Episode B39, “Excidium,” finishes off the third story arc of The Ancient World Bloodline. We’ve come a pretty long way from the days of Cleopatra Selene and Juba II – in fact we’ve come about ten generations – and now there’s only a little ways left to go. The upcoming final story arc will focus on Palmyra, Emesa and the Sasanids, while out West the Romans’ll be tearing through Emperors like used paper towels.
Just to give some context, the first two story arcs – on Mauretania and Judea – went 12 episodes each, and the latest one on the Severans took 15. If I had to guess I’d say the final story arc will run less than 10 episodes, but it’s really too early to say. What I can say is it’ll be quite a while before any new episodes are posted.
First off I’ll be taking a long break over the Holidays and through my birthday in early February. And by the way that’ll be my 50th birthday, for which I’m already working up some pretty fun plans. Actually next year is also my 10th wedding anniversary and also marks 5 – yes 5 – years as a podcaster. Which is why my tentative plan is to post the next episode, Episode B40, around my 5-year podcasting anniversary in April 2017.
So what can you do in the meantime? Well, you could always marathon old episodes of Bloodline. It’s still less than a full day back-to-back. You could tell friends, neighbors and fellow history fans – or even just fans of a good story – to give the podcast a listen. And if you really want to help out the show – cue the broken record – you could stop by and review the series on iTunes.
You can also keep in touch on Twitter and Facebook. That’s @TheAncientWorld on Twitter and @ancientworldpodcast on Facebook. I’ve been posting tons of photos from my recent history-related travels up on the Facebook page, and I always try to keep my Twitter feed chalk full of ancient history stuff. So if you like the podcast I’m pretty sure you’ll like both sites.
That’s about it for now, I just wanted to give a status and a bit of a look-ahead. When I return we’ll cover the last few generations of Cleopatra’s heirs, and I’ll also be telling the story of Palmyra – a place which is unfortunately back in the news for very tragic reasons. But for a short time under Zenobia Palmyra ruled the entire Roman East and was powerful enough militarily to fend off the Sasanids. It’s an interesting story, and I’m going to do my best to give it its due. In the meantime please have a great Holiday Season and I’ll see you all in 2017!
Greetings from Brazil 🙂 keep going you are the best
Thanks very much! And Happy Holidays to you!
Dear Scott, I do not know how podcasts work at ALL! But from a little research, very little, as I understand it, podcasts have to be placed or associated with services. I see you are iTunes. I hear you from the Stitcher app and downloads from here. It took a great deal of finagling to get your podcast to play through my Alexa, the newest toy in tech. It would be a great boon if your program could reach ever larger audiences. Alexa (Amazon) has a built in "program" called TuneIn and there are podcasts there. However, yours is not. I wish it were. I do not know anything, but something you might look into if you can. So many people would love to hear you (you have a mesmerizing voice and I come back to your contributions often – and I am an archaeologist in Ancient Civilizations!) There is not a podcast like yours in TuneIn so I think you could corner a market, if something like associating your podcast with them can happen. Best, Christie
Hi Christie! Thanks for the good feedback & information. I looked into it, and apparently Alexa pulls its podcasts from a service called Tunein. I just now submitted TAW to Tunein for use in their service. So hopefully it'll be available in Alexa sometime soon. Thanks very much for the information, and I'm glad you're enjoying the series. Take care! – Scott
And lo, here it is April! *expectant look*
Two episodes drafted, once I wrap the third I'll be starting up production again. With a little luck, you'll have something before the END of April 😉 Take care
Looking forward to it, and as always, thanks!