Ancient Office Hours

Dr. Roel Konijnendijk, the Darby Fellow in Ancient History at Lincoln College, at the University of Oxford, joins Lexie to examine psychological warfare and imperial brutality in antiquity, citing Persian punishment of Miletus and Athens and Athenian reprisals, explore Greek ambivalence about war’s glory and horror, myth-bust Sparta as less uniquely militarist than popularly imagined, and look at reenactment as experiential rather than evidentiary. So tuck in your togas and hop aboard Trireme Transit for this week’s exciting odyssey! Don't forget to follow us on Bluesky, Facebook & Instagram or visit our website www.theozymandiasproject.com! Originally recorded July 8, 2025. Learn more about Dr. Konijnendijk: https://lincoln.ox.ac.uk/people/dr-roel-konijnendijk/ Follow him on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/roelkonijn.bsky.social Follow him on Twitter: https://x.com/Roelkonijn Get updates on his Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions: https://www.askhistorians.com/amas  Custom music by Brent Arehart of Arehart Sounds and edited by Dan Maday. Want a transcript of the episode? Email us at theozymandiasprojectpodcast@gmail.com and we can provide one. 

In this very special podcast episode, Lexie reconnects with Andrea Parkins, her influential history teacher who ignited her passion for history back in sixth grade. They reminisce about the memorable and engaging methods Andrea used to teach ancient history, such as immersive units on Greece and Egypt, complete with field trips, class competitions, and creative storytelling. Andrea shares her unconventional path to becoming a teacher, her experiences teaching various grades, and her thoughts on making education dynamic and exciting. The conversation offers a heartwarming trip down memory lane, highlighting the lasting impact a passionate teacher can have on their students. Originally recorded January 5, 2026. Custom music by Brent Arehart of Arehart Sounds and edited by Lexie Henning. Want a transcript of the episode? Email us at theozymandiasprojectpodcast@gmail.com and we can provide one. 

Cricket Leigh, a therapist and accomplished voice-over artist (the voice of Mai on Avatar the Last Airbender), joins Lexie to discuss her path into performance, from growing up in Kalamazoo and doing local theater and musicals to studying intense classical works at NYU, booking Mai on Avatar: The Last Airbender and the show’s enduring appeal through big themes and values, and leaving LA to practice therapy for 10 years, curating Comic-Con panels on anime and mental health, and now returning to creative work and new voiceover roles. So tuck in your togas and hop aboard Trireme Transit for this week’s exciting odyssey! Don't forget to follow us on Bluesky, Facebook & Instagram or visit our website www.theozymandiasproject.com! Originally recorded July 7, 2025. Check out Cricket’s website: https://cricketleigh.com/ Check out her YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@cricketleightalks Follow her on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cricketleightalks/?hl=en-gb Custom music by Brent Arehart of Arehart Sounds and edited by Dan Maday. Want a transcript of the episode? Email us at theozymandiasprojectpodcast@gmail.com and we can provide one. 

Dr. Dan-el Padilla Peralta, a Professor of Classics at Princeton (at the time of this recording), joins Lexie to discuss how growing up unhoused in New York City led him to reading in a shelter library and discovering Greece and Rome, the efforts to revise curricula toward race, gender, and sexuality studies, the limits of relying on one faculty member for such courses, and the importance of hiring, and outlines two reception projects—Classicism and Other Phobias and a book on Dominican classical reception and racialization. So tuck in your togas and hop aboard Trireme Transit for this week’s exciting odyssey! Don't forget to follow us on Bluesky, Facebook & Instagram or visit our website www.theozymandiasproject.com! Originally recorded June 26, 2025.Learn more about Dr. Padilla Peralta: https://classics.princeton.edu/people/dan-el-padilla-peraltaFollow him on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/platanoclassics.bsky.socialRead the NYT article referenced in the episode: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/02/magazine/classics-greece-rome-whiteness.htmlRead about his upcoming move to Arizona State University: https://paw.princeton.edu/article/activist-scholar-dan-el-padilla-peralta-06-leaving-princetonCheck out his book “Undocumented”: https://www.prhspeakers.com/speaker/dan-el-padilla-peraltaCustom music by Brent Arehart of Arehart Sounds and edited by Dan Maday. Want a transcript of the episode? Email us at theozymandiasprojectpodcast@gmail.com and we can provide one. 

Gigi Berardi, a Western Washington University environmental science professor and award-winning writer who has taught in Italy for 15 years, talks about her historical fiction novel Bianca’s Cure. Gigi explains choosing the Medici because their patronage shaped Florence and because her book centers on the “greatest mystery of the Renaissance”: the near-simultaneous deaths of Grand Duke Francesco de’ Medici and his wife Bianca Cappello, debated as arsenic poisoning, malaria, or murder by his brother Ferdinando. She describes building an accurate historical “skeleton” from primary sources and extensive fact-checking with Florence researchers while inventing plausible internal monologue using tonal exercises. The conversation covers Bianca’s Venetian aristocratic background, Renaissance medicine and Artemisia/antimalarial history, women’s roles in alchemy, Florence as a character, and Gigi’s view of success as visibility and reader engagement. Originally recorded February 23, 2026.Check out Gigi’s website: https://gigiberardi.com/ Check out Bicana’s Cure: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Biancas-Cure/Gigi-Berardi/9798896360704Follow Gigi on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61580352734240 Custom music by Brent Arehart of Arehart Sounds and edited by Dan Maday. Want a transcript of the episode? Email us at theozymandiasprojectpodcast@gmail.com and we can provide one. 

Dr. Kate Cook, a Lecturer in Greek Culture at King’s College London, joins Lexie to discuss falling in love with tragedy after reading Aeschylus’ Agamemnon and Kassandra’s scene, connecting hostility toward prominent or “masculinized” women in modern games to ancient tragic narratives about women, and critiquing the “historical accuracy” discourse in gaming which includes mods that remove women. So tuck in your togas and hop aboard Trireme Transit for this week’s exciting odyssey! Don't forget to follow us on Bluesky, Facebook & Instagram or visit our website www.theozymandiasproject.com! Originally recorded June 12, 2025. Learn more about Dr. Cook: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/kate-cook Follow her on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/katexe.bsky.social Custom music by Brent Arehart of Arehart Sounds and edited by Dan Maday. Want a transcript of the episode? Email us at theozymandiasprojectpodcast@gmail.com and we can provide one. 

Dr. Sarah Bond, an associate professor of Classics at the University of Iowa, joins Lexie to discuss the importance of classical languages and public scholarship, her book 'Strike' and the evolution of labor unions from ancient Rome to modern times, the potential future of classics & the impact of AI on the job market, and the significance of empathy in humanities. So tuck in your togas and hop aboard Trireme Transit for this week’s exciting odyssey! Don't forget to follow us on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram or visit our website www.theozymandiasproject.com! Originally recorded June 11, 2025. Learn more about Dr. Bond: https://history.uiowa.edu/people/sarah-bond Check out her blog: History From Below Check out her Substack “Pasts Imperfect”: https://pasts-imperfect.ghost.io/  Follow her on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/sarahebond.bsky.socialGrab a copy of her book Strike: https://yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300273144/strike/ Custom music by Brent Arehart of Arehart Sounds and edited by Dan Maday. Want a transcript of the episode? Email us at theozymandiasprojectpodcast@gmail.com and we can provide one. 

Dr. Alex Dold, a literary scholar, historian, and unofficial “Dr. of Outlander,” joins Lexie to discuss her insights on how she blends literary scholarship and historical research, the challenges of researching an ongoing series, the importance of studying popular culture academically, and the essential role of books and public history. So tuck in your togas and hop aboard Trireme Transit for this week’s exciting odyssey! Don't forget to follow us on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram or visit our website www.theozymandiasproject.com! Originally recorded January 28, 2026. Learn more about Dr. Dold: https://alexdold.com/ Follow her on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alex.dold.historian/ Follow her on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Alex-Dold-Historian/61583605072756/ Check out her chapters in the new academic volume on Outlander: https://luath.co.uk/products/outlander-and-scotland?srsltid=AfmBOorsHtSQxR6pMQ7uNDzNOCWmlL1h_BwFuW6KdkvAMnFRlyBSvoAT Custom music by Brent Arehart of Arehart Sounds and edited by Dan Maday. Want a transcript of the episode? Email us at theozymandiasprojectpodcast@gmail.com and we can provide one. 

Dr. Alexander Vandewalle, a postdoctoral researcher at Ghent University, joins Lexie to discuss how his passion for modern video games and Classics led to his PhD research on the characterization of mythological figures in video games, the nuances of using video games in educational settings, and the evolution of classical reception in video games & its growing legitimacy as a field of study. So tuck in your togas and hop aboard Trireme Transit for this week’s exciting odyssey! Don't forget to follow us on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram or visit our website www.theozymandiasproject.com! Originally recorded May 30, 2025. Learn more about Dr. Vandewalle: https://research.flw.ugent.be/en/alexander.vandewalle Check out his publications on Academia: https://antwerp.academia.edu/AlexanderVandewalle Check out Paizomen, the database of Classical Antiquity games: https://paizomen.com/ Find his book on characters in myth: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/characters-and-characterization-in-mythological-video-games-9781350565852/ Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TheOzymandiasProject Custom music by Brent Arehart of Arehart Sounds and edited by Dan Maday. Want a transcript of the episode? Email us at theozymandiasprojectpodcast@gmail.com and we can provide one.