Meta Description: Join Dr. Jeff Winkle and Dr. David Noe in Ad Navseam Episode 200 as they celebrate a massive milestone with a special listener clip show! Discover amazing stories of spoken Latin, an epic dad joke montage, and resources to master the Latin language.
Introduction: The Bicentennial Episode and the End of an Era
Welcome back, classical gourmands, to Episode 200 of the Ad Navseam Podcast! Broadcasting directly from the subterranean depths of Parnassus Central, your hosts, Dr. Jeff Winkle and Dr. David Noe, have officially reached a massive, momentous broadcasting milestone.
The boys are incredibly excited to have successfully produced two hundred episodes of classical goodness. Dave marvels at the sheer longevity of the program, comparing their run to the animated sitcom The Simpsons, which is currently embarking on its thirty-sixth season. However, while The Simpsons only relies on five main characters, the podcast boasts an ever-expanding, robust cast of mythological and local personalities. Over the years, the audience has been introduced to the likes of Lazy Steve, Slideshow Bob, the Saswatch, Abdominal Snowman, Embryonic Mark, Distant Ron, and Local Will.
Because this is a monumental bicentennial occasion, the hosts decide to take a slight break from the heavy academic lifting. Instead of meticulously translating and commenting on ancient texts, they are handing the microphone directly over to their loyal listeners for a very special, fan-driven clip show.
Before diving into the user-submitted audio messages, Dave solemnly announces the official retirement of a long-running podcast gag. For the past fifty episodes, the hosts have jokingly guessed what the “C” in David C. Noe and the “T” in Jeffrey T. Winkle stand for. To completely close out the bit, they decide the letters will ultimately stand for “Ciao” and “Toodaloo,” bidding a fond, permanent farewell to the joke.
The celebration officially kicks off with a traditional shout-out to Blake Henriques from Atlanta, Georgia (which Dave jokingly refers to as the “Athens of the South,” not to be confused with Athens, Tennessee). Blake has been studying biblical theological texts and is thoroughly enjoying the opportunity to broaden her horizons by diving into the Greco-Roman classics. Dave accurately compares her intermittent exposure to the classics to getting a “classical suntan”—you step out into the ancient world, get a solid wristwatch tan line of knowledge, and then step back inside.
Voices from the Void: Australia, Ohio, and Iowa
The hosts play the very first audio clip from an Australian listener affectionately known as Distant Ron (or Remote Ron). Ron explains that he originally stumbled upon the podcast while desperately “flailing around” looking for an ancient history show that possessed a bit more “quirk” than standard, dry academic analyses. Jeff immediately latches onto this phrase, suggesting that the podcast’s new official slogan should be printed on t-shirts: “You do the work, we bring the quirk”. Ron also mentions that he originally got into the classics by doing a university paper on Henri-Irénée Marrou, a familiar author to the podcast.
Following Ron, the hosts hear from Grant Hayden, the self-proclaimed “Bard of Ohio” (of Episode 90 fame). Grant submitted a beautifully crafted, original armchair sonnet that flawlessly adheres to a strict metrical rhyme scheme. In his poem, Grant praises an older woman who audits a Latin class simply for the pure joy of learning. He wonders why she would study a dead language at her age rather than planting flowers or playing Yahtzee, concluding with the famous phrase amor vincit omnia (love conquers all) because the language soothes her weary soul. Grant also kindly notes that he detects absolutely zero “brackish tang” in the podcast’s audio quality, prompting Dave to reply that there is no “snackish twang” either.
The third audio clip comes from Dan Haag, a hardworking Lutheran catechism teacher who preaches twice a month out in Iowa. Dan asks an insightful question regarding the early church’s process of selecting the biblical canon, wondering if they were intentionally mirroring the ancient Greek habit of officially categorizing and listing their greatest literary works. He also asks if the Apostle Paul, being a cosmopolitan Roman citizen, would have known and spoken Latin. Dave confirms that while Paul primarily wrote in Greek, a well-traveled citizen residing in a place like Tarsus would have found it virtually impossible to avoid learning some basic Latin. Dave compares it to Americans living in certain regions of the United States; even if they are not entirely fluent, it is unavoidable to pick up a fair amount of Spanish just through daily proximity.
Freewheeling Banter and Roman Train Rides
Rob Berrhorst then chimes in to praise the show’s unique blend of serious academic discussion and lighthearted humor. Rob expressly defends the podcast’s long, conversational introductions, declaring himself firmly “pro-banter”. Jeff notes that some listeners get irrationally angry at the banter, turning green, swelling up, and popping the buttons off their shirts like a terrifying entity known as “Bruce Banter”. Dave adds that the podcast’s strictly episodic nature allows listeners to jump in anywhere, noting that a listener could easily drop into the middle of the Aeneid series without realizing the hosts covered the Iliad in merely four episodes.
Another listener using the clever pseudonym Quintus T. Publius (which Dave notes should technically be abbreviated as Q. Titus Publius based on traditional Roman naming conventions).
The pro-banter sentiment is quickly countered by Local Will Fitzgerald, a retired computer scientist from Kalamazoo, Michigan. Will playfully promises to keep submitting his famous corrigenda (corrections) whenever the hosts’ conversations become a little too “freewheeling”. This specific warning immediately prompts Dave and Jeff to launch into a deeply freewheeling, confusing discussion about 1970s television shows. They hopelessly mix up the plots of Smokey and the Bandit (starring Burt Reynolds), B.J. and the Bear (which famously features a semi-truck and an orangutan, not an actual bear), The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams, and The Cannonball Run (featuring Dom DeLuise).
Sponsor Break: A Special Message from Mark Hellweg
Before completely losing the plot, the hosts transition to thanking their sponsors.
This episode features a very special, custom audio message directly from Mark Hellweg, the creative entrepreneur behind Ratio Coffee. Mark estimates the hosts have spoken over two million words across their two hundred episodes and jokingly admits he is exhausted just thinking about it. Dave notes that he enjoyed a perfect cup from his Ratio 8 that very morning, using a simple one-button experience to perfectly manage the bloom and brew cycles. This leads to yet another freewheeling 1970s television reference, as Dave compares the rebuilt machine to Steve Austin, the Six Million Dollar Man, and Jamie Sommers, the Bionic Woman. Listeners can visit ratiocoffee.com/adnavseam and use the code ANRATIO2026 for an impressive $20 off their entire order.
Next, Dave mentions a recent conversation with his friend Bob, an expert on the French author Alexis de Tocqueville (who wrote Democracy in America). Bob, completely unprompted, recommended Hackett Publishing for his students due to their high-value, inexpensive texts, perfectly confirming the podcast’s ongoing sponsor reads. Listeners can go to hackettpublishing.com and use the code AN2026 for 20% off their entire order and free shipping.
Finally, the hosts recommend Della Chelpka Art. Dave personally owns her stunning, hyper-realistic oil painting of an egg titled “Sunny Side Up,” which he claims perfectly captures the “soul of the egg”. Visit dellachelpka.art and use the code Apelles for 10% off your purchase.
Dogs, Pronunciation, and the Stonecutter
The impressive guest list continues with a special message from Caroline Lawrence, a bestselling author based in London who previously appeared on the podcast. She announces that the show’s extensive coverage of Vergil’s Aeneid directly inspired her to write a brand-new retelling of the epic poem told entirely from the perspective of a dog. Quoting T.S. Eliot’s poem regarding the addressing of cats, she notes that in her upcoming version, Aeneas’s fiercely loyal companion Achates (known as fidus Achates) will be portrayed as a literal canine. She also roasts the hosts for their terrible puns, though Dave reminds her that she previously enjoyed the title of their combat episode, “Male Pattern Baldric”.
Thomas Flynn, an Australian listener who famously lives “rent-free” in Dave’s head, calls in to mention some incredibly deep cuts from the podcast’s earliest days. He specifically cites Episode 12 (“The Agony and the Ecstasy”) and Episode 14. Dave notes that the Australians are heavily representing the audience, comparing them to Crocodile Dundee, though he mistakenly suggests the musician Sting is Australian before Jeff corrects poor Dave: Sting is a Brit.
Next, a Latin teacher known simply as Magister Smith calls in to settle a workplace debate regarding classical pronunciation. He asks if the letter “V” should be pronounced with a hard English “V” sound or a “W” sound (e.g., Arma virumque cano versus Arma wirumque cano). He also requests that the hosts cover the Aeneid and Julius Caesar’s Gallic Wars. The hosts gently point out that they have already dedicated countless hours to the Aeneid, with Dave exhaustively reading off an massive list of past episode titles: “Bride and Gloom,” “Live and Let Dido,” “Come on Baby Light My Pyre,” “Bough Wow,” “Dis is the Place,” “Eye of the Tiber,” “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Faces,” “Signed Shield Delivered,” and “A Night to Dismember”. However, they enthusiastically agree that analyzing Caesar’s military campaigns is a fantastic idea for a future series.
Finally, a listener named Byron Snellings leaves a profoundly heartwarming message. Byron is not a professional academic; he is a skilled tradesman and a stonecutter who literally listens to the podcast while physically hammering away at his job site (the rhythmic striking of stone can actually be heard in the background of his audio clip). He serves as living proof that the classical tradition is meant for absolutely everyone. He also proudly announces that he has become a dedicated student of Dave’s online language courses, successfully picking up ancient syntax between his shifts at the quarry. Dave honors him with the title amicus et socius (a friend and a companion of literature).
If you want to learn the languages just like Byron the stonecutter, visit latinperdiem.com to take your ancient Greek from neophyte to erudite using the Moss Method, or master the Latin language from the ground up (ab initio) using Hans Ørberg’s Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata. Use the code 10PLUS for 10% off any course.
The Ultimate Dad Joke Montage
Instead of ending the episode with their standard sign-off, Dave and Jeff treat the audience to a massive, agonizingly funny compilation of their absolute worst dad jokes, musical setups, and elaborate puns from the past one hundred episodes. The sheer dedication to these intricate, multi-minute bits is staggering, serving as a reminder of exactly why the audience loves this podcast.
The montage kicks off with Dave detailing a trip to a local thrift store where he purchased a complete three-piece suit. While rummaging around in the vest pocket, he discovers a tin of strong Altoid mints. Deciding to eat one, he concludes that the suit and the mints were “really good in-vest-mints”.
Next, Dave recounts a fictional trip to the dentist. He explains that he woke up, the sun was gone, he put on some music, lost himself in a familiar song, closed his eyes, and slipped away. After experiencing terrible tooth pain, the dentist looks inside his mouth, sees Marianne walk away, and declares that the procedure is going to be “more than a filling” (a perfect play on the classic rock song “More Than a Feeling” by Boston).
Dave follows up with a story about cooking Caribbean cuisine for his family. While attempting to make a complex chicken dish, he rises above the noise and confusion, soaring ever higher until he realizes he flew too high and the dish is failing. When he asks his father for advice, his dad simply replies, “Curry on my wayward son” (referencing the band Kansas).
Jeff then recalls a high school science class where he and his friends would break into the teacher’s locker to conduct dangerous combustible experiments. After hearing a rumor about radioactive material, Jeff breaks in alone, waiting for friends who never show up, and thinks to himself, “Here I glow again” (a nod to Whitesnake).
In another classic rock setup, Dave remembers being a young, unmarried man trying to impress the ladies. He puts on a clean shirt, new shoes, a silk suit, and a black tie. Unfortunately, he accidentally falls into a public fountain filled with goldfish, covering his entire outfit in fish. However, he remains confident, noting that the ladies come running just as fast as they can because “every girl’s crazy ’bout a carp-dressed man” (a play on ZZ Top).
Jeff then shares a brief story about visiting a gritty dive bar with grease and grime on the door. A familiar-looking man walks in, has a drink, and leaves. Jeff turns to the person next to him and says, “That dude looks like a Brady”.
Dave takes a highly literary turn, reminiscing about growing up on a farm with two cats named Midnight and Muffin. He launches into a full recitation of the opening lines of Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, noting that it was the best of times, the worst of times, the age of wisdom, and the age of foolishness. After completely delivering the famous paragraph, Dave reveals that he and the cats were simply having a Dickens of a time, making it “a tale of two kitties”.
Jeff then recounts a story for his upcoming memoirs about a 1970s family road trip out west in an old jalopy. Living hand to mouth across the dust-blown plains of Oklahoma and Kansas, his father finally secures a short-term farm job and earns enough money to splurge on a fancy French bakery breakfast. Unfortunately, the entire family contracts terrible food poisoning, leading them to forever refer to the meal as “The crepes of wrath” (a play on John Steinbeck’s novel).
In a wildly elaborate setup, Dave describes taking his wife on a 25th-anniversary trip to Las Vegas. After playing complex casino games like High Point, New York, Die Rich, Crapless Craps, Hazard, Bank of Francesca, and Sick Bo, Dave begins losing all his money. He calls the 1-800-GAMBLER hotline, and surprisingly, country music star Kenny Rogers answers the phone. Instead of offering standard advice, Kenny Rogers begins flawlessly reciting the opening lines of John Milton’s Paradise Lost in a heavy Houston drawl. Dave suddenly realizes he hasn’t seen the white cubes with black dots in weeks, concluding it was “a pair of dice lost”.
The montage concludes with Jeff reminiscing about an early period in his marriage when he and his wife accumulated stupid debt. Jeff went into a fetal position, forcing his wife to work extra shifts at a local diner while he had to put his six-string guitar in hock. A friend allowed them to stay at a beach house, but Jeff spent every day just laying out in the sun on the wooden dock. Finally, his exhausted wife comes home and says, “Listen, look at our debt. We’re halfway there, but you’re just loafing on a pier” (a perfect rendition of Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer”).
The Gustatory Parting Shot
To officially close out this monumental 200th episode, Dave announces that for Episode 201, the hosts will be tackling John Wenham’s 1991 book, Redating Matthew, Mark, and Luke: A Fresh Assault on the Synoptic Problem.
He then delivers a Gustatory Parting Shot from the American food writer M.F.K. Fisher, specifically from her 1942 book How to Cook a Wolf. Dave notes that Wikipedia compares her highly stylized, lyrical writing directly to the ancient poet Sappho.
“It is easy to think of potatoes, and fortunately, for men who have not much money, it is easy to think of them with a certain safety. Potatoes are one of the last things to disappear in times of war, which is probably why they should not be forgotten in times of peace.”
A massive thank you to Mishka the sound engineer for wrangling all the audio clips, and to Jeff Scheetz for his blistering guitar riffs. Here is to two hundred more episodes! Keep your puns terrible, keep your coffee brewing, and keep taking in the classics. Valete!
