{"podcast":{"title":"Ancient History Fangirl","slug":"ancient-history-fangirl-63808","podcast_index_feed_id":63808,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/ancienthistoryfangirl","website_url":"http://www.ancienthistoryfangirl.com/","image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/d5c574d4-c77b-11ea-a1c1-8397c864c8d9/image/UpdatedAncient-History-Fangirl-2020-sqaure.jpg?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"Ancient History Fangirl","episode_count":356,"summary":"An ancient history podcast run by two Millennial women. Misbehaving emperors, poison assassins, mythological mayhem; it’s like if Hardcore History met up with My Favorite Murder in the ancient world, with a heavy helping of booze and laughter.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-23T14:21:11.098896+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/ancient-history-fangirl-63808"},"episode":{"title":"Was Rome Always Like This? (With Mike Duncan)","slug":"was-rome-always-like-this-with-mike-duncan","published_at":"2026-04-23T05:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/ancient-history-fangirl-63808/was-rome-always-like-this-with-mike-duncan","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/ancient-history-fangirl-63808","url":"https://wp.me/p9hxAY-2Mb","audio_url":"https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdst.fm/e/pscrb.fm/rss/p/tracking.swap.fm/track/YfZO4tERxneauNcW9Fgn/mgln.ai/e/211/traffic.megaphone.fm/ARML5466473075.mp3?updated=1775782236","summary":"⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! When we look at the demise of Roman democracy, we think of the time of Augustus—and maybe Caesar before him. But in reality, the seeds of the republic’s destruction were planted at the time of its birth. It’s probably not too far out on a limb to say that Caesar couldn’t have grabbed so much power if there hadn’t been a Sulla, or a Marius, or the Gracchi brothers, or innumerable revolutionaries and power players of centuries before. That is the subject of The Storm Before the Storm, the New York Times bestselling book by author and podcaster Mike Duncan. This week, Mike takes us back to the beginning—to show us the faultlines built into the very foundation of democracy. Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices","meta_description":"⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! When we look at the demise of Roman democracy, we think of the time of Augustus—and maybe…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":5168,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/ancient-history-fangirl-63808/episodes/was-rome-always-like-this-with-mike-duncan/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/ancient-history-fangirl-63808/was-rome-always-like-this-with-mike-duncan.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}