“I don’t know how to put this…but I’m kind of a big deal.” – Ron Burgundy

In each episode of Kind of a Big Deal you can listen to an exclusive & intimate conversation between our Features Editor and the kind of big deal folks our world-class arts scene attracts – writers, performers, movers and shakers.

Last Week: Ian Lavender (Don’t Tell Him Pike). Next week: Sir Tim O’Shea (Edinburgh University Principal & Fringe Chair).

This week’s conversation is between Dan Lentell and historian

PROF. MARY BEARD

Winifred Mary Beard, OBE, FBA, FSA is the professor of classics at the University of Cambridge where she is a fellow of Newnham College. Her blog, A Don’s Life, appears in The Times as a regular column. Her books run from Rome in the Late Republic (with Michael Crawford, 1985); through The Colosseum (with the late & much lamented Keith Hopkins, 2005); to Laughter in Ancient Rome: On Joking, Tickling, and Cracking Up (2014). Mary Beard’s work on television, as well as her robust social media presence, have made her Britain’s most widely recognized Classicist.

If George Washington didn’t fly around on Air Force One or live at the White House, and yet is still the first US President, then why was Julius Caesar not Rome’s first emperor? Did the ancient Ostians live entirely on takeaways? These (and other weighty matters) were covered in a conversation which took place during the 2014 Fringe.

E49 Interviews; Dan Lentell talks to Mary Beard

The jingle is used with the gracious permission of Moving On Theatre’s Laurene Hope Omedal (star of Piaf: Love Conquers All) and is voiced by Edinburgh Nights host Ewan Spence.

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