# #498 - The Invention of Yesterday: A Dialogue with Tamim Ansary Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/converging-dialogues-1498806/498-the-invention-of-yesterday-a-dialogue-with-tamim-ansary Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/converging-dialogues-1498806/498-the-invention-of-yesterday-a-dialogue-with-tamim-ansary.md Podcast: [Converging Dialogues](https://stenobird.com/podcast/converging-dialogues-1498806) Published: 2026-06-28T22:00:00+00:00 Episode link: https://convergingdialogues.substack.com/p/498-the-invention-of-yesterday-a Audio file: https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/202455486/191d02daedfc3ef683abe5998491ea4a.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/converging-dialogues-1498806/episodes/498-the-invention-of-yesterday-a-dialogue-with-tamim-ansary Duration seconds: 5040 ## Resource In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Tamim Ansary about a global history of humans through time. They discuss the main theme of interconnectedness, language, symbols, and culture, origins and nomadic peoples, early trading, rise of city states, religion and belief systems, the Crusades, Mongol Empire, Ottoman Empire, colonialism, empires and nation states, and many more topics. Tamim Ansary is the author of many books, including Destiny Disrupted and The Invention of Yesterday . He has published essays and commentary in the San Francisco Chronicle , Salon , the Los Angeles Times , and more. Born in Afghanistan in 1948, he moved to the US in 1964. He lives in San Francisco. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/converging-dialogues-1498806/episodes/498-the-invention-of-yesterday-a-dialogue-with-tamim-ansary/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/converging-dialogues-1498806/498-the-invention-of-yesterday-a-dialogue-with-tamim-ansary.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.