112 Episodes

  1. Episode 32: Trees Bending to the Torrent (Sophocles' Antigone)

    Published: 12/21/2016

  2. Episode 31: The Requiem at Athens (Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus)

    Published: 12/7/2016

  3. Episode 30: Two Legs in the Afternoon (Sophocles' Oedipus the King)

    Published: 11/23/2016

  4. Episode 29: The Mound and the Furies (Aeschylus' The Eumenides)

    Published: 11/11/2016

  5. Episode 28: A Mother's Curse (Aeschylus' The Libation Bearers)

    Published: 10/27/2016

  6. Episode 27: The Bloody King (Aeschylus' Agamemnon)

    Published: 10/14/2016

  7. Episode 26: Ancient Greek Theater (The History of 5th-Century BCE Athenian Drama)

    Published: 9/30/2016

  8. Episode 25: Lyrical Ballistics (Sappho, Pindar, Archilochus, and Greek Lyric Poetry)

    Published: 9/15/2016

  9. Episode 24: God May Relent (The Bible's Prophetic Books)

    Published: 9/1/2016

  10. Episode 23: Love. Desire. Exegesis. (The Song of Songs/Solomon)

    Published: 8/25/2016

  11. Episode 22: Fatalism (The Book of Ecclesiastes)

    Published: 8/16/2016

  12. Episode 21: The Bible's Magic Trick (The Book of Psalms)

    Published: 7/27/2016

  13. Episode 20: The Problem of Evil (The Book of Job)

    Published: 7/15/2016

  14. Episode 19: The One Who Struggles with God (The Historical Books and Biblical Archaeology)

    Published: 6/29/2016

  15. Episode 18: The 613 Commandments (The Pentateuch's Prescriptive Materials)

    Published: 6/15/2016

  16. Episode 17: Roots of the Pentateuch (The Pentateuch and Comparative Mythography)

    Published: 6/1/2016

  17. Episode 16: Four Main Parts (Introduction to the Bible's Structure)

    Published: 5/25/2016

  18. Episode 15: Canaan (Biblical History and Archaeology)

    Published: 5/13/2016

  19. Episode 14: The Autumn Leaves (Homer's Odyssey, Books 17-24)

    Published: 4/27/2016

  20. Episode 13: His Mind Teeming (Homer's Odyssey, Books 9-16)

    Published: 4/19/2016

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With millions of downloads, hundreds of hours of soundtracked content, and an overall emphasis on the cultural history behind famous works of literature, Literature and History is one of the most popular independent podcasts on its subject. Starting with Sumerian cuneiform in 3,100 BCE, Literature and History moves forward in chronological order through Assyriology, Egyptology, the Old Testament, Ancient Greece and Rome, the birth of Christianity, and the early Middle Ages. The show's current season is on early Islamic history. A typical episode (they average about two hours) features a general introduction to a work of literature, then a full summary of that work that expects no prior knowledge, and finally, an analysis of the cultural, biographical, and historical forces that gave rise to the work in question. Original symphonic and ambient background music is woven throughout each show, and all episodes offer free full, illustrated, footnoted transcriptions as well as quizzes for purposes of review. The show has no advertisements, and its host takes pride in a professional approach that avoids chitchat and ephemera and gets straight to the educational content. You can listen to the episodes in any order, although most listeners begin at the beginning and proceed from there, as the podcast itself is chronologically organized. Doug Metzger finished his Ph.D. in literature in 2011. His chief scholarly interest, following his dissertation work, continues to be 19th-century realism and postbellum American philosophy.