Context and a Movie: The Odyssey

Classicist Mary Beard, professor emerita of classics at the University of Cambridge, co-host of the podcast "Instant Classics" and the author of many books, including her recent Talking Classics: The Shock of the Old (University of Chicago Press, 2026), and Dana Stevens, film critic at Slate.com and the author of Camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema, and the Invention of the Twentieth Century (Atria Books, 2022), talk about the film, the epic poem and today's political context. Photo: NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JULY 14: (L-R) Charlize Theron, Samantha Morton, John Leguizamo, Tom Holland, Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Lupita Nyong'o, and Zendaya attend the premiere of "The Odyssey" presented by Universal Pictures on July 14, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images for Universal Pictures) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.