Hello and welcome to another update post for the Mongol Empire Podcast. Episode 4.4 comes to you a month later than originally planned due to the unexpected death of my brother-in-law in the beginning of March. You don’t generally expect a 25-year-old to just drop down dead, especially when he had no other apparent health problems.
Jamie was someone who I got on with extremely well; we shared many of the same interests and had a very similar sense of humour. I could go on and write whole lot more about my relationship with him, but I will simply say that his death has been devastating and that I will miss him greatly.
As for the episode, it ended up being a bit longer than I expected. When I’m writing it usually doesn’t take too long to get a good idea of how long the episode is going to be, as the source material normally reveals its limitations pretty quickly; with 4.3 – Teb Tengri I really wasn’t sure how long it was going to be until I had finished writing. On the face of it, the episode should have been straightforward, after all we only cover two events – the final conquest of the Naiman and the shaman Teb Tengri. However, it became clear that it was going to be necessary to provide some context to the Teb Tengri story; how was a shaman allowed, or able, to challenge the khan? Why did Chinggis not stand up for his brothers? This meant that my initial worries about this episode being too short were soon put to rest as I added more and more information.
You will also have noticed the addition of music to the podcast. I have been looking at options since last November, but struggling to find anything that really fit. In the end I settled for Majestic Hills by Kevin McLeod as it captured the kind of sound I was looking for and, almost as importantly, it was the more financially friendly option…
As I do all the editing myself and have only been editing sound since starting this podcast, hopefully it sounds alright. I am always open to learning new ways to improve production quality so if you have any hints or tips send them my way – all the usual communication routes are available:
@mongolempirepod
I hope you enjoy the episode and musical addition. As I stated in the episode, I plan on having 4.4 out next month, but who knows what 2021 is going to bring next.
Until next time, take care and thanks for listening!