Dr. Roy Casagranda Podcast
The Dr. Roy Casagranda Podcast is dedicated to unerasing the erased peoples of the world. Too often, history is written by the powerful, leaving entire communities, cultures, and truths out of the dominant narrative. This show seeks to tell those stories.
Through these conversations, Dr. Roy digs for the truth, weeds out misinformation, and challenges conventional wisdom. The conversations span politics, world history, philosophy, and culture, always with an eye toward justice and a deeper understanding of where we've been, where we are, and where we are heading.
This is the official podcast of Dr. Roy Casagranda and Sekhmet Liminal Productions, FZCO.
Dr. Roy Casagranda Podcast
How Islam Saved Western Civilization
Western civilization didn’t vanish when Rome fell - it moved east. Dr. Roy explores how the libraries of Persia, Egypt, and Baghdad became the true heirs of the ancient world. From the Great Library of Alexandria to the Academy of Gundishapur, from Persian mathematicians to Arab engineers, this episode traces how Islamic civilization safeguarded humanity’s collective knowledge through centuries of turmoil. Dr. Roy connects forgotten innovations, the scientific method, algebra, optics, medicine, philosophy, and shows how the Islamic Golden Age laid the groundwork for modern science, governance, and thought.
Takeaways:
- The myth of Rome’s “fall” in 476 AD, and why civilization actually shifted, not collapsed.
- How the Great Library of Alexandria inspired centuries of learning that continued under Persian and Islamic rule.
- The creation of the world’s first Bill of Rights by Cyrus the Great, predating the Magna Carta by two millennia.
- How the Academy of Gundishapur became a bridge between Greek, Indian, Persian, and Chinese knowledge.
- Why Arab scholars like Alhazen, Al-Khwarizmi, and Avicenna revolutionized optics, mathematics, and medicine.
- How Islamic thinkers preserved Aristotle and Plato, and later reintroduced them to Europe through Spain and Sicily.
- The invention of algebra, algorithms, and the scientific method centuries before the Renaissance.
- Why Western history omits the Islamic Golden Age, and how recognizing it changes our understanding of progress.
Resources & References:
- The Book of Optics
- The Canon of Medicine
- The Bill of Rights of Cyrus the Great
- The Great Library of Alexandria
- The Antikythera Mechanism
- The Philosophy of Al-Farabi and Ibn Sina
Beyond the podcast:
- Want to watch this lecture? Check out the full video.
- Want to support the show? Buy Dr. Roy a coffee!
