Ghosts of Pompeii with Caitie Barrett: National Geographic Live

Even thousands of years after the fall of the Roman Empire, Pompeii continues to speak. In Ghosts of Pompeii, archaeologist and National Geographic Explorer Caitie Barrett takes audiences into the ash-preserved neighborhoods of the ancient city, where new discoveries are still reshaping what we know about daily life in the Roman world.

When Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE, volcanic ash buried Pompeii and created an extraordinary record of the people who lived, worked and gathered there. Streets, homes, objects and artwork were preserved in remarkable detail, offering archaeologists an unparalleled glimpse into a coastal city frozen in time.

Barrett’s work focuses not just on emperors, monuments or famous myths, but on the everyday experiences of ancient people. As Associate Professor of Classics at Cornell University, she studies household archaeology, religion and ritual, Mediterranean and Egyptian archaeology, and cross-cultural interactions across the ancient world.

She also co-directs the Casa della Regina Carolina Project at Pompeii, an archaeological excavation exploring how Roman houses shaped the lives of the people who inhabited them. Through her fieldwork, Barrett helps uncover the human stories still buried beneath the surface — stories of family, community, ritual, labor and identity.

Ghosts of Pompeii invites audiences to look beyond the ruins and imagine the city as it once was: vibrant, complex and full of ordinary lives interrupted by extraordinary disaster. It’s a journey into the ancient past, guided by a scholar working at the forefront of new discoveries in one of the world’s most fascinating archaeological sites.

Click here to learn more. National Geographic Live Speaker Series season tickets are available now. Dig into the ash-preserved world of Pompeii with Caitie Barrett and discover the stories still emerging from this legendary ancient city.