The Birth of the Medieval World
Gone Medieval
History Hit
4.6 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 14 November 2025
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Matt Lewis pays a visit to Gone Medieval's sister podcast The Ancients for a lively debate with Tristan Hughes about the blurred boundary between the ancient and medieval worlds. Can Tristan champion Roman Emperor Justinian as an Ancient? What about Charlemagne? Which period can lay claim to the worst year in history? And was there a single moment when people woke up and realised they'd entered a new era?
Watch this episode on The Ancients YouTube channel
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Gone Medieval is presented by Matt Lewis. This episode edited by Rob Weinberg. The producers are Rob Weinberg and Joseph Knight. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.
All music used is courtesy of Epidemic Sounds.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, I'm Matt Lewis. Welcome to Gone Medieval from History Hit, the podcast that delves into the |
| 0:06.2 | greatest millennium in human history. We've got the most intriguing mysteries, the gobsmacking |
| 0:12.4 | details and latest groundbreaking research from the Vikings to the printing press, from kings |
| 0:18.2 | to popes to the crusades. We cross centuries and continents to delve |
| 0:22.9 | into rebellions, plots and murders, to find the stories big and small that tell us how we got here. |
| 0:30.1 | Find out who we really were with Gone Medieval. |
| 0:41.2 | Welcome to this episode of Gone Medieval. |
| 0:44.7 | Today we've got something for you that we've never done before. |
| 0:47.8 | I was invited onto our sister podcast, The Ancients, |
| 0:52.7 | to talk about the blurry, fuzzy boundary between the ancient and medieval worlds with my good friend Tristan Hughes. |
| 0:55.5 | This is a bit like Ghostbusters crossing the streams. It'll either work or it'll destroy all of us. |
| 1:01.2 | We had a robust debate about whether some specific dates and people should be thought of as |
| 1:05.9 | ancient or medieval. It was interesting to get into the weeds of it and uncover just how |
| 1:10.3 | unclear the border really is. If you don't get into the weeds of it and uncover just how unclear the border |
| 1:11.8 | really is. If you don't listen to the ancients, then I can't recommend it highly enough. The Tristorian |
| 1:17.2 | has great guests over there covering everything from dinosaurs to the fall of Rome. This episode |
| 1:22.9 | is our discussion and I'd love to hear what you think. Are there other dates or people |
| 1:27.6 | that we could have included? Should I afford harder for any of them to be medieval? Let me know |
| 1:33.3 | after you've enjoyed listening to the episode. Welcome to the ancients. Today we have a special |
| 1:42.6 | treat because I am joined by my esteemed, |
| 1:45.3 | but sometimes confused when it comes to dates, colleague Matt Lewis, historian and host of the |
| 1:50.5 | Gone Medieval podcast, to have a frank discussion on the most awkward period in Western history. |
... |
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