The First Draft

After the most tumultuous parliamentary session many can remember, Tom and Iszi meet top journalists to ask whether they consider they are history's first chroniclers. From Today programme newsgatherers to ancient Greek historian Herodotus, the team discuss who really "makes history".

This was a tricky episode in the making - we had two guests cancel last minute but were able to quickly find replacement segments. I got to interview Moudhy Al-Rashid, Assyriologist at the University of Oxford who was so very interesting and surprised me, being unfamiliar with King Shulgi of Ur -  second king of the Third Dynasty of Ur during the Sumerian Renaissance. He reigned for 48 years, from c. 2029 – 1982 BC and claimed in his 7th regnal year to have run from Nippur to Ur, a distance of not less than 100 miles. His story is told by the always brilliant Andy Riley in the live episode of The Z List Dead List (you can listen here). Anyway, despite not knowing about Shulgi - Moudhy was excellent and held her own debating Tom Holland about whether Herodotus was really the father of History considering the Persian Kings kept track of what they were up to… and indeed Shulgi invented sports journalism.

I do hope you’re liking the series. You can listen on BBC Sounds and provide feedback by following this link .If you have a moment, that would be excellent of you. I’m dead proud to be part of it!