Ancient History Fangirl
An ancient history podcast run by two Millennial women. Misbehaving emperors, poison assassins, mythological mayhem; it’s like if Hardcore History met up with My Favorite Murder in the ancient world, with a heavy helping of booze and laughter.
Episodes
April 24, 2025 • 73 mins
Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon!
In our last episode, we took a look at the outside forces driving the engine of the Migration Era: Hunnic migrations and invasions, constant displacement and conflict at the Roman borders. But
Goths lived inside Rome too—in the heart of the Italian peninsula, and also in the outer provinces, in territories that were conquered by force.
This story isn’t just about Goth...
Mark as Played
April 10, 2025 • 59 mins
Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon!
It was the beginning of the Migration Era where the Goths’ history with the Roman Empire begins. The Migration era was a cycle of wars and conflicts lasting hundreds of years. Alaric’s sack of Rome was only a small part of it.
What started it? Nobody knows. But it would have been an extremely chaotic time to be alive, when ordinary people had to leave all that they’d ...
Mark as Played
March 27, 2025 • 108 mins
Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon!
In our last episode, we delved into the archaeology of the pre-Roman Goths. But what about Gothic culture? What do we know about pre-Roman Gothic culture, before the Goths were Romanized?
To get a real sense of what is authentically Gothic is really difficult. We don’t have much information about the Goths’ daily lives or culture. We know almost nothing about their pre...
Mark as Played
March 13, 2025 • 70 mins
Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon!
The Roman Empire stood for a thousand years. Many causes have been given for its downfall—but if just one group of people could be said to be culpable, it would be the Goths.
They stormed its borders en masse, scored outsized victories that no one had won before, killed two emperors and raised up their own, sacked the city of Rome after a thousand inviolable years; and...
Mark as Played
February 27, 2025 • 68 mins
Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon!
In Enemy of My Dreams, Jenny based her heroine Julia partially on Julia the Elder—rebellious daughter of Augustus who got herself exiled to Pandateria for being, as the ancients say, “too slutty.”
Julia the Elder refused, REFUSED to rein it in. And for that, we adore her. But accounts of her life are told by men, sometimes her political enemies. She may have been a vict...
Mark as Played
February 20, 2025 • 37 mins
Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon!
In 450 AD, the Imperial Princess Honoria--daughter of Galla Placidia--was desperate to escape her arranged marriage. So she made an indecent proposal--to Attila the Hun.
On this single action, cities were torched. Saints were raised. Thousands died. And Venice was founded. Find out how it all went down.
Sponsors and Advertising
This podcast is a member of Airwave Media po...
Mark as Played
February 13, 2025 • 38 mins
Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon!
He was a fierce barbarian warlord—a man who had stood between his people and the Roman Empire since the sack of Rome. She was a Roman Imperial princess with a core of iron strength.
Born enemies, the love of Ataulf and Galla Placidia is marked by tragedy—but in its time, it burned hot enough to reshape an Empire. This is their story.
Sponsors and Advertising
This podcast ...
Mark as Played
February 6, 2025 • 81 mins
Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon!
This week’s Book Club author interview is none other than up-and-coming romantasy and historical romance author Jenny Williamson, discussing her upcoming debut Enemy of My Dreams: her huge historical crush on Alaric of the Goths, the inspiration for her entirely-made-up hot-mess heroine, and how she adds “verisimilitude” to her fight scenes.
Join Genn and guest co-host ...
Mark as Played
January 30, 2025 • 66 mins
Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon!
Who was Alaric of the Visigoths, really?
It’s a difficult question to answer. Alaric left no manifesto. There is nothing in his own words to explain his motivations for sacking Rome, or all the choices he made leading up to that fateful day. All we have are the assumptions of his enemies, which sometimes don’t’ make a lot of sense.
Enter Douglas Boin. His groundbreakin...
Mark as Played
January 23, 2025 • 57 mins
Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon!
This week, we feature a conversation with the OG romance novelist—the one all our romance novelist friends list among their favorites. Nalini Singh has an impressive, multi-decade career with several long-running, blockbuster romantasy and paranormal series featuring sexy shifters, fallen angels, and dangerous psychic warriors.
Join us as we explore these fascinating wo...
Mark as Played
January 16, 2025 • 52 mins
Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon!
On August 24, 410 AD, Alaric and the Visigoths sacked the city of Rome. Before he sacked it, he starved it. Before that, he went toe to toe with the Roman Empire for fifteen years—uniting disparate tribes, holding a people together, and achieving more against Rome than any barbarian leader before him.
Sponsors and Advertising
This podcast is a member of Airwave Media pod...
Mark as Played
January 9, 2025 • 16 mins
Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon!
It's the end of Season 12--and what a year it's been! We had some big things happen in 2024 and we hope that 2025 will be even bigger and more exciting.
Join us as we discuss what it was like covering the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, our upcoming books and novel projects, and our plans for the podcast going forward. Thank you so much for taking this journey with us...
Mark as Played
January 2, 2025 • 61 mins
Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon!
Janus is the two-faced god of the Roman pantheon. He was the god of beginnings and endings, of dual natures, of passageways and passage through time. He’s the god of thresholds and doorways and gates, and the god of change, both concrete and abstract. He’s constantly in motion; he’s the god who’s always just passing through.
Janus may not be very well-known. But in his ti...
Mark as Played
December 26, 2024 • 46 mins
Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon!
How would Alaric of the Visigoths celebrate the midwinter holiday (Christmas? Solstice? Yule?). The idea was kicked around a lot between the two of us until it seemed imperative that we actually write this episode. And thus, an episode was born.
In this episode, Alaric is about six years old. He doesn’t exactly understand that his life is hanging by a knife’s edge – caugh...
Mark as Played
December 24, 2024 • 80 mins
Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon!
This year, we’ve found one of the most metal and wild Yuletide goddesses yet – Frau Holle.
Human sacrifices, spindles in yer vag, plague, starvation, caves of offerings and bones, the Grimms brothers, golden showers, child cannibalism, ZOMBIES – are any of these putting you in the Yuletide spirit? They should. Because we’re about to share with you the story of a very Frau...
Mark as Played
December 19, 2024 • 60 mins
Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon!
You may recognize Dr. Emily Rath from our series on Project 2025. Today, we’ve invited her on to discuss her most recent project—North is the Night, a historical fantasy story with a strong, sapphic romantic thread.
Join us as Emily introduces us to a world of terrifying metal death goddesses, mystical talking ravens, queer witches and warriors, and a Christianity that se...
Mark as Played
December 17, 2024 • 84 mins
Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon!
Ah, Christmas—it's a time of cheer, of gift-giving and generosity; and a time to eat yer babies.
This year, we’re focusing on two different cannibalistic monsters from Christmas folklore: Père Fouettard and Hans Trapp. Because it turns out that child cannibalism really is the reason for the season—and perhaps Santa Claus is the biggest cannibal of all.
What is Santa hidin...
Mark as Played
December 12, 2024 • 97 mins
Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon!
In our last two episodes we discussed what worship looked like at the temple of Artemis at Ephesus. How the goddess was worshipped, who worshipped her, and what they believed.
Now, we’re going talk about what the temple looked like, who built it, who burned it to the ground, who rebuilt it, and what people did at the temple (besides worship). It’s time to dig into the gro...
Mark as Played
December 10, 2024 • 89 mins
Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon!
What do you know about Yule? Maybe a lot. The holiday is widely celebrated in Scandinavian countries, and it's an important part of Wiccan and Pagan tradition. But for many of us, the version that's come down through history is strongly associated with Christmas--and heavily sanitized.
When we scratched the surface, however, we found that the origins of Yule were older an...
Mark as Played
December 5, 2024 • 49 mins
Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon!
This year, we decided that the holiday season wouldn’t be complete without a mythological foray into one of the most famous characters of the season: The Krampus.
And some of you might be saying: wait a minute, Krampus isn’t ancient; he’s modern. Also, everyone knows about Krampus, the festive demon of Christmas. Why are you covering this well-trodden topic?
Wait until yo...
Mark as Played
Popular Podcasts
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.