Shows
Women Who Went BeforeIdols for Idling Eyes: The Female Form in Roman ArtCan we trust Roman statues to tell us about real people? What were the differences between gods and humans in art? How much of a say did the emperor have over how Roman women dressed and lived their lives? Dr. Caroline Vout answers these questions and many more in the penultimate episode of Season 2, as we learn how the Romans put bodies on display.Access full transcript and episode show notesWomen Who Went Before is written, produced, and edited by Rebekah Haigh and Emily Chesley.Music is composed and produced by Moses...
2025-07-3155 min
Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & SocietyWhy Were Ancient Dicks So Small?Have you ever been puzzled by proportions when looking at Ancient Greek statues? It can't just be us.From quarrying the stone to chipping away the final touches on your masterpiece - sculpting is a drawn out process. So why, after possibly years of work, did Ancient Greek artists make penises so small?Kate is joined by Professor Caroline Vout to find out what these sculptors meant by their statues' modest members, and what this tells us about the Ancient world.This episode was edited by Tim Arstall. The producer...
2025-07-0135 minBetwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & SocietyWhy Were Ancient Dicks So Small?Have you ever been puzzled by proportions when looking at Ancient Greek statues? It can't just be us.From quarrying the stone to chipping away the final touches on your masterpiece - sculpting is a drawn out process. So why, after possibly years of work, did Ancient Greek artists make penises so small?Kate is joined by Professor Caroline Vout to find out what these sculptors meant by their statues' modest members, and what this tells us about the Ancient world.This episode was edited by Tim Arstall. The producer...
2025-07-0135 minBetwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & SocietyBeauty & Ugliness in the Ancient WorldWhen we think about Greek and Roman beauty, we think of marble statues of huge men with tiny...feet.But what did it mean to be a beautiful woman? What role did their ideas of ugliness play in these ideas? And how did Christianity throw a curveball in all of this?Taking us back to this world is Caroline Vout, author of Exposed: The Greek and Roman Body, to give us a learned glimpse beneath the togas.This episode was edited by Tom Delargy. The producer was Stuart Beckwith. The...
2025-03-0443 minBetwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & SocietyBeauty & Ugliness in the Ancient WorldWhen we think about Greek and Roman beauty, we think of marble statues of huge men with tiny...feet.But what did it mean to be a beautiful woman? What role did their ideas of ugliness play in these ideas? And how did Christianity throw a curveball in all of this?Taking us back to this world is Caroline Vout, author of Exposed: The Greek and Roman Body, to give us a learned glimpse beneath the togas.This episode was edited by Tom Delargy. The producer was Stuart Beckwith. The...
2025-03-0443 minBetwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & SocietyWhat Made You Ugly In The Ancient World?When we think about Greek and Roman beauty, we think of marble statues of huge men with tiny...feet.But what did it mean to be a beautiful woman? What role did their ideas of ugliness play in these ideas? And how did Christianity throw a curveball in all of this?Taking us back to this world is Caroline Vout, author of Exposed: The Greek and Roman Body, to give us a learned glimpse beneath the togas.This episode was edited by Tom Delargy. The producer was Stuart Beckwith. The...
2024-11-0143 minBetwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & SocietyWhat Made You Ugly In The Ancient World?When we think about Greek and Roman beauty, we think of marble statues of huge men with tiny...feet.But what did it mean to be a beautiful woman? What role did their ideas of ugliness play in these ideas? And how did Christianity throw a curveball in all of this?Taking us back to this world is Caroline Vout, author of Exposed: The Greek and Roman Body, to give us a learned glimpse beneath the togas.This episode was edited by Tom Delargy. The producer was Stuart Beckwith. The...
2024-11-0143 min
Front RowDanny Dyer and Pete Bellotte on his hits for Donna SummerWriter actor Ryan Sampson and actor Danny Dyer on their new sky comedy series Mr Bigstuff which explores the relationship between two brothers and masculinity .Pete Bellotte is one of the world’s greatest songwriters. With a catalogue of over 500 songs he is best known for his work with Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder. Earlier this year he won a Grammy after the 1977 song “I Feel Love” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.As an exhibition on Paris 1924: Sport, Art and the Body opens at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, the exhibition’s co-curat...
2024-07-1742 min
The Great Women ArtistsCaroline Vout on Classical Bodies in ArtI am so excited to say that my guest on the GWA Podcast is the world-renowned Classics scholar and professor at the University of Cambridge, Caroline Vout!
Today we are discussing all sorts of figures in Classics, from Venus to Hermaphroditus.
Born in Durham, Vout studied for a BA at Newnham College Cambridge, completed her MA at the Courtauld, and PhD back in Cambridge, where she spent a very formative year as a Rome Scholar at the British School at Rome. Since 2006, she has been based in Cambridge where she is a Fellow at Christ’s College.
The author of se...
2023-11-2938 min
HistoryExtra podcastBlood, sweat & marble: examining ancient bodiesImagine an ancient Greek or Roman body, and the first picture that pops into your head is probably made of marble or stone – perhaps an austere bust, or a gleaming, musclebound sculpture, polished, cold and pale. But what about the experience of living in a real body, in all its pleasure, pain and flaws, during antiquity? Speaking with Elinor Evans, Caroline Vout presents the flesh and blood realities of life – and death – in ancient Greece and Rome. (Ad) Caroline Vout is the author of Exposed: The Greek and Roman Body (Profile Books, 2022). Buy it now from W...
2023-01-2532 min
Start the WeekPerfect skinIn art the Greek and Roman body is often portrayed as one of perfection – flawlessly cast in bronze and white marble. But the classicist Caroline Vout tells Adam Rutherford that the reality was very different. In her new book, Exposed: The Greek and Roman Body, she reveals all the imperfections and anxieties, and makes visible those who were regarded at the time as far from perfect – women and servants.The curator and art historian Katy Hessel is also challenging the accepted history in her work, The Story of Art Without Men. She shines a light on women arti...
2022-11-1442 min
The History of China Podcast#79 - Sui 3: Yang's Imperial TourThe second emperor of the Sui Dynasty gets bad rap - his postmortem regnal name means "the Slothful" and he's commonly lumped together with the rest of the "bad-last emperors" as being hedonistic, wasteful, and just generally monstrous. But is this really the case, or was Emperor Yang the victim of a historical hatchet job?
Today we look at the upbringing and early life of Prince Yang Guang, his unlikely rise to power, and then the early period of his reign over China as Emperor Yang, and how he picked up where his father had left off in trying to...
2015-10-2831 min
The History of China#79 - Sui 3: Yang's Imperial TourThe second emperor of the Sui Dynasty gets bad rap - his postmortem regnal name means "the Slothful" and he's commonly lumped together with the rest of the "bad-last emperors" as being hedonistic, wasteful, and just generally monstrous. But is this really the case, or was Emperor Yang the victim of a historical hatchet job?Today we look at the upbringing and early life of Prince Yang Guang, his unlikely rise to power, and then the early period of his reign over China as Emperor Yang, and how he picked up where his father had left off in trying...
2015-10-2832 min
Does the Museum Just Preserve the Museum?Session 1: Tim Knox and Alexander Sturgis (Discussion)SESSION 1: Subversive traditions? Does the current enthusiasm for the history of collecting and of the museum silence objects, or make them speak?
Tim Knox (Fitzwilliam Museum)
Alexander Sturgis (Ashmolean Museum)
Chair: Caroline Vout
2015-01-051h 04Does the Museum Just Preserve the Museum?Session 1: Tim Knox and Alexander SturgisSESSION 1: Subversive traditions? Does the current enthusiasm for the history of collecting and of the museum silence objects, or make them speak?
Tim Knox (Fitzwilliam Museum)
Alexander Sturgis (Ashmolean Museum)
Chair: Caroline Vout
2015-01-051h 01
In Our Time: CultureThe AmazonsMelvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Amazons, a tribe of formidable female warriors first described in Greek literature. They appear in the Homeric epics and were described by Herodotus, and featured prominently in the decoration of Greek vases and public buildings. In later centuries, particularly in the Renaissance, the Amazons became a popular theme of literature and art. After the discovery of the New World, the largest river in South America was named the Amazon, since the warlike tribes inhabiting the river's margins reminded Spanish pioneers of the warriors of classical myth.With:Paul...
2013-04-1142 min
In Our TimeThe AmazonsMelvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Amazons, a tribe of formidable female warriors first described in Greek literature. They appear in the Homeric epics and were described by Herodotus, and featured prominently in the decoration of Greek vases and public buildings. In later centuries, particularly in the Renaissance, the Amazons became a popular theme of literature and art. After the discovery of the New World, the largest river in South America was named the Amazon, since the warlike tribes inhabiting the river's margins reminded Spanish pioneers of the warriors of classical myth.With:Paul...
2013-04-1142 min