
BONUS - How Do You Like Them Golden Apples?
26/11/2025 | 54 mins.
*** SUPPORT SEASON 2 OF PODYSSEY ON KO-FI.COM/PODYSSEY *** Apples - especially Golden Apples - keep popping up throughout mythology, dripping with rich - and often conflicting - symbolism. The influence of these stories pervades religion, music, modern art, cinema, and technology. Funny story: they probably weren't apples. ... The myths, tales, and concepts of ancient Greece echo and reach into every aspect of modern life. Often misunderstood, frequently romanticised, and sometimes deliberately twisted - to understand their origins and truth is to get a real glimpse into the universal themes that connect us to the past and each other. Welcome to Podyssey with Alex Andreou. Each week we will take one myth, one concept, person, place, or theme from Ancient Greece, take it apart, figure out its inner workings, trace its influence, juice it for its wisdom, reimagine, update and put it back together - all shiny and new! *** SUPPORT SEASON 2 OF PODYSSEY ON KO-FI.COM/PODYSSEY *** Written and presented by Alex Andreou Expert contributions by Alexandra Angeletaki-Røe, Debbie Challis, Linda Marric, and Dr Ruth Smith Music by Marianna Sangita Artwork by Simona Kanellou A Cooler Heads podcast NOTES TO COME *** SUPPORT SEASON 2 OF PODYSSEY ON KO-FI.COM/PODYSSEY *** Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Director's Cut: ECHO & NARCISSUS - The Influencer & The Follower
16/11/2025 | 1h 7 mins.
*** SUPPORT SEASON 2 OF PODYSSEY ON KO-FI.COM/PODYSSEY *** Most of what you think you know about the story of Narcissus, is wrong. This isn’t a story of conceit or vanity. It isn’t even the story of one person. It is a story of unrequited love and pain, of the corruption of innocence, of losing oneself. ....... The myths, tales, and concepts of ancient Greece echo and reach into every aspect of modern life. Often misunderstood, frequently romanticised, and sometimes deliberately twisted - to understand their origins and truth is to get a real glimpse into the universal themes that connect us to the past and each other. Welcome to Podyssey with Alex Andreou. Each week we will take one myth, one concept, person, place, or theme from Ancient Greece, take it apart, figure out its inner workings, trace its influence, juice it for its wisdom, reimagine, update and put it back together - all shiny and new! Written and presented by Alex Andreou Expert contributions by Alexandra Angeletaki-Røe, Debbie Challis, Linda Marric, and Dr Ruth Smith Music by Marianna Sangita Artwork by Simona Kanellou A Cooler Heads podcast NOTES MUSIC Podyssey Theme: “To Margoudi ki o Alexandris”, Marianna Sangita, 2018 (with permission) Alphonse Hasselmans: Gitane Op.21, Rosa Spier, 1954 Antonio Vivaldi: LE QUATTRO STAGIONI "L'Estate" - Allegro, Henry Swoboda, 1950 Belle Baker: "Mad about the boy", 1939 Walter Feldkamp: "Reflections in the water", 1933 Domenico Bartolucci: "Crux Fidelis", Cappella Sistina, 1960 Charles Gounod: FAUST “Jewel Song”, Joan Sutherland, 1959 Camille Saint-Saëns: “The Swan”, Clara Rockmore, 1953 Giacomo Meyerbeer: DINORAH “Shadow Song”, Maria Callas, 1954 Lena Horne: "You go to my head", 1946 Daniel Pinkham: "Slow, slow fresh fount", John McCollum, 1961 Rudolf Friml: ROSE-MARIE “Indian Love Call”, Ann Blyth & Lorenzo Lamas, 1954 FILM The Talented Mr Ripley (1999) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0134119/ Snow White (1937) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029583/ All About Eve (1950) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042192/ The Shape of Water (2017) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5580390/ The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037988/ Black Swan (2010) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0947798/ Ingrid Goes West (2017) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5962210/ ART “Narcissus” by Caravaggio https://www.caravaggio.org/narcissus.jsp “Metamorphosis of Narcissus” by Salvador Dalí https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/dali-metamorphosis-of-narcissus-t02343 “The Nymph Echo” by Max Ernst https://www.moma.org/collection/works/79316 Narcissus Fresco in Pompeii by Anon. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissus_%28mythology%29#/media/File:Narcissus_on_a_Pompeian_fresco.jpg “Echo and Narcissus” by John William Waterhouse https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/artifact/echo-and-narcissus “Narcissus” by Follower of Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/follower-of-giovanni-antonio-boltraffio-narcissus "Mr. O'Wilde, You are not the first one that has grasped at a Shadow" by Thomas Nast https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/820022 *** SUPPORT SEASON 2 OF PODYSSEY ON KO-FI.COM/PODYSSEY *** Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Podyssey Season 2 - All The Details
04/11/2025 | 9 mins.
*** SUPPORT SEASON 2 OF PODYSSEY ON KO-FI.COM/PODYSSEY *** The myths, tales, and concepts of ancient Greece echo and reach into every aspect of modern life. Often misunderstood, frequently romanticised, and sometimes deliberately twisted - to understand their origins and truth is to get a real glimpse into the universal themes that connect us to the past and each other. Welcome to Podyssey with Alex Andreou. Each week we will take one myth, one concept, person, place, or theme from Ancient Greece, take it apart, figure out its inner workings, trace its influence, juice it for its wisdom, reimagine, update and put it back together - all shiny and new! … *** SUPPORT SEASON 2 OF PODYSSEY ON KO-FI.COM/PODYSSEY *** Written and presented by Alex Andreou Music by Marianna Sangita Artwork by Simona Kanellou A Cooler Heads coproduction NOTES MUSIC Podyssey Theme: “To Margoudi ki o Alexandris”, Marianna Sangita, 2018 (with permission) Irving Berlin: “I'm beginning to miss you”, Jon and Sondra Steele, 1949 Lerner & Lowe: “Come to me, bend to me”, Floyd Sherman, 1947 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

10. MEDUSA - Here's Looking at You, Kid
13/9/2025 | 1h 35 mins.
*** SUPPORT SEASON 2 OF PODYSSEY ON KO-FI.COM/PODYSSEY *** The myths, tales, and concepts of ancient Greece echo and reach into every aspect of modern life. Often misunderstood, frequently romanticised, and sometimes deliberately twisted - to understand their origins and truth is to get a real glimpse into the universal themes that connect us to the past and each other. Welcome to Podyssey with Alex Andreou. Each week we will take one myth, one concept, person, place, or theme from Ancient Greece, take it apart, figure out its inner workings, trace its influence, juice it for its wisdom, reimagine, update and put it back together - all shiny and new! … Before Medusa was monstrous, she was beautiful. And before she was beautiful, she was powerful. Everything I thought I knew was wrong. She is a riddle that defies solution, because she comes from a time before the shape of things was settled. She laughs. TW - rape, sexual assault, male violence *** SUPPORT SEASON 2 OF PODYSSEY ON KO-FI.COM/PODYSSEY *** Written and presented by Alex Andreou Expert contributions by Alexandra Angeletaki-Røe, Debbie Challis, Linda Marric, and Dr Ruth Smith Exec. Producers Naomi Smith & Kenny Campbell Music by Marianna Sangita Artwork by Simona Kanellou For Cooler Heads, in collaboration with Sandstone Global NOTES MUSIC Podyssey Theme: “To Margoudi ki o Alexandris”, Marianna Sangita, 2018 (with permission) Sergei Rachmaninov: “The Isle of The Dead, Op.29”, Dimitri Mitropoulos, 1949 Béla Bartók: Music for Strings, Percussion & Celesta, Harold Byrns, 1949 Dinah Washington: “You go to my head”, live 1954 Betty Hutton: “Why do you wanna make those eyes at me for?”, 1945 Giacomo Puccini: Tosca, Act II Finale, Adriana Guerrini & Paolo Silveri, 1952 Frances Faye: “Dummy Song”, 1953 The Mort Lindsey Trio: “Jeepers Creepers”, 1953 The Toppers: “Don’t be angry”, 1955 WA Mozart: Don Giovanni, Vengeance Duet, Maria Curtis Verna & Cesare Valletti, 1956 Gaetano Donizetti, Anna Bolena “Coppia iniqua”, Maria Callas, 1959 Leslie Hutchinson, “Close your eyes”, 1932 FILM Clash of The Titans (1981) Marnie (1964) I Spit on Your Grave (1978) Revenge (2017) Serial Mom (1984) Carrie (1976) Gilda (1946) Gone Girl (2014) Les Diaboliques (1955) The First Wives Club (1996) Ex Machina (2014) The Omen (1976) Hereditary (2018) Midsommar (2019) Raiders of The Lost Ark (1981) Mars Attacks (1996) Alien (1979) The Thing (1982) ART Prehistoric figures believed to be early “gorgoneia”, Thessaly, c.6000 BCE “Danaë” by Antonio de Correggio, c.1531 “Danaë” by Gustav Klimt, 1907 Gigantomachy pediment, Old Athena Temple, Acropolis, Athens 525-520 BCE Gilgamesh and Enkidu slaying Humbaba at the Cedar Forest, Sumerian, 19-17C BCE Perseus beheading the sleeping Medusa, red figure terracotta pelike, by Polygnotos (attr.) c.450–440 BCE Medusa Victorious, Archaic marble sculpture, Paros, mid-6C BCE Archaic Gorgon, temple of Artemis, Corfu, c.580 BCE Medusa and Centaurs, early black figure vase, by Nessos, c.620 BCE Examples of "Gorgoneion" masks and ornaments, from 6th Century BCE “Medusa”, painted shield by Caravaggio, 1597 “Perseus with the Head of Medusa”, Benvenuto Cellini, c.1550 “Dreadlocks”, Times cartoon, 2015 “Trump & Triumph” after Cellini, meme and merchandise, 2016 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Miller, His Son, and Their Donkey: A Fable by Aesop for Modern Politicians
17/8/2025 | 4 mins.
Subscribe to "Alex Andreou's Podyssey" on your favourite podcast app for the full three-part saga on Aesop - and the rest of Season 1, available now. *** SUPPORT SEASON 2 OF PODYSSEY ON KO-FI.COM/PODYSSEY *** What is the moral of "The Tortoise and The Hare"? What is the warning in "A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing"? What is "The Fox and The Grapes" about? You're probably wrong about all three. In the last instalment of the Aesop Trilogy, Alex delves into the fables themselves and finds the many ways in which they have been twisted and why. Welcome to Podyssey with Alex Andreou. Each week we will take one myth, one concept, person, place, or theme from Ancient Greece, take it apart, figure out its inner workings, trace its tentacles, juice it for its wisdom, refresh, clean and put it back together - all shiny and new! *** SUPPORT SEASON 2 OF PODYSSEY ON KO-FI.COM/PODYSSEY *** Written and presented by Alex Andreou Expert contributions by Alexandra Angeletaki-Røe, Debbie Challis, Linda Marric, and Dr Ruth Smith Exec. Producers Naomi Smith & Kenny Campbell Music by Marianna Sangita Artwork by Simona Kanellou For Cooler Heads, in collaboration with Sandstone Global Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices



Alex Andreou's Podyssey