{"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":"Mesopotamia and the Occult: The Mortal King in Depth","slug":"mesopotamia-and-the-occult-the-mortal-king-in-depth","published_at":"2025-10-11T17:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/oldest-stories-518066/mesopotamia-and-the-occult-the-mortal-king-in-depth","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/oldest-stories-518066","url":"https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/oldeststories/episodes/Mesopotamia-and-the-Occult-The-Mortal-King-in-Depth-e39ccoa","audio_url":"https://anchor.fm/s/fddb990/podcast/play/109506762/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-9-10%2F409046172-44100-2-33c033eb6bf0e.mp3","summary":"Gilgamesh is the oldest and greatest hero of recorded human legend. The epic as a whole questions what it means to be human, warns of the dangers of spurning a beautiful woman, and meditates deeply on the meaning of immortality. All that plus a good adventure story at the same time! James Bleckley of the Oldest Stories Podcast sits down with Nathaniel Heutmaker of the Grail Sciences Podcast to discuss this ancient tale from both an historical and an occult perspective. The Grail Sciences Podcast covers the deeper meaning of the Holy Grail and a variety of occult topics. Nathaniel is deeply read in a variety of world traditions, and expertly weaves it all together over at grailsciences.com/ The Oldest Stories Podcast covers the history, myth, and culture of ancient Mesopotamia, from the invention of writing until the fall of Nabonidas. James has been filling out the story of the oldest civilization for over 6 years at oldeststories.net","meta_description":"Gilgamesh is the oldest and greatest hero of recorded human legend. The epic as a whole questions what it means to be human, warns of the dangers of spurn…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":7079,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/oldest-stories-518066/episodes/mesopotamia-and-the-occult-the-mortal-king-in-depth/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/mesopotamia-and-the-occult-the-mortal-king-in-depth.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}