Byzantine podcast
I always find the people who are becoming celebrities online fascinating. Take for example this story in the New York Times about a history teacher in New York who now represents, for a lot of people, the foremost authority on the byzantine empire. In barely 18 months, Mr. Brownworth’s podcast, "12 Byzantine Rulers", has become one of the phenomena of the podcasting world. A survey of 1,200 years of rather abstruse history, starting with Diocletian in 284 and finishing with Constantine XI Palaeologus in 1453, “12 Byzantine Rulers” routinely ranks in the top five educational podcasts on iTunes, and in the top 50 of all podcasts.
Now, as it happens we know some Byzantinists (one of them even blogs), but I don't know that they are attracting this kind of attention.I have had the discussion before with people studying for their PhD as to why these sorts of things aren't done more by the 'experts', and the response often seems to me to be along the lines of 'it might not be good for our career'. Which is a shame.
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