Hi everyone, welcome to Dan Snow's History Hit. We've got a rerun today. We've reached

back in the archive, one of the old classics, and because we're all talking at the moment,

aren't we? But democracy, the hell's going on. We decided to go back to a conversation

I had with Professor Paul Cartelidge. He's one of the best, most well-known, classical

historians in the country. He's got such a great gift of communication as he'll hear.

He spent his career teaching at Cambridge University, and now he obviously continues to be very

active in writing and appearing on podcasts and radio shows very often. We talked about

democracy, that fragile experiment in ancient Greece, derided by many at the time, and

since, has done a threat now from various enemies domestic and foreign. I've been

enjoying this conversation, if you do, it is a reminder of some of the absolute goals

in the old back catalog of podcasts. The only place you can get those is at historyhits.tv.

It's not just a history channel of documentaries, it's also got hundreds and hundreds of podcasts

which you can get ad-free by just signing up to little subscription, historyhits.tv,

little subscription, sort you out. I'm going to go and make great shows and great

pods, thanks to your support. In the meantime, here is Professor Paul Cartelidge. Enjoy.

Paul, thanks so much for coming on the podcast. You write so beautifully about ancient

Greece, about the classical world, and now in particular about democracy, and it is a

time when we should all be thinking about democracy and its roots.

Thanks very much for having me on your podcast, and when I give a talk to schools or literary

festivals or even academic audiences, I tend to start now by saying that once upon a

time when I was actually starting the work, particularly for this book, there was a democratic

deficit, there was a sense that people felt disempowered, disengaged, not asked to have

...