Georgia Hardstark
speaker
4,112 appearances
38 recordings
2 series
first heard Nov 2024
last heard Feb 2025
Georgia Hardstark’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
Like there's everyone you know. If you don't think you know anyone that has gone through this, then they're keeping it a secret. They're not telling you. That's all it is.
No, as soon as you, I was like, as soon as she says the name of the made for TV movie, I'll know what she's talking about. I never heard of it. God.
Incredible. Great job. Thank you for telling that important story.
Okay. Change gears? Yeah. So I think people change.
Okay. Well, we're going to do it. And I'm going to tell you what I think might be the oldest story we've done. Maybe. No, you did a really old one once.
No. This is older. Are you about to tell me a Bible story? I'm going to tell you a biblical fucking story. No, I'm not. But we are going to go back to the early days.
of the roman empire is that the earliest like gladiator it's pretty early yeah it's pretty early and it does sound like something straight out of game of thrones and actually was probably a likely source of inspiration for george rr martin this is the story of a woman that what you're gonna guess i don't know i'm just yeah i'm ready for it this is the story of a woman some people describe as history's first documented serial killer
This is the story of Locusta, the poisoner of Rome. Yes. Yes. You ready for her? Yes, please. Okay, let's do it. So there are very limited primary sources about Locusta. She's only briefly mentioned in Surviving Histories of Rome. Of course, it's just like everyone's moved on from her. Yes. They're over it.
Right. Well, but the main sources for the story were an episode of an adorable podcast called History for Weirdos, which is super lovely. It's this married couple. They're very smart. And an article from All That's Interesting by Genevieve Carlton. So we don't know much about LaCosta's early life. We know she was born in Gaul, G-A-U-L.
This is the region of the Roman Empire that overlaps with modern day France and Belgium. Like, you knew that, though.
Don't even try.
She's born sometime around 14 AD. And of course, you know this as well, either at the end of the reign of Augustus or the beginning of the reign of- Tiberius.
So congratulations.
I mean, it feels good. Yeah, you should be happy for yourself. Okay. So these two men were Rome's first and second emperors. You didn't do the whole first syllable. No. I wouldn't have gotten Tiberius if I had heard Tiberius. Isn't it I, Claudius? Brent just found that.
There we go. And before them, Rome had been a republic. We're not going to get into the weeds about Rome. Can we not? Yes, we cannot for sure. I'd really rather not.
But stop it, because we're not getting into the weeds. I'm totally done. Essentially, though, the empire emerged after a series of civil wars to stabilize the republic. Julius Caesar, your BFF, a senator, tried to seize power and install himself as a dictator, which is why he was famously assassinated.
But Augustus, the first emperor, was his nephew, and he eventually overpowered the senators who had conspired against Caesar. So this is where we are now. Okay. So right around this time, this is where Locusta ends up in the city of Rome. She's a young woman. And I looked at the like one or two drawings of her that I don't know what time period they're from. They could be modern.
They could be old. But I cast her as Jessica Chastain. Just for fun. Interesting.
That's just my was my immediate thought. Got it. And it's likely that she had been enslaved or brought there as a captive of Julius Caesar's campaign in Gaul. So had the campaign where she's from and she ends up there. So it's probably brought over for slavery purposes. Yeah. Somehow during her upbringing, she learned a huge amount about herbs, plants and poison making.
But there's no record of how it's likely that this knowledge would have been passed down within her family as it was. And this period Locusta is born into, the end of the Republic and the beginning of the Empire, is the beginning of what's actually a pretty great fucking time to be a Roman citizen. It sounds pretty sweet.
Showing 741–760 of 4,112 · page 38 of 206
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