Movies We Dig | Film, Antiquity and Everything in Between

A Note to Our Listeners: In the time since we recorded and edited this episode, new and troubling information has come to light as multiple women have accused its creator, Neil Gaiman of sexual coercion and assault. We at Movies We Dig believe these allegations and fully support the women who had the courage to come forward. While it is unlikely we will cover any future work associated with Gaiman, for the time being, we have decided to leave our episode on The Sandman available. We do this primarily to recognize the contributions of our guest, Kira Jones, as well the work done by the many other writers, actors, directors and other artists who contributed to series. Understand that this episode is reflective of our thoughts at the time. Reconciling how to receive art - especially such widely influential and beloved art - in the light of terrible truths about its creator is a difficult process, one we encourage all our listeners to consider seriously. Most importantly, our new priority going forward must be the stories of these women and how they want them told.

If you’d like support after learning that someone in your life has experienced sexual violence or if you are a survivor yourself and want to talk, feel free to call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800.656.HOPE (4673) or chat online at online.rainn.org (y en español rainn.org/es) 

Joined by a very special guest and the Rock's personal Latin teacher, Dr. Kira Jones (@FlavianSophist), we enter the dreaming of Netflix's The Sandman, based on the 1989-1996 comic of the same name. We dig the show's mythological foundations, the nature of dreams and our favorite bits of Latin in modern pop culture. Come for the hot takes, leave never because you're trapped in an eternal waking nightmare!

As always, if you like what you hear, please be sure to rate, review, and subscribe to the show! Stay up-to-date on all the Movies We Dig news by visiting movieswedig.com or checking out our socials.

Movies We Dig is also part 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.

This is a little at of order as we actually recorded prior to the last two episodes, but hey that's showbiz! We reflect back on the adventure archaeology genre with Sandra Bullock's send-up of tomb-raiding, artifact-looting treasure hunters. We also talk a lot of about romance novels and how we'd like to see more from/on/about them. You can tell by the sheer amount of laughing in there we were quite fond of this one (and a lot more was edited out).

As always, if you like what you hear, please be sure to rate, review, and subscribe to the show! Stay up-to-date on all the Movies We Dig news by visiting movieswedig.com or checking out our socials.

Movies We Dig is also part 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.

We continue our excavation of the Indiana Jones franchise with its fourth (but not final) installment. Joining us is Mesoamerican archaeologist and expert in (combating) pseudo-archaeology, David S. Anderson. We dig into adapting Indiana Jones to the modern age, the troubling history of pseudo-science plaguing archaeology and where we think this franchise could and should go. The fifth film is currently in the works...

As always, if you like what you hear, please be sure to rate, review, and subscribe to the show! Stay up-to-date on all the Movies We Dig news by visiting movieswedig.com or checking out our socials.

Movies We Dig is also part 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.

After much ado, we finally tackle the big question: why did it have to be snakes? Joined by Egyptologists and hosts of the Afterlives with Kara Cooney podcast, Kara Cooney and Jordan Galczynski, we uncover Steven Spielberg's 1981 archaeology-adventure classic, Raiders of the Lost Ark. We talk real vs. fantasy archaeology and the myths and ideals embraced/propagated by Indiana Jones. We also discuss our own personal Belloqs (re: nemesis), where artifacts do(n't) belong, the relation between government and archaeology and what creatures we wouldn't want to find while digging. No artifacts were harmed in the making of this podcast.

You can hear and read more from Kara and Jordan at their websites: https://karacooney.squarespace.com/ and https://jagalczynski.squarespace.com/

As always, if you like what you hear, please be sure to rate, review, and subscribe to the show! Stay up-to-date on all the Movies We Dig news by visiting movieswedig.com or checking out our socials.

Movies We Dig is also part 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.

This episode, it's all about the three C's of classical education: Caesar, Cicero and Cheating at trivia contests. We dig into The Emperor's Club (2002), the oft-forgotten antithesis to Dead Poets Society about how Kevin Kline instills soon-to-be-famous teen actors with moral rigor among by talking about Rome. We discuss the value and shortcomings of teaching classical civilizations, our own pedagogical knacks and how much we'd charge to help an eccentric millionaire cheat at his own trivia contest. Answer: one bottle of nice-ish wine. Justice for Šutruk-Nakhunte!

As always, if you like what you hear, please be sure to rate, review, and subscribe to the show! Stay up-to-date on all the Movies We Dig news by visiting movieswedig.com or checking out our socials.

Movies We Dig is also part 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.

Or as we like to call it "It Should Have Been Set on Crete." Join us with special guest from Let's Talk About Myths, Baby! Liv Albert as we dive into the semi-historical, semi-mythological world (maybe alternate dimension?) of BBC's Atlantis (2013). This show is a real who's who of mythological characters and British character actors (Vincent Reagan once again graces our screens). We get Oedipus, Minos, Ariadne, Pasiphae, Circe and many others. At the center of our adventure are our heroes: a debauched Hercules, a love-interest Medusa, an oddly historical Pythagoras, all led by an uncharacteristically competent and often shirtless Jason. Overall, this is a light-hearted and often enjoyable but deeply shallow take on ancient mythology which, ironically, felt a little out of time on network TV circa 2013.

You can find Liv at her website https://www.mythsbaby.com/, where you can find her podcast and books, including the latest cocktail book, Nectar of the Gods, and on twitter at @mythsbaby

As always, if you like what you hear, please be sure to rate, review, and subscribe to the show! Stay up-to-date on all the Movies We Dig news by visiting movieswedig.com or checking out our socials.

Movies We Dig is also part 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.

Back again with yet another video game! Joined by expert archaeologist and gamer, Deb Trusty, we dig into Assassin's Creed's take on 5th century BCE Greece. We talk the sites, sounds and characters of Greece circa the Peloponnesian War; what we like, what we quibble over and the pleasure of being able to experience the ancient world first hand through the medium of games. At the end of the day, all we love all archaeological sites, except Gla.

You can find more of Deb Trusty talking video games on at doctordebitage on twitch and youtube

As always, if you like what you hear, please be sure to rate, review, and subscribe to the show! Stay up-to-date on all the Movies We Dig news by visiting movieswedig.com or checking out our socials.

Movies We Dig is also part 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.

We tackle yet another late-aughts violent historical epic featuring a Roman centurion, painted barbarians and *sigh* the 9th Legion. This Gladiator-aspirant feels like a generic assemblage of every cliche from the last 60 years of sword and sandal films (along with more recent fantasy and war films); almost every discrete parts feels lifted from at least half-a-dozen other movies. For us, the most frustrating part is the movie touches on interesting ideas and themes concerning life in Roman Britain, only to fly right past them in favor of fireballs and pee-pee jokes. One thing we all agree on: this movie would be better with werewolves.

As always, if you like what you hear, please be sure to rate, review, and subscribe to the show! Stay up-to-date on all the Movies We Dig news by visiting movieswedig.com or checking out our socials.

Movies We Dig is also part 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.

What's a place like me doing in a podcast like this? That's right we're jumping across the Mediterranean to Egypt to talk about everyone's favorite curse-dealing, gun-slinging, action-adventure-horror-remake : The Mummy (1999). Joined by super awesome special guest and expert on all things 'the Rock', Amy Pistone, we get into this movie's horror origins, early 20th century archaeology and what exactly makes a king "Scorpion."

As always, if you like what you hear, please be sure to rate, review, and subscribe to the show! Stay up-to-date on all the Movies We Dig news by visiting movieswedig.com or checking out our socials.

Movies We Dig is also part 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.

Why do we build the podcast? We build the podcast to set us free! This week we shift gears into musical theater with very special super guest Sam Lipert, a Lynchburg student taking the professors to class on Hadestown, a Tony-winning musical which made its Broadway debut in 2019. We get into stagecraft, aesthetics and how creators Anaïs Mitchell and Rachel Chavkin adapt Greek myth to the modern theater (with nods to ancient tragedy). Also hear our favorite songs and moments from a veritable gold mine (or oil field) of riches. Persephone's cup truly runneth over!

If you would like to check out Sam's Unessay Project and all their work examining Addiction and Obsession in Retellings of the Myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, you can do so here.

As always, if you like what you hear, please be sure to rate, review, and subscribe to the show! Stay up-to-date on all the Movies We Dig news by visiting movieswedig.com or checking out our socials.

Movies We Dig is also part 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.