Early Medieval Papacy (Radio Edit)

You're Dead to Me

BBC

Comedy, History

4.7 • 10.9K Ratings

🗓️ 24 October 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Greg Jenner is joined by guests Prof Brett Whalen and comedian Alison Spittle in 9th-century Rome to explore the early medieval papacy. As the political heart of the papacy is plunged into chaos, we step into a world consumed by debauchery and a thirst for power and hear about perhaps the most unhinged courtroom trial of all time.

This is a radio edit of the original podcast episode. For the full-length version, please look further back in the feed.

Research by Jessica Honey Written by Emma Nagouse, Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow and Greg Jenner Produced by Emma Nagouse and Greg Jenner Assistant Producer: Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow Project Management: Isla Matthews Audio Producer: Steve Hankey

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts.
0:07.3	Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron.
0:10.5	Evil genius.
0:11.6	He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it.
0:15.5	That's like hiding at your own funeral.
0:17.1	Yeah, a bit great gig.
0:18.6	I'm Russell Kane.
0:19.6	Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius.
0:24.1	Becoming that rich, I'd say that is some level of genius.
0:26.4	It also helps that it's a long time ago, right?
0:29.4	It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream van plays music when it's out of ice cream.
0:34.9	Listen to Evil Genius on BBC Sounds.
0:39.6	Hello, and welcome to You're Dead to Me, the Radio 4 comedy podcast that takes history seriously.
0:45.2	My name is Greg Jenner. I'm a public historian, author and broadcaster. And today we are
0:49.6	donning our fanciest vestments and going on pilgrimage to 9th century Rome to learn all about the early
0:55.8	medieval papacy when the political heart of the Catholic Church was plunged into such chaos
1:01.2	that historians have called it the papal Dark Ages, and that's not even the meanest thing
1:05.4	they've said. And to help me shed some light on this tantalizingly tumultuous time, I am joined
1:10.0	by two very special guests.
1:11.8	In History Corner, he's a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
1:15.9	where he works on Christian intellectual and cultural history during the Middle Ages.
1:20.6	He has published on the Crusades, Apocalypticism and Pilgrimage, and luckily for us,
	...

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