The Tape Recorder Trilogy
In 2015, a man who has been alive since the last Ice Age bought a tape recorder, and over the course of three days he dictated his life story as fast as he could while waiting for a woman to visit who he believes will finally be the death of him.
Based on the novels Beginning, Middle, and End written by Geoff Micks, this podcast is a work of historical fiction spanning from the very beginning of humanity's story right up to almost the present day as told by a narrator who lived through it all and now is now free at last to tell you his experiences with whatever time he has left.
Join us each week for a new episode!
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Episodes
53 episodes
Shahada: The Tape Recorder Trilogy - S3E01
(2015 CE · Northern India & 600 - 633 CE · The Holy Land & Arabia) Emotionally scarred after surviving a pandemic and exhausted by Christianity's internal turmoil and schisms, the narrator meets Amr...
The Milk Pail: The Tape Recorder Trilogy - S3E02
(633 - 644 CE · The Holy Land, Arabia, & Egypt) The Narrator serves as personal secretary to Amr ibn Al-As and takes part in the Arab conquest of Egypt, which happened despite the objections of Caliph Umar ib...
Successors to Murdered Successors: The Tape Recorder Trilogy - S3E03
(644 - 656 CE · Egypt, Palestine, & Arabia) The Narrator recounts how Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab and later Caliph Uthman were assassinated, the differences between their lives and deaths, and how the communit...
First Fitna: The Tape Recorder Trilogy - S3E04
(656 - 662 CE · Egypt, Palestine, Arabia, & Iraq) The Narrator discusses both the first civil war between Muslims, and the part Amr ibn Al-As played in both ending the struggle and driving deep divisions into...
The West and the Witch-Queen: The Tape Recorder Trilogy - S3E05
(662 – 710 CE · Northern Africa ) The Narrator shares the small part he played in bringing Islam to North Africa west of Egypt, as well as a remarkable conversation he had with Dihya, a Christian Berber queen who...
Kings and Popes: The Tape Recorder Trilogy - S3E06
(710 – ~751 CE with mentions of events from earlier centuries · Spain, The Holy Land, France, & Rome) The Narrator relates how he changed lives from operating as a successful horse ferryman between North...
Emperors and Caliphs: The Tape Recorder Trilogy - S3E07
(710 – ~775 CE · Constantinople, Syria, The Holy Land, North Africa, & Spain) The Narrator continues his lecture on world events with terrible updates from the Greek-speaking Roman Empire ruled from Constanti...
Pepin the Short's Eldest Boy: The Tape Recorder Trilogy - S3E08
(~740 – 756 CE · Spain, France, and Italy) The Narrator remembers his time living among the Franks, and especially one frigid morning where he acted as a translator between a little boy and a Pope who fled Italy ...
The Only Roman Empress: The Tape Recorder Trilogy - S3E09
(756 – 814 CE · Rome, Greece, Constantinople, & More) The Narrator recalls a happy time in his life where he worked as a caterer and party planner, and how this dragged him against his will into the orb...
Ground Rules Before the Reckoning: The Tape Recorder Trilogy - S3E10
(2015 CE · Northern India) The Narrator and his mystery guest meet for a second time and agree he should finish recording his life's story before they have the conversation that motivated her to seek him out on t...
A Game of Philosophers, Pilgrims, and Poets: The Tape Recorder Trilogy - S3E11
(2015 · Northern India, & 814 – ~1273 CE · Christendom, Al-Andalus, Constantinople, Cairo, Baghdad, & Rum) The Narrator resumes his story, this time with his unexpected guest listening as he works. ...
The Richest Man Who Ever Lived: The Tape Recorder Trilogy - S3E12
(2015 · Northern India, & ~1273- ~1330 CE · Baghdad, Cairo, Baghdad, & Timbuktu) The Narrator finishes his game of famous Muslims unknown to most Westerners with the tale of Mansa Musa, an emperor w...
Greed, God, and Genius: The Tape Recorder Trilogy - S3E13
(~1400 - 1512 CE · Italy & Spain) The Narrator remembers the end of the Middle Ages and the beginnings of the Renaissance. He also talks about the time he got to sit in the Sistine Chapel, looking up, as a ca...
Protests, Protestants, Nutters, and Nutmeg: The Tape Recorder Trilogy - S3E14
(1512 - ~1670 CE · Italy, Spain, & Northwestern Europe) The Narrator talks about the Reformation and the rise of Mercantilism with notable appearances by a Spanish friar, Dutch land reclamation schemes, and t...
Tulips and Tea: The Tape Recorder Trilogy - S3E15
(~1600 - ~1842 CE · The Netherlands, the United Kingdom, & the Oceans of the World) The Narrator describes how capitalism in its infancy dabbles in mania, rewards inefficiencies, and funds great evils i...
Season One Summary & Season Two Trailer: The Tape Recorder Trilogy
In 2015, a man who has been alive since the last Ice Age bought a tape recorder. Over the course of three days he dictated his life story as fast as he could while waiting for a woman to visit who he believes will finally be the death of him...
She Never Forgets a Face: The Tape Recorder Trilogy - S2E01
(2015 CE · Northern India & ~930 to ~895 BCE · Tyre)The Narrator remembers how he started perhaps the happiest time of his life. As with so many things, it began badly. A little girl with a perfect memory for peo...
The Royal Ladies of Tyre: The Tape Recorder Trilogy - S2E02
(~895 to ~870 BCE · Tyre)The Narrator shares how the royal women of Tyre kept the secret of his immortality, and in return he became their most trusted servant from generation to generation.Based on Chapt...
The Kooks and the Crazies: The Tape Recorder Trilogy - S2E03
(~870 - ~848 BCE · Tyre, Israel, & Parts Further East )The Narrator talks about Jezebel, the Phoenician princess who married King Ahab of Israel, how she came into conflict with the prophets Elijah and Elissa, an...
The Whirling One: The Tape Recorder Trilogy - S2E04
(848 – 825 BCE · Tyre)The Narrator remembers the early life of Elishat of Tyre, a great woman all but forgotten today who was almost murdered in her bed one dark night years before she became a legend in her own time...
Khart-Hadast, The New City: The Tape Recorder Trilogy - S2E05
(825 – 804 BCE · Tyre, Cyprus, Zembra, & Carthage)The Narrator tells how Elishat —remembered by some as Dido— founded and nurtured the great city of Carthage, and what she did to maintain its independence from Ki...
All the Time and Money in the World: The Tape Recorder Trilogy - S2E06
(~804 - ~590 BCE · The Known World, & Parts Unknown)The Narrator recounts his three-year journey leading a joint Phoenician-Egyptian expedition to circumnavigate Africa on the orders of Pharaoh Naku, or Necho II ...
With a Wave of His Hand: The Tape Recorder Trilogy - S2E07
(~590 - 332 BCE · Carthage & Tyre)The Narrator remembers with deep regret how Alexander the Great destroyed the ancient city of Tyre whose royal women had once made a safe and happy home for an immortal wan...
When the Waves Turn the Minutes to Hours: The Tape Recorder Trilogy - S2E08
(~330 BCE · Sardinia, Marseilles, & the Sea Between)The Narrator survives a terrible shipwreck in a storm at sea, only to be rescued by a man named Pytheas who should be included among history's greatest explorer...