Know Thyself

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 his theories, is here presented to you in all his glory. Such as it is.    

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 were the beginnings of science, he helped set a trajectory for all future generations of philosophers and scientists.     

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 the what, we spend the better part of an hour building our case -- for the intrepid listener only! Guaranteed to be the most detailed study of the incident available by Podcast, or you get doble your money back! Enjoy! Picture of "The Yeti" from Tibo's camera: https://dyatlovpass.com/camera-thibeaux-brignolle  (look at image 17)

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 attempted with varying levels of acceptance.  None accounts for every fact.   Today, the events and people in this riveting mystery. Next episode, the theories and explanations. See the group's pictures and read their diaries.  View maps and 3D models of the scene. Check the timeline.  This website is an excellent and enthralling resource: https://dyatlovpass.com

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 something about physics, but find yourself thwarted at every turn by boring, overly-technical, confusing, and poorly organized presentations, allow The History of Being Human Podcast to throw its hat into the ring. What follows is my own boring, confusing presentation of some key ideas, presented as only a naive mind can.  All I can say in my defense is that you really just have to know this.  Or not.

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 might or might not bear on one of the biggest mysteries about humanity -- are we free to choose our own actions, or are our actions decided by factors outside our voluntary control? A somewhat disturbing story about the evil perpetrated by one very disturbed young man, so caveat auditor.  https://youtu.be/Q1uTdkQwsBk

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 that the Pope tried to find a way to get rid of him.   This is the story of Torquemada and the beginnings and glory days of The Spanish Inquisition.  Our last episode on the Inquisition, and good riddance to it!  

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/trial-of-condemnation-index/) 3. The Trial of Nullification in the 1450s (link to full transcripts: https://www.jeanne-darc.info/trial-of-nullification/)  

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.  Wherever she stands on the ladder of greatness, Joan was a force wholly new and utterly unique in nature. One for the Ages. This is her life.

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, broken treaties, lunatic kings, conquering dukes, glorious victories and crushing defeats, assassinations and treachery, conniving men and women, and war, war, war. In short, it was the last world you would expect a peasant girl to rise to greatness in.  But rise she would...  

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 heretical movements and groups that caught the -- very unwanted -- attention of the ecclesiastical inquisition.  Finally, the Albigensian Crusade gets off to a brutal and sadistic start, as the Pope calls another crusade, this time against the Cathars -- in what historians call the first ideological genocide in history. Artwork by Ian Armstrong

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 Steve can explain them. A long overdue episode 24 of HBH. But hey, it's summer, and we can finally travel, so it's better late than never.            

In this episode I speak to Professor Jan Bremer about human sacrifice. We touch on Greek, Roman, Maya, Indian, Aztec, Druid, Egyptian, Chinese, and other instantiations of this most intentionally terrifying of all practices. Who were the victims? How common was it? What motivated it? The answers, from Prof. Bremer, were suprising. I will not say he is a human sacrifice skeptic, but he believes it was less common and less costly than sensationalized accounts would lead us to believe.   Art by Ian Armstrong Music Icy Vindur by A. Himitsu    

Conclusion (at last) of a three-part episode on the ways our perceptions and processing distort reality.  For the stalwart (and patient) seekers of knowledge only. 0:00  Groupthink 6:13   Halo Effect 10:41  Just World Fallacy 17:21  Negativity Bias 22:16  Optimism and Pessimism Bias 27:19   Reactance 31:44  Self-Serving Bias 34:41  Sunk Cost Fallacy 39:40  The Spotlight Effect 40:51  The Dunning-Krueger Effect as you never knew it   Art: Ian Armstrong          

Today I begin a pedantic journey into the tragicomic ways our perceptions and judgments are altered and distorted by our own cognitive processes -- goofy, heartbreaking, and humorous all at once,  Index of topics included: 0:00    Intro 04:52   Anchoring Bias 08:59   Availability Heuristic 13:25   Backfire Effect 16:05   Barnum Effect 19:45   Belief Bias 23:06   Bystander Effect 27:22  Confirmation Bias and Belief Perseverance                Including Wm. Flinders-Petrie vs the Pyramidologists 33:56   Curse of Knowledge 35:10   Declinism aka Old Fartism  36:49   Framing Effects 40:06   Fundamental Attribution Error (Salience of the Actor)            Empty Boats   I will finish the topic in a few weeks, but in order to not bore you to death with this laundry list, I will interject a few historical vignettes between now and then.      

In which we continue to Dumbest things in history series by looking at some of the glitches in us that make them possible.  And also that they are not the result of our lizard brain, because we don't have one. In this episode, we cover conspiracy thinking and theories and the  apophenia that makes them possible, including pareidolia, the gambler's fallacy, motivated reasoning, and of course our ability to talk ourselves into things through repetition.  

A bad decision for the ages--welcoming a pretentious narcissistic ignoramus into your family to weaken your already precarious hold on power, ignoring all warnings and thumbing your nose at the public outrage it engendered.   And worse, taking said lecher's advice on all matters, sacred and secular, because he claimed it came from God himself.  It sounds like a path to disaster, as indeed it was. In this episode we uncover what can be known about the life and strange death of Grigori Yefimovich Novykh, aka Rasputin, the so-called Mad Monk of Siberia and his tragic relationship to Tsar Nicolas II and his family.  Cover Art by Ian Armstrong    

This is a release of an interview I did a year and a half ago, but have not released due to some technical -- and technique -- difficulties. Despite that, I have always wanted to clean it up as much as possible and release it, in large part because Dr. Tiesler is a world renowned expert on the topic and was very generous to grant the interview.