Noble Blood

pending release at exxxquisiteMuse’s substack

I’ve loved the podcast—and Dana as a host—for years, but this most recent episode about the Three Kitchis ending with dull bro banter followed by corny guitar jams on the credits sure was an unpleasant surprise. I hope this Very Special Episode crossover or whatever it was isn’t going to be a regular thing.

I’ve listened to this podcast since its inception several years ago and always really enjoyed it. I’ve also bought, read, and recommended Dana’s books. She does an incredible job of examining sources, presenting multiple perspectives of historical stories, and narrating them as entertaining anecdotes- no easy task, for sure. However, this most recent episode regarding Elagabalus is just ludicrous. Acknowledging the issue with the sources surrounding Elagabalus’ “gender identity” and then still choosing to refer to him with feminine pronouns is just wild. Shall we call Caligula a deity then? And Incitatus a consul? Since that is how identified themselves, according to Suetonius. Also, the mispronunciation of Macrinus (mack-REE-nuhs) is so distracting and exposes a surface level depth of research into the topic. Dana’s done such a lovely job with medieval and Renaissance histories, and many other time periods and places, but please consult a Classicist before another venture into antiquity.

Don’t let Ms SCHWARTZ normalize this stuff