Episode 20 expands the map of our show to eastern Asia, as we begin a two-part exploration of The Analects (Lunyu), collected sayings of the philosopher Confucius (551 - 479 BCE). He may just be the most influential educator and philosopher who ever lived. His ideas about virtue in rulers impacting the virtue of the people . . . are honestly kind of adorable in this day and age. In this first episode, Rose takes you through some of the major themes of the Analects, with lots of passages from the Master.

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Episode 19 is here (after Rose finally busted through her writer's block about it). This special one-off episode covers the life and remaining poetry of Sappho (c. 630-570 BCE). Known widely as a lyric poet who wrote (mostly) about same-sex love between women, Sappho, in her social context, is even more interesting. Rose walks through what's known about the woman herself, some of the most famous fragments of her poetry, and a recent controversy surrounding the discovery of "new" Sappho poetry. Scholars (allegedly) behaving badly: a favorite theme here at Books of All Time!

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Our second episode on the Upanishads (c. 800-300 BCE), we look at some of the striking similarities between Greek mythology and philosophy and Indian mythology and philosophy, and walk through some of the evidence that shows how societies may have been far more interconnected than we thought in ancient times.

Also, Alexander the Great asks a bunch of nude yogis to dinner.

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