Greeced Lightning

Join Sara and Sam as they finally cover The Aeneid for the extra-long Season 4 Finale! Listen along to learn why they waited this long and to dig into topics like: watches without respect, ancient fanfic, and a disarmingly earnest look at the season.

This episode, join Sara and Sam as they let their tired toddler parent show while exploring a few choice classical-age cities. Discussion includes game naming conventions, the Pythian oracle, and a mindful Minotaur. Hekatompedon: Athens Acropolis Museum The Delphi Charioteer Pithoi from Knossos Dolphins in Knossos Procession Frieze in Knossos

This episode, Greeced Lightning dives into the Gen Z Odyssey with Epic: The Musical. Sam’s dislike of classics-themed musicals is confirmed as we discuss Baby Hitler, amoral heroes, Sara’s Iowa caucus experience, and the best bit of the Odyssey that this adaptation left out.

Join Sara and Sam as we discuss Polismos: taxing the rich, government satisfaction rates, and the calming effect of our first city builder set in Greece rather than Rome.

Time to make the film bros mad with Greeced Lightning After Dark! Sara and Sam are revisiting Petronius’s Satyricon, through the lens of the Fellini Satyricon. It didn’t go well for your hosts at all. Join us for our big feelings and big confusion around this critically acclaimed film, which is also "the worst film Sam has ever seen." Petronius's Satyricon, translated by P.G. Walsh - An excellent...

This episode, Sam and Sara run the Battle of Raphia in two versions of Total War, head to head. Join us to hear which version we liked better, and to learn more about the only known battle when African and Asian elephants faced each other, including: the Hellenistic successor kingdoms, how to pronounce Seleucid, and the alarming 250-year expiration date of a nation. Polybius: Histories Book 5

We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to bring you this emergency broadcast: Sam and Sara saw Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey in theaters and break down everything they loved — and everything they didn't — about this adaptation. Movie spoilers abound. (If you're worried about poem spoilers at this point, as a listener of Greeced Lightning, we have questions for you.)

Sara and Sam explore the life of Roman office workers in the TV show Plebs. Join us to hear all about Roman orgies, the sex appeal of gladiators, the slippery slope into authoritarianism, and the age-old question: what is the worst place to meet someone in ancient Rome? Horace, Satire 2.6: City mouse and country mouse

It’s finally happening: Greeced Lightning is tackling the Punic Wars! Join Sam and Sara for a lightning round of military history and Total War Rome Remastered: Hannibal Barca, teenage Sam’s World of Warcraft obsession, and Roman facial hair.

Sam and Sara dive into their first listener-recommended content! Grab a gallon of wine and join us as we wonder: who is the fish man? what is happening in Krapopolis? would we rather be dealing with the excrement of our children and/or pets than finding out?

We are kicking off Season 4 with something a little different: our first interview! Dr. Ben Angell, the Narrative Lead at CaptureAge, joins Sara and Sam to discuss his work on the Age of Empires II Chronicles: Alexander the Great and our Season 3 favorite, Battle for Greece. Come for the use of ancient sources in story and character development, stay for the predictions of future Chronicles campai...

It’s the end of Season 3, and the end of Sara and Sam’s journey through Age of Empires 2. Your hosts speculate about the future of civilization in 2025 while discussing the Peloponnesian War: optimistic peace agreements, ancient plague, a literal bag of dicks, video games as art, and a look back on our highlights of the season. Thucydides' The Peloponnesian War

We continue our Age of Empires 2 campaign with the Persian Wars! Join Sara and Sam for ostracism procedures, wily old Themistocles, and Sara’s waning tolerance for podcasting while pregnant. Map of the Greco-Persian Wars Herodotus' Histories - Books 6-9 cover the Persian Wars.

Back in the Greeced Lightning Game Room, your hosts tackle Part 1 of the Chronicles: Battle for Greece in Age of Empires 2. Join us to discuss Europeans stealing historical treasures, ancient tyrants, and the Ionian revolt. Herodotus' Histories - The first several books cover Persian history; coverage of the Ionian Revolt starts in Book 5.

We’re going back to our Greeced Lightning roots and revisiting the Trojan War! Join us for the 2018 series Troy: Fall of a City for the correct usage of chariots, birth plans, Bjӧrk-ified Helen, and distracting bowl cuts. Minoan 'Ladies in Blue' Fresco The Iliad - Emily Wilson's new translation

It’s Macedonian War time in the Greeced Lightning Game Room! Join Sara and Sam to discuss the Battle of Pydna, layoffs and unions, war elephants, and Total War: Rome II. Plutarch, Life of Aemilius - Sections 12ff. cover the Macedonian campaign Livy, Ab urbe condita 45.19 - Livy's later account of the Macedonian War Polybius, Histories 22.8 - On the origin of the Third Macedonian War, from a contem...

Sara and Sam dive into the wonderful world of Broadway with very hot takes on Hadestown. (Please don’t come for us, Broadway lovers.) After a brief recap of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, we’ll dig into wedding night ceremonies, too many opera adaptations, unionizing, and the trouble with the perfect song.

Sara and Sam upgrade to a Game Room to discuss the city builder game Caesar III. Travel back to the era when “online” was still two words for: surprisingly horny video games, accidental slums, ancient fire brigades, and multipurpose holes. Curia Julia - A 1st c. coin showing the curia, or senate house Map of Pompeii

Sam and Sara take on Pompey and Julius Caesar’s civil war: populist politics, Cicero’s foibles, the sluttification of a model Roman matron, respect for ancient doctors, and the drama (and nudity) of HBO’s Rome. Plutarch's Life of Caesar, 53.4 - An account of Julia's death in childbirth; the following sections cover the political turmoil and growing hostility between Pompey and Caesar in the late 5...

Grab a slice of cold pizza and pull up a comfy chair: today we’re hanging out in Sam’s Video Game Corner! Sam takes Sara through the development and plot of Age of Mythology: Retold. Discussion includes Plato’s Atlantis, early bedtimes, the collapse of civilizations, and a hard no on ancient aliens. The Trojan Horse - Probably the more well-known account, from the Aeneid Bk 2 Chariot of Demeter -...

Season 3 of Greeced Lightning is here! Sara and Sam are taking a new approach this season in more than one way. Join us in this episode to break down the myths behind the Netflix original series Kaos, including: Prometheus vs. Zeus, trans people in myth, the dangers of prophecy interpretation, and Hera’s creepy tongue room (yes, you read that right). Myth of Er - A story of the reincarnation of th...

Sam and Sara bring you this special broadcast for the release of Gladiator 2! Join us for historically inaccurate weaponry, tyrannical brother emperors, unusual animal appearances, and a rip roaring good time.

Tune in for a bonus episode in which Sara and Sam joined the fine folks at Screens of the Stone Age for very unique film! When Men Carried Clubs and Women Played Ding-Dong (1971) is an Italian sex comedy in which cave women of two warring tribes stage a sex strike until their cave men make peace. If that sounds familiar, it’s because it’s a stone-age adaptation of the Ancient Greek play Lysistrata...

Greeced Lightning supports a permanent end to the violence and genocide in Gaza. We encourage you to take action however you are able. It’s the Season 2 finale and we’re going out with a comedic bang! Join Sara and Sam for Oscar Wilde’s riff on Plautus, including mistaken identities, ass tattoos, our preferred Colin Firths, and a reflection on the highs and lows of this season. The Importance of B...

Greeced Lightning supports a permanent end to the violence and genocide in Gaza. We encourage you to take action however you are able.  Sam and Sara take one last trip to Roman Britain to learn about Boudica, Queen of the Iceni. Learn just how little we know about this badass and brutal leader while also discussing temples to modern politicians, advice from child ghosts, and a deeply misogyni...