The Grand Narrative

Mia
  • 0.0 (0)
  • History

An anthology history podcast tracing how human civilizations connected, clashed, and evolved -- from Stone Age obsidian trade routes to the networks that built the modern world. Each episode follows one thread of the grand story of how we became one interconnected species.

  1. 1d ago

    The Grand Narrative — The Abbasid Golden Age: Science and Philosophy Flourish in Baghdad

    Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! The black banners rise in Khorasan, the Umayyads fall, and a new dynasty builds a round city on the Tigris. How paper, a translation movement and scholars like al-Khwarizmi made Baghdad one of history's great centres of learning, and why its brilliance couldn't save the caliphate.

    The Grand Narrative — The Abbasid Golden Age: Science and Philosophy Flourish in Baghdad

  2. 1d ago

    The Grand Narrative — The Abbasid Golden Age: Science and Philosophy Flourish in Baghdad

    Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! The black banners rise in Khorasan, the Umayyads fall, and a new dynasty builds a round city on the Tigris. How paper, a translation movement and scholars like al-Khwarizmi made Baghdad one of history's great centres of learning, and why its brilliance couldn't save the caliphate.

    The Grand Narrative — The Abbasid Golden Age: Science and Philosophy Flourish in Baghdad

  3. 3d ago

    The Grand Narrative — The Hellenistic World

    Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! In June of 323 BCE, in a palace in Babylon, Alexander the Great lay dying at the age of thirty-two. His generals crowded around him, desperate for an answer to the only question that mattered: Who inherits the largest empire the world had ever seen?

    The Grand Narrative — The Hellenistic World

  4. 4d ago

    The Grand Narrative — The Umayyad Expansion: Islam Reaches Spain and India

    Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! In the aftermath of Ali's assassination and the chaos of the First Fitna, in the year 661 CE: The Umayyad governor of Syria, a shrewd and experienced administrator named Muawiya ibn Abi Sufyan, secured recognition as caliph. He Would Do Something No Previous Caliph Had Done: He Would Make the Position Hereditary.

    The Grand Narrative — The Umayyad Expansion: Islam Reaches Spain and India

  5. 5d ago

    The Grand Narrative — The Rashidun Caliphate: The Explosive Expansion of Early Islam

    Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! In Medina, in the year 632 CE: The Prophet Muhammad had died, leaving behind a newly unified Arabian community — and no explicit instructions on exactly how it should choose its next leader. A Small Group of His Closest Companions Gathered Urgently to Decide.

    The Grand Narrative — The Rashidun Caliphate: The Explosive Expansion of Early Islam

  6. 6d ago

    The Grand Narrative — The Prophet Muhammad: The Revelations and the Unification of Arabia

    Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Before we begin, as we did with our episode on the historical Jesus, let's be precise about the nature of this inquiry. We approach Muhammad's life the way historians approach any major religious founder: drawing on the earliest available textual traditions, comparing them where possible, and being honest about what can be established with confidence versus what rests primarily on later religious tradition. Our sources here are somewhat different in character from those for early Christianity — the Quran itself, Muslim tradition holds, was compiled remarkably close to Muhammad's own lifetime, while the detailed biographical material comes primarily from the sīra literature and hadith collections, compiled by later generations of Muslim scholars with their own rigorous, though religiously grounded, methods of source evaluation.

    The Grand Narrative — The Prophet Muhammad: The Revelations and the Unification of Arabia

  7. Oct 27

    The Grand Narrative — The Arabian Peninsula: Tribes and Trade Before Islam

    Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Stretching across more than a million square miles of desert, mountain, and scattered oasis: The Arabian Peninsula, in the centuries before the seventh century CE, was a land most of the great empires surrounding it — Rome, then Byzantium, and Persia — regarded as a harsh, marginal periphery.

    The Grand Narrative — The Arabian Peninsula: Tribes and Trade Before Islam

  8. Oct 26

    The Grand Narrative — The Council of Nicaea: Rome Adopts the Cross and Standardizes Faith

    Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! On the eve of a decisive battle at the Milvian Bridge, just outside Rome, in 312 CE: A Roman general fighting for control of the entire western empire reportedly saw a sign in the sky — a cross of light, according to later Christian tradition, along with words promising victory if he fought under that symbol.

    The Grand Narrative — The Council of Nicaea: Rome Adopts the Cross and Standardizes Faith
See All (80)

About

An anthology history podcast tracing how human civilizations connected, clashed, and evolved -- from Stone Age obsidian trade routes to the networks that built the modern world. Each episode follows one thread of the grand story of how we became one interconnected species.

Information

  • Creator
    Mia
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    80
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Mia 2026
  • Show Website
    The Grand Narrative