The City - Introducing Murder on Music Row | S E1

From The Tennessean, Murder on Music Row is an eight-part true crime investigative podcast and an eight-part narrative series that will be released each Tuesday beginning May 21. Each installment brings you new insight into the crime that took place 35 years ago.

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Being Roman with Mary Beard - 9. Soldiering for Softies

The image of the battle-hardened, well regimented Roman soldier has been set in stone by movies, novels and video games. The letters of Claudius Terentianus reveal something very different. A terrible moaner, the young soldier has to beg his father to send the most basic of equipment, from sandals to swords. Stuck in the marines, the poorly paid squad tasked with guarding grain supplies, he bribes and wangles his way into a more illustrious legion, but still seems to spend more time shopping than fighting.

Mary Beard catches up with Terentianus at the British Museum's Legion exhibition and discovers more about his uncanny ability to avoid conflict and ensure a prosperous retirement.

Producer: Alasdair Cross

Expert Contributors: Carolina Rangel de Lima, British Museum; Livia Capponi, Pavia University and Claire Holleran Exeter University

Cast: Terentianus played by Robert Wilfort

In God We Lust - Listen Now: Blame it on the Fame: Milli Vanilli

When Frank Farian first laid eyes on Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan, he saw everything he wasn’t. They were handsome, young, and Black. But Frank had something they didn’t. He had power.


So, Frank offered them a devil’s bargain. Almost overnight, Milli Vanilli’s debut album went five times platinum and scored a Grammy nomination. But when the lie at the center of their success started to unravel, Rob and Fab would discover the hard way the difference between star power and real power.


From Wondery, Blame It on the Fame is a story about the lie that shot to #1 and what it cost to tell the truth. Hosted by Amanda Seales.


Listen early and ad-free exclusively on Wondery+: Wondery.fm/BIOTF_MV

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Being Roman with Mary Beard - 7. The Whistleblower

Beneath starched Shakespearean togas and the pungent fug of gladiator sweat there are real Romans waiting to be discovered. To know what it was to be Roman you need to gather the scattered clues until they form a living, breathing human, witness to the highs and horrors of Europe’s greatest empire.

Mary Beard, Britain’s best-selling historian of the ancient world, rebuilds the lives of six citizens of the Roman Empire, from a poet to a squaddie. Her investigations reveal death and deceit on the Nile and the art of running a Roman pub, but it’s the thoughts and feelings of individual Romans she’s really interested in.

It's 61CE. The rebellion of Boudicca has finally been quashed, but London and other Roman cities lie in ruins. A new finance officer for the province, Gaius Julius Classicianus arrives, to face an enormous recovery job. Standing in his way is the Governor, busy exacting terrible reprisals from the local population. Classicianus does what brave subordinates have done ever since. He whistle-blows – writing to the emperor to remove the Governor from British shores. The stage is set for an imperial face-off. For the people of Britain, the stakes could not be higher.

Producer: Alasdair Cross

Expert Contributors: Matthew Nicholls, University of Oxford and Michael Marshall, Museum of London Archaeology

Cast: Tacitus played by Robert Wilfort

Translations by Mary Beard

Special thanks to the British Museum

Being Roman with Mary Beard - 8. Death on the Nile

Julia Balbilla is an accomplished poet and close friend of the wife of one of Rome’s mightiest emperors. Hadrian loves to travel and takes Julia and an entourage of thousands on the ultimate elite tourist trip- a leisurely Nile cruise to the Great Pyramid of Giza and the Colossus of Memnon, a statue that will sing for anyone blessed by the gods. Julia inscribes her poems on the giant foot of the statue, praising the power of Hadrian and the beauty of his wife, Sabina.

It’s a charming scene, darkened only by the fact that Hadrian’s male lover, Antinous has only just drowned in the Nile. Was he murdered by jealous rivals, killed in a lover’s tiff or did he drunkenly slip from the deck? Hadrian is publicly bereft, founding a new city in the name of Antinous, but seems happy to continue his luxury cruise. Mary Beard hops aboard Ancient Rome's most intriguing cruise with historian T. Corey Brennan and archaeologist Elizabeth Fentress.

Producer: Alasdair Cross

Expert Contributors: Corey Brennan, Rutgers University and Lisa Fentress

Cast: Julia Balbilla played by Juliana Lisk

Special thanks to Andrea Bruciati, Villa Adriana

Byzantium And The Crusades - GET A FREE BOOK ON BYZANTIUM & THE CRUSADES

Just a quick update to let you know if you like this podcast you can get the book on which it’s based for free on my website nickholmesauthor.com. It’s called The Byzantine World War, and it's about the origins of the First Crusade and suggests that it really began as the result of the defeat of the Byzantines at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071. This caused a revolution in the Middle-East when the Turks overran the hitherto Greek-speaking region of Anatolia – which is now modern Turkey.

What makes the story particularly exciting is that I suggest the Byzantines were actually winning the Battle of Manzikert until the emperor was betrayed by his own jealous nobles. So, history might easily have taken a totally different route. Indeed, there might not have been any Crusades at all.

The book has been a bestseller on Amazon where it has over 400 reviews, so why not click on the link in the show notes which will take you to the offer on my website. You can also stay in touch with my latest historical research and books which are focused on the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. 

Get your free book Here! Hope you enjoy it and look forward to staying in touch on Byzantine, Roman and Crusader history! 

Please take a look at my website nickholmesauthor.com where you can download a free copy of The Byzantine World War, my book that describes the origins of the First Crusade.

Crimetown - Introducing | Beyond All Repair

A new 10-part true-crime podcast, Executive Produced and Edited by Zac Stuart-Pontier, co-creator of Crimetown.

Imagine if, one day, you are accused of something. Something horrible, violent, heinous. Something you swear you did not do, and nothing you say can convince anyone otherwise — even the people closest to you.

That’s Sophia Johnson’s story.

Sophia was starting fresh: A new life, a new husband, a baby on the way. But it all unraveled on January 10, 2002, when her mother-in-law Marlyne Johnson was found bludgeoned to death in her home. Days later, Sophia was charged with the murder.

To this day, Sophia swears she didn’t do it. But someone says they witnessed it — her own brother.

When family betrays family, who do you believe? In this story of a sibling rivalry beyond compare, WBUR’s Amory Sivertson turns the clock back. She reexamines an unsolved case, a family torn apart, and a woman who wasn’t believed.

From WBUR and ZSP Media, Beyond All Repair is a 10-part true crime investigation into a cold case. The series ends with an answer.

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Life Raft - Introducing: Sea Change

Right now in the US, there is a GAS BOOM. A liquified natural gas boom — or LNG. The US produces the most LNG in the world. And the epicenter of this massive expansion? It’s here on the Gulf Coast.

For the last year, we’ve traversed Louisiana trying to uncover what this growing LNG industry means for the state. But, after talking with everyone – from shrimpers to energy insiders – we realized that the stakes were far bigger. If we really wanted to tell the whole story, we had to travel even farther. In this 3-part series, we follow the journey of American gas around the world to find out if LNG is the miracle fuel it’s claimed to be. If it really can prevent a climate apocalypse. Or is it a carbon bomb waiting to go off?

In part one, we start in Louisiana — ground zero. We see how the rise of these massive export terminals has transformed one community. Is this big bet on LNG worth it?

“All Gassed Up” is a special 3-part series from Sea Change. This special series is part of the Pulitzer Center’s nationwide Connected Coastlines reporting initiative. For more information, go to pulitzercenter.org/connected-coastlines.

This episode was hosted, reported, and produced by Carlyle Calhoun and Halle Parker. It was edited by Morgan Springer, Rosemary Westwood, and Eve Abrams. Additional help was provided by Ryan Vasquez and Eva Tesfaye. The episode was fact-checked by Garrett Hazelwood. Our sound designer is Emily Jankowski. Our theme music is by Jon Batiste.

ABOUT SEA CHANGE:

Living on the coast means living on the front lines of a rapidly changing planet. And as climate change transforms our coasts, that will transform our world.

Every two weeks, we bring you stories that illuminate, inspire, and sometimes enrage, as we dive deep into the environmental issues facing coastal communities on the Gulf Coast and beyond. We have a lot to save, and we have a lot of solutions. It’s time to talk about a Sea Change.


Sea Change is a WWNO and WRKF production. We are part of the NPR Podcast Network and distributed by PRX. Our managing producer is Carlyle Calhoun. Hosted by Carlyle Calhoun and Halle Parker. Our theme song is by Jon Batiste To see more of our reporting on LNG and find other episodes, visit WWNO.org/podcast/sea-change. And to help others find our podcast, hit subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and don’t forget to rate and review!