In October of 2000, Pakistani police stumbled across an ancient artifact that would shake the archaeological world: a mummified Persian princess. The cuneiform on her coffin claimed that she was Rhodugune — a daughter of the great king Xerxes. The story brought news coverage from around the world as Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan all fought to declare possession of the princess. But soon, the story would take a shocking turn…

 

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Most of us are probably at least somewhat familiar with the story of Jesus of Nazareth. Born in Palestine at the beginning of the 1st century CE, Jesus would eventually lead a Jewish movement and be crucified by the Romans for the crime of sedition.

But, despite the obvious political overtones of such a tale, Jesus’s story is often decontextualized and therefore depoliticized. The fact is, Jesus of Nazareth was a guy with some pretty incendiary ideas for the time which put him in the crosshairs of expanding imperial Rome. For this, he was publicly executed by the state. And though few people would deny that this story is technically true, the image of Jesus as a Jewish activist rarely comes to mind in contemporary discussion of his life and times.

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Cleopatra VII is one of the most famous figures in popular culture and one of the world's most ancient sex symbols. She’s frequently painted as a seductress and an accessory to the Roman generals in her life, Julius Caesar and Marc Antony. But we often neglect Cleopatra’s legacy as a politician and commander in her own right. She was Egypt’s last independent ruler, and spent the latter part of her life unavailingly trying to keep her Kingdom out of Rome’s imperial clutches.

In this episode, we discuss the life and times of Cleopatra VII Philopater and her partner-in-death, Marc Antony, as well as the collision of ancient Egypt and ancient Rome, and the complicated concepts of girl power and aristocratic feminism.

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In this first episode of our ancient assassinations mini-series, we talk about the life and death of one of history's greatest conquerors, Gaius Julius Caesar. Was Caesar really a rising tyrant bringing about the end of the Roman Republic? Or was he a "people's dictator" who instituted some progressive reforms despite some unsavory methods of governance? We talk about Caesar's time as a military leader, numerous love affairs, some ironic execution methods, and Aamer's gift for tongue twisters.

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On the 29th of August, 2005, the tropical cyclone known as Hurricane Katrina made landfall over southern Louisiana and Mississippi, most famously devastating the city of New Orleans. The damage was catastrophic: over 1,800 people died — almost all of them poor and Black — prompting Kanye West to utter his famous line: “George Bush doesn’t care about Black people.” Six days later, New Orleans police gunned down Katrina survivors and tried to cover up what they'd done. In this episode, we bring you the story of the Danziger Bridge shooting.

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On the night of November 12th, 1988, a 28-year-old student and Ethiopian immigrant named Mulugeta Seraw was beaten to death by three strangers outside his Portland, Oregon apartment. The case of racial violence would shock Portland and bring to light the horrific underbelly of present-day Neo-Nazis in the United States.

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Aamer & Erin examine talking to your family about race as a religious conversion process. Plus, we discuss police abolition, White Fragility, Bahraini organized crime, and the Premier League's Kafkaesque noise spectacle.

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Between May 31st and June 1st of 1921, mobs of white people in Tulsa, Oklahoma rampaged through the predominantly Black Greenwood district, reducing the neighborhood to rubble and ash. The violence saw dozens - if not hundreds - of people killed and many more expelled from their homes. In this episode, we discuss the Tulsa Race Massacre and its relevance to current politics and pop culture, including as a setting in HBO's Watchmen series.

 

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In 1987, two different women in Huntington, West Virginia were attacked by the same stranger. Police collected physical evidence from the scenes and soon zeroed in on Glen Woodall — a 29-year-old groundskeeper who was convicted of the crimes based on testimony from the state's leading forensic serologist, Fred Zain. 

As technology advanced, Woodall's defense team pushed for the evidence from the crime scene to be re-tested against Woodall's DNA. It didn't match. Glen Woodall was exonerated after spending five years in prison. 

But how is it that forensic evidence — which originally secured Woodall's conviction — would later prove his innocence? The answer should horrify us all... 

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SUPPORT BLACK LIVES MATTER: https://blacklivesmatter.carrd.co/   Aamer and Erin review some protesting tips and tricks before discussing the so-called "grievance studies hoax." They also discuss chemistry, right-wing grifters, and the worst subreddit yet.   Sources: https://bit.ly/3bhoMVw