Part 1: The most tribal of tribes, the Sentinelese of North Sentinel Island We don't know much about them. We don't know what they call themselves, what they think the world or universe is like, what they believe about the rest of humanity. We don't know how they are organized, what they worship, how they see right and wrong. What we do know is tha…

Hitler was a failure who achieved the opposite of nearly all of his stated intentions. But was he insane as well? His life and legacy might argue he was, but what do the experts say? If he was insane, what was the diagnosis? And if he was not insane, how do you account for his actions? Was he a meth head, dragon chaser, narcissist, psychopath, schi…

He's one of the most reviled people in Western history -- a man whose cruelty, jealousy, and violence are proverbial. And yet his legacy is much more nuanced, his person more complicated than most of us know. One thing that is not in question is that he died a miserable death; in pain, angry, and resentful. Was it, as Josephus said, divine justice?…

I have released my first TouTube video and this is the audio -- see the episode here: https://youtu.be/uVfn5Ar1rmg?si=e3TE_6tCWEuQxf7h Schrodinger's Cat Quick and Easy Yes, this is based on a longer podcast episode -- but hey, you've got to start somwhere!By Noel Armstrong

The OG, greatest generation of Human ever! At least if your metric is a dogged determination to keep existing. For 2 million years these prehistoric hominins wandered far and wide, high and low, filling every available lakeshore and riverbed. What can we know about them? Their looks, abilities, traits? Did they use fire? Language? Clothing? Where d…

This week I wander off the topic of Life Extension (more next episode) to take advantage of an opportunity to interview an anthropologist about the White Sands footprints. Not since the Laetoli Australopithecus prints has a set of human footprints rocked the world of paleontology like those found in White Sands, New Mexico. Studies have dated these…

It is time to take a trip to that Undiscovered Country and visit our greatest teacher. How long do we live, how long did we live, and why don't we just keep on going? Never mind that we do the world and our gene pool a great service by only taking up space for a finite time, what are the chances we can extend our time for a while? Indefinitely?…

In this episode we cover the underpinnings of the either/or, cause-then-effect, deterministic, distance-separates-things, no-info-travels-faster-than-light, orderly world of classical physics. It is the world inhabited by such luminaries as Newton and Einstein. Then we descend into the merely probabilistic, action-at-a-distance, neither/both world …

To paraphrase Richard Feynman: If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don't understand quantum mechanics. Along the same lines, if you have made sense of Schrödinger's Cat thought experiment, you don't understand it. But that's not to say it can't be explained. Which is exactly what we do in this episode of the history of being human - …

At Long Last - Pilate's Old Question Will Get an Answer!By Noel Armstrong

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…