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Welcome to Ad Navseam, the podcast where classical gourmands everywhere can finally get their fill.
Dr. David Noe and Dr. Jeff Winkle are two friends and longtime teachers of Greek and Latin who talk about Greco-Roman civilization, from the Minoans and Mycenaeans through the Renaissance and right down to the present. We often read the Greek and Latin texts in prose and verse, offer someone else’s (or our own) translation, and always fail to resist a pun. You do not need to know any Latin or Greek to enjoy the show.
How the show works
Episodes run about an hour and usually focus on a single work, author, or topic. Longer works, like the Aeneid or the Argonautica, unfold over a series of episodes, so it is best to start at Part I.
Gurgles are our short episodes, about twenty minutes long. Unlike a full eructation (an unnecessarily sophisticated word for vomiting), a Gurgle is just a little bit of classical indigestion: a bite-sized, much shorter portion of the Classics.
Where to start
With more than 230 episodes, the back catalog can look like a lot. Here are a few good first helpings, depending on what brings you to the table.
For homeschooling families
- Neoclassical Education, The Well-Trained Mind, and Why Aristotle Wins (Episode 28)
- Top Reasons to Study Latin and Greek (Episode 35)
- Unpacking Marrou’s History of Education in Antiquity (Episode 133, the start of our series on Marrou)
- The Fun of the Classics: An Interview with Caroline Lawrence (Episode 138)
- Decoding Percy Jackson with Jillian Noe (Episode 66)
- From Whoville to Hogwarts: Reading Children’s Books in Latin (Episode 69)
For Latin and Greek learners
- Finding the Best Latin Textbook, with Dr. Patrick Owens (Episode 48)
- The Battle of the Latin Textbooks: Cambridge vs. Ørberg (Episode 49)
- How to Become a Latin Guru: Moving from Grammar to Conversation (Episode 63)
- Attic vs. Koine and the Great Greek Textbook Showdown, Part I (Episode 184) and Part II (Episode 185)
- The Treasury of the Mind: Why You Must Memorize Latin (Gurgle 3)
For readers of the great books
- Homer’s Iliad: Episode 2, Episode 3, and Episode 4
- Homer’s Odyssey: The Man of Many Turns (Episode 22) and I Am Nobody: Odysseus and the Cyclops (Episode 26)
- Vergil’s Aeneid, book by book: start with Book I (Episode 83)
- Herodotus and the Spartans: The Road to Thermopylae (Episode 19) and A Lion at the Gates (Episode 20)
Short on time? Try a Gurgle
- Arma Virumque Cano: A Bite-Sized Dive into Vergil’s Aeneid (Gurgle 1)
- Hyperpolyglots, fMRI Scans, and Plato’s Wax Tablet (Gurgle 6)
- Henry Cockeram’s 1623 Dictionary and the World of Forgotten Words (Gurgle 10)
As heard on Scholé Sisters
On Episode 177 of Scholé Sisters, Brandy and Abby recommended Ad Navseam to their listeners. Brandy called it “a little mini classical education in the background.” Thank you, Brandy and Abby! You can hear their whole conversation at scholesisters.com/ss177; the Ad Navseam segment begins at about the 8-minute mark.
If you came to us from Scholé Sisters, here are the episodes Brandy and Abby mentioned:
- Aristophanes’ Clouds: Part I (Episode 208) and Part II (Episode 210)
- The Argonautica of Apollonius: Part I (Episode 222) and Part II (Episode 223)
- Polyphemus: Live from the MJCL: Ovid’s Cyclops (Episode 209)
- Marrou’s History of Education in Antiquity: start the series here (Episode 133)
How to listen
Ad Navseam is available wherever you get podcasts: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeart, Podbean, and YouTube. Every episode also has show notes here on the site.
Stay in touch
Get notified when new episodes drop, plus the occasional update from Dave and Jeff. No spam, and you can unsubscribe anytime.
Questions, suggestions, and corrections are always welcome at dave@adnavseam.com and jeff@adnavseam.com.