Why people recommend it
The Epic of Gilgamesh is an ancient Mesopotamian masterpiece widely recognized as one of humankind's earliest surviving works of literature. Elif Shafak discussed the ancient epic on How I Write, pointing to its exploration of failure, defeat, and heroism to illustrate enduring human themes. On the same podcast, David Perell suggested the work to Tom Junod as a foundational starting point for a chronological reading list, noting its antiquity predating biblical texts. On Stuff They Don't Want You To Know, Matt referenced the text while exploring the history of what constitutes a book, highlighting its ancient roots. Additionally, Tim Poole read from an online article on Timcast IRL that cited the epic alongside historical and apocalyptic writings like the Mayan calendar and the Book of Revelation. Gregg Hurwitz also brought up the work on The Rubin Report to draw direct narrative parallels between the ancient poem and modern storytelling tropes seen in films like The Terminator.
Who recommended it
- Elif Shafak Discussed
- David Perell Discussed
- Tim Poole Discussed
- Gregg Hurwitz Discussed
Elif Shafak — 1 mention
“And I know we both, all of us love the epic of Gilgamesh. But this is one of the many reasons why I love the epic because it really talks makes us think about failure, defeat.”
David Perell — 1 mention
“Maybe maybe even pre-Bible. You know, there's some like some stoic an epic of Gilgamesh. Yeah. Exactly. How did you know? Yeah.”
Tim Poole — 1 mention
“from the end date of the Mayan calendar to the epic of gilgamesh from the Genesis flood to the Book of Revelations”
Gregg Hurwitz — 1 mention
“and that's why if you look at like the Epic of Gilgamesh it's a direct overlay for The Terminator”
Mentioned on the show without a named speaker — 1
“we got together and we looked up the first thing considered to be a book ever and generally right now the first thing considered to be a quote-unquote book is the Epic of Gilgamesh which is kind of old”
Also mentioned in the same episodes
Other mentions (2: passing, ad reads, own books)
“When I was writing there are rivers in the sky you know we talked about unlearning earlier. I had to do a lot of unlearning myself, particularly as I was writing about the Yazidi minorities...”
“Or maybe even pre there maybe maybe even pre-Bible, you know, there's some like some stoic an epic of Gilgamesh.”