Theophano: A Byzantine Tale, with Spyros Theocharis and Chrysa Sakel
A conversation with Spyros Theocharis and Chrysa Sakel, artists and creators of a graphic novel about a tenth-century Byzantine empress, Theophano: A Byzantine Tale.
An antidote to toxic medievalism, with Amy Kaufman and Paul Sturtevant
A conversation with Amy Kaufman and Paul Sturtevant about their book The Devil’s Historians: How Modern Extremists Abuse the Medieval Past.
Western Fantasies about Byzantium, with Elena Boeck
A conversation about western fantasies, orientalism, and the making of Byzantium, with Elena Boeck
The study of ethnic identities in Byzantium and beyond, with Brian Swain
This episode tackles listeners’ questions about Byzantine ethnic identities. How do groups within the Byzantine Empire change their identities? How are new identities born and old ones lost? How did the ancient Greeks become Romans and when did that become an ethnic identity? Where does genealogy and biology fit into all this? What happened to the Romans of the west? What did the Byzantines call their state and language? What does modern Romania have to do with Byzantine Romanía?
Environmental History and the Fall of Rome, with Kristina Sessa
Kristina Sessa discusses non-human causes of change – like climate and disease – that are being emphasized more than ever in the history of Late Antiquity and Early Byzantium.
Anastasius the Librarian, the greatest enemy of Byzantium you probably haven’t heard of, with Réka Forrai
Meet Anastasius the Librarian, one of the most fascinating controversialists of the ninth century. A native of Rome, scholar of Greek, and (probably) anti-pope for all of three days, he was no friend of Byzantium. He disliked and mistrusted “the Greeks” and argued that they were not Romans as they thought. His arguments have held sway in the west ever since.
The Colonial Fourth Crusade, with George Demacopoulos
Was the Fourth Crusade an act of colonialism? This episode of Byzantium & Friends features an interview with George Demacopoulos, author of Colonizing Christianity: Greek and Latin Religious Identity in the Era of the Fourth Crusade.
Ethnicity and empire in China and Byzantium, with Shao-yun Yang and Ying Zhang
How do imperial societies talk about barbarian or ethnic groups?
Imagining the Moment of Death, with Ellen Muehlberger
A conversation about death and the imagination with Ellen Muehlberger, based on her book Moment of Reckoning: Imagined Death and its Consequences in Late Antique Christianity.
Byzantium in Modern Greek Life, with Dimitris Krallis
Where and how does one experience Byzantium in modern Greece today?
Byzantine Gender, with Leonora Neville
In the first episode of Byzantium & Friends, Leonora Neville talks about her new book Byzantine Gender – how people in the Byzantine Empire conceived of men and women, masculinity and femininity, and the proper behaviour for men and women.