The Making of Mary Beard - Trolls, Older Women & Cancel Culture

Welcome to the 7th episode of The Making Of... from The Female Lead. 

Our guest this week is the classicist, writer, broadcaster and troll fighter Dame Mary Beard! 

Mary is the best-known classicist working in Britain today and has written many popular books on the ancient world including the award-winning Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town.  She has also presented highly-acclaimed BBC documentaries and is a regular broadcaster and media commentator. She is classics editor of the Times Literary Supplement and writes a regular blog, A Don’s Life. 

Despite writing about and studying the ancient world, Mary is very much part of the now and is an avid social media user, where she became known for standing up to sexist trolls on Twitter. Her stance on how older women are treated in the media has also made her something of a feminist hero in recent years and we talked a lot about the disappearance of older women in our conversations. We also covered how to deal with trolls, how to not be boring and cancel culture.  

The interview was recorded over zoom, during lockdown, so please bear with us as some bits may sound a little wobbly. 

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Mary Beard is one of Britain’s best-known classicists, Professor at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Newnham College. She has written numerous books on the ancient world, has presented highly-acclaimed TV series and is a regular broadcaster and media commentator. Mary is one of the presenters for the BBC’s recent landmark Civilisations series. In 2013 she received an OBE for services to classical scholarship, her latest books include the critically-acclaimed SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome and thought-provoking Women & Power: A Manifesto. Mary was made a Dame in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list 2018

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The Making Of is hosted by Bea Appleby and is edited by Lauren Lind. The production is brought to you by The Female Lead and the whole series is very kindly sponsored by Missoma