Podcasts about Bronze Age

In this 47th episode, Alan continues a (fingers crossed) monthly series of episodes featuring the comic book genre assigned to that month. Which makes this episode a discussion of ... Fantasy comics! He and Clinton Robison talk Conan, Rat Queens, Once & Future, Grimm Fairy Tales ... and MORE!!!How did Clinton become such a big fan of sword and sorcery tales? Which fantasy characters are his favorite? And does he actually read books WITHOUT pictures?Listen to the episode ... and FIND OUT!!!Click on the player below to listen to the episode: Right-click to download episode directly Promo: V for Vendetta podcastLink: Days of High Adventure podcastSend e-mail feedback to relativelygeeky@gmail.com  You can follow the network on Twitter @Relatively_Geek and Professor Alan @ProfessorAlan You may also subscribe to the podcast through iTunes or the RSS Feed.

Every other week, we focus on a Marvel series that sits on the fringes of mainstream Marvel continuity. The first episode of every new series that we cover is available on the public feed. The rest of the episodes are exclusive to our Patreon supporters.Not a Patron yet? Support us at patreon.com/marvelbythemonth for just $5 a month to get instant access to our bonus feed of over 200 extended and exclusive episodes! Stories Covered in this Episode: "Godzilla Versus Batragon!" - Godzilla #4, written by Doug Moench, art by Tom Sutton with Tony DeZuniga, letters by John Costanza, colors by Phil Rachelson, edited by Archie Goodwin, ©1977 Toho Company Ltd. and Marvel Comics"The Isle of Lost Monsters" - Godzilla #5, written by Doug Moench, art by Tom Sutton with Klaus Janson, letters by John Costanza, colors by Phil Rachelson, edited by Archie Goodwin, ©1977 Toho Company Ltd. and Marvel Comics"A Monster Enslaved!" - Godzilla #6, written by Doug Moench, art by Herb Trimpe, letters by Bruce Patterson, colors by Phil Rachelson, edited by Archie Goodwin, ©1977 Toho Company Ltd. and Marvel Comics"MONARCH by the Month" theme written and performed by Robb Milne. All incidental music by Robb Milne.Visit us on the internet (and buy some stuff) at marvelbythemonth.com, follow us on Bluesky at @marvelbythemonth.com and Instagram at @marvelbythemonth, and support us on Patreon at patreon.com/marvelbythemonth.Much of our historical context information comes from Wikipedia. Please join us in supporting them at wikimediafoundation.org. And many thanks to Mike's Amazing World of Comics, an invaluable resource for release dates and issue information. (RIP Mike.)

Bronze Age horror keeps getting hotter, and this week Ghost Manor #23 from Charlton Comics is suddenly getting serious collector attention. Copies sold jumped 162% week over week, raw copies are reaching as high as $300, and a CGC 9.8 sold earlier this year for $4,300. Is the Tom Sutton cover helping turn this once-overlooked Charlton horror book into a legitimate key?Plus, this week on Bronze and Modern Gods:HOT BOOK OF THE WEEKGhost Manor #23 – Tom Sutton cover art, soaring sales and the growing collector frenzy surrounding Bronze Age horror comics.OLD FART RULECracked #222 – A 1986 humor magazine loaded with comic-book history. John Severin handles the cover and interior art alongside an incredible lineup that includes Steve Ditko, Marie Severin, Stan Goldberg and Mike Esposito. Cheap book, amazing pedigree.UNDERRATED BOOKS OF THE WEEKX-Men #104 – Magneto returns, the new X-Men get a brutal lesson from the Master of Magnetism, and readers get the first cameo appearance of the Starjammers, including Corsair and Ch'od. Plus a classic Dave Cockrum cover homage to X-Men #1.Daredevil #111 – The first appearance of Silver Samurai, years before he became closely associated with Wolverine and the X-Men. The issue also features a Marvel Value Stamp, Shanna the She-Devil, Mandrill, Nekra, Black Spectre and even a letter from future Marvel editor Ralph Macchio.We also open up the Viewer Mail bag, do a little Show & Tell, welcome our newest channel members and talk about the books collectors may be overlooking right now.Follow us on Instagram and Facebook:@bronzeandmoderngodsLike the video, subscribe to the channel, and leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform.Become a Member for $2.99/month and get:• Members-only live streams• Bonus Show & Tell episodes• On-screen shoutoutsJOIN → https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkHTY1eNYHr9JoTndx_m6kA/join

1842Bronze Age Clay Tablets Uncover DiplomacyEric H. Cline, author of Love, War, and Diplomacy: The Discovery of the Amarna Letters and the Bronze Age World They Revealed, Part One: Discovered in 1886 at Amarna, Egypt, the Amarna letters consist of roughly 380 clay tablets written in Akkadian cuneiform from the 14th century BCE. British Egyptologists Archibald Henry Sayce and E. A. Wallis Budge compete to acquire these artifacts for the British Museum. German scholar Hugo Winckler and the "Young Berliners" lead the scientific breakthrough in translating and categorizing the archives. The correspondence reveals complex diplomatic exchanges between Pharaohs Amenhotep III and Akhenaten and rival great powers in Babylon, Assyria, and the Hittite Empire. Significantly, the archives contain the earliest non-biblical references to CanaaniteJerusalem under King Abdi-Heba. (1)

Who first imagined King Arthur pulling a shining blade from solid rock? What do extraordinary Bronze Age discoveries reveal about the legend's deeper roots?Matt Lewis is joined by Amy Jeffs to uncover the surprising origins of the sword in the stone (and other Arthurian legends), tracing them from ancient Welsh poetry and Celtic folklore to medieval romance and Christian symbolism.MORE:King ArthurListen on AppleListen on SpotifyProphecies of MerlinListen on AppleListen on SpotifyGone Medieval is presented by Matt Lewis. Audio editor is Amy Haddow, the producer is Rob Weinberg. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.All music used is courtesy of Epidemic Sounds.Gone Medieval is a History Hit podcastHistory Hit is part of Little Dot Studios, a Certified B Corp™Want even more Gone Medieval? Watch Matt and Eleanor's new film Medieval Summer on History Hit. Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Keith M. Dallas is a longtime comics historian and writer whose credits include TwoMorrows Publishing's Comic Book Implosion: An Oral History of DC Comics Circa 1978 and the American Comic Book Chronicles series, which he's the series editor of.For TWO HOURS of bonus content — including 20 more minutes of our conversation with Keith, and our coverage of Tomb of Dracula #64 and Avengers #171—plus 19 more issues in the Mighty MBTM Checklist—support us at patreon.com/marvelbythemonth. $5 a month gets you instant access to our bonus feed of over 200 extended and exclusive episodes. $10 a month lets you help pick the comics we cover in depth and gets you a shout-out at the end of the episode! Stories Covered in this Episode: "Who Was That Goblin I Saw You With?" - Amazing Spider-Man #180, written by Len Wein, art by Ross Andru with Mike Esposito, letters by Joe Rosen, colors by Glynis Wein, edited by Len Wein, ©1978 Marvel Comics "Marvel by the Month" theme v. 4 written and performed by Robb Milne. All incidental music by Robb Milne.Visit us on the internet (and buy some stuff) at marvelbythemonth.com, follow us on Bluesky at @marvelbythemonth.com and Instagram at @marvelbythemonth, and support us on Patreon at patreon.com/marvelbythemonth.Much of our historical context information comes from Wikipedia. Please join us in supporting them at wikimediafoundation.org. And many thanks to Mike's Amazing World of Comics, an invaluable resource for release dates and issue information. (RIP Mike.)

Hey there all you disfigured murderers! It's time for another visit to the crypt from my buddy Kirby, and he's brought a very disturbing horror magazine to discuss! Not overhyping this one but it's probably the best magazine cover to cover that we've talked about so far since beginning this journey last January. So grab your hunting rifle and let's take trip to the deep woods!As usual, if you'd like to leave any feedback for the show, you can do so through email at Magazinesandmonsters@gmail.com or to me on Twitter @Billyd_licious on Instagram @magazinesandmonsters, on BlueSky @docstrange or on the show's FB page (just search Magazines and Monsters). You can find Kirby on BlueSky @fearlessfreap on Instagram @hereskirby and on the Stop! Let's Team up network of shows, covering Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew, plus cohosting with Ross on many other shows! Thanks for listening!

In this week's episode, I take a look back at the movies and streaming shows I watched in Summer 2026 and rate them. This coupon code will get you 25% off the ebooks in the Ghost Armor series at my Payhip store: FALLARMOR The coupon code is valid through September 21, 2026. So if you need a new ebook this fall, we've got you covered! TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 319 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is September the 4th, 2026, and today I'm looking back at the movies and streaming shows I watched over Summer 2026. We will also have Coupon of the Week and an update on my current writing, publishing, and audiobook projects. So let's start off with Coupon of the Week. This week's coupon code will get you 25% off the ebooks in the Ghost Armor series at my Payhip store. That coupon code is FALLARMOR. As always, you can get the coupon code and the links to my Payhip store available in the show notes for this episode. This coupon code will be valid through September 21st, 2026, so if you need a new ebook for this fall, we have got you covered. Now an update on my current writing, publishing, and audiobook projects. I'm pleased to report that the rough draft of Blade of Visions is done. It came to 99,000 words. It'd be kind of cool if it came to 100,000, but as I've learned in the 15 years I've been doing this, it's not a good idea to pad things for length. Editing is underway. I'm about 15% through the first pass of edits. I'm working on the cover design, so I'm on good track to have the book out before the end of the month. I also wrote a tie-in short story called Winter Crown and don't forget that [newsletter] subscribers will get a free ebook copy of that short story when Blade of Visions comes out later this month. So this makes a very excellent time to subscribe to my new release newsletter. I am also 12,000 words into Elven-Warlock, which will be the seventh book in the Half-Elven Thief series. Hopefully that will be out in October, if all goes well. In audiobook news, I think Blade of Thieves (as narrated by Brad Wills) and Cloak of Worlds (as narrated by Hollis McCarthy) are now finally available at all the usual audiobook stores, which includes Audible, Apple, Amazon, Kobo, Google Play, Chirp, and all the others. So if you want to listen to those if you are going on a Labor Day road trip, you can check those out. A reminder that Stealth and Spells Online: The Complete LitRPG trilogy (narrated by C.J. McAllister) is also available on Audible, so check that out. That's 32 hours long and that would also cover all your Labor Day travels. So that is where I'm at with my current writing, publishing and audiobook projects. 00:02:22 Main Topic of the Week: Summer 2026 Movie Roundup So let's move on to our main topic this week. Our main topic this week is the Summer 2026 Movie Roundup and I always enjoy doing those. These episodes are a little less serious than some of the other episodes and it's fun to talk about things I enjoyed and that you might enjoy as well. And I did see a lot of new movies this summer. In fact, I went to the actual theater four times for Masters of the Universe, The Odyssey, Spider-Man, and Coyote vs. Acme, which is probably more than I've gone in a single season since before COVID times. So as usual, here are the movies I saw this summer (rated from least favorite to most favorite). The grades are totally subjective and based on nothing but my own thoughts and opinions. First up is The Breadwinner, which came out in 2026. This is basically standup comedian Nate Bargatze's act come to life as a movie. If you've seen Bargatze's standup, his usual routine is to portray himself as the dumb husband and bumbling Girl Dad, which is actually quite clever from a comedic standpoint since you're unlikely to have outraged mobs calling for your head if all you're doing is making fun of yourself. Anyway, Bargatze portrays Nate Wilcox, the best Toyota salesman in Nashville. (Don't worry, this is the first of only many product placement moments.) He lets his wife Kate manage the household and do the bulk of the work with their three daughters. When Kate's invention takes off on Shark Tank, she has to go to South Korea for two weeks to oversee manufacturing, leaving Nate in charge of the kids. Comedic chaos ensues. On the positive side of this movie, I did approve how this movie showed a married couple trying to work through a rough patch and do what's right for their kids and each other in a semi-productive way rather than blowing up their lives over nonsensical trivialities in the style of Eat, Pray, Love. On the downside, there was a lot of product placement, to the point where it at times felt like an extended commercial with bits of plot jammed in between product endorsement. No doubt most of the production budget came from product placement money. Will Forte was funny as an eccentric roofing contractor and Martin Herlihy as a shifty DoorDash employee. Kumail Nanjiani was funny as Nate's rival salesman at the car dealership. So overall, I would say this was blandly amusing and inoffensive with some funny slapstick moments. Overall grade: C- Next up is Supergirl, which came out in 2026. This movie really was sort of a strange combination of John Wick and the human trafficking subplot from 2020's Black Widow. The end result wasn't quite as good as Superman from 2025, alas. I did like this movie's interpretation of Supergirl. Kara Zor-El's departure from Krypton was way more traumatic than Superman's, so she's dealing with her unresolved emotional issues by traveling from planet to planet with red suns and getting hammered since the same yellow sun that gives Kryptonians their superpowers on Earth also keeps them from getting drunk because their bodies process alcohol too efficiently. However, Kara comes to a planet where a girl named Ruthye lives. Ruthye's family has been slaughtered by ruthless brigands yet led by Krem of the Yellow Hills and she's going on a quest for revenge. When Ruthye tries to recruit Kara for the quest, she's not interested, but then Krem steals Kara's spaceship and poisons her dog Krypto. Krem carries the antidote on his person, so now Kara and Ruthye team up to get vengeance on Krem and to heal Krypto. Krem is a nasty piece of work and he and his space gang travel from planet to planet abducting women to be their wives. I think the problem was that Krem was kind of a boring but nasty villain, but he was still boring. He was basically a space thug with too many piercings. Lex Luthor from 2025 Superman, by contrast, was a really interesting villain, this malignant narcissist who knows that his obsession with Superman is over the top, but he's going to act on it anyway. Additionally, I don't think this version of Supergirl is quite capable of being a lead character on her own. She'd make a superb secondary character, but I don't think she could quite carry a movie on her own. And Jason Momoa was pretty good as Lobo. Overall grade: C- Next up is Troy, which came out in 2004. I wanted to see this either before or after I watched The Odyssey this summer and ended up watching it the day before I went to see The Odyssey. I would say this movie was slow and ponderous, but I did enjoy watching it. This is an adaption of The Iliad and has the sort of slow stateliness of epic films from the '60s. It had good performances and good battle scenes. Brian Cox was enjoyable as a scenery chewing Agamemnon and Brad Pitt worked as Achilles. Interestingly, his version of Achilles reminded me of the interpretation of Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen from Dune 2 as sort of a violent psychopath with his own twisted sense of honor. Oddly, despite the fact that this was rather a long movie, the ending seems a bit rushed, like we needed to hurry up and get to the Trojan Horse. It was amusing how Achilles' relationship with Patroclus was changed to "cousin" for the modern audience, but Greek views on sexuality would definitely be unpalatable with both right-wing and left-wing versions of the modern mind, which is a good thing because while the Greeks contributed a great deal to the development of civilization, they were into a lot of unsavory stuff. So overall, I would say this was a fun, epic movie, but I think this walked so the 2026 version of The Odyssey could run. Amusing fact: Christopher Nolan was apparently supposed to direct this, but the deal fell through and he got Batman Begins as a consolation prize instead. Overall grade: B- Next up is The Dink, which came out in 2026. This is an Apple TV comedy movie about pickleball of all things. I feel like this was made because some Apple executive got made fun of by some tennis players for playing pickleball and then decided to take revenge through media. Jake Johnson plays Dustin Boyd, a washed up former child tennis star who now works at his father's tennis club. The club has difficulties because of a growing influx of pickleball players who the hardcore tennis players hate. Dustin's father decides to use the club's bylaws to force a duel match to decide the issue, in the grand tradition of wacky comedy stakes. Dustin really wants to play the duel match, but his wrist is injured in an accident. To get his wrist mobility back, the doctor suggested he play some pickleball and Dustin views this as beneath him, but he really wants to play again, so he signs up for pickleball. This ends up being a wacky sports company/buddy movie as Dustin gradually befriends an eccentric older pickleball player. Ed Harris should really do more comedic roles. He was great as Dustin's stern, yet unscrupulous father. I do admire Apple TV's dedication to making random stuff. Overall grade: B- Next up is Green and Gold, which came out in 2025, and this is a melodrama about a farmer and his granddaughter dealing with the grim economic realities of farming. This is set in 1992/1993 era Wisconsin. Buck refuses to modernize his dairy farm in Door County, Wisconsin. His granddaughter Jenny is a talented musician and also a skilled farmer, and Buck wants her to take over the farm one day, but Jenny's ambitions are looking elsewhere. Events come to a head when Jenny realizes that Buck is deeply in debt to the bank, which is about to foreclose on the farm. However, Buck and the chief banker have a personal animosity, so they settle on a bet. If the Green Bay Packers win a Super Bowl title in 1993, the banker will give Buck one more year to turn things around on the farm. Meanwhile, Jenny begins to wonder if her music ambitions might generate the money to save the farm. Of course, if you are familiar with the history of the Packers, you know that they won a Super Bowl in 1996, not 1993. The movie has carried on the back of the very strong performances of its actors. It also has an ambiguously happy ending, as is true with so many things in farming. I like this movie because I've spent a lot of my life in the American Midwest, [and] I did appreciate how it shows the difficulties of the farming life. Also, this is important: a fall from a ladder is a plot point. Ladder safety is important, people! If you are going up a ladder, for heaven's sake don't climb the ladder in high heels like the character in question does. Wear sensible, well-fitting shoes with good soles. A very long time ago, I used to work with a guy who would climb extension ladders in cowboy boots. It is nothing short of the mercy of God that he didn't fall off and shatter half the bones in his body. Overall grade: B Next up is Grumpy Old Men, which came out in 1993. Apparently this is set in Wabasha, Minnesota, which is amusing because filming actually took place in several areas in the Twin Cities in Eastern Minnesota, but not actually in Wabasha. I found that personally amusing because I'm quite familiar with the area and so I recognize several filming locations. Anyway, the movie is about two retirees, Max and John, who are enemies and have been enemies for years, but Max is lonely and wants to get married again, and John is about to lose his house to the IRS due to tax problems. Things come to a head when an attractive literature professor moves across the street and both Max and John take an interest in her and start competing for her affections. However, it turns out that Max and John are actually best friends whose love language happens to be hatred and practical jokes, kind of like Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner, but more on them below. This was a good character comedy/drama. It was interesting that the professor was an early version of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope, albeit several decades before someone came up with the term. This is worth watching both as a character and comedy drama and a time capsule of the 1990s. Sometimes a movie ages a bit badly (Airplane and the Thomas Crown Affair from the Spring Movie Roundup come to mind), but this didn't. The sequel Grumpier Old Men from 1995 is basically the same movie, but with the characters acting about 20% dumber so a sitcom style plot can happen. Still entertaining, but not as good as the first one, so Grumpier Old Men only gets a B-, but Grumpy Old Men gets a B+. Next up is Masters of the Universe, which came out in 2026. It was amusing to read reviews of this movie because people thought way too hard about a movie that is essentially about battling action figures. Anyway, this was pretty good. It was nice to see a movie about a science fiction property that doesn't actually hate the source material. Basically it's a live action version of the cartoons from the '80s, albeit with somewhat more thoughtful moments. I heard someone suggest that it was close in tone to Thor: Ragnarok, and that seems accurate. The plot is that Skeletor conquers Eternia and 10-year-old Prince Adam is sent with the Sword of Power through a magical portal to Earth to keep him and the sword out of Skeletor's reach. However, Adam loses the sword while passing through the gate and 15 years later is working in human resources. He's still seeking for the sword despite his therapist trying to convince him that it was a trauma-induced fantasy. However, his persistence pays off and he does find the sword. Teela, who is one of the resistance leaders against Skeletor's rule, comes to Earth to find him and bring him back, but Skeletor's minions arrive to claim the sword as well. Adam and Teela escape back to Eternia and it's up to Adam to find a way to use the Sword of Power to become the hero that Eternia needs. Dolph Lundgren's cameo was great. Overall, I would say this is a fun movie to watch, especially if you're a Millennial or Gen Xer who saw the cartoons or the live action movie back in the '80s. Jared Leto has something of an increasingly questionable reputation these days, but he did a good job as Skeletor, played him halfway between the solemn gravitas of the 1987 version and the malevolent comedic cornball of the cartoons. Of course, in my opinion, the Frank Langella version from 1987 is the best version of Skeletor since he placed it with all the seriousness of a Shakespearean villain monologue at the Royal Shakespeare Company. In hindsight, it wasn't terribly surprising that this underperformed at the box office. It felt like it was made for guys my age, not for kids. I would've been comfortable bringing an eight-year-old to see The Mandalorian and Grogu or Super Mario Galaxy, but I would've been less certain bringing a kid that age to see Masters of the Universe. Additionally, it seemed very Marvel in tone, and I think the overall mood of the US these days is less "Marvel Cinematic Universe quips and banter" and more sort of the grimness of The Odyssey, which we'll talk about shortly. Overall grade: B+ Next up is Young Washington, which came out in 2026, a biopic of the early life of George Washington, covering how he more or less accidentally started the French and Indian War and how he recovered his reputation at the Battle of Braddock's Field. To be fair, the international situation at the time meant that someone was going to start the French and Indian War. It just happened to be Washington, who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Overall, I liked this. It was reasonably historically accurate, though some of the emotional and family dialogue at times was a bit clunky. Additionally, Washington was portrayed as having revolutionary leanings much earlier in life than he actually did, since when he was a young man, he had no thoughts of being anything but a British subject and officer. That said, some of the most implausible stuff in the movie actually happened in real life. Like if I were to write in a novel that the future president of the United States personally rallied the army's rear guard to save as many men as possible from an ambush, and in the process had two horses shot out from under him and ended up with bullet holes in his hat and coat (all while fighting continuously), you would probably find that a bit implausible, but it actually happened that way. Washington's daring actions during that battle were one of the reasons he was appointed commander of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, that and there weren't many other colonials with as much experience of military command as Washington. In that vein, the battle scenes were the best part of the movie. They captured the brutality and messiness of 18th Century warfare without being especially graphic. Anyway, I'm glad this is getting a sequel. Maybe we'll end up with a Young Washington Cinematic Universe. Overall grade: B+ Next up is Meet the Parents, which came out in 2000, and this is probably one of the apex forms of cringe comedy. Ben Stiller plays Greg Focker, a nurse who's in love with schoolteacher Pam Burns. Greg wants to marry Pam, but overhears a phone call with her sister where she says her fiancé asked permission of her traditional father first. Greg decides that he's going to ask Pam's father's permission first to get off on the right foot, and so accompanies Pam to her sister's wedding and her parents' house to, as the title says, Meet the Parents. However, Pam's father is the former CIA counterintelligence officer Jack, and he and Greg immediately get on each other's nerves. To make things worse, the airline has lost Greg's luggage. From these two starting premises follow a cascading series of hilarious disasters that accumulate in a septic tank fire on the lawn. I'm not sure, but I think I saw this one in the theaters when it came out in 2000, and I thought it was funny then. With 26 years of additional life experience under the belt, I still think it's pretty funny, though you could still tell that this movie was filmed before 9/11 because if Greg had his airport meltdown seen today, the consequences would've been much worse. Overall grade: B+ Next up is O Brother Where Art Thou, which came out in 2000. This is a very, very, very specific adaptation of The Odyssey directed by the Coen brothers. George Clooney plays Everett, a convict who escapes from a chain gang in Mississippi during the Great Depression. He wants to find a treasure and he recruits fellow convicts Delmar and Peter to assist him. Along the way, Everett and his team encountered 1930s era versions of the Sirens, the cyclops, the blind prophet Tiresias, and other characters and foes from the original Odyssey myth. Everett and his friends end up running a scam where they pretend to be a Christian music group, but as it turns out, they're actually pretty good at singing, so this leads to unexpected hilarity and opportunities. This was also a very funny movie. Imagine The Odyssey is a comedy with a lot of singing set in the Deep South during the Depression, and you're there. If you're a fan of bluegrass music, this is worth watching. If you've seen Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, it's worth watching this just to ponder how the same source material can produce such wildly divergent interpretations. If you don't care about The Odyssey, then this is still a fun movie to watch. Proof: I mentioned to someone that I had seen this and she responded that she both loved the movie and was surprised to learn that he had in fact been inspired by The Odyssey. Overall grade: A- Next up is Hoppers, which came out in 2026. Like most Pixar movies, this was very high concept. Unlike many recent Pixar movies, it wasn't too depressing and didn't disappear up its own tailpipe. In the city of Beaverton, hot tempered girl Mabel bonds with her grandmother in their favorite place, a woodland grove favored by beavers. Years later, Mabel is a biology student under Dr. Fairfax, but is neglecting her studies to face off against her nemesis, the popular yet sketchy Mayor Jerry of Beaverton. Mayor Jerry wants to build an expressway that will wipe out the woodland grove, and he's perfectly within his rights to do it since no animals have been found living there. Since Mabel's grandmother has died, she's unwilling to give up the grove. However, Dr. Fairfax's research might give her a way. Dr. Fairfax has worked out a way to temporarily transfer human consciousness to a robotic beaver capable of speaking to real beavers, much like the plot of Avatar. In a funny scene, Fairfax angrily denies that it's just like Avatar. Mabel gets the idea to use this to convince real beavers to settle in the grove, thereby thwarting Mayor Jerry's plans. This touches off both a wacky yet poignant adventure. The plot was very well structured and it followed the proper rules of story structure, which I've talked about before. Mabel definitely is a protagonist who takes action, but experiences setbacks and problems of her own creation. It was pretty good. I say it was a return to form for Pixar after some of their weaker movies in the 2020s. Overall grade: A Now it's time for my three favorite movies of summer 2026, all of which I actually saw in the theater. First up is Coyote versus Acme, which came out in 2026. This movie had an extra surge of popularity from the fact that Warner Brothers canceled it as a tax write-off, but distributor Ketchup Entertainment revived it. That makes it a plucky underdog since Warner Brothers senior executives are kind of like the apex version of soulless corporate bug men. Like if I wrote characters in my books who acted like Warner Brothers senior executives, people would think I was being didactic and heavy-handed. Anyway, after decades of failures in efforts to capture the Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote decides to sue Acme Corporation for its numerous defective products. Coyote teams up with a lazy strip mall lawyer named Kevin Avery, who specializes in getting small settlements from Acme. However, Avery and Coyote end up filing a massive lawsuit against Acme, which means they'll face the full wrath of Acme Corporation, including its ace lawyer Buddy Crane and its ruthless CEO, Foghorn Leghorn. What follows is a comedic courtroom battle as Coyote and Avery try to defeat Acme Corporation, defeat its sinister plans, and Coyote starts to realize that Road Runner might actually be his best friend. Both quite amusing and touching, and I'm glad this was rescued from the tax write-off vault. Overall grade: A Next up is The Odyssey, which came out in 2026. This wasn't quite as good as Oppenheimer in 2023 in my opinion, but it was still very good and very much worth seeing. It was weird that The Odyssey was briefly a football in the never-ending US culture war scrum because the movie isn't really political and doesn't really have a message beyond "war is destructive and bad", which every sensible person would agree with, and a lesser message of "violating the law of morality has unforeseen cascading bad consequences, including the destruction of civilization", which is also quite true and was one of the themes of Oppenheimer. Nolan himself dismissed the controversies as "irrelevant" and "part of the territory" since no one had actually seen the movie yet, and given that The Odyssey has made a billion and a half dollars as of this recording, I think that may have proved his point. I imagine the scrutiny from Batman fans back in the 2010s was way more intense since in the modern era, many people care more deeply about the accuracy of Batman than The Odyssey. I do think the debate over the historical accuracy in The Odyssey is pointless because the Odyssey is myth, not history. The Iliad and The Odyssey are a lot like Arthurian myth in terms of their actual historicity. Even when Arthurian legend was massively popular with English kings and nobles in the late medieval and early modern period (for example, Henry VIII's older brother was named Arthur in imitation of King Arthur), the version of Arthurian myth they celebrated and wished to emulate had virtually no connection to the reality of Britain in the 500s AD and was instead a sort of fantasy version of their own time in the 14th and 15th centuries. By the time The Odyssey was written down, no doubt a similar process was underway. Both The Iliad and The Odyssey and the Arthurian cycle probably have a kernel of historical truth buried underneath the tales of magic swords, sirens, cyclopses, and vengeful witches with magic islands. There likely was a Romano-British warlord who might have been named Arthur (or possibly Ambrosius Aurelianus) who held off the Saxons for a while before he was overwhelmed and killed. Likewise, Heinrich Schliemann was a highly eccentric and very sketchy crazy rich guy, but he did prove that there really was some version of the city of Troy that was destroyed at the end of the Bronze Age. But everything beyond those basic details came from thousands of years of embellishments and flourishes from later poets and writers. So arguing about the historical accuracy of The Odyssey is a bit like arguing if Star Wars portrays faster than light travel in an accurate way. That kind of argument is just missing the point entirely. It's also interesting to see how modern standards clashed with the ancient mindset. You know how I always say that everywhere in the United States is exactly the same right until it really, really isn't? I think ancient people are just like us until they really, really weren't. Like ancient people would have been superstitious to an extent that even the most credulous crystal and aura influencer on TikTok would find horrifying and frequently violent in a way that the most strident self-defense advocate would find shocking. The Odyssey's version of Odysseus feels guilt and remorse over his actions in a way an actual ancient Greek probably wouldn't have, but so what? This is The Odyssey viewed through the lens of the 21st century, just as those English nobles viewed the myth of King Arthur and his knights through the lens of their time. As I mentioned with Troy above, the ancient Greeks were often quite brutal and would celebrate sacking an enemy city. One side note before we get to the movie, I probably found it funnier than I should have how Nolan favorably cited classicist Emily Wilson's translation of The Odyssey as a source, and Wilson then had an extended and unintentionally comedic multi-article crashout about how much she hated the movie and of course how much she hated the commemorative Trojan Horse popcorn bucket. Apparently Wilson hated the movie so much she's going to do a new translation of The Odyssey, much to her publisher's baffled dismay. No one does offended huffy petulance quite like an academic. Anyway, back to the movie. It follows the familiar story of Odysseus through Christopher Nolan's preference for non-linear storytelling and practical effects. I did think it was interesting how in this interpretation, Odysseus explicitly connected the ruse of the Trojan Horse with the collapse of the Bronze Age and the rise of the Sea Peoples. It's also probably the most supernatural film Nolan has ever done with actual fantasy and supernatural elements as opposed to science fiction like Inception, Tenant, and Interstellar. Odysseus talks to Athena throughout the movie and it's left up to the viewer's interpretation whether or not he's actually talking to Athena or his own guilt-ridden hallucinations. That said, Odysseus encounters a witch with actual magic powers and travels to the underworld to speak with the shades of the dead, so it's entirely possible he's talking to the actual Athena. In this version, as I mentioned, Odysseus is guilt-ridden over the ruse of the Trojan Horse, which is shown as a violation of the sacred hospitality of Zeus's law and as great a crime as the creation of the atomic bomb in Oppenheimer, which of course is similar to Oppenheimer, where Oppenheimer's creation of the atomic bomb is treated similarly. There are also some genuinely scary sequences in the movie. The bit with the underworld is very spooky, the cyclops is actually quite frightening, and the character of Circe reaches the level of scary previously attained by Heath Ledger's version of The Joker in The Dark Knight. If Nolan ever decides he wants to do a horror movie, it will probably be one of the scariest ones ever made. To sum up, The Odyssey has great performances, great spectacle, great cinematography, and great action sequences. As an interesting interpretation of the original myth, definitely worth seeing. I think you can tell it was a great movie because of all the arguments on the Internet about "what does it really mean?" Great art often has that effect. Overall grade: A The final of my three favorite movies of [Summer] 2026 is Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which came out in 2026. There's a rumor, and I don't know if it's true or not, that Tom Holland found the experience of working with Christopher Nolan on The Odyssey so eye-opening that he insisted that if they made another Spider-Man movie, it had to have a reason for existing other than "make a lot of money". If this story is true, it clearly worked. Previously, I though the two best Spider-Man movies were Spider-Man 2 from 2004 and Spider-Man: No Way Home from 2021. I must now amend that opinion to say that there are three best Spider-Man movies and Spider-Man: Brand New Day is one of the three. It is pretty good. I would've trimmed it here and there, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and is an excellent Spider-Man story that totally captures the essence of the character within a good story. It takes place four years after the events of No Way Home erased everyone's memory that Peter Parker was Spider-Man. Peter has now been crime fighting full time, but it is taking a severe toll on his emotions and personal life that he's deliberately ignoring. Meanwhile, Spider-Man has become the beloved crime fighter of New York, trusted by both the NYPD and the Federal Department of Damage Control, which is a reoccurring frenemy for superheroes from other movies. When someone launches an attack on the headquarters of Damage Control, the director recruits Peter to fight their new enemy, a mysterious figure who uses telepathy to possess people from a distance. Peter is the only one who can sense it thanks to his spider sense, and he's also the only one able to resist the telepath's possession abilities. But despite his resistance to possession, fighting a telepath is a dangerous proposition for someone with as many emotional issues as Peter, and things start to spiral out of control when the telepath starts digging into his life. But there's another lesson Peter has to learn. People (and especially superheroes) who take the federal government at its word tend to regret it. For that matter, ignoring his emotional issues is causing Peter's spider powers to start acting in strange ways. But of course, at the end of the day, Spider-Man always follows his conscience, no matter how high the cost to him personally. Definitely an enjoyable movie. All the scenes with Spider-Man and Punisher were great, and the two of them had a great dynamic together. A few other Marvel Cinematic Universe people show up, but this is probably one of the most standalone movies the MCU has done in a while. Of course, the risk of MCU Continuity Lockout is always there (which is one of the reasons I started writing Half-Eleven Thief in 2023). Overall grade: A So I would say it was a pretty good summer for movies. It's also valuable lessons in not taking the Internet too seriously, which too many people do nowadays. There are all these dedicated analyses on X, Threads, and Reddit in June and May explaining why The Odyssey was going to fail for whatever reason, and instead it made $1.5 billion. So I think that's a good lesson in not taking everything you read on the internet a little too seriously. So that's it for this week. Thanks for listening to The Pulp Writer Show. I hope you found the show enjoyable. A reminder that you can listen to all the back episodes at https://thepulpwritershow.com. If you enjoyed the podcast, please leave a review on your podcasting platform of choice. Stay safe and stay healthy, and we'll see you all next week.  

In this episode Alice interviews Dr Stephan Blum, a Research Associate at the Institute for Prehistory, Early History and Medieval Archaeology, at the University of Tübingen. Stephan is a member of the Troy Project, a long-running archaeological collaboration between the universities of Cincinnati and Tübingen, designed to shed more light on the physical remains and social history of one of the ancient world's most evocative places. Stephan is also a member of the Ancient Peace Studies Network, based at the University of St Andrews, and he has been bringing his expertise in ethnoarchaeology to the project, helping to uncover aspects of ancient peace history which have not been excavated in much depth until now.Troy is famous for the ten-year siege which Homer wrote about in The Iliad and The Odyssey - but this is only a fraction of the city's 3000-year old story. In this episode, we discuss how Homer's famous war stories have distorted our vision of ancient Troy and we consider what we can learn from its wider history. Stephan explains the challenges of looking for peace in the archaeological record, but he also underlines how much evidence we can find at Troy of conflict prevention, conflict resilience and post-conflict transformation. The result is a very different picture of a place that is almost synonymous with war in popular culture. Contextualising Troy's war-torn reputation by excavating more of its peace history teaches us a lot about the dominance of conflict narratives as well as the value of looking for evidence of local, everyday and personal peace across antiquity.We hope you enjoy the episode. For a version of our podcast with close captions, please use this link. For more information about individuals and their projects, please visit the University of St Andrews' Visualising War website and the Ancient Peace Studies Network. You can read more about Stephan's work on Rethinking Troy here.Music composed by Jonathan YoungSound mixing by Zofia Guertin

Quarter-Bin Podcast #245The Invaders 10, cover-dated November 1976.Frame story by Roy Thomas, with art by Frank Robbins & Frank Springer, but also the reprint story "The Reaper!" by Stan Lee, with art by Syd Shores, Al Avison, & Al Gabriele.What happens when Professor Alan invites podcast veteran Sean Whalen on to the show to discuss an issue from 1976 that is pretty much really a story from 1942? How will they deal with the surprising Golden Age plot and story? Will they love the story as much as Roy Thomas loves the Golden Age?Listen to the episode and find out!  Click on the player below to listen to the episode:  Right-click to download episode directly You may also subscribe to the podcast through iTunes or the RSS Feed. Link: The Raging Bullets podcastPromo:Mike's Comic Shop RoadshowNext Episode: Warlord 25, DC Comics, cover-dated September 1979.Send e-mail feedback to relativelygeeky@gmail.com "Like" us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/relativelygeekyYou can follow the network on Twitter @Relatively_Geek and the host @ProfessorAlanYou can follow the network on  Bluesky @relativelygeeky.bsky.social  Source: In The BallparkMusic in the episode: There is no List, by Haunt-Sync from Pixabay

Matt Fraction knows a little something about Godzilla. He's also writing a series called Batman, which you should check out. Every other week, we focus on a Marvel series that sits on the fringes of mainstream Marvel continuity. The first episode of every new series that we cover is available on the public feed. The rest of the episodes are exclusive to our Patreon supporters. Not a Patron yet? Support us at patreon.com/marvelbythemonth for just $5 a month to get instant access to our bonus feed of over 200 extended and exclusive episodes! Stories Covered in this Episode: "The Coming!" - Godzilla #1, written by Doug Moench, art by Herb Trimpe and Jim Mooney, letters by Joe Rosen, colors by Janice Cohen, edited by Archie Goodwin, ©1977 Toho Company Ltd. and Marvel Comics "Thunder in the Darkness!" - Godzilla #2, written by Doug Moench, art by Herb Trimpe with Frank Giacoia and George Tuska, letters by John Costanza, colors by Janice Cohen, edited by Archie Goodwin, ©1977 Toho Company Ltd. and Marvel Comics "A Tale of Two Saviors" - Godzilla #3, written by Doug Moench, art by Herb Trimpe with Tony DeZuniga, letters by Denise Wohl and Irv Watanabe, colors by Don Warfield, edited by Archie Goodwin, ©1977 Toho Company Ltd. and Marvel Comics "MONARCH by the Month" theme written and performed by Robb Milne. All incidental music by Robb Milne. Visit us on the internet (and buy some stuff) at marvelbythemonth.com, follow us on Bluesky at @marvelbythemonth.com and Instagram at @marvelbythemonth, and support us on Patreon at patreon.com/marvelbythemonth. Much of our historical context information comes from Wikipedia. Please join us in supporting them at wikimediafoundation.org. And many thanks to Mike's Amazing World of Comics, an invaluable resource for release dates and issue information. (RIP Mike.)

Twelve Maids is a dynamic new musical that flips The Odyssey on its head. Help us take Penelope's palace maids from the Bronze Age to the Off-Broadway stage for a residency at The Players Theatre in summer 2027! The myth you know... the maids you don't.Our mission is to take Penelope's maids, relegated to the background of The Odyssey throughout history, and prove through heart, humor, and a dazzling score that these overlooked women deserve the spotlight just as much as the heroes who have dominated Ithaca's narrative for millennia.Fundraiser Link

Get 30 Days of Merlin free at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠MerlinCrypto.Com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ In this episode, I'm pulling back the curtain on AI's biggest physical and digital secrets. First, I expose the absolute lie of the weightless digital "cloud"—revealing why the AI revolution is completely helpless without a massive, historic run on primitive, heavy, Bronze-Age copper wire. Then, I shift to Main Street to share how you can use plug-and-play AI as the ultimate equalizer for your small business. But it's not all easy wins; I'm also calling out the terrifying reality of "Shadow AI" and explaining why your well-meaning employees might be secretly leaking your clients' private data to public chatbots right now. Enjoy! Join the Age of Radio Discord | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://discord.gg/EeamD8WcjN⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow me on Goodpods ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://goodpods.app.link/usUyBZzhuNb⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Free Financial Consultation: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://forms.gle/B6nNZ2FbxbhESCHg9⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Red Wizard Gaming Society: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://discord.gg/9D43EszdUB⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠   DM if you are interested in Life Insurance! If you or someone you know has been struggling or in crisis please call or text 988 or chat ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠988lifeline.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  

Hey everybody! Paul Hix is back, and we're continuing our coverage of Saga of the Swamp Thing! These two issues have some very gruesome scenes, but unfortunately no herpes monster or psychic soldiers. But we do get Casey (KC), showing her true colors, plus finally something a bit more tangible about Harry Kay! So join us for a good time! As usual, if you'd like to leave any feedback for the show, you can do so through email at Magazinesandmonsters@gmail.com or to me on Twitter @Billyd_licious on Instagram @magazinesandmonsters, on BlueSky @docstrange or on the show's FB page (just search Magazines and Monsters). You can find Paul at WaitingforDoom.com where he and his pal Mike have an enormous library of podcasts! Thanks for listening!

Legendary comic book writer Steve Englehart sits down with Byron to discuss his ground-breaking 1970s Marvel Comics run on Doctor Strange and the creative freedom that defined the Bronze Age era at the company. Steve reflects on taking over Doctor Strange after Steve Ditko and Gardner Fox, detailing how he pushed the boundaries of cosmic storytelling under the strict rules of the Comics Code Authority at the time, and he opens up about how 1970s counter-culture, personal experimentation with psychedelics like LSD, and real-world occult research directly influenced his mind-expanding Doctor Strange storylines. Throughout the conversation, Steve shares fascinating behind-the-scenes stories from Marvel's golden era in New York City, a true step back in comics history. Highlights include his legendary collaboration with artist Frank Brunner on Doctor Strange, how late-night walks through NYC inspired Master of Kung Fu and ultimately the creation of Shang-Chi, and the infamous fake minister letter that tricked Stan Lee into letting a controversial Doctor Strange storyline go to print. Follow Comic Book Yeti

Sixty six mostly gold bronze age artefacts have been stolen from museum in Spain in an overnight heist. For more details on this Anton heard from Stephe Burgen, Freelance Journalist in Barcelona.

Support us on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠---Gladio Free Europe returns to the lofty walls of Troy for a continuing discussion of the Bronze Age background of the Greek epic tradition with Alexander Thatcher @ThatchEffendi.Calling in from Turkey, Alexander explores the Anatolian, Balkan, and Caucasian resonances of the works of Homer, from the parallel martial values of the heroes of the Iliad and those of the Ossetian Nart Sagas to the use of Albanian traditional music in Christopher Nolan's recent adaptation of The Odyssey. Later on, Liam and Russian Sam dig through the Hittite imperial archives to find scattered references of conflicts and characters on the western fringe of the Bronze Age world, that of Mycenaean Greece. These ancient aristocratic adventurers were clearly involved in Anatolian affairs, likely as both mercenaries and marauders. Of particular interest is the evidence of Greek or Ahhiyawan activity in the city of Troy or Wilusa, particularly under the rule of the enigmatic King Alaksandu — a figure of indeterminate origin who is both the earliest known bearer of the name Alexander and a possible historical analogue to the legendary prince Paris. Both archaeology and literature reveal strong similarities between the world of the Anatolian Bronze Age and the Mycenaean Greeks and Trojans as described by Homer. In addition to the notable physical similarities between Mycenaean palaces and Anatolian citadels such as Wilusa and Hattusa, we can identify clear parallels between the early Greek poetry of Homer and Hesiod with surviving Hittite religious texts.No discussion of the Bronze Age context of the Trojan War could be complete without wild speculation about the mysterious Sea Peoples, who Egyptian and Hittite records assert laid waste to ancient settlements all across the Eastern Mediterranean. Though the invocation of these Sea Peoples in Christopher Nolan's film has led to criticism by some scholars, it is now evident that the activities of these interlopers were both a cause and a symptom of the 12th-century collapse of the entire Bronze Age symptom. Mycenaean Greeks were found among the victims and the vultures of this chaotic time. While their network of palace economies would collapse, and their original writing system would be lost, Greek-speakers would also expand far across the sea in this period. These Sea Peoples would lay the foundation for later maritime dominance in the Iron Age and leave a fascinating footprint not only in the works of Homer, but also the Hebrew Bible.

Ralph Macchio began editing Marvel's black-and-white magazine line in 1976 and remained with the company until his retirement 35 years later. Along the way, he edited Frank Miller's Daredevil, shepherded the early years of the original Ultimate line, and somehow managed to bring the seemingly endless Spider-Man Clone Saga to a conclusion. For 150 MINUTES of bonus content — including 20 more minutes of our conversation with Ralph Macchio, and our coverage of Machine Man #1 and Power Man/Iron Fist #50—plus 18 more issues in the Mighty MBTM Checklist—support us at patreon.com/marvelbythemonth. $5 a month gets you instant access to our bonus feed of over 200 extended and exclusive episodes. $10 a month lets you help pick the comics we cover in depth and gets you a shout-out at the end of the episode!   Stories Covered in this Episode: "... A Future Uncertain!" - Spider-Woman #1, written by Marv Wolfman, art by Carmine Infantino with Tony DeZuniga, letters by Joe Rosen, colors by Glynis Wein, edited by Marv Wolfman, ©1978 Marvel Comics   "Marvel by the Month" theme v. 4 written and performed by Robb Milne. All incidental music by Robb Milne. Visit us on the internet (and buy some stuff) at marvelbythemonth.com, follow us on Bluesky at @marvelbythemonth.com and Instagram at @marvelbythemonth, and support us on Patreon at patreon.com/marvelbythemonth. Much of our historical context information comes from Wikipedia. Please join us in supporting them at wikimediafoundation.org. And many thanks to Mike's Amazing World of Comics, an invaluable resource for release dates and issue information. (RIP Mike.)

Hey everybody, Ed and Evan have joined me once again, and we've got a very weird issue of Marvel Premiere. The lead story has Man-Thing, and Satan, so there's that. Plus another backup with The Jungle Book (last one, I believe). So bear with me on this one! As usual, if you'd like to leave any feedback for the show, you can do so through email at Magazinesandmonsters@gmail.com or to me on Twitter @Billyd_licious on Instagram @magazinesandmonsters, on BlueSky @docstrange or on the show's FB page (just search Magazines and Monsters). Evan can be found on twitter @evan_bevins and at his fun blog asterisk51.blogspot.com! And on the Source Material podcast with Jesse Starcher and with Mark Radulich on his network as well! Plus, he now has a Substack, too. Check it out here https://ebasterisk51.substack.com/p/super-blog-team-up-staff-picks! You can find Ed on most social media sites @tealproductions and currently on the Superman Supershow and Comic Book Supershow, cohosting with Steeven Orr. Ed also has a huge back catalog of podcasts such as…The Mighty Thorcast, Ronin Rabbit, Newsprint Commando, Lords of Order (Dr Fate), among others! Ed and s now on Substack as well at https://tealproductions.substack.com/ (check it out)!Thanks for listening!

A new excavation in northern Iraq at a site with the terrific name of Kurd Qaburstan has revealed evidence of siege warfare. But we sort of knew this already from the stele of King Dadusha of Eshnunna who said that he had conquered the site. In ten days. As always the destruction itself, bad for the locals, good for the archaeologists. But how big was it, really? Maybe the ten days thing wasn't just Dadusha doing a bit.  With special shout outs to Steven Spielberg and a man called Creekmore!

No Milo this week, so Phoebe and Pat are talking about the Bronze Age collapse and its enduring historical and cultural legacy. For example, did anyone actually say 'This age of bronze is collapsing?' in this episode we will find out.Check out Milo on tour all over the UK and Canada here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this 46th episode, Alan continues a (fingers crossed) monthly series of episodes featuring the comic book genre assigned to that month. Which makes this episode a discussion of ... Jack Kirby Comics! He and Paul Spataro talk Doctor Doom, the Fourth World, Doctor Doom, Thor, Captain America, Doctor Doom ... and MORE!!!How did Paul become such a big fan of The King? Which Kirby characters are his favorite? And was Paul ever able to meet Jack Kirby?Listen to the episode ... and FIND OUT!!!Click on the player below to listen to the episode: Right-click to download episode directly Promo:Raging BulletsLink: Back to the BinsSend e-mail feedback to relativelygeeky@gmail.com  You can follow the network on Twitter @Relatively_Geek and Professor Alan @ProfessorAlan You may also subscribe to the podcast through iTunes or the RSS Feed.  

Ancient history just got stranger. Archaeologists have uncovered evidence of a mysterious forgotten Roman goddess, a possible human ritual offering beneath an ancient pyramid in Peru, new clues that may reveal the location of the lost Egyptian city of Mesen, and a 4,000-year-old tablet covered in symbols no one can confidently decipher.Who was the mysterious “Lady” worshipped deep underground? Why was a human body placed near an ancient Peruvian pyramid? Has a city connected to Ramesses II finally been identified? And could mysterious Bronze Age symbols represent a forgotten system of communication?Join us as we investigate four incredible new archaeological discoveries—and the mysteries they've brought back to life.JOIN ME ON A TOUR

Hey everybody, after a long hiatus, Al Sedano is back, and he and I are continuing are spotlight on the Man-Wolf! The character begins a run in this title for a few issues, then transitions to another, but don't be dismayed, it's good stuff! So join us as we talk J. Jonah Jameson and his interesting habits, plus the rest of the supporting cast as well! As usual, if you'd like to leave any feedback for the show, you can do so through email at Magazinesandmonsters@gmail.com or to me on Twitter @Billyd_licious on Instagram @magazinesandmonsters, on BlueSky @docstrange or on the show's FB page (just search Magazines and Monsters). You can find Al on social media @adamthanospod and @thatgiffenshow on BlueSky. He's on virtually every podcast app, just search Resurrections an Adam Warlock and Thanos podcast!Thanks for listening!

Paul Skorpen has done a lot of things and has learned a lot of languages. He's learned Nepali. He's studied with a Shaman. He leads VIP tours. He also has a theory that relates from the Bronze Age back to the dawn of the Tepes. We discuss those theories. But along the way, we have to learn a bit about both Goddesses and Tepes. 

There are some places where the past feels very close.Places where the stories seem to have settled into the landscape itself… where an old name, a lonely field or a strange tale passed down through generations can make us wonder what might have happened there long ago.In this episode of Time Between Times, I take you to a field near Mold in North Wales once known as Cae Ellyllon — The Field of the Goblins or Fairies.For generations, local people spoke of a mysterious golden figure seen standing upon an ancient burial mound. A strange, glittering apparition appearing in the darkness…And then, in 1833, workmen digging in that very field uncovered something extraordinary.Beneath the earth lay an ancient Bronze Age burial — and with it one of the most remarkable archaeological discoveries ever made in Wales.A magnificent ceremonial cape made almost entirely from gold.The Mold Gold Cape.But what makes this story so fascinating is the question that sits between folklore and history.Why was this particular place associated with a golden apparition long before the ancient burial was uncovered?Was the ghost simply a story that grew around an ancient mound?Or was something much older somehow remembered in the folklore of the people who lived there?Tonight, draw your chair a little closer to the fire and come with me into the darkness of Cae Ellyllon.A story of gold, ghosts, ancient burial, memory and the extraordinary ways in which the past can sometimes refuse to remain buried.Welcome, my friends…to Time Between Times.

While the "Sea People" existed in the ancient world, their role in the collapse of mighty empires has long been overstated.

In this first “Odysseason” panel, a group of classics scholars discuss Christopher Nolan's new “Odyssey” film as a modern reinterpretation rather than Homer, focusing on war trauma in Odysseus, parallels to Bronze Age collapse, and a rules-based order undermined from within, including a reveal that the feared invaders are the Greeks. Participants critique the film's heavy-handedness, reduced meta-storytelling, altered roles of gods (largely absent), and major omissions (e.g., Nestor, Phaeacians), while noting changes such as the Trojan horse being recast as a source of guilt and an allegory for technology in warfare. They debate audience reception across generations, rewatch value, and how adaptations shape popular views. The discussion turns to ethical and political responsibilities around diverse casting, portrayal of Helen, filming in Western Sahara, IMAX exclusivity, and limited Greek participation and promotion. Originally recorded August 12, 2026.Panelists: Dr. Joel Christensen (Prof of Classics, CUNY - Graduate Center)https://www.gc.cuny.edu/people/joel-p-christensenDr. Curtis Dozier (Prof of Greek and Roman Studies, Vassar College) https://www.vassar.edu/faculty/cudozierDr. Suzanne Lye (Prof of Classics, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) https://classics.unc.edu/people-3/faculty-2-2/suzanne-lye/Dr. Richard Cole (Lecturer in Classics/Digital Futures, University of Bristol) https://www.bristol.ac.uk/people/person/Richard-Cole-a6cef367-12cb-4fce-841d-3fbd60f5fbc6/Aristotle Koskinas (Archaeologist, re-enactor, and official Greek tourist guide) https://aristotleguide.wordpress.com/about/ Lexie Henning (University of Bristol Classics PhD student, host and moderator) https://www.bristol.ac.uk/people/person/Lexie-Henning-771d72b2-fe81-48e0-94b1-a3135ee2a618/ Want more Odyssey material? Check out The Oxford Critical Guide to Homer's Odyssey (which was edited by Joel Christensen): https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-critical-guide-to-homers-odyssey-9780198985099?cc=gb&lang=en&Check out an article where Suzanne talks about the ancient concept of Xenia: https://www.elle.com/culture/movies-tv/a73170278/the-odyssey-movie-zeus-law-explained/Check out The White Pedestal (by Curtis Dozier) as a companion to thinking about Nolan's Odyssey and Homer in 2026: https://yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300272734/the-white-pedestal/ 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. Ancient Office Hours is a proud member of Mnemosyne: The Memory Collective, a podcast network and creator collective for historians, archaeologists, artists, and other creators and educators dedicated to sharing content about and featuring the ancient world that is accurate, accessible, and inclusive. To learn more about the collective and its contributors, check out collectivemem.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Fall/Autumn 2026 Courses at AHRC: https://www.acidhorizonpodcast.com/ahrc-coursesWhat do we really owe a stranger at the door, and what grounds that obligation? In this episode, Craig and Adam turn to Jacques Derrida's writing on hospitality to unpack Christopher Nolan's new adaptation of The Odyssey, tracing how xenia, the ancient Greek law of guest and host, becomes a lens for thinking through breaking Zeus's law, the massacre of the suitors, and the slow collapse of Bronze Age civilization. The conversation moves through Derrida's distinction between conditional and absolute hospitality, and what it means for a world where borders, asylum claims, and even hospitals have turned the promise of welcome into a catastrophe. It's Nolan's adaptation of Homer's epic read through Derrida: gods, guests, and the violence lurking underneath the oldest tablets of law.'Does Psyche Matter?' Free AHRC public panel discussion: https://www.patreon.com/acidhorizonpodcast/posts/ahrc-free-public-166420416?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_fan&utm_content=web_shareSupport the showSupport the podcast:AHRCCurrent classes at Acid Horizon Research Commons (AHRC): acidhorizonresearchcommons.comAHRC Course Archive: https://www.acidhorizonpodcast.com/ahrc-course-archivesSubmit your course proposal: acidhorizonresearchcommons@gmail.comMore LinksWebsite: https://www.acidhorizonpodcast.com/Linktree: https://linktr.ee/acidhorizonAcid Horizon on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/acidhorizonpodcastBoycott Watkins Media: https://xenogothic.com/2025/03/17/boycott-watkins-statement/Subscribe to us on your favorite podcast: https://pod.link/1512615438Merch: http://www.crit-drip.comSubscribe to us on your favorite podcast platform: https://pod.link/1512615438LEPHT HAND: https://www.patreon.com/LEPHTHANDHappy Hour at Hippel's (Adam's blog): https://happyhourathippels.wordpress.com​Split Infinities (Craig's Substack): https://splitinfinities.substack.com/​Music: https://sereptie.bandcamp.com/ and https://thecominginsurrection.bandcamp.com/

In 1929, a farmer in French-occupied Syria hit a rock with his plow and accidentally uncovered the lost city of Ugarit — and with it, a library of Bronze Age tablets that has been quietly reshaping how scholars read the Hebrew Bible ever since. This week, we're diving into the Baal Cycle: an elderly patriarchal high god named El, a youthful storm-riding warrior who fights the chaotic sea (and then, memorably, drinks him), a goddess who winnows Death himself like grain, and a whole pantheon that ought to look awfully familiar. Then, in History's Mysteries, we tackle a word Dan B has used his entire life without ever quite knowing what it means: Zion. Where did it come from, why does it seem to start out as a dry rocky stronghold, and how did it stretch into a portable, symbolic, cosmic idea that runs from Jerusalem all the way to Jackson County, Missouri? Support Data Over Dogma and get every episode early and ad-free, plus exclusive bonus content — become a patron: https://www.patreon.com/DataOverDogma Get your Data Over Dogma merch at our online store: https://data-over-dogma-shop.fourthwall.com/ Watch every episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dataoverdogma Follow us: Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/dataoverdogmapod TikTok — https://www.tiktok.com/@data.over.dogma.pod Threads — https://www.threads.com/@dataoverdogmapod X — https://x.com/data_over_dogma Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/DataOverDogmaPod Get Dan McClellan's New York Times bestselling book, The Bible Says So: https://static.macmillan.com/static/smp/bible-says-so-9781250347466/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on Bronze and Modern Gods, Ghost Rider is back in the spotlight.Our Hot Book of the Week is MARVEL SPOTLIGHT #5, the first appearance of Johnny Blaze as Ghost Rider. After Marvel's SDCC announcement that Ryan Gosling will star in a new GHOST RIDER film directed by Shawn Levy, this Bronze Age key is suddenly getting a fresh wave of attention.The big question: will Gosling play Johnny Blaze, or is Marvel going in a different direction? Either way, MARVEL SPOTLIGHT #5 is once again one of the books collectors are watching.For the 25 Year Rule, we revisit THE PUNISHER #1 from Marvel Knights in 2001. Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon brought Frank Castle back to basics after one of the strangest Punisher relaunches ever, the angel-guns era of THE PUNISHER: PURGATORY. This is the run that helped shape the modern Punisher and influenced the later films.Our Underrated Books of the Week include:FANTASTIC FOUR #45, the first team appearance of the Inhumans, with Crystal, Karnak, Triton, Lockjaw, and an early Black Bolt appearance arriving during one of the greatest Lee/Kirby stretches in Marvel history.SUPERMAN ANNUAL #11, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' “For the Man Who Has Everything,” featuring the first appearance of the Black Mercy and one of the most emotional Superman stories DC ever published.Plus, Viewer Mail, a little Show & Tell, and new Member shoutouts.Follow us on Instagram and Facebook:@bronzeandmoderngodsLike the video, subscribe to the channel, and leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform.Become a Member for $2.99/month and get:• Members-only live streams• Bonus Show & Tell episodes• On-screen shoutoutsJOIN → https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkHTY1eNYHr9JoTndx_m6kA/join

Hey everybody, Jeremiah is back, and it's time for another jam packed issue of Silverblade! We dig even deeper into the history of the character, plus get all our action from start to finish! There are still more questions but these last few issues are going to be crazy! So join us for this wild ride!As usual, if you'd like to leave any feedback for the show, you can do so through email at Magazinesandmonsters@gmail.com or to me on Twitter @Billyd_licious on Instagram @magazinesandmonsters, on BlueSky @docstrange or on the show's FB page (just search Magazines and Monsters). You can find Jeremiah on Instagram or BlueSky @bigox737! He can also be found at his blog comicscomicscomics.blog! Thanks for listening!

Steven wades into the murky waters of the bayous of Louisiana where a spaceship has brought some confused aliens into contact with DC's mopey muck monster in a story that will shatter your heart into a million pieces. SWAMP THING no. 32 was written by Alan Moore and drawn by Shawn McManus.COMICS ROT YOUR BRAIN! is a deep dive into ‘80s comics (plus a few notable exceptions). In this podcast, screenwriters Steven Bagatourian (AMERICAN GUN) and Christopher Derrick (STAR TREK: PICARD) discuss their favorite books, runs, and creators from the Bronze Age.Become a CRYB! Member on YouTube for only $2.99 a month and unlock awesome bonus videos… Don't sleep!Alan Moore's Best Single Issue Story? | SWAMP THING #32 (DC Comics, 1985)Drop us a line! Support the show+ Check out our YouTube channel to get a look at some of the fantastic art featured in our episodes. Visit ComicsRotYourBrain.com to sign up for our newsletter, Letter Column. You can also find us wherever you stream your favorite podcasts.+ We appreciate your support of the show via Patreon: ComicsRotYourBrain+ For even more cool shit, read Chris's Substack (cinema, comics, and culture) - THIN ICE©2024  Comics Rot Your Brain!#comicbooks #comics #graphicnovel

"My father, behold, the enemy's ships came here. My cities were burned, and they did evil things in my country. Does not my father know that all my troops and chariots are in the land of Hatti, and all my ships are in the land of Lukka? The country is abandoned to itself. May my father know it: the seven ships of the enemy that came here inflicted much damage upon us."Around the year 1185 BCE, Ammurapi, the last king of the ancient city Ugarit, urged the king of nearby Alashiya to send help. His city, which had stood for thousands of years, was one of the great commercial capitals of the eastern Mediterranean. But help would never arrive. Ugarit fell and was never rebuilt. And it was not alone.Up and down the coastline, from Greece to Anatolia to the Levant, an entire interconnected world of Bronze Age superpowers essentially stopped existing within the span of a few decades. Cities that had thrived for centuries were reduced to ash. Writing systems disappeared so completely that entire regions went functionally illiterate for centuries. And at the center of almost every ancient account of what happened, you find the same phrase showing up in Egyptian temple walls and Syrian palace archives alike, describing a coalition of raiders. People who made a “conspiracy in their islands” and came from the sea…Check out the podcast store at unresolved.dashery.comIf you would like to support this podcast, consider heading to https://www.patreon.com/unresolvedpod to become a Patron or ProducerBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/unresolved-a-true-crime-mystery-podcast--3266604/support.

Alan's Eyes & Ears #045 - Heroes Con 2026In this 45th episode of the podcast, Alan is joined by Derek Crabbe (from The Fanholes Podcast) to discuss their experiences at Heroes Con 2026.They talk about meeting creators, attending panels, sharing meals, hanging out with friends old and new, and the comics and original art they purchased! Click on the player below to listen to the episode: Right-click to download episode directly Promo: Deconstructing ComicsLink: The Fanholes PodcastSend e-mail feedback to relativelygeeky@gmail.com  You can follow the network on Twitter @Relatively_Geek and Professor Alan @ProfessorAlan You may also subscribe to the podcast through iTunes or the RSS Feed.

During our Season 9 hiatus, we've been covering the Paul Gulacy era of Master of Kung Fu. Episodes 2-14 have free previews on our public feed. Become a Patron if you want to hear the full episodes, plus over 200 extended and exclusive bonus episodes!   Stories Covered in this Episode:  "Brass and Blackness (A Death Move!)" - Master of Kung Fu #51, written by Doug Moench, art by Jim Craig with Pablo Marcos, letters by Denise Wohl, colors by Don Warfield, edited by Archie Goodwin, ©1976 Marvel Comics   "MASTER (of Kung Fu) by the Month" theme written and performed by Robb Milne. All incidental music by Robb Milne. Visit us on the internet (and buy some stuff) at marvelbythemonth.com, follow us on Bluesky at @marvelbythemonth.com and Instagram (for now) at @marvelbythemonth, and support us on Patreon at patreon.com/marvelbythemonth. Much of our historical context information comes from Wikipedia. Please join us in supporting them at wikimediafoundation.org. And many thanks to Mike's Amazing World of Comics, an invaluable resource for release dates and issue information. (RIP Mike.)

Riley speaks to Foxglove's Donald Campbell about the campaign to prevent Palantir from working with the NHS, but before we get to that, we have to talk about… fictive elven graves. And real Bronze Age burial sites. And a man in Texas who's willing to move heaven and earth in order to view anime. Get more TF episodes each week by subscribing to our Patreon here! Learn more about Foxglove and support them here! RILEY ALERT Check out No Gods, No Mayors here! HUSSEIN ALERT Check out 10k Posts here! MILO ALERT Check out Milo's tour dates here: https://www.miloedwards.co.uk/liveshows NATE ALERT Nate's band Second Homes has just released their debut album and you can stream it for free here! Trashfuture are: Riley (@raaleh), Milo (@Milo_Edwards), Hussein (@HKesvani), Nate (@inthesedeserts), and November (@postoctobrist)

In a time of fracture, in which people are searching for meaning and belonging, it is no wonder that men are re-exploring what manhood means. Yet the sense-making project around manhood has veered from the mythic journey it rightly could and should be into decidedly different territory. The last several years have seen the rise of the alt-right manosphere, whose narratives journey into outright misogyny, eugenics racism, and advocated violence. To weave these stories, the manosphere reaches for everything from fascist philosophers to Nordic animism to Bronze Age mythology, spinning tales of heroes who shone in individualist glory in order to reinforce a vision of the true man as one who dominates and triumphs and to reclaim an ancient vitality that they say is sapped by everything from immigration to feminism. But the vitalist manosphere ultimately misunderstands its own mythologies. Those Bronze Age stories, more often than not, are not celebrations of heroism but stern warnings about overstep, invitations into humility, and reminders of relationality. So the manosphere misses the mythic point, which is that, in tradition after tradition, there is an understanding that vital energy must be tempered, and rogue men who seek only domination must be brought back into the relational web. Cultures across the world have understood that warrior energy is a real thing, and that it needs initiation and initiatory systems to temper it and transform it from an adolescent vision of domination to a mature vision of kinship and service. To transform this vital energy — this predilection towards intensity — requires more than just discourse that dismisses it entirely. Rather, it requires recognizing the longing that lives at the heart of it, just as it requires a commitment to community, to accountability, to eldership, to initiation, and to accompaniment — every burning step of the way. Featuring interviews with authors Tyson Yunkaporta, Jamie Wheal, and mythopoetic guide Ian McKenzie, and original music from Travis Puntarelli, Rainer Baumorr, and Victor Sakshin, this episode takes us on a journey through the blazing depths of the sour-belly-power in its darkest and most glorious expressions. Play it for your nephews and brothers and sons. And for those bros with enough attention span to make it to the last 30 minutes, there may just be a gift waiting.Support the show

Renowned Caucasus correspondent Alexander Thatcher joins Gladio Free Europe from the land Anatolia for the first of several episodes examining the historic bronze-age context of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. Written in the 8th or 7th century BC but set a half-millennium before, the Greek epic cycle recounts events that were ancient even to an Iron Age audience. While the historicity of the mythic Trojan War cannot be proven, scholars from the days of Schliemann onward have proven that the city of Troy really existed. In its heyday, this archaeological site in Anatolia was closely involved with the affairs of the early Mycenaean Greeks as well as the great empire of the Hittites.Identified shortly after the discovery of Troy, the Hittites were a civilization previously only known to western culture due to a few references in the Hebrew Bible. Not attested in any of the chronicles of the Greeks or Romans, the Hittites would be the first great civilization known primarily through archaeology. The decipherment of Hittite texts at the turn of the 20th century led to two shocking revelations: that these Hittites led an empire stretching from the Aegean down to Canaan, the greatest power in the Bronze Age Mediterranean after the New Kingdom of Egypt. Second, it was proven that their language was Indo-European. These discoveries would reorient the western understanding of the ancient past, and cause some Europeans to project their own image onto the Ancient Near East. Alexander Thatcher helps Liam and Russian Sam contrast the various nationalist and mythological narratives of the Bronze Age with what we actually know about the Hittites and their fascinating society. Recent breakthroughs in archaeogenetics and completing linguistic models provide fascinating insight into how the Hittites emerged in the deep past, and to what extent they were related to the Greeks of the west and the Semitic peoples of the east. Also discussed are the mysterious disappearance of one Hittite prince, the existence of an obscure Levantine kingdom of apparently Indian origin, and of course, the infamous Hittite legal code with its very specific attitudes toward certain interactions with horses.While the Hittites are not mentioned once in Homer, their fall around 1177 BC may be the most dramatic episode of the famous Bronze Age collapse. This episode and its follow-up look at what the Iliad and the Odyssey can tell us about the folk memory of this catastrophic event, and to what extent the Greeks themselves were implicated. 

Live Aug 7, 2026 | Yaron Brook Show(Season 12, Episode 132)The Odyssey -- Movie Review | Yaron Brook ShowWatch Now: https://youtube.com/live/qp8JLCXYjyMNolan Erased Odysseus's Mind — And Nobody's Talking About ItIs Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey a spectacular film — or a philosophical bait-and-switch? Christopher Nolan spent $250M turning the smartest man in Greek mythology into a guilty, brooding penitent who needs forgiveness — not intelligence — to get home. Homer's Odysseus survived by outsmarting gods and monsters. Nolan's Odysseus survives by feeling bad enough about it. In this episode, Yaron dissects where the film is a visual triumph — and exactly where it quietly rewrites 2,800 years of Western storytelling into a Christian redemption arc. Homer's original Odysseus felt no guilt at all; his flaw was pride, and his superpower was his mind. Nolan's Matt Damon, by contrast, plays a man crushed by guilt and sin. Yaron argues Nolan strips out the intelligence that made Odysseus the founding hero of Western civilization, replacing it with atonement, renunciation, and "trust the gods."Along the way, Yaron covers the aesthetics, the IMAX cinematography, the casting-controversy nonsense, the Bronze Age history behind the myth, and what it means that Nolan himself has admitted audiences won't accept an unflawed hero anymore.

The I Ching, or Book of Changes, is one of the oldest divination texts in the world and one of the strangest survival stories in the history of magic. This episode brings you the 3,000-year story of the I Ching, the world's most reinvented book of divination, from Bronze Age turtle-shell pyromancy to Carl Jung's couch and modern computing.Researched, written, and produced by Corinne Wieben with original music by Purple Planet.Episode sourcesSupport the showEnchantedPodcast.netBluesky/enchantedpodcast.net

A three-inch baboon bone bearing twenty-nine deliberate incisions was pulled from a South African mountain range in 1970. It is approximately 43,000 years old, and microscopic analysis shows the notches were made over time with different cutting tools, meaning someone was tracking something and coming back to update the record. It is the oldest known dataset in the world. Twenty thousand miles away and twenty thousand years later, temple administrators in Mesopotamia were pressing small clay tokens into wet clay to record quantities of grain and livestock, and in doing so they accidentally invented writing. Both were doing the same thing: turning observations into symbols that could outlast the observer. Both were creating data. And both were laying the foundation for every census, ledger, algorithm, and surveillance system that followed. Today's guest is Roopika Risam, author of Data Empire: The Power of Information to Organize, Control, and Dominate. We discuss how the Bronze Age collapsed in part because its diplomatic information network couldn't transmit clay tablets fast enough to coordinate a response to simultaneous crises, how Phoenician miners who couldn't read hieroglyphics invented the alphabet out of necessity in a Sinai desert mine, and why Qin Shi Huang's true immortality was not his terracotta army but his bureaucracy, the first government to treat data verification as a core function of the state. We look at how Herman Hollerith's punch card tabulator for the 1890 census became IBM and made human identity machine-readable. Risam argues that the digital age did not create data's power but inherited it, and that every algorithm processing our lives today carries the DNA of 43,000 years of counting, classifying, and controlling.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Three thousand years ago, prehistoric Scotland was a landscape of rival communities, raids and warfare. Bands of warriors fought for power and territory leaving behind extraordinary weapons that reveal a more violent side to Scotland's ancient past.In this episode of The Ancients, Tristan Hughes is joined by Dr Matthew Knight, Senior Curator of Prehistory at the National Museum of Scotland, to explore Scotland's first warriors. Who were these Bronze Age fighters? What did their weapons reveal about their status and identity? And how did warfare shape life in prehistoric Scotland?MOREThe Ancients is now on YouTube! Watch here: @TheAncientsPodcastPresented by Tristan Hughes. Audio editor is Aidan Lonergan. Video Editor is Matthew Wilson. Produced by Joseph Knight and McKenna Fernandez. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.All music courtesy of Epidemic SoundsThe Ancients is a History Hit podcast.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week, plus early access, ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Luke and Andrew visit an arcade supply store website and put together a wish list that includes pop-a-shot basketballs, mini footballs, and something called "Pop It For Gold Extreme." They also celebrate the Mariners' very unlikely win over the Dodgers yesterday, and they here from Tens of listeners who are joining the Odyssey Discourse. 

Homer's Odyssey was not written as a straightforward account of the Bronze Age. It emerged from centuries of oral storytelling that preserved faint memories of Mycenaean civilization, absorbed the customs of the Greek Dark Ages, and incorporated warfare, agriculture, politics, and language from Homer's own time. The collapse that followed the Trojan War transformed ruined palaces, forgotten tombs, and distant rulers into stories of Cyclopes, demigods, and legendary heroes. That complicated history also challenges criticism of Christopher Nolan's adaptation, since Homer's poem itself blends multiple eras rather than presenting a historically exact picture of ancient Greece. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Homer's Odyssey was not written as a straightforward account of the Bronze Age. It emerged from centuries of oral storytelling that preserved faint memories of Mycenaean civilization, absorbed the customs of the Greek Dark Ages, and incorporated warfare, agriculture, politics, and language from Homer's own time. The collapse that followed the Trojan War transformed ruined […]

Merneptah started his reign aggressively, striking a belligerent tone in his royal names and launching an expedition to Canaan in the first few years. In the process, his troops captured Ashkelon, Gezer, and Yenoam, and dealt with a tribe called "Israel." Simultaneously, Merneptah achieved a great diplomatic coup when we brought Ugarit back into the Egyptian sphere. Music by Keith Zizza & Luke Chaos. Video version available at www.patreon.com/egyptpodcast Merneptah General Dodson, A. (2016). Poisoned Legacy: The Decline and Fall of the Nineteenth Egyptian Dynasty (Revised edn). Iskander, S. (2002). The Reign of Merneptah [Unpublished PhD. Thesis]. Kitchen, K. A. (1987). The Titularies of the Ramesside Kings as Expression of their Ideal Kingship. Annales Du Service Des Antiquités de l'Égypte, 71, 131--141. Servajean, F. (2014). Mérenptah et la fin de la XIXe dynastie. Sourouzian, H. (1989). Les Monuments du roi Merenptah. Canaan, Ugarit, Proto-Israelites (Summary) Cline, E. H. (2021). 1177 B.C. The Year Civilization Collapsed (Revised edn). Dever, W. G. (2017). Beyond the texts: An archaeological portrait of ancient Israel and Judah. Hasel, M. G. (1998). Domination & Resistance: Egyptian Military Activity in the Southern Levant, ca. 1300-1185 BC. Higginbotham, C. R. (2000). Egyptianization and Elite Emulation in Ramesside Palestine: Governance and Accommodation on the Imperial Periphery. Kahn, D. (2024). The order of Merenptah's reliefs at the Cour de la Cachette, Karnak and its implications. JSSEA, 51, 15-43 online. Killebrew, A. E. (2020). Early Israel's Origins, Settlement, and Ethnogenesis. In B. E. Kelle & B. A. Strawn (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Historical Books of the Hebrew Bible (pp. 79--93). https://www.academia.edu/101675394/Early_Israels_Origins_Settlement_and_Ethnogenesis_by_Ann_E_Killebrew_2020 Kitchen, K. A. (2004). The Victories of Merenptah, and the Nature of their Record. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, 28(3), 259--272. https://doi.org/10.1177/030908920402800301 Lackenbacher, S. (1995). Une Correspondence entre l'administration du pharaon Merneptah et le roi d'Ougarit. In Le pays d'Ougarit autour de 1200 av. J.-C.: Histoire et archéologie (pp. 77--84). https://www.mission-ougarit.fr/parutions/serie-ras-shamra-ougarit/ Maeir, A. M. (1988). Remarks on a Supposed “Egyptian Residency” at Gezer. Tel Aviv, 15, 65--67. https://doi.org/10.1179/tav.1988.1988.1.65 Morris, E. F. (2005). The Architecture of Imperialism: Military Bases and the Evolution of Foreign Policy in Egypt's New Kingdom. Morris, E. F. (2015). Egypt, Ugarit, the God Ba'al, and the Puzzle of a Royal Rebuff. In J. Mynářová, P. Onderka, & P. Pavúk (Eds.), There and Back Again—The Crossroads II (pp. 315--351). Charles University. https://academiccommons.columbia.edu/doi/10.7916/D8WW9154 Rainey, A. F. (2001). Israel in Merenptah's Inscription and Reliefs. Israel Exploration Journal, 51(1), 57–75. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27926956 Singer, I. (1988). Merneptah's Campaign to Canaan and the Egyptian Occupation of the Southern Coastal Plain of Palestine in the Ramesside Period. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 269, 1--10. https://doi.org/10.2307/1356946 Singer, I. (2011). The Calm Before the Storm: Selected Writings of Itamar Singer on the late Bronze Age in Anatolia and the Levant. Steiner, R. C. (2024). Merenptah's Israel, His Shasu Militiamen, His Copper Caravan Route, and the Watering Stations Bearing His Name at Kadesh-Barnea and Me-Nephtoah: Part One. In B. P. Muhs & F. D. Scalf (Eds.), A Master of Secrets in the Chamber of Darkness: Egyptological Studies in Honor of Robert K. Ritner (pp. 329--402). https://www.academia.edu/123986155/Merenptahs_Israel_his_Shasu_militiamen_his_copper_caravan_route_and_the_watering_stations_bearing_his_name_at_Kadesh_barnea_and_Me_nephtoah_Part_One Yurco, F. J. (1986). Merenptah's Canaanite Campaign. Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, 23, 189--215. https://doi.org/10.2307/40001099 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amy drops an emergency Unspooled episode to unpack Christopher Nolan's epic take on The Odyssey, joined by USC classics professor Lucas Herrenroeder. Together they compare Homer's original poem with Nolan's bold reinterpretation, exploring everything from its Bronze Age authenticity and towering Cyclops sequence to the film's treatment of Circe, the sirens, and the gods themselves. Along the way, they debate what Nolan changes, what he leaves behind, and how his version reframes Odysseus as a flawed hero. You can join the Unspooled conversation on Paul's Discord at https://discord.gg/ZwtygZGTa6 Follow Paul and Amy on Letterboxd for more of their movie hot takes! https://letterboxd.com/paulscheer/ https://letterboxd.com/theamynicholson/ Paul's book Joyful Recollections of Trauma is out now! Find it at https://www.harpercollins.com/products/joyful-recollections-of-trauma-paul-scheer Check out more of Paul's writing on his Substack https://substack.com/@paulscheer Episodic Art by Kim Troxall: https://www.unspooledart.com/ Learn more about the show at Unspooledpod.com, follow us on Twitter @unspooled and on Instagram @unspooledpod, and don't forget to rate, review & subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or where you listen to podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Before 1200 BC, the ancient world was more connected than you'd ever imagine. Egyptian pharaohs, Hittite emperors and Mycenaean warrior-kings trading gifts, forging alliances and going to war across the glittering Mediterranean. Then, in just a few decades, it all collapsed...Professor Eric Cline joins us to unravel this lost Bronze Age world: the real diplomacy behind Homer's epics, the letters that rewrote history, and the catastrophes that erased Mycenaean civilisation.Produced by Mariana Des Forges and edited by Dougal Patmore.We need your help! Let us know what you want from Dan Snow's History Hit by filling in our anonymous survey here: https://forms.gle/PvgayWLkWGjYT4St6Dan Snow's History Hit is now available on YouTube! Check it out at: https://www.youtube.com/@DSHHPodcastSign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.You can also email the podcast directly at ds.hh@historyhit.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.