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0:42

Hello everyone, thank you so

0:44

much for joining us for this week's

0:47

version of the iHeart Podcast Speaker

0:50

series.

0:51

For anybody who's sort of joined us in the past,

0:53

you'll know.

0:53

We started it actually at the top of Quarantine,

0:56

when we were all sort of moving into a weird

0:58

new world and we want to stay

1:00

connected with each other and keep talking to each

1:02

other about what drives us as creators

1:04

and specifically what interests us all

1:07

in this exploding medium podcasting.

1:09

We have kept doing these because these

1:11

proved to be some of the coolest,

1:13

most interesting conversations that I

1:15

have had in my life and easily

1:18

my favorite half an hour of the week

1:20

podcast thing has also continued to

1:22

explode. We have a medium now that is the newest

1:24

mass reach medium in the United States. We are

1:27

in a golden age of audio

1:29

of the human conversation, if you will, and podcasting

1:31

is now reaching almost ninety million Americans

1:34

a week, bigger than say

1:36

Netflix subscribers in the United

1:38

States. You have this medium that is just exploding.

1:41

All of that explosion, all of that new

1:43

audience that's jumping into the medium is thanks

1:45

to folks like my guests today. First

1:47

of all, Live, thank you so much for hanging out with us

1:49

today.

1:49

I really appreciate it.

1:50

Thank you so much for having me. I'm very happy

1:52

to be here.

1:52

So I'll do a bit of a background

1:55

bio on you, and then I want to get

1:57

into questions because I am deeply

1:59

fascinated this show that you're launching, and also

2:01

sort of why you chose podcasts and to do

2:03

it. Live Albert has a degree in classical

2:06

civilizations and English literature

2:08

from Concordia University in Montreal. You're

2:10

a creator, a storyteller, You're a host, You're

2:12

a producer of the popular Greek and Roman

2:15

Mythology podcast Let's talk about

2:17

Myths, Baby, where you bring

2:19

your modern perspective, your education, and classical

2:22

civilization all together to sort of explore

2:24

Greek myths. But you do it sort of from a casual,

2:27

humorous perspective, which I think helps

2:29

break down walls into a topic

2:31

that can be hard. Let me start here, why

2:33

mythology? When did you know you

2:35

were super into Greek and Roman

2:38

myths? And what about it caught a hold of

2:40

you? And I'll just give my own personal experience

2:42

of this. I have four kids, lots

2:44

of kids, and as much as I teach

2:47

them, read to them get them excited

2:49

about learning and world building

2:51

and imagination, there's nothing quite

2:54

like Greek mythology for a child

2:56

like I've seen this across every one of my

2:58

four kids, that once they tap into

3:00

this world, their heads explode in

3:02

a way that only things like Star

3:05

Wars or Harry Potter make their heads

3:07

explode. And so back to my question to

3:09

you, where did this start for you and

3:11

why did it become your day job?

3:13

Well, it started when I was a kid. Surprisingly,

3:16

I mean it was really similar for me. I I'm

3:18

sure I discovered it in elementary school or something

3:20

and just decided it was the most fascinating thing

3:22

in the world. And then that just kind of stuck.

3:25

I actually, I did my degree with the intention

3:27

of using my English major and the classics

3:29

was just going to be for fun, because I just wanted to

3:31

learn more about ancient Greece and its mythologies,

3:33

and then it just sort of ended up years later working

3:35

out that I could start a podcast about

3:37

it and turn that into a career. So yeah, I mean, it just

3:39

really like, it is fascinating, it's silly, it's

3:41

weird, it's dramatic, like Greek mythology

3:44

just has everything, and so yeah, it continues,

3:47

like I've been doing this almost six years now, and it continues.

3:49

To just be so thrilling. I can't let it go.

3:52

What do you think it is about Greek mythology

3:54

that grabs a hold of us and sort of shakes

3:56

us and is some of the most captivated

3:59

audience as I've ever seen, or kids

4:01

are adults alike when they're sort of hearing

4:03

the stories of the Greek and Roman gods.

4:06

What is it? Is it just a basic sort

4:08

of I don't know. Why are there hundreds of millions

4:10

of Star Wars plans.

4:11

What do you think it is?

4:12

I mean, it's the storytelling in general, Like you

4:14

know, it's everything that we like about fantasy

4:17

and storytelling and just you know, that sort

4:19

of human nature of wanting to hear

4:22

these different types of stories. But the thing about Greek

4:24

myth is that it really does have like everything

4:26

you know. It has this tragedy, it has

4:28

drama, it has really heavy

4:30

comedy, and just all the different elements

4:32

that I think we all want from like storytelling and

4:35

entertainment all around, but

4:37

it's all squished into this ancient

4:40

world that's sort of fascinating in itself.

4:42

I mean, for me, the interesting thing is that it's

4:44

been going on so long, and the way that

4:46

the stories were originally told means that we have,

4:48

you know, like eight different versions of the

4:50

same story, or eight different versions

4:53

of one character. Because when an

4:55

ancient people is telling a story or different

4:58

stories for like a thousand years, thing change.

5:00

And so then now we get access to like

5:02

a thousand years worth of storytelling

5:04

and everything that happens within that time period,

5:06

and so it's endlessly fascinating.

5:08

Not to put you on the spot, but is there a

5:11

favorite Greek god of yours

5:13

and why like and is that something that's

5:16

changed over the years and why.

5:17

Yeah, it definitely changes. I mean, I

5:20

like, I have my kind of go to if I'm asked,

5:22

and the answer is Aphrodite. She's fascinating

5:25

Greek goddess of love. She's been my favorite since

5:27

I was a kid because she has like this kind of interesting

5:29

freedom that a lot of the other goddesses

5:32

don't have.

5:32

She kind of gets to do what she wants.

5:34

She really famously was married to one god

5:37

but didn't really like him that much, so she just like

5:39

hung around with whatever other gods she did

5:41

like at whatever time that she might have liked them.

5:44

She has a freedom that the others don't, you

5:46

know. Depending on where the question comes to

5:48

me or what the context is, I have like countless

5:50

different answers I can come up with.

5:52

And why do you think Aphrodite is set

5:54

up like that by the Greeks to have that sort

5:56

of fluidity, that unpredictability.

5:59

Was it something and they were wanting to message to

6:01

Greeks about the nature of love, like

6:03

not to be cheesy about it, but was it intentional

6:06

or was it sort of like I don't know, it's a good story.

6:07

I mean, I think it's a little of everything.

6:09

Like, she's interesting because she kind of has these

6:11

origins in these Eastern goddesses

6:13

of civilizations that came before Greece.

6:16

She has kind of equivalencies with this Phoenician

6:18

goddess named Dastarte and some Mesopotamian

6:21

goddesses in Nana and Ishtar. She started

6:23

out in those Eastern cultures and then

6:25

she sort of was brought into Greece where

6:27

they kind of adapted her for their needs.

6:29

And so I think she has a lot of like leftover

6:32

aspects that come from cultures

6:35

that had really different priorities and really

6:37

different goals and feelings than the Greeks,

6:39

and then the Greeks kind of taking her and making her their

6:41

own. There's lots of different ways you can interpret

6:43

it. There's also a lot of history about kind of

6:45

her birth story and who she comes

6:47

from. And yeah, I mean it's sort of an endless

6:49

answer that I won't spend an

6:51

hour talking about, but she has like all these different really

6:53

interesting aspects to kind of all contribute to

6:56

why she is sort of different than a lot

6:58

of the other goddesses.

7:16

Dumb question, admittedly, how real

7:18

were the Greek gods to the Greeks, Like,

7:20

I know, we hear stories like ron an Olympus,

7:22

they're all hanging out up there at the top of the mountain. But like, if

7:24

you're walking around Greece at the time,

7:27

are you like, no, this is like really real, Like

7:29

there really are folks at the top of that thing

7:31

who were making the calls or.

7:32

Was it like no, they all understood it was mythology.

7:35

This was all allegories.

7:36

That's a great question because the answer is interesting in

7:38

that like it's kind of a little bit of everything,

7:40

and it totally depends on the time period.

7:42

The thing that a lot of people who just think of Greek

7:44

mythology is this fun, entertaining thing,

7:47

don't really keep in mind if

7:49

you don't have a background in it, there's no reason for you to think of

7:51

it this way. But like, the Greeks were telling

7:53

these stories over almost a

7:55

thousand years.

7:56

I like to use a reference point of like.

7:57

Compare Shakespeare's work to move

8:00

movies that you see today, and

8:02

like the difference that's only like a

8:04

small portion of the time period

8:06

that we're talking about when it comes to ancient Greece.

8:08

You know, if we're talking about the Bronze Age,

8:10

we have like a little bit less knowledge as the oldest

8:12

time period where we have written history, but the

8:15

languages and what they wrote down isn't that helpful

8:17

to us. But they had the gods, and you get to

8:19

like the early Iron Age and the Archaic period,

8:21

they're a little bit later. They're thinking more seriously

8:23

about the gods in relation to the world around

8:26

them. I think probably they weren't

8:28

concerned that Zeus was going to come down and

8:30

like smite them for any personal reason.

8:32

But they're thinking more about the world.

8:34

You know, the sun is a god, the moon is

8:36

a god, the dawn, the evening,

8:38

all of these are gods. So it's more about kind

8:40

of how they contribute to the world around them. So I think

8:42

they're sort of existing as like a kind of a real

8:44

thing in their own kind of way. When it

8:47

comes to like something like Homer, like the Iliad

8:49

and the Odyssey. For a long period, I think

8:51

that they really did consider that to be their

8:53

own history. Whether they would have

8:55

like seriously sat down and said, like, yes, the gods

8:57

were actively involved, you know, kind of different.

8:59

And then you get a couple hundred years later and like the playwrights.

9:02

You get the famous plays like Oedipus and things like

9:04

that, and there I think that they've sort of evolved

9:06

and they're not thinking at quite as realistically,

9:09

but they're still thinking about them as like deities

9:12

worthy of worship, and you know, it can

9:14

hurt or help you if you do worship

9:17

them in the correct ways, and you know, more similarly

9:19

to what we think of as religion, and then things

9:21

just keep kind of changing, you know, and like

9:24

later they're controlled by the Romans and then these sort

9:26

of different aspects as well.

9:27

I mean, there's just so much history involved.

9:29

It's a fascinating question and a complicated answer,

9:31

but the answer is kind of mostly both. They were

9:33

real and they were not real, and they were just kind

9:35

of everything.

9:36

That is absolutely fascinating.

9:39

You're right, And it's like, over the course

9:41

of those thousand years, did certain

9:43

gods rise and fall

9:45

in terms of popularity and then get totally

9:48

redefined too in terms of what

9:50

they were about?

9:50

Like does that also happening across that thousand

9:53

years?

9:53

Absolutely?

9:54

And really fascinating ways too, Like the sun and

9:56

the moon are really good examples, Like in the archaic

9:58

period where we get the earliest written sources

10:01

that survive today, like Helios is the sun

10:03

god.

10:03

He is the physical sun.

10:04

He brings a chariot across the sky all day and that's

10:06

the sun crossing, you know, the sky. And

10:09

then Selene is the moon and she does the same

10:11

thing at night. And then a few hundred

10:13

years later we get kind of like more

10:15

of a melding with these more major

10:17

gods Apollo and Artemis, who are twins

10:19

and they represent a lot of things, but as time

10:22

goes on, they each come to represent the sun

10:24

and the moon more and by the time

10:26

we're into the Roman period, Apolo

10:28

is a sun god amongst other things, and Artemis

10:31

is a moon goddess, and so like it really

10:33

does kind of change, and a

10:35

lot of it, I think comes down to there

10:37

are so many gods at the beginning because

10:39

that's how they can best understand the world around

10:41

them. And as time moves on and

10:43

these people evolve, they understand the

10:45

world around them more and more, and they have

10:48

less need for like really specific

10:50

deities, and they kind of get like amalgamated

10:52

into the more important Olympians, who then just

10:54

kind of represent general concepts versus

10:57

the literal sun or the literal moon,

10:59

and then things you change even more when you're looking at Rome.

11:01

But yeah, it's it's absolutely fascinating because

11:04

through their mythology you can watch as

11:06

these people cover a thousand years

11:08

of human growth.

11:09

Yeah, it's really interesting, and you see echoes

11:12

that are clear and also

11:15

amazing in terms of Greek mythology

11:17

becoming Roman mythology becoming Roman

11:19

Catholicism, Like, is it a whole language

11:21

that you're seeing and decoding that a lot of

11:23

folks aren't just privy to.

11:25

I don't know enough about Catholicism.

11:27

I kind of like stay right out of all the forms

11:29

of modern religion.

11:30

You know, it's safer and it's not my interest.

11:32

But when it comes to Roman mythology,

11:35

Rome mythology is really fascinating because I think a lot of people

11:37

who dive into it have this idea and I'm

11:39

like guilty of this in my early episodes of the show before

11:41

I personally learned as much as I know now.

11:44

But like the idea that like Rome kind of

11:46

quote unquote stole their gods from

11:48

the Greeks is really prominent because

11:50

they kind of all have the same equivalent gods like

11:52

Artemis In you know, in Greece is Artemis.

11:55

In Rome, she's Diana, but ultimately

11:57

it's the same goddess. Zeus is Jupiter, all

11:59

the planets are the Roman names for Greek

12:01

gods, all these different things. But while it

12:03

seems like they kind of quote unquote copied, it really

12:06

wasn't the case. Like they had their own whole mythologies

12:08

and whole religion. Just because

12:11

Rome was close to Greece, they were influenced

12:13

by Greece, they had a lot of contact with the Greeks amongst

12:15

all the other, you know, ancient people of the Mediterranean.

12:18

It just ends up that they kind of have these equivalent

12:20

gods. The idea of them kind of stealing

12:23

them gets worse because the most popular and

12:25

common book of Roman quote unquote Roman

12:27

mythology is Avid's Metamorphoses, where

12:29

essentially he's a Roman guy who sat

12:31

down to mostly rewrite

12:33

Greek myths with Roman names. His purpose

12:36

was to talk more about Greek myths. But people

12:38

then get this idea that like, he's just saying these

12:40

Roman myths, but really they're Greeks with the names changed.

12:42

But that's not really what it actually was.

12:44

It's just the Romans were a bit less concerned with their

12:47

mythology as storytelling, and because

12:49

they're coming like a couple hundred years later,

12:51

and then by the time most of their writing is

12:53

coming in, it's even later than that. So it's just

12:55

sort of like different priorities and things. But you can

12:57

really kind of watch it all happen because Romans

13:00

at the same time as a lot of Greece. But when it comes

13:02

to like the most famous parts of Rome, we're talking

13:04

like after the Greeks had sort of been conquered

13:06

by Rome and then become kind of a part of them,

13:08

So.

13:09

Total non sequitor on My oldest kid

13:11

fell in love with Percy Jackson several years

13:13

ago and still loves it today.

13:15

Not so much about Percy Jackson.

13:16

But just generally when you see Greek

13:18

mythology get deployed

13:21

like that in pop culture, is

13:23

it a and I don't mean to pin you

13:25

down. Is it like awesome we're talking about

13:27

Greek mythology moment or is it like roll

13:29

your eyes, Oh my god, here we go.

13:31

They're going to misuse this, that and the other, Like where

13:33

do you stand on that stuff?

13:34

I love all of it. I mean, I think the more mythology

13:37

out there the better. You know, I think there are people

13:39

who go to novels of Greek myth reception

13:41

and they think that it's all accurately portraying

13:44

Greek myth, and like that becomes a little bit more tricky

13:46

because then you move into the actual ancient sources and

13:48

you're like, well, this is all incredibly different. But I mean,

13:50

my career relies a lot on there being

13:52

retaillings of Greek myth. It's a huge

13:55

year for them. There's like ten or fifteen novels

13:57

coming out this year.

13:58

You know.

13:59

The next two months of my show have three

14:01

or four different episodes where I'm interviewing

14:03

novelists about their new books of mythology.

14:06

So selfishly it's great, it's really helping

14:08

me. But also I just think it's great. You know, everyone's

14:10

got their own way of telling a story. There's

14:12

a new one coming out where it's the story of Medea,

14:15

but it's being told through the eyes of colonialism

14:17

in India during the East India Trading

14:19

Company, and so you can really do whatever, and it

14:22

just opens up these new ways of telling

14:24

these stories where it's a myth but it's not, and

14:26

it's you know, there's just there's endless so I

14:28

am very on board with all of them.

14:30

Awesome, let me switch gears and talk about one

14:32

of our favorite things, podcasting. How did

14:34

you come to podcasting? How did it hit your

14:36

radar? Are you a super fan listener

14:39

for years? Is it a new thing? What's

14:41

the story there?

14:41

Well, I've been podcasting for six years

14:44

in July, so it's definitely long

14:46

standing.

14:46

And before that I was listening.

14:48

For a while for sure, so I was definitely I wouldn't

14:50

say early adopter, but I was on the earlier

14:53

side with you know, before the boom that we

14:55

have now. But for me, it happened where I, like, I

14:57

changed careers and I moved across the country

15:00

and ended up just listening to a lot of podcasts

15:02

because they're great for when you, you know, are

15:04

still trying to make friends in a city or things like that. Right,

15:06

podcasts, so many people come to them because they end up

15:08

feeling like your friends.

15:09

It's fun. It's a unique medium in that way. And so

15:11

that's what I was doing for.

15:12

A long time and then loved them enough that when

15:14

I decided I needed a hobby, I just figured

15:17

I would start one about the thing that I love which is

15:19

Greek mythology, and it it went very well for me.

15:21

So that's pretty early, like six years

15:23

ago to be podcasting definitely means

15:26

you were way ahead of the boom. Were

15:28

you feeling like you were sort of like

15:30

alone in a medium that not a lot of people

15:33

were listening to yet but had really high

15:35

super fandomb and engagement or

15:37

why were you so prescient? What made you see

15:39

or did you see like this medium is going to explode,

15:42

I'm going to get ahead of it.

15:43

Where would your head on that?

15:44

I really didn't think.

15:45

It through, like it's I mean,

15:47

I just loved listening to them, and it was fun. And I

15:49

was listening to a lot of like not fully indie

15:51

shows, but still the types of shows where it was like clearly

15:53

just these people who decided to make a thing because they

15:56

wanted to talk about it. So I was listening to a lot

15:58

of that for a while. And yeah,

16:00

and I mean for me, it was just sort of a thing to

16:03

do to pass the time. I didn't really

16:05

expect many people were going to listen,

16:08

and you know, so many different things happened where

16:10

I really did come in at the exact right time

16:12

to not only hit a like a boom in

16:14

podcasting, but also Greek mythology

16:17

like also blew up at the same time as

16:19

podcasting was blowing up, and it did wonders

16:21

for me, and it went it went very well. But it was very

16:24

much me just deciding I wanted to talk

16:26

into a micro found about a thing. I didn't really

16:28

have many thoughts about, you know, how

16:31

best to do it or what was going to get me successful

16:33

or turn it into a career. That all kind of happened later.

16:35

I think most podcasters would

16:38

probably attest to the same thing of like, yeah,

16:40

this was all completely thought out, none of it

16:42

was taught.

16:43

No, what's great is that you can just start one

16:46

and it's like one of the only mediums of them like YouTube,

16:48

where anyone can do it.

16:49

And that's what's so lovely about it.

16:50

What surprised you about the medium, like anything

16:53

in particular that you were like, I didn't see that coming.

16:55

I mean, I didn't really see it coming how big it

16:57

was going to get for me. I'm really sort

16:59

of endlessly entertained and

17:02

really appreciative of the fact that it is

17:04

still.

17:04

A medium where you can be pretty unaware

17:07

of tech.

17:08

Like for all that I've been doing this for six years

17:10

and I have a great show and it's really popular,

17:12

and you know, I'm with iHeartMedia

17:14

now, but like I still don't have a great grasp

17:16

on how to do things the sort of technical

17:19

way. I googled everything I know and it

17:21

just keeps working.

17:23

Like I love that.

17:24

That's great, you know, like that

17:26

it could be that, yeah, do it yourself, you know.

17:28

Yeah.

17:29

I mean for me, I'm much more interested in

17:31

your take on this. But for me, what surprised

17:33

me, I guess, is the fact that it has

17:36

become a medium, for my

17:38

money, the smartest, most innovative storytellers

17:40

in the world, and that ranges from you to

17:43

Shonda Rhymes to Will Ferrell and Malcolm

17:45

Gladwell. It's like, it's interesting to me

17:47

that time and time again, the best

17:49

I think storytellers talking about sometimes

17:51

the hardest, most intellectual, complicated

17:54

stuff are choosing a medium.

17:55

It makes sense to me.

17:56

It's a long form people are engaged when

17:58

they listen, but that I think has more than

18:00

anything else, driven its boom, which has been

18:02

awesome to watch.

18:03

I cannot thank you enough.

18:05

Hopefully this has been fun for you too,

18:07

But like I really do appreciate it Live, you

18:09

being a part of the iHeart podcast network.

18:11

You have an amazing show.

18:12

I always deeply connect with and respect

18:14

folks who've been doing this for a while, and you know,

18:17

to have a podcast now going on six years is

18:19

the equivalent of like one hundred years in other

18:21

mediums.

18:22

But I really appreciate you hanging out with us today.

18:24

Thank you.

18:24

It's really nice to be here and I'm thrilled to be part of iHeart

18:26

now, So thanks for having me.

18:27

Everybody check out immediately

18:30

a podcast called Let's Talk About Myths

18:32

Baby.

18:32

It's with Live Albert, my guest today.

18:34

It is an amazing show about amazing

18:37

stories, some of the stories that speak to

18:39

the deepest parts of our humanity. So I

18:41

really do appreciate you being a part of it Live. Thank

18:43

you everyone for hanging out with us today.

18:45

We will see you next week.

18:54

Podversations is a production of iHeartRadio.

18:57

You could find more from the biggest names in podcasting

18:59

on the iHeart Radio app or wherever you get

19:01

your podcasts.