14 episodes listed below
PRESS PLAY
The History of Iran from ca. 3000 BCE to the early 20th centiry
Herodotus tells a great Cyrus story; here, you get to ask for the receipts.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A thoughtful source-focused account of how fragile evidence shapes the Sassanid fall.
The fall of the Sassanids is framed less as a simple conquest story than as a lesson in how history gets built. The host moves from the Islamic conquests and the arrival of Islam in Iran into the uneven record left by Islamic, Syriac, and Armenian histories, with particular…
Cyrus's rise comes through contested origins, Medean conflict, and a growing focus on Babylonia.
Cyrus's rise is framed as a story built from pressure points: contested tradition, thin early evidence, and sources that do not always want the same thing from him.
A careful account of Cyrus's rise through evidence, language, and cultural change in an unstable Near East.
Cyrus the Great is placed in a Near Eastern world where older powers have weakened: Mesopotamian empires are broken, Assyria has been subdued by newcomers, Elam has shrunk into smaller principalities, and Egypt is struggling.
A broad, useful map of Cyrus's world before the story turns to Cyrus himself.
Episode 10 widens the frame around Cyrus before moving into his own story. Rather than rushing into biography, the host pauses near 550 BCE to connect earlier material on Elamite, Neo-Assyrian, Neo-Elamite, and Median power with the Achaemenids' rise in Iranian history.
A Median origin story becomes a careful lesson in how historians handle legend, doubt, and scarce evidence.
Meets and Medians: The Disappearing Kingdom treats the Medes less as a settled chapter than as a problem of evidence. The episode follows the familiar chain of Astyages, Cyrus, Harpagus, and the fall of Media, then steadily loosens it by asking what can actually be known.
Greek myth told with fatal momentum.
Ancient empire told in old public-domain voices.
Iranologie: the History of Iran Podcast frames "Special Episode 1: Fall of the Sasanians" as a source-criticism episode about the Islamic conquests and the end of Sasanian Iran.
Episode 12, "One More on Cyrus and the Origins of His Empire," traces Cyrus from Anshan toward Media, Lydia, and the still-distant conquest of Babylon.
This episode covers the rise of Cyrus the Great and the political landscape of the ancient Near East before his conquests.
Cyrus conquered Sardis and Babylon, then claimed the title of "kingship of four corners of the world."
The Persian historian argues that Herodotus turns scattered chiefs into a Median dynasty.
This episode covers the Middle Alamite period of ancient Iran, focusing on political history and the Sukalma dynasty.
The host apologizes for a delay and begins discussing the prehistoric and early historic period of Elam in ancient Iran.
The host introduces himself and the podcast, discussing episode length and future topics on Iranian history.