# Episode 413: J.R.R. Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/half-arsed-history-64122/episode-413-j-r-r-tolkien-and-the-lord-of-the-rings Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/half-arsed-history-64122/episode-413-j-r-r-tolkien-and-the-lord-of-the-rings.md Podcast: [Half-Arsed History](https://stenobird.com/podcast/half-arsed-history-64122) Published: 2026-05-24T13:00:00+00:00 Episode link: https://shows.acast.com/halfarsedhistory/episodes/episode-413-jrr-tolkien-and-the-lord-of-the-rings Audio file: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/65a47774968ba8001771f445/e/6a0e9b323bbd73b46e2bcad9/media.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/half-arsed-history-64122/episodes/episode-413-j-r-r-tolkien-and-the-lord-of-the-rings Duration seconds: 3496 ## Resource In this week's episode, meet J.R.R. Tolkien, the immensely influential fantasy author whose works, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, revolutionised the fantasy genre and made it what it is today. The Most Interesting People You've Never Heard Of, the second Half-Arsed History book, releases on the 29th of September across the Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand region. Pre-order your copy from Booktopia or Readings: AU/NZ (affiliate link): https://booktopia.kh4ffx.net/bkq2G9 International: https://www.readings.com.au/product/9781761472596/the-most-interesting-people-youve-never-heard-of--riley-knight--2026--9781761472596 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/half-arsed-history-64122/episodes/episode-413-j-r-r-tolkien-and-the-lord-of-the-rings/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/half-arsed-history-64122/episode-413-j-r-r-tolkien-and-the-lord-of-the-rings.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.