It is our 50th episode! To celebrate this historic milestone we are having a meta episode about the history of speaking itself. We will examine the oldest oral histories of the Indigenous Australians that have endured over 10,000 years. Then we will look at Moses and the oral law, followed by Homer and the bardic tradition. We will look at tricks bards used to memorize lengthy historical epics. After that, we will study how medieval Europe adapted the spoken word into sermons and operas, and then see how modern technology like radios, iPods, and RSS feeds launched the spoken word to new heights.

Sources:

Microphone Image Courtesy of Alvaro_cabrera / Freepik

Homer: From Oral Tradition to Canon | Ancient Origins (ancient-origins.net)

Brief History Of The Radio From 1900 To 2023 Evolution (radio4all.org)

'Here is a story! Story it is': how fairytales are told in other tongues | Fairytales | The Guardian