With American politics constantly in the news right now PastMaster heads back in time to visit the first presidents of the USA to see what they were like.

The year is 1775. Colonial America is on the brink of declaring independence from Britain. Ryan has arrived on the scene with two goals in mind:

1) Can he make some changes to the constitution before it gets enshrined? 

2) Can he make such a big mark on history that they put his face on Mount Rushmore?

Continuing our exploration of Claude-powered GameMasters we discover that getting our way is more complex than in previous adventures...

This episode features none other than George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Adam, Thomas Jefferson and of course Dolly Parton.

Tune in to find out whether Mount Rushmore is getting a facelift!

Get in touch with us:

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Is Atlantis real? That's the question we've been pondering as Tan takes to the PastMaster hotseat to try and uncover the truth.

Travelling back to ancient Athens, the first priority is to seek out a man who is a philosopher, and yet most famously known by his wrestling name - Plato.

Will Plato give us the answers? Will GameMaster Claude be any better at solving mysteries than GameMaster Chatty G?

Is Plato any good at wrestling?

Tune in and find out.

Don't forget, tickets are onsale now for the first PastMaster live show. Grab 'em here:

cheerfulearful.podlifeevents.com/festival/pastmaster-live-from-cheerful-earful-podcast-festival-20th-oct-tickets

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Comedian and actor Sunil Patel (Alice & Jack (C4) The Witchfinder (BBC), This Time with Alan Partridge (BBC), Stath Lets Flats (C4) is back in the hot seat for another blast through the past. As our first guest back in Season 1 Sunil is a veteran of exploring the markets and brothels of history’s muddy waters. This time he’s headed back to Rome to make a name for himself amongst the Roman elite. But will GameMaster allow him to wander around punching senators without consequences? And what game-changing invention can possibly top the enigmatic "Patel's Box" from Season 1? If you were stuck in the past what item would you bring? Sunil reckons a camera phone. But the battery would die pretty quick. No, the best thing to bring back would surely be Tan's suggestion of the Ultimate Guide To Rebuilding Civilisation Instagram 👉 @PastMasterPod (check out our AI-generated art illustrating what our adventures might have looked like) Twitter 👉 @PastMasterAI TikTok 👉 @PastMasterAI Gmail 👉 pastmasterpod@gmail.com Sign up to our newsletter 👉 https://pastmaster.beehiiv.com/subscribe to unlock goodies

First Sherlock Holmes then Hercule Poirot and now Inspector Klaus.

Keon pits himself against the greatest crime-solving detectives in a special MurderMysteryMaster edition of PastMaster.

We've powered up GameMaster to deliver a veritable Cluedo feast of a whodunnit. But will we ever find out who delivered the fate of the recently deceased Lord Jasper Cavendish Brown?

Tune in and find out

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Disney's "Dark Ages" typically encompasses the late 1960s to the late 1980s. During this time the quality and success of Disney animated films suffered and it wasn’t until 1989’s The Little Mermaid that things turned around.

But what happened? Why was one of the most successful studios of all time in decline?

The answer likely lies with the man himself, Walt Disney, whose untimely death at 65 left the company struggling to find creative leadership that could fill his shoes.

It turns out that Mr Disney liked a cigarette or three and probably didn’t live the healthiest lifestyle.

What would have happened had Walt not died? Would things be different? Would the Dark Ages of Disney never come to be? Today’s guest, Em McGowan from the film-history podcast Verbal Diorama, is on a mission to find out.

Can she stop Walt Disney from smoking and encourage a healthier lifestyle? Will Disney be saved?

Tune in and find out

[NOTE. Apologies for some slight technical issues with the video of this episode]

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We're back with Season 3 of PastMaster!

This week's episode is PastHard with a Vengeance as Ryan tries to turn the tables on Tan with his version of a harder, stricter game.

Tan gets sent back to Ancient Sparta against his wishes and has to survive amongst the muscle-bound warriors with only the movie 300 starring Gerard Butler as his reference point material.

Will he survive? Or will he be smited and ridiculed? Tune in and find out.

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The PastMaster crew are back with Season 3. And it's promising to be more Past-ery and more AI-y than ever before.

Featuring upgraded GameMasters, Murder Mystery solving, Regency period dramas, Walt Disney, Samurais, Area 51, Cockneys, Drug Lords and so much more.

We've also got a whole slew of guests this season including fellow podcasters Verbal Diorama and Fetch the Smelling salts. Plus comedians Sunil Patel, Nick Horseman and more.

You can also see our lovely faces as we attempt to film each episode to varying degrees of success!

So buckle up and get ready for more PastMaster adventures

- Ryan, Tan and Keon

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Looking back on highlights of season 2, Ryan, Keon and Tan pick out the good, the bad and the tremendously ugly.

Phallic AI art and GameMaster’s double standards feature prominently, alongside successes such as ‘hard mode’, the mission to dismantle the Berlin Conference and improvements in AI over the course of the series.

‘King George’ makes his debut as the voice of GameMaster, and we also hear stories of chilli disaster from our hosts.

Also includes as a teaser for what is coming up in season 3.

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The PastMaster team joins the fateful final voyage of the Mary Celeste, the merchant ship whose crew vanished without a trace in the Atlantic Ocean in 1872.

Determined to find out the truth behind one of the world’s great unsolved mysteries, ‘Third Mate Tan’ joins the crew and bears witness to the events leading up to the abandonment of the ship.

Everything from mutiny and insurance fraud to a giant squid, calm or stormy weather and even aliens has been proposed as a possible cause of the ship’s abandonment. But what truth will GameMaster reveal?

And will Tan, as he stands mute with his hands in his pockets, unwittingly influence the fate of the ship and its passengers?

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This week the team head to the Palace of Versailles to host a fantasy dinner party attended by the good (Jesus and Gandhi), the bad (Hitler, Stalin and Mao) prominent historical female leaders (Elizabeth I and Cleopatra) and wild card Liz Truss.

Roleplaying the Hostess with the Mostest, Tan unveils a tempting but symbolic menu for the assembled guests, trying to get them to see eye to eye.

Breaking the ice with a question about wrestling, Tan gets the party off to a good start, but with such divisive and disparate personalities at the table, how will he keep control of proceedings?

And will Liz Truss be able to follow what is happening?

The book Tan mentioned about ultra running is [The Rise of the Ultra Runners](https://www.adharanandfinn.com/the-rise-of-the-ultra-runners) by Adharanand Finn. Well worth a read. Good luck with your alpine adventure, Ryan!

### Get in touch with us:

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In the ultimate battle of man vs machine, we pit our human guide against artificial intelligence for an adventure through time. But who will emerge as more insightful and knowledgeable?

In the human corner we have the excellent Marc Zakian from Extraordinary Stories of Britain podcast, and in the machine corner we have our trusty AI GameMaster.

Marc is a Blue Badge Guide and runs regular tours in the British Museum and the Tower of London and counts Shakespeare among his specialities.

For this PastMaster adventure Marc takes Tan and Ryan on a tour of Jacobean London in 1613 for a day of eating, drinking, gambling, blood sports and even a cultured trip to the Globe Theatre. What could possibly go wrong?

Famed fighting bear Sackerson, the notorious Winchester Geese, and potent beverages such as Mad Dog and By The Wall feature in this rip-roaring and pungent tour of historical London.

Find Extraordinary Stories of Britain at storiesofbritain.com

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Besieged by PastMaster fans asking for the game to be made harder, Tan updates the rules of the game, giving us all new ‘hard mode’.

This is an attempt to revert to the original concept of the game: to test whether you could truly survive and thrive in the past armed just with the knowledge in your head and the shirt on your back.

Ryan sets out to test this new game with his unique brand of death-wish chaos. Jumping into Boston 1773, with the colony itching to break free from the English crown, Ryan uses every trick in the book to try and cheat his way to victory. But will the Bostonian revolutionaries put up with his nonsense? And more to the point, will our AI GameMaster?

Also Keon eats his first mince pie (spoiler alert: he gives mince pies a paltry 3.5 out of 10. Which is mental). Instagram 👉 @PastMasterPod (check out our AI-generated art illustrating what our adventures might have looked like) Twitter 👉 @PastMasterAI TikTok 👉 @PastMasterAI Gmail 👉 pastmasterpod@gmail.com Sign up to our newsletter 👉 https://pastmaster.beehiiv.com/subscribe to unlock goodies

Is Claude a more realistic GameMaster than ChatGPT? 

This week we're bringing back 'Hard Mode' to PastMaster. We've crafted a particularly difficult prompt that requires full realism, or else... 

It turns out, Claude is very hard indeed, so much so that we had enough time for 3 cracks at it! 

Keon heads to the Victorian era to claim some lands from a nobleman. 

Tan has a little jolly in the ancient Aztec empire.

And Ryan brings a throwback to Season 1, Episode 15 where we tried to 'take out' Adolf Hitler before he rose to power. 

In other news, we are thrilled to announce that PastMaster the LIVE show is coming to London on 20 October!! 

As part of the Cheerful Earful Podfest at The Bedford Pub in Balham, we will be on stage bringing our AI time travel adventures to a live audience. So why wait? 

⁠Secure your place today - click here⁠.

Get in touch with us:

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Sign up to our newsletter 👉 ⁠⁠pastmaster.ai⁠

Returning to PastMaster for another crack at the past is rapper and comedian Nick Horseman. Nick (AKA Cat R Pillar) and Keon (AKA Colin Winkleforth) face off in a two-player competition to save Jesus from being arrested and crucified by the Romans.

Our AI Game Master, perhaps predictably, struggles to run a game with two players in the same scenario, instead creating two co-existing realities. But to spice things up our heroes try to sabotage each other’s efforts.

Keon reverts to type and uses his signature move of a smear campaign, slinging mud at Nick to discredit him, while Nick uses his sleight of hand to undo Keon’s belt so his trousers fall down.

Keon tries to create a great escape with Jesus strapped to the underside of a chariot while belting out slogans through a papyrus megaphone, while Nick tunnels up through the streets of Jerusalem to bear Jesus away below ground.

But who will Game Master crown the winner?

PastMaster is the time-travel role-playing adventure show where Ryan, Keon and Tan explore a different era of history in each episode with the help of our maverick AI GameMaster.

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Keon flexes his muscles and updates his Insta profile pic before jumping into the time machine and darting off to the 30th century.

Landing in a year when data is apparently more valuable than gold, Keon must find a way to stop the ‘Great Data Breach’ before it can happen. (TBF the Great Data Breach sounds like something very plausible at Northamptonshire County Council in the 21st century.)

Egged on by his sci-fi-friendly teammates Tan and Ryan, Keon heads to a local cybernetic cafe to find out what a dive bar looks like in the future. Will it be more Star Wars, Bladerunner or 20th century internet cafe? And will Keon impress the regulars by drinking like a Viking?

Time is running out though - can Keon forge valuable friendships quickly, can he track down notorious hacker Zeta 9, and will he fall in love? Only GameMaster will tell.

BTW this is the greatest ever nightclub movie mash up scene, as mentioned in the episode.

Of course this episode is partly inspired by Busted’s greatest hit.

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Special guests Chinny Ukata and Astrid Madimba from It’s a Continent podcast join the PastMaster crew for a mission at the Berlin Conference of 1884.

Taking aim at the event widely regarded as the point when European nations gave themselves the green light to seize Africa for themselves, Chinny and Astrid plunge into the heart of the action.

Aiming to disrupt the conference and put a stop to the European colonisation of Africa, our heroines must first think of a way to get inside without arousing suspicion and then find a way to sow doubt about colonial expansion in the minds of assembled diplomats.

Will they succeed? And how will their fashion choices affect the outcome of their mission? And what object from the future will GameMaster allow them to take back with them?

Order a copy of Chinny and Astrid’s book It’s a Continent here.

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Keon’s always wanted to know who built ⁠Stonehenge⁠ and why. So Ryan used PastMaster to find out (of course).

In what is possibly the trippiest episode of PastMaster yet, our AI GameMaster concocts a Neolithic adventure for the ages.

It all goes pear-shaped when Ryan encounters a mysterious man called Elron (alarm bells already ringing).

It turns out the secrets of Stonehenge are much bigger than anybody ever realised.

Alliances will be forged, secrets will be revealed, and crystal toilets will be pooped in...

Is the AI’s Stonehenge story convincing?

Tune in to find out.

Comedian and writer Tom GK returns to the PastMaster studio, taking the hot seat for his first time as a player. Heading to the Labour Party conference in Blackpool in 1959, Tom plans to alter the course of British politics and improve life for everyone in the country for decades to come.

After an initial display of hopeless incompetence from our AI GameMaster, Tom finally gets to take the microphone. With a deft surgical incision into the Labour Party’s home ownership policy, Tom sets the backdrop for a shift in political power and pulls the rug out from under Thatcherism.

But it’s not all hard work. While in the north-west Tom makes time to head Liverpool and catch a Quarrymen gig, seeing John, Paul and George on stage.

Also pesky fellow time traveller Napolean Bonaparte turns up and, inspired by Blackpool’s culinary delights, creates his own ice cream empire.

PastMaster is the time-travel role-playing adventure show where Ryan, Keon and Tan explore a different era of history in each episode with the help of our maverick AI GameMaster.

You can see Tom performing with the Oxford Imps at The Jericho Tavern every Monday at 8pm in Oxford University term time.

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Tan travels back to the slums of Victorian Whitechapel in a bid to catch Jack the Ripper and solve one of the most notorious unsolved crimes ever.

Donning his detective gear and using the moniker Inspector Nathaniel, Tan marches into Scotland Yard in the summer of 1888 and demands to speak to Chief Insp Fred Abberline. Using his knowledge of future events, such as the eruption of Mt Bandai in Japan, the emergence of touch typing, and a fire at the Main Building in Wells College, New York, Tan attempts to prove he is a time traveller and that he can help catch the Ripper even before he strikes.

Can GPT solve actual true crimes from real life? Who was Jack the Ripper? Will the ethics of future crime detection be questioned by our AI GameMaster? Find out the answer to all of these in this episode.

Inspired by a recent Jack the Ripper tour in Whitechapel and Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell’s brilliant graphic novel From Hell.

PastMaster is the time-travel role-playing adventure show where Ryan, Keon and Tan explore a different era of history in each episode with the help of our maverick AI GameMaster.

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Special guest rapper and comedian Nick Horseman returns to PastMaster in the year 1805 for an adventure aboard the HMS Victory en route to the Battle of Trafalgar.

With a surreal curveball, Admiral Horatio Nelson’s nemesis, the time travelling Napoleon Bonaparte, turns up below deck on the Victory, blending in among the barrels.

Horseman, fearing he might be branded a traitor, uses his keen sense of smell to implicate Napoleon and prove his allegiance to the crown.

Next, with a long sea voyage ahead, Horseman seeks an audience with Nelson and introduces him to the strategy board game Risk, hoping to wile away the long hours together locked in a battle of betrayal, cunning and military acumen.

Horseman’s ulterior motive is to harness Nelson’s knowledge of naval warfare to create a naval equivalent of Risk that could last to the modern day.

But will Nelson accept Horseman’s entertaining proposal or have him keelhauled and flogged for being a Frenchman? And will he get to create Naval Risk before the fateful Battle of Trafalgar? And what the heck is Napoleon doing hiding among the barrels below deck?

PastMaster is the time-travel role-playing adventure show where Ryan, Keon and Tan explore a different era of history each episode with the help of our maverick AI GameMaster.

Get in touch with us:

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PastMaster is back for season 2 and for this Halloween special Tan takes on the Witchfinder General himself in a bid to end the persecution of witches. Starring special guest comedian and writer Tom GK as the voice of GameMaster.

Tan finds himself in the spooky surrounds of Suffolk town of Bury St Edmunds during the English Civil War it isn’t long before Witchfinder Matthew Hopkins and Tan are locked in a battle of words to decide whether witches really exist and to test whether Tan is himself a practitioner of the dark arts. But predictably things quickly take a turn for the worse and become physical.

Will Tan be burned at the stake for being a witch? Can he convince the pitchfork wielding locals to turn on the Witchfinder General, and will science overcome magic and superstition? Listen to find out.

If after listening to this episode you’re still in two minds about whether witches really exist, be sure to watch the excellent 2015 film The Witch by Robert Eggers.

PastMaster is the time-travel role-playing adventure show where Ryan, Keon and Tan explore a different era of history in each episode with the help of our maverick AI GameMaster.

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We’re wrapping up Season 1 of PastMaster with a look back on some of the highlights of our adventures so far. Joining us “live, in-person” for the very first time is GameMaster itself, being voiced by various AI voices ranging from wheeler-dealer ‘Dave’ to creepy, patronizing ‘Thomas’ And finally, in a break from the past, we look ahead to FutureMaster and tease what’s coming up next.

We'd love your thoughts and feedback on where to take this in Season 2. Get in touch with us:

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Barbie and Ken try to prevent nuclear war by sabotaging the bomb in our first two-player game of PastMaster.

Barbie, played by Keon, goes deep undercover in New Mexico, using her knowledge of physics and her charm to get past the US scientists and into the lab.

Meanwhile Ken, played by Tan, goes so deep undercover in Germany that he almost forgets his mission and hunkers down into a simple life of farming.

Will the pop culture icons get to meet Oppenheimer? Can you use bananas as a substitute for a bomb? Who will complete their mission first and who will win the battle of the trash talk?

Inspired by recent cinema releases Barbie and Oppenheimer.

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We've been a little quiet over the summer, but fear not, the wheels of time are still turning at the PastMaster HQ! We've got 3 exciting announcements:

1. Next week PastMaster Season 3 returns.

We're having another crack at making the show even harder, only this time using Claude instead of ChatGPT. But how hard is too hard? Tune in on Monday 23rd to find out.

2. PastMaster is going live!!

We've been invited to perform at the Cheerful Earful Podcast Festival. Catch us live and in person on Sunday 20th October at 15:35 at The Bedford in Balham.

Tickets cost just £6 and can be purchased here:

https://cheerfulearful.podlifeevents.com/festival/pastmaster-live-from-cheerful-earful-podcast-festival-20th-oct-tickets

3. We're up for some awards.

We're thrilled to be nominated for 3 awards at this year's Independent Podcast Awards ceremony. Best Comedy Show, Best Gaming Show and Best Science and Technology show. Oh, and best Podcast Jingle too which is nice. We'll find out on the 23rd of October. 🤞

Get in touch with us:

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EXPLICIT CONTENT WARNING: While we have bleeped out the worst of the swear words, this episode is definitely not safe for work or those who don’t wish to hear bad language

Ryan finally gets Chat GPT to swear and puts it to the test in an adventure full of grimy pirates, squawking parrots and buried treasure.

After assembling a malodorous crew of cutlass-rattling sea-dogs, Ryan (AKA Captain F*ck-C*ntle) tries his luck wooing Belch-Breathed Bella. Next, he gets serious with a plan to make money by training parrots to swear like squaddies.

With a treasure map in hand, and goaded by this week’s highly puerile AI GameMaster, our captain sets sail to a sandy island to try to find buried treasure.

Finally, after having his feelings hurt by a swearing parrot, Ryan’s crew member Pete, at last, gets his gruesome revenge on the feathered fiend.

Will Ryan get rich on pirate gold? What was Blackbeard’s real name and what did he stuff into his beard to scare his foes? What do Canterbury Tales and modern Australia have in common? Will swearing catch on in the world of AI? All of this and more is unveiled in this episode.

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At the first ever Olympics Keon sets out to win a gold medal and introduce some new sports to the Games, starring special guest Louise Banham as the voice of Game Master.

Channelling his ‘inner Jonathan Edwards’ he gets the crowd going, but not before exploring some ancient Greek trash talking, all under the watchful supervision of Game Master’s stern moral compass.

Next Keon ditches PowerPoint and uses physical demonstration to persuade the Olympic Committee to accept wheelbarrow racing as an event. (Seriously, check out our AI art showing ancient Greeks trying to get their heads around wheelbarrow racing…)

Is the egg and spoon race a bridge too far for the Olympic Committee? What is the most foul-mouthed trash-talk Game Master can come up with? Was Keon wearing any clothes during this entire escapade? Find out all of this and more.

PastMaster is the time-travel role-playing adventure show where Ryan, Keon and Tan explore a different era of history each episode with the help of our maverick AI GameMaster.

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Shakespeare and Queen Elizabeth I feature in this episode set in 1592. Special guest Louise Banham attempts to become ruler of England by introducing the land to musical theatre. Beating the Bard to the punch, she writes Macbeth: The Musical and lures the queen into her masterplan with the promise of a role as lead lutist in her show.

After securing a face to face meeting with the formidable monarch, Banham uses her famous jazz hands to beguile and bamboozle Queen Liz into considering her cunning proposal.

Meanwhile Game Master tests the team’s pop culture knowledge with a classic PastMaster game of ‘guess who I am’.

Will Louise’s musical genius secure the path to victory or will it all end in a brutal beheading? Do you know your lute from your sackbut? And what the hell did Shakespeare mean when he called someone ‘beetle-headed’? Find out all of this and more.

PastMaster is the time-travel role-playing adventure show where Ryan, Keon and Tan explore a different era of history each episode with the help of our maverick AI GameMaster.

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Special guest Nick Horseman stars in a time travelling mission to kill Adolph Hitler before he can rise to prominence.

Adopting the moniker of Klaus Hörsmann, Nick journeys back to the Habsburg Empire in Vienna, 1911, via a log flume time machine and heads straight to a gun shop. Finding himself penniless, Hörsmann immediately gets to work bartering for a discreet but deadly weapon with which to do the deed.

After badmouthing a rival arms dealer’s business, Hörsmann gets his hands on the gun and heads straight to the local opera house to catch Wagner’s Lohengrin in the hope that young Hitler will be there.

With a plan involving a fake telegram and promises of riches in recognition of Hitler’s “great art”, Hörsmann lures the future dictator out into the open.

With pistol concealed, Hörsmann ascends to the upper echelons of the opera house, determined to see it through.

Will Hörsmann’s plan be successful? How will his actions change the course of 20th century history? And which leading actors would play Hörsmann in the films chronicling these events almost 100 years later?

PastMaster is the time-travel role-playing adventure show where Ryan, Keon and Tan explore a different era of history each episode with the help of our maverick AI GameMaster.

Get in touch with us:

Instagram 👉 @PastMasterPod (check out our AI-generated art illustrating what our adventures might have looked like)

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TikTok 👉 @PastMasterAI

Gmail 👉 pastmasterpod@gmail.com

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The gang head back to ancient Egypt, this time with a cunning plan involving poles, furs and a beatboxing cat-god...

With Keon away the team welcomes back special guest comedian and rapper Nick Horseman to take on the voice of Game Master.

The game’s difficulty setting has been dialled up with new rules to make it much stricter and more realistic and also more cutting in its criticism of the player. Ryan tries to lose the game as quickly as possible. But will ChatGPT play ball?

PastMaster is the time-travel role-playing adventure show where Ryan, Keon and Tan explore a different era of history each episode with the help of our maverick AI GameMaster.

Landing back in Egypt, this time during the reign of Rameses II in 1250 BC, Ryanardo’s appointed task is to depose the Pharaoh and install himself as ruler.

Seeking an audience with the Pharaoh, Ryanardo tries to make an aeroplane out of cats and cloth, but a local wiseman laughs in his face at the silliness of this idea. Undeterred, Ryanardo pops to the marketplace and quickly invents financial credit in order to secure some poles and fur, bizarrely convincing a trader of his trustworthiness with some beatboxing.

Using his poles and fur Ryanardo makes a cat costume in order to impersonate ancient Egyptian cat goddess Bastet, a blasphemous act that will surely end in disaster. Presented to Rameses II, Ryanardo mews and asks for a tickle under the chin before ‘performing a miracle’ and throwing a cat at the Pharaoh’s face. When even this doesn’t end in disaster, Ryanardo tries to slash at the Pharaoh with his cat claw poles.

Thrown into jail, Ryanardo breaks free and further indulges his destructive urges, threatening to fight the entire Egyptian army before making a death-defying leap from a building onto a conveniently placed pile of straw.

In a last ditch attempt to lose the game Ryanardo dons his tattered cat costume for one last assault and makes the mile-long charge to the Pharaoh’s palace. With Rameses II in his sights the Egyptian ruler steals the show by blasting Ryanardo in the chest with a lightning bolt from his magic staff.

Game Master also reveals he still hasn’t got the hang of this whole ‘guess who I am’ game yet.

Get in touch with us:

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Special guest comedian and rapper Nick Horseman stars in a wise-cracking journey to prohibition-era Chicago. With his gangster patter down to a tee and a cunning plan to get in with the local mob boss, Nick sets out to make a name for himself as the new player in town. PastMaster is the time-travel role-playing adventure show where Ryan, Keon and Tan explore a different era of history each episode with the help of our maverick AI GameMaster. Landing in the Windy City in 1926, Horseman bowls his way over to a dimly lit speakeasy before spitting whisky in the bartender’s face and smashing a glass on the floor. Having grabbed the boss’s attention, Horseman makes his play: a business proposition concerning 500 barrels of Canada’s finest whisky. After recruiting a team of the most desperate and poorest individuals imaginable, he sets out to turn these dregs into a team of crack hoodlums with the help of a magician, an ageing silver screen dame and a tired old old gunslinger. Things take a surprising turn, however, when Horseman invites Al Capone to his daughter’s wedding, creating a powder keg scenario ready for a Tommy gun-toting showdown. But whose side is Horseman on? Is he looking to plant a bullet in Capone and take over the boss’s crime empire, or will he side with Eliot Ness and the FBI? With more twists, double crosses and dubious payphone calls than a Martin Scorsese film, this episode will have you guessing until the end. As mentioned by Nick you can order a copy of The Eternal Return of Clara Hart by Louise Finch here.

Get in touch with us: Instagram 👉 @PastMasterPod (check out our AI-generated art illustrating what our adventures might have looked like) Twitter 👉 @PastMasterAI TikTok 👉 @PastMasterAI Gmail 👉 pastmasterpod@gmail.com Sign up to our newsletter 👉 https://pastmaster.beehiiv.com/subscribe to unlock goodies

Tan visits an ancient Roman amphitheatre to try and spruce up their chariot designs with some 21st-century know-how. PastMaster is the time-travel role-playing adventure show where Ryan, Keon and Tan explore a different era of history each episode with the help of our maverick AI GameMaster. The thundering of hooves, the crowd baying, and the clash of steel on steel provide the soundtrack to this week’s episode! Channelling his inner Premiership footballer, Tan baits the crowd before climbing aboard his fiery wheels and thundering around the track in a race for the ages. Game Master takes on the identity of a well-known character from pop culture, challenging the team to guess who he is, while Ryan flexes his acting muscles as the voice of Game Master. As an experiment for this week, the rules of PastMaster get a tweak, awarding the player points for good play and deducting them for errors and foolishness. Will Tan succeed in his chariot battle? Will he create a sponsorship empire? And how will his actions ripple through the ages to the present day? Tune in to find out. Relive some of Jonathan Pearce’s best moments on Robot Wars here. Here is everything we know about upcoming Hollywood sequel Gladiator II so far. And here is the Jamie Vardy playbook on baiting opposition fans after scoring a goal. A clear inspiration for Tanus Maximus. Is this trash talk all quite childish or is it just great theatre? You decide.

Get in touch with us:

Instagram 👉 @PastMasterPod (check out our AI-generated art illustrating what our adventures might have looked like) Twitter 👉 @PastMasterAI TikTok 👉 @PastMasterAI Gmail 👉 pastmasterpod@gmail.com Sign up to our newsletter 👉 https://pastmaster.beehiiv.com/subscribe to unlock goodies

We rejoin Keon (AKA Kheper) on his treacherous journey to the Egyptian underworld to see if Anubis, the god of the dead, will play ball with his theme park idea or instead extract his still-beating heart from his chest.

PastMaster is the time-travel role-playing adventure show where Ryan, Keon and Tan explore a different era of history each episode with the help of our maverick AI GameMaster.

It is the year 1400BC and with his plans for world beard domination firmly in mind, Keon must put his riddling hat on for the trial of the Sphinx, use his charisma to charm a mad pharaoh and persuade Egypt’s workforce that building yet another monument is an ‘exciting’ opportunity.

Will Keon survive? Will ‘the Kheper’ take off as an iconic beard style? Will he complete his metaphysical adventure zone? And will the Sphinx speak with a Brummy accent? Tune in to find out all of this and more.

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Sign up to our newsletter at https://pastmaster.beehiiv.com/subscribe and get the Chat GPT prompt to play your own game of PastMaster.

GameMaster gets a makeover from pithy and sarcastic to a bitter, angry old man for this beard-themed trip to ancient Egypt. The game’s difficulty level is also dialled up, with strict instructions to deduct the player’s lives as a punishment for dangerous actions. Despite the increased danger, Keon cheerfully adopts the name Kheper and heads for the land of sphinxes and pyramids where he intends to discover the secrets of the pharaohs’ beard grooming. His attention is distracted by the House of Life, however, and our hero Kheper meets a priest, learns a spell and prepares for a journey to the Egyptian Underworld. After taking a deep draft of a bitter and potentially hallucinogenic beverage Kheper finds himself at the gates to the land of the dead. Will Kheper succeed in his ambition to start a psychedelic theme park for the living or will the jackal-headed god Anubis rip him to shreds? Does this reveal Chat GPT’s take on the afterlife or is this just an AI fever dream?

PastMaster is the time-travel role-playing adventure show where Ryan, Keon and Tan explore a different era of history with the help of our AI GameMaster.

Get in touch with us:

Instagram 👉 @PastMasterPod (check out our AI-generated art illustrating what our adventures might have looked like)

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TikTok 👉 @PastMasterAI

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Tan finally meets Jesus. Picking up from the knife-edge where we left off last time, we also find out whether Tan’s plan to take over the saffron trade in Galilee circa 25AD will pay off.

PastMaster is the time-travel role-playing adventure show where Ryan, Keon and Tan explore a different era of history each episode with the help of our AI GameMaster.

With a gang of local tough-nuts and farmers now working for him and making plans to out-do rival saffron trader Mordechai at his own game, Tan takes a break from business to meet local miracle worker Jesus Christ.

Tan tries to persuade Jesus to embrace musical theatre and the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber as a way to get his message out there. He also discusses divine phenomena with the holy man and asks him if he has a favourite miracle.

Returning to his business after a philosophical and musical debate with Jesus, Tan ups the ante with a plan to set lions and death worms loose in Mordechai’s house.

Will the plan succeed or will Tan be persuaded to take a more scientific approach such as gene-editing saffron to create a better strain?

NB As promised in the show we’d like to credit Mark Nelson for his 2015 joke about the feeding of the 5,000. Still a good joke.

Get in touch with us

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Comedian Heidi Regan joins the PastMaster team for the chance to meet her hero Robin Hood.

Sent on a mission to steal the Sheriff of Nottingham’s treasure and free the Merry Men from jail, will she use stealth and cunning or brute force (or a little of both?)

Expect lots of tickling, plenty of gold and if all goes to plan a good bath and a giant celebratory bonfire in Sherwood Forest.

This is PastMaster’s debut with Claude 3.5, currently the chattiest, slickest chatbot in the game (allegedly).

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Tan journeys to the era of Jesus Christ in Galilee, circa 25AD. After getting caught stealing some bread, he forges an unlikely friendship with a spice merchant before setting out to become a saffron dealer in his own right.

With the help of his mentor he meets the fearsome merchant Mordechai to explore business opportunities around town. But things quickly turn sour and it’s not long before Tan is galloping on a stolen donkey to Mordechai’s estate to try and poach his best people before the merchant returns home.

Will Tan's business plan pay off, or will he end up locked in a Galilean dungeon awaiting the administration of justice?

This recording was partly influenced by listener Chris Mason’s request for a visit to Jesus’s time and partly by Tan’s long-harboured desire to know more about Jesus inspired by his sixth form religious studies lessons, especially the work of Geza Vermes.

Get in touch with us

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Tan visits the Jurassic era to test whether he can avoid becoming lunch and emerge victorious as leader of the dinosaurs.

Pushing the parameters of the game to its limits, Tan makes friends with dinosaurs, first crafting rudimentary armour and weapons for the great lizards before introducing them to the delights of song and dance.

Taking his lead from Spielberg’s Jurassic Park, our protagonist divides his new companions into two camps – good dinosaurs and evil ones. How does Tan communicate with his cold-blooded allies and how does he train them to obey his commands? Find out all of this and more.

This week’s episode is partly inspired by Steve Brusatte’s excellent book The Rise and Fall of Dinosaurs, which is a far more reliable source of information about the Jurassic period than PastMaster

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Instagram = @PastMasterPod (check out our AI-generated art illustrating what our adventures might have looked like)

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Special guest comedian Sunil Patel visits a brothel in the mid-15th century. Despite this indulgent opening, his savvy negotiations and surprisingly vague and generic invention soon open the way for victory. But can anyone explain what the invention known as ‘Patel’s Device’ actually does?

Bernard Cornwell’s ⁠Azincourt⁠ and Shakespeare’s Henry V are the inspiration for Sunil’s adventure.

PastMaster is the time-travel role-playing adventure show where Ryan, Keon and Tan explore a different era of history each episode with the help of our AI GameMaster.

Sunil Patel is a stand-up comedian and actor who’s appeared in This Time with Alan Partridge (BBC), Stath Lets Flats(Channel 4) and This Way Up (Channel 4). He made his standup debut on Jonathan Ross' Comedy Club (ITV) in 2020.

He wrote and presented the BBC Radio 4 series An Idiots Guide to Cryptocurrency and he is the host of Dave’s Backchatseries on Youtube. He is co-host of the podcast Slime Country.

Get in touch with us

Instagram 👉 @PastMasterPod (check out our AI-generated art illustrating what our adventures might have looked like)

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TikTok 👉 @PastMasterAI

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Ryan gaslights Charles Darwin about who really wrote On the Origin of Species and orders the scientist to give him a piggyback across town.

Using the acronym Ryland Mulchroneforth, our anti-hero heads to London during the Victorian Era where he bumps into the eminent scientist in a pub.

Just to make things more interesting Game Master this week is played by Marvin the Paranoid Android from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. And oh yes, this week we must also never say the word ‘cheese’…

Trust us, this will all make sense!

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Dragging our AI Gamemaster off to JRR Tolkien’s Middle Earth, Tan finds out how orc visitor ‘Thokk the Unthinkable’ gets on in the Shire and whether Gandalf will accept his plan to destroy the One Ring.

For a one-off game Tan takes the adventure to The Shire in Tolkien’s Middle Earth, where he tests wizard Gandalf’s tactics as well as his patience.

In the guise of friendly orc ‘Thokk the Unthinkable’, Tan proposes an alternative means of destroying the One Ring, but Gandalf becomes defensive about potential flaws in his own plan.

Will Thokk be able to change Gandalf’s mind or will he have to make do with a minor role in the fantasy epic?

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Keon explores his inner murder hobo, journeying to Denmark at the height of the Viking empire where he seeks to be worshipped as a god and to start a feud with a rival.

PastMaster is the time-travel role-playing adventure show where Ryan, Keon and Tan explore a different era of history each episode with the help of our AI GameMaster.

Heading to Denmark circa 900AD, Keon embraces the brutality of the age, styling himself as Jarl Olaf and headbutting a rival right off the bat to show how tough he is.

On a raiding voyage to England, Keon makes no bones about slicing monks in half and taking the lion’s share of the loot.

As his rival Bjorn starts to lose favour in the shadow of Jarl Olaf, Keon comes up with ever more dastardly and creative ways to discredit his adversary.

To keep everyone on their toes Ryan also inserts a ‘secret’ tweak to the game, although it doesn’t take long before Game Master lets the cat out of the bag…

No podcast about Vikings would be complete without mentioning one of the greatest ever pieces of historical fiction, The Long Ships by Frans G Bengtsson and the TV show Vikings

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Instagram = @PastMasterPod (check out our AI-generated art illustrating what our adventures might have looked like)

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Ryan give Guns N’ Roses a makeover on the lute and tries to seduce a lord’s wife. But could his animal training know-how prove the real key to success?

PastMaster is the time-travel role-playing adventure show where Ryan, Keon and Tan explore a different era of history each episode with the help of our AI GameMaster.

Materialising in a medieval marketplace, adventurer ‘Ryanardo’ tests out Johnny B Goode on the locals, catching the attention of a local bard. Introducing his new friend to the melodies of Guns N’ Roses, Ryanardo makes a name for himself in the local lord’s court before getting into hot water over said lord’s wife.

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Instagram = @PastMasterPod (check out our AI-generated art illustrating what our adventures might have looked like)

Twitter = @PastMasterAI

Gmail = pastmasterpod@gmail.com

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On our maiden voyage back in time, Keon heads to the Wild West to make a name for himself among the cowboys with a fast food franchise that promises to be finger lickin’ good.

PastMaster is the time-travel role-playing adventure show where Ryan, Keon and Tan explore a different era of history each episode with the help of our AI GameMaster.

In this episode, meeting up to play PastMaster together for the first time, Ryan, Keon and Tan discuss whether AI is ‘good or bad’, where PastMaster sits among the pantheon of roleplaying games (RPGs) and how the idea for this game sprang out of a pub chat.

Professing to know ‘nothing’ about either history or RPGs, the group’s AI-sceptic Keon dives into the adventure, heading straight for the nearest saloon (typical).

Teaming up with a mysterious criminal known as Jesse Blackridge, Keon sets his sights on creating the world’s first fast food chicken franchise. Will he succeed or shoot himself in the foot?

As a bonus we also get to hear Keon’s speculative AI venture: a hook in the style of Drake.

Get in touch with us at:

Instagram = @PastMasterPod (check out our AI-generated art illustrating what our adventures might have looked like)

Twitter = @PastMasterAI

Gmail = pastmasterpod@gmail.com

Sign up to our newsletter at https://pastmaster.beehiiv.com/subscribe 

If you could go back 10 years what would you do? Buy a bunch of bitcoin probably. What about 100 years, 200, 500? Could you survive and thrive? Or would you be burnt at the stake for being a witch?

Well now you can find out. PastMaster is the time-travel adventure show with a twist. Each week our hosts Ryan, Tan and Keon explore a different era of history with the help of our maverick and benevolent AI GameMaster.

It’s simple. We give the AI the rules of the game and then it acts as our narrator and guide. Will it keep things historically accurate? Will we become masters of the past? Will any of it make any sense?

Tune in and find out!

GameMaster Claude is back and is as weird as ever!

Tan has always wanted to return to feudal Japan to meet some Samurai warriors. He finally gets his chance, but will GameMaster let him play? Tan finds himself in a battle against the Samurai warriors and GameMaster itself, who insists on inserting into the story with main-character energy.

Who can win in a battle of wit and brawn?

In concocting a special prompt for this Claude-powered episode Ryan inserted one simple line: "GameMaster must stay in character at all times. The character you must personify is a cockney gangsta with a perchance for the dramatic."

Well, boy was he dramatic!

ChatGPT rival Claude by Anthropic has been causing waves since the release of Claude 3.5. Claiming to be the fastest and most intelligent model we've been putting it through its paces. It certainly seems to have a different flavour than regular playthroughs.

Let us know what you think. Get in touch with us:

Instagram 👉 @PastMasterPod (check out our AI-generated art illustrating what our adventures might have looked like)

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 to unlock goodies

Aliens. Living amongst us. Possibly.

What does GameMaster think? Surely with access to all the knowledge on the internet, our AI-powered guide has parsed the data, found the patterns and come up with a convincing theory?

Comedian and actor Sunil Patel (Alice & Jack (C4) The Witchfinder (BBC), This Time with Alan Partridge (BBC), Stath Lets Flats (C4))  joins us again to explore the murky goings-on inside Area 51.

Get in touch with us:

Instagram 👉 @PastMasterPod (check out our AI-generated art illustrating what our adventures might have looked like)

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This week Keon takes the reins to explore 1970s Medellín, Colombia. The mission: Become Pablo Escobar’s right-hand man with a 50/50 split of all the takings. Ambitious as ever, but Keon has… a unique plan to get his way.

First, how do you prove your worth to the biggest cartel leader in history? A lavish party may be in order...

Nick Horseman joins us once again to lend his voice to GameMaster, which returns to ChatGPT after our crazy diversion to Claude last week.

Get in touch with us:

Tell us what you think of this week's episode.

Instagram 👉 @PastMasterPod (check out our AI-generated art illustrating what our adventures might have looked like)

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GameMaster - the AI-powered narrator of PastMaster adventures - gets a makeover in today's episode.

ChatGPT has been benched and replaced by a competing tool known as Claude.ai

We've given Claude the same starting prompt we usually feed to ChattyG. So how will it compare? Well, it turns out Claude brings a unique energy to the proceedings!

Friend of the show Nick Horseman returns to the hot seat for another crack at the past, only this time he's being guided by a radically different (possibly insane) GameMaster.

Heading back to the medieval times to try his hand at a spot of falconry and alchemy. What could possibly go wrong?

Get in touch with us:

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Brace yourself. We're heading to rural Derbyshire in 1813 with Alice Nagle and Kim Marsh from ⁠@fetchsmellingsalts⁠ for a romp through Regency England's high society.

While all eyes are on the debutantes and bachelors, it is the wily elder generation calling the shots. Alice and Kim take on the roles of pushy aunts with a mission – can they find an eligible bachelor for their nieces?

Expect a full helping of dashing bachelors, an ensemble of blushing debutantes and lashings of devious matriarchs as two rival families seek to snare the most eligible young men in the county.

Get in touch with us:

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In our first-ever live show, Ryan tries to persuade a boatful of explorers that he is a deity. Plus our live studio audience attempts to "bake a gun" in revolutionary France.

If you were sent back in time you could persuade people of all sorts of things given your advanced knowledge of future events. But could you persuade them to worship you as a deity?

This is the victory condition set out by GameMaster in today's episode of PastMaster. 

It turns out GameMaster (powered once again by Claude) had some pretty specific ideas on what it takes to become a god. There were even progress graphs to prove it. 

Setting sail with Christopher Columbus on the quest to discover the new world, Ryan planned to convince the crew of his godhood by being extremely stylish and telling everybody to wash their hands.

Elsewhere, we unleashed our live studio audience on their very own play-through of PastMaster. 

This episode was recorded Live at the Cheerful Earful Podcast festival.

Instagram 👉 ⁠*@PastMasterPod*⁠ (check out our AI-generated art illustrating what our adventures might have looked like)

Twitter 👉 ⁠*@PastMasterAI*⁠

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