T&J: A Roman Empire Love Story

Episode 1 October 14, 2025

Silk and Islam

Justinian catches a big break after a certain textile secret gets out, while Belisarius' reputation undergoes a brief revamp. A succession competition heats up and another great love story emerges, as we say goodbye to Procopius and this cast of...

Play Episode Download Add to Queue

Episode 2 July 16, 2025

Overture

Designed to be an experimental compliment to the Trailer, as the podcast series nears its finale, I wanted to collect the mnemonic tags, parodies, sound effects, foley and quotes (most but not all) from the proverbial T&J storytelling garden — to...

Play Episode Download Add to Queue

Episode 3 June 19, 2025

Raised in the Shade

Eunuchs were prominent figures in T&J era Byzantium, and the most notable by far was the general, Narses. But for those whose only touchstone for eunuch representation has been the character, Varys, from the HBO hit series 'Game of Thrones,&...

Play Episode Download Add to Queue

Episode 4 April 10, 2025

The Plague Pt. 2

In a total antique PR disaster, the Justinianic Plague a.k.a. the bubonic plague a.k.a. the world's very first pandemic reduces the Roman Empire's population by about half and reverses some pretty ossified norms — sound familiar? We meet th...

Play Episode Download Add to Queue

Episode 5 March 11, 2025

The Plague Pt. 1

A huge swath of the world goes dim for a year and a half after a mysterious haze covers Eurasia's skies. The abrupt dip in climate creates some pretty ideal conditions for the bubonic plague. Meanwhile, T&J set out to restore the Roman Empir...

Play Episode Download Add to Queue

Episode 6 December 19, 2024

Solomon, I Have Outdone Thee

The Nika Riots leave Constantinople a tabula rasa for Justinian's masterpiece cathedral, the Hagia Sophia. Although, not without petty rivalries, starchitects and a shrewd Hebrew king's influence along the way. 

Play Episode Download Add to Queue

Episode 7 November 28, 2024

Purple is the Noblest Shroud

To move forward, we must first look back ... to the early days of T&J's being crowned empress and emperor, where a confluence of unfortunate policies — plus, a flawed hanging — cause the couple to come scarily close to losing everything. Tha...

Play Episode Download Add to Queue

Episode 8 April 9, 2024

Textiles and Jewelry with Betsy Williams

Bonus episode courtesy of my new South African and Articles of Interest fans! What was the Birkin bag of the T&J era? Could someone tell the difference between a Roman and a Persian based on dress alone? Were couches and bedding like what we have...

Play Episode Download Add to Queue

Episode 9 November 21, 2023

Enslavement

T&J themselves owned enslaved human beings, and they were far from alone. Enslavement in the Roman Empire was the practice of both prostitutes and priests, even rabbis. Justinian hires some VIP jurists to Marie Kondo centuries of Roman law. 

Play Episode Download Add to Queue

Episode 10 October 12, 2023

Gothic as a Modifier

One thing we can definitively say is that the Goths weren’t dressing in all-black and ornamenting their buildings with gargoyles. So how did the name of a single barbarian people make it to the 21st century and still mean so much? 

Play Episode Download Add to Queue