Mary Beard on why the classics still matter

In our ever-changing, fast-paced modern world, what's the point of studying the ancient Greeks and Romans? Well, in this episode of the History Extra podcast, internationally acclaimed classicist Mary Beard explains why it's so important to understand antiquity today. Speaking to Charlotte Vosper about her new book, Talking Classics, Mary reflects on her long career and her own relationship with the classics. And Mary is one of the headline speakers at the ASEA's Chalk History Festival, which we at History Extra are excited to be partnering up with again this year.

It's running from the 22nd to the 28th of June at Broadchalk in Wiltshire, and other big names on the lineup include Tom Holland. Al Murray and Tony Robinson. Tickets are on sale now and you can find out more details and book at chalkfestival.com. But for now, it's on with today's episode. You've had an incredible career working in the classics for over 50 years and you've written over 20 books.

So I'd like to start by asking, what's different about this book, Talking Classics? Well, I don't want to say that it's self-indulgent. I'm not going to say that, but writing it was an opportunity to reflect on a long career, yeah, to actually look back and think about how do you justify what you've done? I spent 50 years researching and teaching and studying what I'm really interested in.

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