{"podcast":{"title":"Western Civ","slug":"western-civ-780766","podcast_index_feed_id":780766,"rss_url":"https://www.spreaker.com/show/5553835/episodes/feed","website_url":"https://www.westerncivpodcast.com","image_url":"https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/a45449e0f8427d59666fc5dfcf007a95.jpg","author":"Adam Walsh","episode_count":594,"summary":"A fast-moving history of the western world from the ancient world to the present day. Examine how the emergence of the western world as a global dominant power was not something that should ever have been taken for granted. This podcast traces the development of western civilization starting in the ancient Near East, through Greece and Rome, past the collapse of the Western Roman Empire into the Dark Ages, and then follows European and, ultimately, American history as the western world moved into a dominant world position.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-18T00:18:32.647147+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/western-civ-780766"},"episode":{"title":"Episode 538: The Spark","slug":"episode-538-the-spark","published_at":"2026-05-29T13:15:02+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/western-civ-780766/episode-538-the-spark","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/western-civ-780766","url":"https://www.spreaker.com/episode/episode-538-the-spark--71273024","audio_url":"https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/71273024/e538.mp3","summary":"Somehow, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, throws the entire world into war. Of course, it was not an accident. The alliance systems, the militarism, the nationalism, all of it conspires to doom Europe to its own destruction. But it all starts with two bullets fired by a nineteen-year-old assassin. Support The Show","meta_description":"Somehow, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, throws the entire world into war. Of course, it was not an accident.…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2207,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/western-civ-780766/episodes/episode-538-the-spark/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/western-civ-780766/episode-538-the-spark.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}