More strange coincidences: I’ve now read back-to-back novels with Iona, Scotland,featuring heavily in them when I’d never previously heard of the island.

It’s bizarre to think that Alexander the Great was saved from sure death during the Battle of Granicus when a Persian warrior was “cut down” exactly the same way as Luke Wilson in the Anchorman fight. Ron Burgundy = Alexander.

Holy cow did I just encounter a third straight course mentioning Belshazzar’s Feast? This time in Greek and Persian Wars, when Alexander enters Jerusalem and a rabbi shows him the Book of Daniel. Crazy coincidences.

Just because you personally don’t like audiobooks doesn’t mean it’s wrong for others to like them or that reading books is morally superior. (Psst. Some people both read and listen.)

Love waking up to someone sending a lovely compliment and a few cups of tea after watching “Forgotten America” with The Great Courses! Even if they did make me grab a dictionary lol 😝 Also that’s definitely not what my PhD is in lol buymeacoffee.com/phdrachel/c/16718046

The idea of Sophocles living 90+ years, long enough to play key roles at both Salamis AND the Peloponnesian War, while also becoming an all-time great tragedian, is bonkers.

There’s a freedom to getting old enough to find freedom, even joy, in discovering what you don’t know. It’s humbling, yes, but exciting and motivating, too.

Teen daughter gave a novel of “dark academia” in 1828 Edinburgh. Could she know me any better? ❤️

Not sure what we’re looking at, but Wrigley is sure it’s fascinating.

People buy these. Read these. They are worth so much more than the $0.99 they cost. Beautiful, yet haunting writing, without a single extra word spared.

Loving this new course series from The Great Courses Plus! 🔥🔥🔥

I missed this my first time through @joelbaden.bsky.social’s Who Wrote the Bible: “Chronicles is as if someone took the stories from Genesis through King David and said, ‘How can I make these as boring as possible?’” 🤣

The Book of I was outstanding. Funny, beautiful, human in all its flesh, blood, hope, love, and foibles. And the way it evokes the era is wonderful.

Saddam Hussein ordered restoration efforts on the Ziggurat of Ur to connect himself to the great Mesopotamian leaders. The results were widely criticized by archaeologists. Hmm. Leader orders terrible restoration efforts in a wholly selfish bid…. 🤔

If you know me, you know I LOVE The Great Courses Plus, the most incredible platform, they have SO MANY CLASSES on a bagillions of topics, lately I’ve been loving this classic literature course. 📚✨ Normally I’m not a classics girlie but this professor makes it all so approachable and fascinating!!

Ok time to do some tallies and lists for my Great Courses listening this year. 100% done on runs, none I had to listen to/watch for work. 40 courses (incl 2 TGC Audible Originals), 700-some (lost track) lectures completed 1/3

Pretty good day when you go into the office for the first time in 4 months(!) and @seanmcarroll.bsky.social is on Day 1 of filming his new Great Course. The team is pretty psyched to say the least.

Dr. Bellinger is outstanding. Don’t sleep on her unique perspective on the curious case of the Voynich Manuscript. One of my favorite lectures of the year.

There’s a lot of commentary about the lack of success in Rob Reiner’s past 20+ years (as if that’s important given what happened). Anyone think maybe his energies were otherwise occupied by trying to help his troubled son over most of the same time?

Crazy to hear about Belahazzar’s Feast in back-to-back courses when those courses are on the Age of Rembrandt and the Greek and Persian Wars. Love that kind of serendipity.

Hearing a brilliant lecture that combines passion, original insight, and eloquence is a singular joy I dare say AI will never replicate.

Heard a great story about Belshazzar’s Feast by Rembrandt: The Hebrew inscription in it demonstrated the influence of a Sephardic Jewish rabbi neighbor and friend on Rembrandt, a Calvinist. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belshaz...

Really excited to start reading this slim yet interesting sounding novel set in Scotland in 825.

Had a prof’s agent argue today, “She can’t really do more than 12 lectures for you. It’s just The Enlightenment.” 🤔

Can someone please weite or produce The Library of Lost Literature? www.livescience.com/archaeology/...

There’s something at once surreal and thrilling about corresponding with one of my parents’ favorite professors from when they were in college in the early 1960s.

I’m so excited for this book!!!

5 out of 5 stars for this wonderful and psychologically unsettling series of stories. Thank you to @coyhall.bsky.social and his writing peers for a uniformly excellent read.

Hey y’all, just a note that my Great Courses course on Who Wrote the Bible is on 20% discount right now with the code X32Z. www.thegreatcoursesplus.com/who-wrote-th...

Learning that the humble muskrat holds a sacred place in the creation story of the Ojibwa makes me inexplicably happy.

Fascinating to learn about the notorious and contested provenance of Vermeer’s The Art of Painting. www.museyon.com/hitler-and-v...

Wow. Nick Cave will be on Anderson Cooper’s All There Is podcast, discussing the loss of his two sons? I’ll be there, crying per usual. But what a great conversation that has to be.

My 19-yr-old’s Spotify Listening Age is 68, and I feel nothing but pride 💪

Everyone should binge this course. Like, immediately.

I don’t think I’ve binged a 24-lecture course as fast as Who Wrote the Bible by Dr Joel Baden. And his ideas keep prompting new thoughts and questions for me. I love that.

Every megalithic society has a group of archaeologists arguing transport by rollers. But has there ever been evidence that’s actually how it was done? www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/s...

the kids are down at the creek, the dogs are asleep, my wife is taking a break from cooking, and I'm listening to the Great Courses course on the King Arthur story while taking a walk on a cold gray afternoon. Can't ask for much more on a Thanksgiving day

A good Thanksgiving story. www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/202...

Then, geek out over the new course he’s developing on equations that shape the universe.

I’ve long been impressed by my teen daughter’s resilience. Then, Netflix refused to load Stranger Things.

Had no idea many scholars consider the Book of Jonah to be satirical, and now I want to read it again through that lens.

Listening to the professor of Who Wrote the Bible get positively giddy about why he thinks Leviticus is not just underrated but “absolutely awesome” was the highlight of my run today.

The new Great Course on Who Wrote the Bible by Dr. Joel Baden is freaking brilliant right from the first minute. Come for his exegesis but stay for his sharp wit.

The long, murky history of witches’ headwear. www.bbc.com/culture/arti...

Why was Marblehead, Mass., the most important city in the American Revolution?

Wife: Why do you describe me as a hero in this essay? Daughter: You’re so confrontational. Wife. (After a beat) I’m ok with that. Me: I love both of you.

As US research funding dries up perhaps scientists can help guide citizen archaeologists and paleontologists to discover and protect new findings. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/17/a...