Glosa Ordinária Podcast

Mário (M) – For what reasons and purposes did you decide to create Glosa Ordinária podcast?

Glosa Ordinária (GO) – The idea for this podcast emerged a few years before it began and can be explained by several reasons. Firstly, one must consider the explosion of the podcast format in the late 2010s. As with many other things, the expansion of this format reached Portugal with some delay and was not received, understood, or known by everyone. In universities, specifically in the Faculties of Arts and related fields, the adoption of this format was (and still is) almost nonexistent. Few professors and researchers had or have podcasts, whether independent or institutional. Despite all the talk about innovation, old routines continue to weigh excessively in Portuguese universities.

Nevertheless, as is usually the case with technological novelties, the younger generation was more enthusiastic, and by the late 2010s, there were some podcasts run by students from the Faculties of Arts in Porto and Lisbon, at least. But the overall picture was – and is – bleak. This situation contrasts greatly with what happens in other countries, notably in the UK, the United States and Brazil. In these countries, there are many podcasts run by researchers, professors, and/or university students, many of them dedicated, wholly or in part, to the history, literature, and culture of the Middle Ages and the early modern period. There are also, in these countries and others, many examples of podcasts in which researchers, professors, and students from these areas discuss their work, personal trajectories, institutional constraints, etc.

The idea for the Glosa Ordinária podcast simply arose from the desire to adopt these models. Convinced that the podcast format has many potentialities as a tool for dissemination and debate of ideas (within and outside universities), and considering its almost nonexistence in the Portuguese academy, the goal was to bring together various formats into one: on one hand, thematic episodes about medieval and early modern literature and culture, on the other hand, episodes with guests mainly dedicated to addressing aspects related to the work of medievalists. The knowledge dissemination objective is more traditional, with the novelty in this case being the adopted format and technology, which has consequences regarding the type of language used: more relaxed and informal, while still aiming to be rigorous. The second objective, putting medievalists and modernists to talk about their own work, constraints, and context, is much less common. A third objective, perhaps less explicit, is to constitute a sort of audiovisual (audio, in this case) future memory of medievalism and modernism in Portugal in the first decades of the 21st century.

M – I think you’ve managed to reconcile two things in a balanced way: on the one hand, you provide a kind of update and repertoire of what’s being done today in the speciality; on the other hand, you introduce your subjects of study in a way that is easy for non-specialists to understand. Do you believe it’s possible to reach a wider audience, even outside academia? Or is the study of the Middle Ages doomed to be an island, a niche?

GO – One of the podcast’s primary purposes was to make the Middle Ages more accessible and less mysterious for the broader public. We have always been aware that we would never necessarily hit large crowds, nor was it our goal. We know the Middle Ages, and particularly this period’s literature, is a niche subject; no matter how impactful some pop culture phenomena (namely, fantastic literature, videogames and films or TV shows), the fact is it does not necessarily translate into more engagement with our field. We also need to consider that our podcast is in European Portuguese; of course, we expect our reach to differ from podcasts in English or Brazilian Portuguese. This framing allowed us a sensible approach to what we wanted to attain with the podcast, and perhaps it has warranted its success: We expected a public of interested non-specialists who could expand their knowledge with our work, and, importantly, we decided always to present subjects we are interested in. Enjoying ourselves may seem superficial, but in fact, it allowed us to keep a very enthusiastic approach in each episode, which paid off: for instance, our cycle of episodes on Rodrigo Díaz de Bivar, El Cid, started as a labour of love, but it made great numbers. For the same reason, we also include episodes on more than scientific subjects: we regularly invite other medievalists to talk about their path in the field, showing the public the humans behind the books. For the same reason, we also have episodes to help dismantle some commonplaces about working in academia, thus opening that door yet to the public.

Of course, we are very attentive to our public’s feedback, which has been extremely helpful. With no pretensions, we have been able to engage listeners from all walks of life and ages (we have at least one 9-year-old keen listener!), and our public has been pivotal in suggesting new subjects; we are also reaching out to other groups and associations involved in historical recreation or subjects we have at hand, so we don’t stay fixed on our initial scientific approach. Bringing the Middle Ages outside and tearing down the myths around it would always be challenging, but at least we’re doing our part – and having a blast in the process!

M – What are your plans for the future?  

GO – Future is always uncertain specially when so many of us have precarious contracts, but we will strive to make this podcast independent from our academic careers. In the near future, we plan to go recording our bi-monthly episodes and we have already a good set of planned episodes for this year. One of our aims is to diversify the episodes both thematically and in terms of invitees: in a near future, we will be inviting non-academics to record episodes (watch out for the coming months!!). We want to engage more and more with the society and we are planning to visit some secondary schools in Oporto to present our podcast to both students and teachers and develop strategies to discuss how the podcast can be used as an education tool. Additionally, we are also exploring the possibility of expanding the podcast’s audience by offering both video and audio formats, catering to different preferences in digital consumption. We hope to charm an ever-growing audience with our engaging blend of humor and insight, unraveling the enigmatic allure of the Middle Ages to all. You are most welcome to check our work and give us your feedback!