{"podcast":{"title":"Oldest Stories","slug":"oldest-stories-518066","podcast_index_feed_id":518066,"rss_url":"https://anchor.fm/s/fddb990/podcast/rss","website_url":"https://oldeststories.net","image_url":"https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/staging/podcast_uploaded_nologo/2561892/2561892-1709903002785-392175a06c3.jpg","author":"James Bleckley","episode_count":235,"summary":"History and myth of the Cradle of Civilization, bronze age Mesopotamia, beginning with the dawn of writing. The show will cover the full history of Mesopotamia, from Gilgamesh to Nabonidas, a span of some 2500 years, with myths of heroes and gods, and tales of daily life peppered throughout. Sumer, Akkad, Old Babylon, Hittites, and Israel have all been covered in depth, current episodes get deep into the Assyrian Empire. New episodes every other Wednesday. Online at oldeststories.net.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-16T06:19:43.696535+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/oldest-stories-518066"},"episode":{"title":"Lachish and How an Assyrian Siege Worked","slug":"lachish-and-how-an-assyrian-siege-worked","published_at":"2026-06-03T19:11:54+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/oldest-stories-518066/lachish-and-how-an-assyrian-siege-worked","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/oldest-stories-518066","url":"https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/oldeststories/episodes/Lachish-and-How-an-Assyrian-Siege-Worked-e3ka3le","audio_url":"https://anchor.fm/s/fddb990/podcast/play/120966254/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-5-3%2F25b4c626-96b2-1b35-0a92-d7861449d204.mp3","summary":"Its the siege of Lachish, but also a much more wide ranging explanation of Assyrian siegecraft more generally. Including how it was recognizably modern and, in many ways, responsible for modernity.","meta_description":"Its the siege of Lachish, but also a much more wide ranging explanation of Assyrian siegecraft more generally. Including how it was recognizably modern an…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3095,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/oldest-stories-518066/episodes/lachish-and-how-an-assyrian-siege-worked/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/oldest-stories-518066/lachish-and-how-an-assyrian-siege-worked.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}