You're about to listen to a BBC podcast, but this is about something else you might enjoy.

My name's Katie Lecky and I'm an assistant commissioner for on demand music on BBC Sounds.

The BBC has an incredible musical heritage and culture and as a music lover, I love being part of that.

With music on sounds, we offer collections and mixes for everything, from workouts to

helping you nod off, boogie in your kitchen, or even just a moment of calm. And they're all

put together by people who know their stuff. So if you want some expertly curated music in your life,

check out BBC Sounds. Hello, I'm Kirstie Young.

Thank you for downloading this podcast of Desert Island Discs from BBC Radio 4.

For rights reasons, the music choices are shorter than in the radio broadcast.

For more information about the program, please visit BBC.co.com.uk slash radio four.

My castaway this week is the Cambridge Professor of Classics Mary Beard,

hilarious and brilliant, according to Vogue magazine.

She's passionate about the relevance of classics today,

from translating David Beckham's Latin tattoo to drawing parallels between President Obama and a Roman emperor.

Although her research is steeped in the ancient world, her commentary is all about the here and now.

She writes about power, people and politics and is used to causing something of a storm.

I do have form on being outspoken, she admits.

So intellectual life, Mary Beard, is about having a bit of a ding-dong, is it?

It's about having a good old argument.

It's about having an argument, and it's about cutting through the count, I think,

that an awful lot of public debate sort of is buried in.

It's actually about saying, look, that doesn't add up, you know, and I'm going to tell you why. And there is, I'm imagining a sort of joy in flexing your intellectual muscle

...