We're Still Doing This: Why Monsters Keep Getting the Microphone

Tonight Bel reads about Augustus and Nero for her classics tutorial and cannot hold it together. This is what happens when a mature age student with zero background in ancient Roman history encounters the Twelve Caesars cold — with full adult comprehension of the consequences, the ramifications, and the ripples still moving through society two thousand years later.What's in this episode:Augustus — the original personal brand. Built an empire on violence, rewrote his own story, and convinced history to call him great. The first influencer. Terrible human. Extraordinary PR.Nero — murdered his mother, possibly burned Rome, fancied himself an artist. History finds him fascinating. Bel finds him appalling. Both are correct.The pattern that won't break — from ancient Rome to right now, the monsters keep getting the microphone. The podcasts, the profiles, the marble statues. The cycle hasn't changed in two thousand years and Bel would like to discuss this.The women who almost disappeared — Sappho. Diotima. The unnamed women of ancient Rome who might have brought some sanity to the chaos and left almost no record at all. Where are their statues?The moment that cracked everything open — a speech at university about the worst thing you can do with an education being to not use it for what's right. Bel doesn't know yet how she's going to use hers. But she knows it starts here, in bed, furious, with a Chihuahua.The question this episode leaves you with: We've had two thousand years to change this. Why haven't we? And what's your small corner of the world where you can push back?