{"podcast":{"title":"Barbarians at the Gate","slug":"barbarians-at-the-gate-434733","podcast_index_feed_id":434733,"rss_url":"https://feeds.blubrry.com/feeds/barbarians.xml","website_url":"http://granitestudio.org","image_url":"https://assets.blubrry.com/coverart/orig/359922-172016.jpg","author":"Barbarians at the Gate","episode_count":110,"summary":"A semi-serious deep dive into Chinese history and culture broadcast from Beijing and hosted by Jeremiah Jenne and David Moser.","last_synced_at":"2026-06-19T00:19:24.204604+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/barbarians-at-the-gate-434733"},"episode":{"title":"Barbarians Remix: Mandarin Mayhem I","slug":"barbarians-remix-mandarin-mayhem-i","published_at":"2025-06-17T10:09:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/barbarians-at-the-gate-434733/barbarians-remix-mandarin-mayhem-i","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/barbarians-at-the-gate-434733","url":"https://blubrry.com/barbarians/146353900/barbarians-remix-mandarin-mayhem-i/","audio_url":"https://media.blubrry.com/barbarians/content.blubrry.com/barbarians/BATG-2025-06-17-095.mp3","summary":"In this classic episode from 2020, we look at Putonghua, the spoken language most people refer to as Mandarin. David wrote a book in 2016 on the evolution of Putonghua in China. What's the point of Putonghua? What is a dialect and what is a language in China? And what's the difference between Mandarin as spoken during the dynastic period, \"Guoyu\" (National Speech) in the Republican Period, and Putonghua in the PRC? We also get an assist from Zhang Yajun who talks with David about the differences between the spoken language of Northern China, especially around Beijing, and \"Standard\" Putonghua.","meta_description":"In this classic episode from 2020, we look at Putonghua, the spoken language most people refer to as Mandarin. David wrote a book in 2016 on the evolution…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1725,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/barbarians-at-the-gate-434733/episodes/barbarians-remix-mandarin-mayhem-i/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/barbarians-at-the-gate-434733/barbarians-remix-mandarin-mayhem-i.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}