S01E09 Bonus Livestream
Talk Like An Egyptian
This is a mildly edited recording of the livestream we broadcast on youtube on 11.11.25. Thank you for all those who made it. You can watch the broadcast from our patreon page where you can also download loads of extra content. Please go to If you are looking for iszi's books find them here (or on your favourite shop) Find Chris's books here: Massive thanks for listening - remember to so you don't miss out on any future live streams, Life! Prosperity! Health!
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S01E08 Questions Episode
Talk Like An Egyptian
Big thank you to Bill, Temika, Tini, Amy and Danny. All your support means the world to us! We hope to be back for another series as soon as possible, please subscribe and follow us on Patreon to make sure you do not miss an announcement. Meanwhile do please check out our books. For those interested in Medieval England, Iszi has a new novel, The Domesday Cows coming out in January. Life! Prosperity! Health! Chris & Iszi x
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S01E07 King Tut ON FIRE
Talk Like An Egyptian
Tutankhamun is now very famous of course but ironically he was relatively insignificant right? We know that Tutankhamun was the ‘boy king’ and ruled as a child and so didn’t - couldn’t have - done much… In this episode we challenge this view, and show that in fact Tutankhamun ruled at the most interesting of times and may have been responsible for restoring the traditional religion after the brief period of heresy under Akhenaten. Links: Extra content: Reeves, Akhenaten: Egypt’s false prophet Dodson, Amarna Sunrise (for the early part of Akhenaten’s reign and...
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S01E06 King Tut Part One
Talk Like An Egyptian
The greatest archaeological discovery of all time. Even now, it’s difficult to comprehend the full extent of what Howard Carter found in Valley of Kings tomb no. 62: the intact tomb of a pharaoh who turned out to have been a little boy when he came to throne, and possibly still in his teens when he died, containing more than 5,000 objects, almost all of them made of the finest materials and exquisitely fashioned. It was watershed moment for Egyptology, and it’s almost inconceivable that anything more sensational will ever be found in future. Links: Extra content:...
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S01E05 Egyptomania
Talk Like An Egyptian
Why are we so obsessed with Ancient Egypt? All children study it, museum galleries displaying Egyptian objects are always full, documentaries always do really well, and we’ve had a couple of waves of Egyptomania – in the 1800s and following the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun. We talked a lot in this episode about the historical background to the development of Egyptology, in particular colonialism and the rivalry between Britain and France. Also about how the aesthetic of Egyptian art and architecture is very distinctive and striking and so many other aspects of Egyptian...
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S01E04 The Pyramids
Talk Like An Egyptian
The pyramids, particularly those at Giza, are pretty famous right? In this episode we ask: What were they? Where were they? When were they? Were the all the same? (No). How did they differ, how did they develop? What was inside? Are you sure they’re tombs? Not power stations or spacecraft? When weren’t they? Why did the Egyptians stop building them? What’s the significance of the shape? They had them in Mexico and elsewhere. They must have been connected right, come on… Links: Extra content: https://www.patreon.com/talklikeanegyptian The best concise overview of...
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S01E03 The Nile
Talk Like An Egyptian
The Nile In this episode we’re trying to explain how fundamentally important the river Nile was to the presence of human beings in what we now call Egypt, and how this allowed civilisation to flourish there at such an early moment in human history, and to endure for such a long time. We talked about people settling along the banks of the Nile where the water and silts allowed plants and animals to thrive, how irrigation and agriculture allowed for these natural resources to be harnessed, and how this in turn freed people from spending all their time trying to find food to survive to...
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S01E02 The Ancient Egyptian Afterlife
Talk Like An Egyptian
The ancient Egyptians’ beliefs in the afterlife were many and varying, weren’t the same for pharaohs and commoners, and changed over time but in this episode we did our best to cover the main bases including: the journey made the sun / the king through the netherworld (the ‘amduat’), the main groups of texts including the Pyramid Texts, Coffin Texts and ‘Book of the Dead’, the decoration of tombs, coffins, papyri and other funerary equipment including shabti figurines. Links: An excellent overview of Egyptian funerary practices beliefs in the afterlife is Taylor, Death and The...
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S01E01 What's Right with The Mummy (1999)
Talk Like An Egyptian
So, it’s easy – if you an Egyptology pedant – to pick holes The Mummy, which the two of us have done several times at the British Museum. But actually, being more generous about it, a lot of what’s in the film is clearly inspired by good evidence and in this episode we tried to cover what seemed to us to be the most important themes: including the way ancient Egypt appears – architecture, landscape, people, costumes, names – characters and places – the idea of the ‘Medjay’, the practice of mummification and whether anyone was ever mummified alive as in the movie (nope), and...
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A New Egyptology Podcast Audio Trailer
Talk Like An Egyptian
LAUNCHING SEPT 2025! Talk Like An Egyptian with Dr Chris Naunton and Iszi Lawrence. To support the podcast join us on Patreon.com/talklikeanegyptian and unlock bonus content. Get in touch talklikeanegyptianpod@gmail.com or use #TLAE. We need your questions for the end of the series so please don’t hold back. Remember to leave us five stars (of Nut) and share this episode with your friends. Find out more at www.talklikeanegyptian.com. Life Prosperity Health!
info_outlineSo, it’s easy – if you an Egyptology pedant – to pick holes The Mummy, which the two of us have done several times at the British Museum. But actually, being more generous about it, a lot of what’s in the film is clearly inspired by good evidence and in this episode we tried to cover what seemed to us to be the most important themes: including the way ancient Egypt appears – architecture, landscape, people, costumes, names – characters and places – the idea of the ‘Medjay’, the practice of mummification and whether anyone was ever mummified alive as in the movie (nope), and the way more modern Egypt and Egyptologists are portrayed (Egyptian Museum good, Bembridge Scholars… What?? No, what are they talking about?!)
Links:
To watch the movie online: https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/the-mummy
For the original (1932) movie featuring Boris Karloff in the lead role which provides some of the inspiration including the names Imhotep and Anck-su-namun: https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/the-mummy-1932
Some excellent books on some of the themes we covered include:
Gods and goddesses: Wilkinson, The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt
Mummification: Dodson and Ikram, The Mummy in Ancient Egypt
The Book of the Dead (the real one that isn’t really a ‘book’): Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead
The novel Chris mentioned about a society of Egyptologists which is actually a cover for men to get away from their wives and have affairs etc is Kingsley Amis and Robert Conquest, The Egyptologists.
Oh and iszi's book incase she feels left out: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/cursed-tomb-9781801996020/