Prehuman Podcasts

In this episode, the massive, rapacious king power lizards of the Cretaceous are finally taken off the board by an asteroid. We trace the origins and progress of the skulking night vermin that are unleashed in their absence. These night vermin, with their whiskers and fur and fancy new brains, become the superpowers of the Cenozoic (our current era…

Continuing with the origins of everything that is, I present the history of planet Earth, from its birth to the age of mammals. Included: How old is the earth? What are the oldest rocks ever found? How old is life itself? When did multicellular organisms arise? When did life leave the sea for land? What percentage of species has survived until the …

In this episode: 9 billion years of prehistory made dangerously accessible The broadest, easily understood, fascinating ideas of the "Big Bang" Mysteries of the Big Bang What can we theorize? Where do our theories fail? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the Big Bang model? What are the philosophical and identity implications of Big Bang Cosm…

Attention: This is the episode that started the podcast -- the story of the maxim Know Thyself, the Prophetess at Delphi, Apollo and the python, Zeus and the omphalos, and the much more ancient Egyptian origins of the injunction. What did it mean to the ancients? Is it still relevant today, or has it cone the way of alchemy and phrenology?…

In this brief announcement I discuss the philosophy and rationale for content choices and discuss a few changes coming to the podcast. It is my belief that these changes will add value to my listeners, albeit indirectly, as they will enable me to produce more content and extend the reach of the podcast. Thank you for all your support. I am excited …

From the new Studio P, provided by Peyton, comes the death of Poe. In a sad case of life imitating art, Edgar Allen Poe, the master of the macabre and father of the mystery story presents us with a real-life masterpiece of both genres in his own tragic death. Poe boarded a train, disappeared for days, and turned up in a gutter outside a tavern/poll…

Alexander was a prodigy in all things military and administrative, as unaccountably great in his own field as Mozart was in music or Michelangelo in art. By age 32, he had conquered the mightiest empire ever known and extended the boundaries of his kingdom to the edges of the known world. Against men, beasts, and entire armies, Alexander never lost…

At the age of 44, Friedrich Nietzsche, one of the most influential philosophers and writers of his age, suffered a psychotic breakdown. For the next 11 years until his death from pneumonia, he evidenced profound dementia and was totally dependent on the care of others. For many years Nietzsche's decline was blamed on syphilis, but lately that diagn…

Even King Tut had a mother. Once. And not for very long, it seems. This episode is actually several mysteries in one. Who was King Tut's mother? Why did she die, esecially so young? Was it sickness, childbirth, accident, or murder most foul? A story of 18th Dynasty Egypt, tomb robbers, trauma before and after death, sneaky priests and vile heretics…

Tutankhamen died at 19 years old. No one is sure why or how. His tomb, his mummy, and his DNA offer some tantalizing clues, but no definitive answer. Here is the life and death of one of the best known mummies, from one of the least known Pharohs, in ancient history; a dive deeper than any other podcast is capable or willing to take. It is a tale o…

The third and final member of the Milesian school, once considered the weak little sister of the philosphers, now appreciated in all his Air-udite glory. This is his story, as we have it, which may or may not correlate roughly to some things he actually said or did. As a synthesizer of the works of Thales and Anaximander, he held onto the best and …

Today we take a long, hard look at the great Anaximander, the second member of the Milesian School, and possibly one of the most influential thinkers of all time. The first metaphysician, the greatest astronomer of his age, the teller of time and builder of colonies, the man who dared disagree with his teacher and mentor and ended up transcending h…

In this episode we begin a series on the beginnings of "Western" thought and science. We start with the catastrophy of the Mycenean Collapse, the Greek Dark Ages, and the Archaic Age, then continue with a discussion of Miletus and its most revered citizen, Thales. Thales has left his mark on the planet with his work. As a brilliant sage whose ideas…

Today, part 2 of the Dyatlov Pass mystery. What killed the 9 expert, fit trekkers on Dyatlov Pass in 1959? Is the mystery finally solved? In this episode we dig deep and look hard into what we can know about what happened to the ill-fated expedition. FF to 53:45 if you want the TL;DR version of the episode. Or, if you want to know the why behind th…

This is actually the story of the Dyatlov Pass deaths of 1959 -- an event that remains mysterious and controversial to this day. 9 healthy Russian Athletes on a ski trip die under stange circumstances. The location and conditon of the bodies is both distrubing and bizarre. Many conspiracy, supernatural, and naturalistic explanations have been attem…

There are some things you just have to know to keep up with the headlines. Things that, in some cases, provide crucial insights into who we are and how we and the universe we are part of work. It might be that a big picture concept of the fundamental building blocks of reality is one of those things. If you, like me, really want to understand somet…

Today we cover the story of Charles Whitman, the erstwhile normal and successful young scout, altar boy, and marine sharpshooter who, in the course of 24 hours, killed his mother and wife, climbed the tower at UT Austin, and sniped at innocent civilians for an hour and a half. After he was killed, his autopsy revealed, possibly, a structure that mi…

A late entry into the worst people ever compendium, Tomas de Torquemada, the first and greatest Grand Inquisitor of The Spanish Inquisition. A man who began with a broad national mandate to root out heretics and insincere converses, and ended so loathed by everyone in Spain that he needed armed escorts wherever he went. A zealot so intransigent tha…

In this episode we conclude our series on the inquisition with the story of Joan of Arc with her three "trials:" 1. The Examination at Poitiers (link to a summary: https://www.jeanne-darc.info/trials-index/the-examination-at-poitiers/) 2. The 1431 Trial of Condemnation before the Inquisition (link to fulll transcripts: https://www.jeanne-darc.info/…

Here it is: the pious childhood, the voices, the missions, the uncanny miraculous insights, the fearless warring, the taunting and threatening, the temper, the visions and prophesies, and the prodigious feats of the Maid of Orleans. According to Twain, this was far and away the most amazing human being to ever live, and that is saying an awful lot.…

In this episode we set the stage for the story of Joan of Arc, one of the most enigmatic and fascinating people in history. To understand Joan we have to understand the Hundred Years' War, the festering quagmire into which she was born, and which she helped put an end to. Herein are dragons and whirlwinds, blood-soaked Vikings, slaughtered monks, b…

They are one of the two most implicated groups in the history of conspiracy theories. But their real history is, if less mysterious and ominous, just as unsettling. From a humble beginning, to becoming the richest order in Christendom, to being imprisoned, tortured, persecuted and executed. This is the story of the Knights Templar.…

We continue our series on the Inquisition with the campaigns to suppress the Waldensians. These "Poor Men (and Women!) of Lyon" were known for their sandals and their beards; but mostly for their Christian piety, humility, and charity. So of course they had to die. And die they did, in the tens, hundreds, and thousands.…

In this episode we begin a full immersion experience into that most infamous of offices, The Inqusition. From the forces at play in the persecution society where it began, through a few early burnings, to the papal bull that started it all, we refuse to shrink from staring it in all its repressive sanctimony. We also cover some of the early heretic…

In this episode Steve Rathje, social psychologist specializing in social media and political polarization, explains to us why we are prone to conspiratorial thinking, and how we got into the state we find ourselves in Western societies. Virality, engagement, fake news, motivated reasoning, negativity bias, and much more are covered the way only Ste…