This episode takes on the Ancient Egyptian conception of the afterlife; while the burial practices of the Egyptians are well-known to many of us from school, what they believed happened after mummification is less well-understood. Here we discuss mummification, the pyramid texts, and the mysterious Field of Reeds. We also draw comparisons between the classless afterlife of Mesopotamia and the more stratified vision of the Egyptians, as well as noting that, for perhaps the first time, in this mythology the afterlife is envisioned as a potential paradise.

This episode was originally recorded in August 2025 as part of The End of the World with Michael and Stu.

Our third episode covers the views held by the Ancient Mesopotamians as depicted in The Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the oldest works of literature to be preserved. We discuss the conception of the afterlife presented in the poem, which is quite egalitarian if not exactly comforting. We also discuss the second half of the poem which deals specifically with Gilgamesh's attempts at achieving immortality.

This episode was originally recorded and released in August 2025 as part of The End of the World with Michael and Stu.

In this episode we discuss the earliest evidence that has been discovered for prehistoric ideas about the afterlife, including cave art, early totemic sculptures, as well as burial practices. We also consider the Neanderthal and Denisovans, our hominid cousins and whether they too might have believed in "the world to come." The episode concludes with a conversation about Göbekli Tepe and other early ritual sites in addition to skull cults, the best (?) kind of cult.

This episode was originally recorded in August 2025 as part of The End of the World with Michael and Stu.