to talk about what inspired Anthony to start Legonium, the novel that moved him to learn Latin, and some tricks of the teaching trade.  

My guest this week is Fiona Macintosh, Professor of Classical Reception, Director of the Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama, and Curator of the Ioannou Centre at Oxford University. We chat about the influence of the classics on English literature and its place in our modern world, her own path to her classical education, and the lessons she’s learned as a teacher.

My guest this week is Charlotte Higgins, Chief Culture Writer at The Guardian and author of Under Another Sky: Journeys In Roman Britain and This New Noise: The Extraordinary Birth and Troubled Life of the BBC. Charlotte is currently working on a third book, which we discuss over the course of the podcast alongside the beginnings of her Latin education, her admiration for a particularly excellent and important teacher, and the ways in which the classical world has informed her journalism.

This week I was joined by one of our Latin Programme teachers, Alex MacKeith. Alex has a BA in Classics and an MPhil in Classical Literature for which he specialised in Greek tragedy and poetry of the late Roman Republic. He teaches Latin to Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 in our schools in Central and North London. We talked about Alex’s own classical education, some tricks of the teaching trade, and what he tells his students who ask why on earth he’s teaching them a dead language.  

I recorded this episode a few weeks ago towards the end of my time with Nat and Jamie, two volunteers from Sound Skool, a London-based music industry college that prepares 16-19-year-olds for a career in music. Nat and Jamie took over all my creative output for those two weeks, creating new ways to use our social media, researching and drawing mythology storyboards, and even acting as grips on a day of filming. It was such a pleasure to have them with me!

This week I had the great honour of heading over to The House of Lords to meet with elected crossbench hereditary member, Lord Alastair Aberdare. We had a great conversation about everything from his work as Director of WALTZ Programmes, a social enterprise helping to prepare unemployed and disadvantaged young Londoners for the working world, to his involvement in matters of education, skills and employment, corporate responsibility and the arts in the House of Lords.

This week my guest is Latin Programme teacher Tim Smith-Laing. Tim is an expert in ancient mythology and the ways that it informed renaissance and early modern culture and literature. He’s regularly contributes reviews and articles to Frieze, Apollo, the International Arts Magazine and The Literary Review. He’s worked as an academic consultant for Macat International and taught English Literature to undergrads at Oxford University.

My guest this week is Alice Higginson, a member of Scratchworks Theatre. Sratchworks is an ensemble that creates original stories using movement, puppetry and live music to entertain their audiences. Their most recent piece, Womans (Romans with a W) is set in 44BC in Ancient Rome and tells the story of the first female resistance.  I got in touch with Alice to find out how the idea for Womans came about, how they researched it, and why Ancient Rome is such a rich setting for this kind of show.

This week Anna spoke with Donna Zuckerberg and Liz Butterworth of Eidolon, an online classics journal that aims, in their words, to make the classics political and personal, feminist and fun. Donna is Eidolon’s Editor-in-Chief and the author of ‘Not All Dead White Men’. Liz runs the high school pedagogy column for Eidolon, as well as teaching undergrads at Hunter College.

In this introductory episode of Audite, the brand new podcast brought to you by The Latin Programme: Via Facilis, our Programme Officer Anna Richmond lets you know what you can expect from the rest of the series.