135: Phoenicia Rogerson (Aphrodite)

Charlie and Phoenicia Rogerson (Aphrodite) discuss the latter's mythological comedy, an incredibly unique book about the Greek goddess of love which sports an ensemble cast of many narrators in an Ancient Greek theatre fashion, a variety of different modes and effective mediums of writing including interrupting footnotes, and more sexual references than Zeus himself could produce.

Please note that this episode includes necessary mentions of mythological regular and sexual violence and swearing.

General references:
Pausanius says in his Description of Greece, chapter 19.2: "Now the shape of it is square, like that of the Her­mae, and the in­scrip­tion de­clares that the Heav­enly Aphrodite is the old­est of those called Fates."
Disney's Hercules

Books mentioned by name or extensively:
Bram Stoker: Dracula
Phoenicia Rogerson: Herc
Phoenicia Rogerson: Aphrodite
Suzanne Collins: The Hunger Games

Release details: recorded 12th September 2025; published 22nd December 2025

Where to find Phoenicia online: Website || Instagram

Where to find Charlie online: Website || Instagram || TikTok

Discussions

01:41 Why Aphrodite? Changes made, and the Fates
07:01 Phoenicia's interesting writing style for her book, full of slang
09:47 Phoenicia's version of Zeus
12:25 The importance of humans in the mythology, how the gods rely on them, and how it's humanity who creates and furthers the story
16:14 Starting to discuss the different narratives and continuing on with the importance of humans to mythological stories
21:22 Phoenicia's favourite mythological character
22:37 Changing Cadmus' story to include dragons rather than serpents
23:57 The different written styles and multi-media writing Phoenicia uses, starting with the paragraph of one repeated word, and continuing on with the footnotes before talking about the way she allows reader interpretation
33:56 The chapter that is simply a list of the dead
36:34 The choice on when to change narrators
37:56 How the novel was planned
39:58 Did Phoenicia consider bringing her version of Prometheus back?
45:23 The ending, moving from Greek gods to Roman gods, in particular Aphrodite
47:03 Talking book cover knitwear
48:53 Brief notes about Phoenicia's next book