Doug Metzger
speaker
2,647 appearances
3 recordings
1 series
first heard May 2026
last heard 11 Sep
Doug Metzger’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 3 in all, peaking in Sep 2026 with 1.
Appearances
The version that Ibn al-Mukhafa knew was in Middle Persian, and it hailed from the rich Sasanian world we've spent the past few hours studying in our podcast.
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But originally,
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Kalila and Dimna was a far older work called the Panka Tantra, written in Sanskrit in India, sometime between about 200 BCE and 100 CE.
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Whatever we call it, the beast fable collection that became known as Khalila and Dimna in Ibn al-Muqafah's translation, for 2,000 years has been one of humanity's most popular books, and Ibn al-Mukha created the most popular translation of it.
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Within it there are 67 stories, some of them quick parables, and some long and drawn out, that through a series of allegories,
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Explore the complexities of life in human society, paying especially close attention to the power that princes and kings wield over their subjects.
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Timeless, charming, and profound.
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Kalila and Dimna is a work that everyone on earth ought to go through at least once.
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And in our next program, climbing out of the thicket of late antique Persian history to read a major classical.
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classic of world literature, we will do just that.
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Thanks for listening to Literature and History.
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There's a quiz on this program in the notes section of your podcast app if you'd like to review what you've learned.
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If you want to hear a song, I have one coming up.
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Otherwise, see you next time for a show on one of the most popular fable collections in history.
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Still here?
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So I got to thinking about, well, nothing less than humanity.
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You know, it always puzzles me how fascinated we are with the creation of the universe and the end of the world.
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I have probably read more creation stories and revelations than is good for anyone's sanity, and over the course of doing so.
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I always wonder.
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Why does my species always have to go for the gold and try and puzzle out the beginning and end of the universe?
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Showing 2621–2640 of 2,647 · page 132 of 133
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