Media-eval: A Medieval Pop Culture Podcast

Magic and mystery are part of their history … and now they’re featured on Media-eval! Join Sarah and returning guest Mabel Slattery as we tackle Disney animated series Adventures of the Gummi Bears. What you might expect: discussions about knightly culture and medievalism for children. What you might not expect: discussions about expulsions and refugee crises in the medieval world. Social Media: Twitter: twitter.com/mediaevalpod E-mail: media.evalpod@gmail.com Find Mabel on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/slatteroo/ and stream her comedy, featured on: https://www.twitch.tv/blizzardcomedy Buy Sarah’s award-winning book The Fruit of Her Hands: https://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-0-271-09330-7.html. Use promo code KZO24 for a 40% discount!

Happy Passover! Media-eval celebrates by once again dunking on Ridley Scott. Join Sarah and her mother, Beth Greenfeld, as we talk about the biblical and historical inspirations behind 2014 film Exodus: Gods and Kings, and attempt to answer such questions as: Why is Moses now a military leader? What’s up with all the brownface? What happened to the women in the Exodus story? And how did medieval Jews celebrate Passover? Social Media: Twitter: twitter.com/mediaevalpod E-mail: media.evalpod@gmail.com Find Beth on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bethg20904 Learn more about medieval haggadot in Marc Michael Epstein’s excellent book: https://www.academia.edu/2439145/The_Medieval_Haggadah_Art_Narrative_and_Religious_Imagination

If a movie is released and no-one is there to see it, does it make a sound....and lots of historical errors? James Purefoy is back and he is once again making a movie that is fun but not necessarily...good? Ollie has a good time and Sarah has a mild breakdown at just how many things this movie gets wrong!

Join Sarah and returning Media-eval Doctor Who correspondent Lily Bonnemann for a trip into the late 17th century with New Series season 6 episode, The Curse of the Black Spot. We get to talk Mughal emperors, sirens, and, of course, pirates! Social Media: Twitter: twitter.com/mediaevalpod E-mail: media.evalpod@gmail.com Find Lily on Tumblr: www.tumblr.com/shadow-academic

Media-eval this week is transported back to (sort of) Ancien Regime France. Join Sarah and returning guest Peter Konieczny for a discussion of anime series I’m in Love with the Villainess! We get into how we distinguish medieval from early modern (and whether we should), food history (ever wondered when they first invented crème brûlée?), and class dynamics in the late medieval and early modern world. Social Media: Twitter: twitter.com/mediaevalpod E-mail: media.evalpod@gmail.com Find Peter at http://www.medievalists.net

Ollie returns to talk about a season of a tv show he enjoyed and simultaneously got really annoyed at. Sarah is very patient with him and they also have a really interesting discussion on what makes an adaptation good and what mistakes adaptations often make.

Sarah and returning Media-eval Doctor Who correspondent Lily Bonnemann return for New Series season 5 episode, The Vampires of Venice! Join us as we explore vampire lore, the history of Venice, and the real lives of powerful wealthy women (most of whom are NOT fish-aliens) in early modern Venice. Social Media: Twitter: twitter.com/mediaevalpod E-mail: media.evalpod@gmail.com Find Lily on Tumblr: www.tumblr.com/shadow-academic

Media-eval this week goes from 1500 to 2000 to 2500 in Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain. Join Sarah and guest Marisa Macias as we attempt (with moderate success) to make sense of this movie. Are all the Hugh Jackman’s and Rachel Weiszes the same person? What was Isabella I of Castile really like? And why on earth are filmmakers so dedicated to not knowing what the Spanish Inquisition is? Social Media: Twitter: twitter.com/mediaevalpod E-mail: media.evalpod@gmail.com Find Marisa on Threads: https://www.threads.net/@madmodworld

This week, Media-eval ventures a bit outside its usual chronology … as after all, Sarah can’t resist an opportunity to dunk on Ridley Scott. Join Sarah and guest Miranda Sachs, a historian of modern France, as we discuss Ridley Scott’s 2023 film Napoleon. What about Napoleon got left out of the film, and why does it matter? Was the French Revolution quite as bad as the film implies? (Hint: No). And why is the film’s central thesis that Napoleon was bad at sex? Social Media: Twitter: twitter.com/mediaevalpod E-mail: media.evalpod@gmail.com Find Miranda Sachs at her faculty page: https://www.txst.edu/history/people/faculty-staff/sachs.html, on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MirandaSachs, and on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/mirandasachs.bsky.social

This week we have something a little different, as medievalists Lucy Barnhouse and Winston Black join Sarah to talk about how medieval medicine is represented in popular culture. Lucy and Winston are the editors of the new volume Beyond Cadfael: Medieval Medicine and Medical Medievalism. Join us as we explore the most common tropes of medical medievalism, from leeches to orientalism. Social Media: Twitter: twitter.com/mediaevalpod E-mail: media.evalpod@gmail.com Purchase Beyond Cadfael here: https://trivent-publishing.eu/home/160-232-beyond-cadfael.html Find Lucy on social media: https://twitter.com/singingscholar Find Winston on social media: https://mastodon.world/@winstoneblack and https://bsky.app/profile/winstonblack.bsky.social

Sarah and Media-eval’s Netflix Christmas Correspondent Meghan Griffin return to the Netflix Extended Christmas Universe to talk about medievalism in A Christmas Prince: The Royal Baby. Yes, the film features a medieval treaty - and a medieval curse! - but more importantly, it raises all sorts of questions about the medieval past of these fake kingdoms whose entire personality is Christmas and that have apparently taken over most of Central-Eastern Europe. Social Media: Twitter: twitter.com/mediaevalpod E-mail: media.evalpod@gmail.com Find Meghan on social media at @MeggGriffin (including but not limited to: https://twitter.com/MeggGriffin)

He may be in decline but he still knows a good movie when he sees it so Ollie returns to argue with Sarah on the merits or lack thereof in the movie Apocalypto(2006). Is it hi-octane action? Yes! Does it have a paper thin plot? Absolutely! Does the politics it represents leave a bad taste in your mouth? Possibly! Sit back and enjoy as two friends discuss a movie one loves and the other doesn't while both agreeing that the director is a POS.

Sarah and returning Media-eval Doctor Who correspondent Lily Bonnemann are back to tackle their first episode of the New Series, in honor of the 60th Anniversary! Join us for our discussion of The Shakespeare Code, where we explore race, medical practices, and architecture in Elizabethan England. Further Reading: April Fool’s! Love’s Labour’s Won at the Globe: https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/discover/blogs-and-features/2021/04/01/shakespeares-globe-uncovers-long-lost-shakespeare-play/ Deborah Harkness, “A View from the Streets: Women and Medical Work in Elizabethan London,” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 82:1 (2008): 52-85 Olivette Otele, African Europeans: An Untold History: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/olivette-otele/african-europeans/9781541619937/?lens=basic-books Social Media: Twitter: twitter.com/mediaevalpod E-mail: media.evalpod@gmail.com Find Lily on Tumblr: www.tumblr.com/shadow-academic

Sarah and returning guest Peter Konieczny return to the world of the Three Kingdoms with 2022 anime series Ya Boy Kongming! Join us as we discuss the life story of Zhuge Liang Kongming, premodern Chinese concepts of hell, and the challenges of time travel narratives. CW for reference to suicide attempt Social Media: Twitter: twitter.com/mediaevalpod E-mail: media.evalpod@gmail.com Find Peter at medievalists.net

It's the spookiest time of the year and I'm not talking about Tax Season. Sarah want's to talk about a modern "Horror" movie that on the surface doesn't seem to be from the medieval period but when one of the major plot points is about the Spanish Inquisition and the movie seems to absolve certain people of guilt, you can bet they are going to have thoughts!

Sarah and returning guest Tracy Tanoff delve into the everyday lives of nuns in our conversation on Lauren Groff’s novel Matrix. Join us as we explore the work of Marie de France, illness and disability in monasteries, faith and mysticism, and the real stories of queer nuns through a discussion of Groff’s 2021 novel. CW for reference to sexual assault (not graphic) Read the novel Matrix by Lauren Groff: https://bookshop.org/p/books/matrix-lauren-groff/16278801?ean=9781594634505 Check out a take from another medievalist, past guest Lucy Barnhouse, on this book: https://nursingclio.org/2021/12/09/matrix-lauren-groffs-visions-of-the-medieval/ Learn more about medieval women’s and gender history in Judith Bennett’s book History Matters: Patriarchy and the Challenge of Feminism: https://bookshop.org/p/books/history-matters-patriarchy-and-the-challenge-of-feminism-judith-m-bennett/12488103?ean=9780812220049 Learn more about lesbians in the Middle Ages: Jacqueline Murray, “Twice Marginal and Twice Invisible: Lesbians in the Middle Ages,” in The Handbook of Medieval Sexuality, ed. by Vern L. Bullough and James A. Brundage. Garland Publishing, 1996, pp. 191-222. Social Media: Twitter: twitter.com/mediaevalpod E-mail: media.evalpod@gmail.com Find Tracy on BlueSky: haveloved

Sarah and fellow medievalist Ryan Szpiech take the podcast to Spain with 2012 Spanish-language miniseries Toledo, Cruce de Destinos. Join us as we explore the life of Alfonso X and his sons, the lived experience of Jews, Christians, and Muslims living in medieval Castile, and the popular understanding of the idea of convivencia in this soap opera-style take on the 13th century. CW for sexual assault, violence Social Media: Twitter: twitter.com/mediaevalpod E-mail: media.evalpod@gmail.com Find Prof. Ryan Szpiech and learn more about his work: https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/ryanszpiech/ Rate, review, and subscribe!

Media-eval is back and this time we are tackling one of the most famous movies that can come under our remit- Gladiator directed by Ridley Scott. This movie won all the oscars and is a beloved fan favourite BUT did Sarah like it? She has brought Ollie back to argue the merits or lack thereof for this popular movie. Is Russel Crowe any good? Does Joaquin Phoenix eat enough ham? Is Kingdom of Heaven really better than this? Is it a fridging if they arent even a character? This might be the closest to a real argument the podcast has ever seen between Host and traitor...I mean guest.

The podcast will be going on hiatus til September so Sarah can spend the summer focusing on research for her new book project! See you in a few months!

Sarah brings Ollie back to the pod to talk about the second season of The Legend of Vox Machina. At the end of the first season our heroes seemed to be in a lot of peril so join us as we see if they can escape and defy the odds yet again to win the day and save the realm. One thing we do know is that if they do they'll have a great sweary time doing it!