Bad Dads: Greeks!

Explicit content warning

08/14/23 • 50 min

Writer, professor, and gourmand John Harvey returns to PODRE for a very special edition of Bad Dads. Chris, Brad, and John look to their beloved poets of ancient Greece to determine which is worse: being a deadbeat dad, murdering your father and marrying your mother, or simply swallowing your children whole without even so much as a nice sauce or side vegetable. We also reach back into the past to hear Julian at age three teaching his mother the plot of The Odyssey (professors' kids: what are you gonna do?) in this full Greek immersion experience of PODRE.

If you're in the market for a new translation of Homer's Odyssey--and you probably are--you'll want to get a copy of Emily Wilson's superb and modern version, published in 2018 by Norton. Wilson is the first woman translator of Homer's poems, and her much-anticipated Iliad will be out this fall.

https://www.emilyrcwilson.com/the-odyssey

Julian's board book is available here. Thanks Uncle Mik!

Please go to our website and sign up to join our email list so we can be in touch when season 2 is set to premier.

https://www.emilyrcwilson.com/the-odyssey

Julian's board book is available here. Thanks Uncle Mik!

Please go to our website and sign up to join our email list so we can be in touch when season 2 is set to premier.

Previous Episode

Bad Dads: God

PODRE is back with two new miniseries to get you through the summer. First up: Bad Dads, in which Chris Brunt & cohost Brad Franco discuss, argue, and occasionally agree on the worst dads in the history of humanity. We all need something to aspire to, and what we've brought you is the bare minimum--the bar we all must clear. Please, please, be better than these dads.

In this episode, we asked to speak to the manager and went right for the Alpha & Omega of bad dadness, the Big Guy, El Primo Papa, L'uomo Del Cielo, the Original Godfather, the Logan Roy of the Holy Bible... He Who Shall Not Be Named. Dios mio, man.

(Warning: So much blasphemy. Untold amounts of blasphemy. But it's constructive criticism! We just want to help.)

You can learn more about God in The Bible or in lots of other books, not to mention the music of Bach or Amy Winehouse or the scent of lilacs opening to the spring or the eyes of a small child or the sound of the ocean at night.

Bad Dads cohost Brad Franco is an associate professor of history at the University of Portland, where he teaches courses in ancient & medieval history. He has published several books, including The World of St. Francis of Assisi (Brill 2015) and most recently, The History of Siena: From Its Origins to the Present Day (Routledge 2019). He lives in North Portland with his wife, two children, and their puppy, Luna.

Be sure you're subscribing to PODRE wherever you get your podcasts so you don't miss the next installment of Bad Dads or our second upcoming bonus miniseries THE PODRE REVIEW, a literary roundup of some of the great representations of parenting and childhood in modern fiction & poetry, where I'll be joined by some of the most exciting writers in the whole damn world.

Next Episode

Bad Dads: Cannibals

There are many ways of eating your child, but only a handful of reasons one might do so. In this edition of PODRE: Bad Dads, Chris & Brad search for answers in the literature of the Italian Middle Ages and in the 9th circle of hell of our own current politics. As ever, we bring you the baddest dads of yesterday, today, and tomorrow here on PODRE. Don't be one of them!

Brad Franco's book on Siena is here.

The Count Ugalino episode of Dante's Inferno, along with excellent commentary and some fun images, is here on Columbia U's frankly badass Digital Dante resource.

Dante & an Egg, by friend of the pod John Harvey, can be found here.

Get ready for more Monday bonus drops this fall, and make sure you're subscribing to PODRE so you never miss an episode.

PODRE - Bad Dads: Greeks!

Transcript

Chris: Dads. They've been around since the beginning, but what do we really know about them? It's time to start asking questions. I'm Chris Brunt. This is PODRE.
Chris: Hey, everybody. We're still here. The wildfire smoke hasn't killed us all yet. I don't think it's done trying, but we're still here. Motherfucking... global warming, El Nino, heat dome ass continent. I'm from Texas. I'm used to this shit. Oh, the air quality is bad? I grew up in Houston. Is it a little hot outside? Is everyt