Sourcesheet link: 
<a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kLWjTHPxmD1NDESzpElZlS88TUbFxJYGN7CRLyzekLs/edit">https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kLWjTHPxmD1NDESzpElZlS88TUbFxJYGN7CRLyzekLs/edit</a>
 
This episode will discuss:
<ul>
 <li>The Geonim as heads of an intellectual empire
</li>
 <li>The uneven but inexorable decline of the Geonic hegemony 
</li>
 <li>Periodization: how do we know when an era is over?
</li>
 <li>How Rishonim came to replace the Geonim 
</li>
 <li>The story of “the four captives”
</li>
 <li>The city of Kairouan and its scholars
</li>
 <li>Two “founders’ fathers”: R. Hushiel, father of R. Hananel, and R. Yaakov, father of R. Nissim Gaon
</li>
</ul>

R Hananel I: The Man and His Methods

In-depth discussions of the "Rishonim" and their books, the Medieval rabbinic scholars who transmitted Torah learning from the eleventh to fifteenth centuries. A bit of history, a bit of bibliography, but a lot of Torah. For more info and resources see https://sites.google.com/view/rishonim/