In this episode, Greg Jenner is joined by Professor Edith Hall and comedian Desiree Burch to learn about ancient Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras. Pythagoras is famous in maths classes everywhere for his triangle theorem, but surprisingly little is known about his actual life, and his theorem was actually invented by Babylonian mathematicians centuries before he was born! This episode explores the myths and legends that grew up in the ancient world about Pythagoras’s life in the centuries after his death. This is a radio edit of the original podcast episode. For the full-length version, please look further back in the feed. Research by: Josh Rice Written by: Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow, Emma Nagouse and Greg Jenner Produced by: Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow and Greg Jenner Audio Producer: Steve Hankey Senior Producer: Emma Nagouse
My name's Joe Wilkinson and I've managed to force Patrick Bamford to come on a podcast with me and he's gonna slowly fall in love with me.
Do you go to the tip?
Believe it or not, yeah, I do.
Do you go to the supermarket?
No.
You know when all the shirts started getting tight on the players and they started selling them like that to the general public?
Yeah, yeah.
And everyone looked like sausages.
My mate's a footballer with me, Patrick Bamford and Joe Wilkinson.
Listen on BBC Sounds.
BBC Sounds music Radio podcasts.
Hello and welcome to you're dead to me, the radio four comedy podcast that takes history seriously.
My name is Greg Jenner.
I'm a public historian, author and broadcaster.
And today we are packing our pencil cases and protractors and hopping aboard the school bus back to ancient Greece for a maths lesson with Mister Triangle himself.
No, not the rock Pythagoras.
And to help us square our hypotenuses, whatever that is, we have two very special guests in history corner.
She's professor of classics at Durham University and a fellow of the British Academy.
She researches class, ethnicity and gender in classical texts, is an expert on ancient greek theatre and philosophy.
You might have read one of her many excellent books or heard her on any number of brilliant radio.