1400 The Collapse of the American Empire

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
This episode is brought to you by Facebook.
So you were scrolling on Marketplace, and there it was, the bike you've been searching for. You sent a message, and it turned out the seller was super chatty, kind of funny, and an avid cyclist. The next thing you know, you're in a cycling crew. Well, a community cycling group. The thing about Facebook, you might find more than what you're looking for. From a browse to a bike ride, this summer, find more on Facebook.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:31)
Music City 901 is a true crime podcast unlike anything you've heard before.
I'm Brandon Hall. I've been a 901 dispatcher for over 25 years. I've heard it all. And now, so will you.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:46)
911, where's the emergency?

**SPEAKER_1** (0:47)
Now, somebody just came in and shot my daughter and my husband. They shot them?

**SPEAKER_2** (0:52)
Each episode, I break down real emergency calls and the chaos behind them. From the voices on the phone to the action on the street.
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**SPEAKER_4** (1:31)
Hey humans, I'm Cody Blue, I'm Tonya Dahl, and we are the hosts of the Ascent for Squares podcast. We have embarked on a journey to explore the unknown, and we are inviting you along for the ride. Each week, we create an uncensored space for shamans, scientists, sages, scholars, and artists to share their real-life encounters with the supernatural. Dissecting the paranormal and decoding the nature of reality, you can watch or listen to Ascent for Squares wherever you get your podcast.

**Jeremy Ryan Slate** (2:00)
So in 376, you see about 200,000 barbarians pop up on Rome's borders that are basically trying to get away from the hunts. So Rome lets them in, promises that will give them territory, promises to take care of them. They quickly break those promises, and some of the commanders are actually trying to sell these barbarians dog meat for their children to bring into slavery. And two years later, at 378, you're going to have those barbarians come together and actually attack Rome, like not the city of Rome, but actually Roman territory, ending in a battle called Adrianople, where the Roman Emperor Valens is actually going to fall to these barbarians. So it gets to the point where they not only can't control their borders anymore, they're bringing so many refugees, they don't know what to do with them, they make promises, they break those promises, and now you can't put the genie back in the bottle. And I think that's what we're seeing when we're seeing border control is, here in the US, we're trying to remove some people that shouldn't be here. But once there's so many here, you can't really change that or flip that. There's nothing that can be done about that. So you can't really put the genie back in the bottle.

**SPEAKER_6** (2:59)
Richard Syrett's Strange Planet, following the truth wherever it leads. Exposing evil and corruption and the secret machinations of powerful elites.
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**Richard Syrett** (3:26)
There's a theory about the fall of civilizations that may be more disturbing than invasion, revolution or war.
What if civilizations don't collapse at all? What if they're dismantled slowly? So slowly that the people living through it don't even realize what's happening.
Currency is debased. Debt explodes. Borders become harder to control. Bureaucracies grow more powerful. Institutions lose legitimacy. Political leaders come and go while an unelected administrative class remains. Citizens turn against one another. Trust evaporates. And through it all, the empire insists everything is fine. We've been told Rome fell centuries ago, but tonight we're asking a much more uncomfortable question. Are we watching the Roman pattern unfold again, right now? And if Western civilization really is undergoing an historic transformation, is it simply the inevitable cycle of empire? Or are powerful interests, central banks, permanent bureaucracies, intelligence agencies, multinational corporations, supranational institutions, and an increasingly sophisticated surveillance apparatus helping accelerate the process? My guest tonight is Jeremy Ryan Slate, creator of the Roman Pattern, a framework for understanding why civilizations repeatedly evolve through similar institutional incentives involving money, borders, and power. Jeremy holds a master's degree in European history, specializing in the early Roman Empire from Seton Hall University, and he studied Catholic literature at Oxford University. He's also the host of the Roman Pattern, Hidden Forces in History, and the Jeremy Ryan Slate Show. He's CEO of Command Your Brand. And tonight, we're going to follow the money, examine the machinery of power, look behind the institutions and ask a question historians may someday answer for us.