Fall of Civilizations Podcast

Paul Cooper has created something closer to a documentary film than a traditional podcast. Each episode of Fall of Civilizations examines the collapse of a single civilization, and these are not quick overviews -- episodes routinely run three to five hours, with production values that rival anything from the BBC. Cooper uses multiple voice actors to perform readings from primary sources in their original languages, including Arabic, Old Persian, reconstructed Egyptian, and Mongolian. The ambient sound design and period-appropriate music create an immersive experience that is genuinely unlike anything else in the podcast space. With only 22 episodes and a 4.9 star rating from over 5,000 reviews, every installment clearly represents months of research and production work. The civilizations covered range from the Aztecs and Inca to the Byzantine Empire, the Khmer, and ancient Sumerians. Cooper finds the human stories within each collapse -- what it actually felt like to watch your world end -- and that emotional grounding keeps the show from feeling like an abstract academic exercise. New episodes come out infrequently, but each one becomes an event. Cooper maintains detailed source documentation on his Patreon, so you can follow up on anything that catches your attention. The trade-off for this level of quality is patience: you might wait months between episodes. But when a new one drops, clear your schedule. This is the kind of show that makes you sit in your car after arriving somewhere because you cannot bring yourself to press pause.