Know Thyself

In this episode we learn that we are tough to kill and hard to keep alive. Within our sphere we are durable and resilient, but that sphere is very narrow indeed. We survive catastrophes, searing heat, crippling injuries, and seemingly mortal wounds. But could we survive in any other time and place than here and now? This is an open question.   Artwork: Oz by Ian Armstrong Music: Icy Vindur by A Himitsu 

Our relationship with microorganisms is *ahem* complicated...mostly symbiotic, but often combative and, yes, fatal. In this episode I speak with a physician on the front lines of the battle to the death between viruses, amoebas, and bacteria and their human victims.   Dr. Mark Crisplin in an infectious disease doctor in Portland, OR, and the author of a bi-weekly blog and several books. He is also and app-maker and an award-winning podcaster, creator of the now discontinued QuackWatch series and the Persiflager's Puscast. We speak on a wide range of topics, including which infectious diseases have killed the most people in history, how they did it, which ones are still a threat now and in the future, a virus so deadly that no one has ever recovered from it, whether ebola is a world-historic threat, resistance to antibiotics and the coming post-antibiotic world, Abraham Lincoln's possible syphilis, and the disease that is wiping out Tasmanian Devils. The picture Dr. Crislip paints is in some ways admittedly bl

The Adapt or Die Series goes Viral... Egyptians, Hittites, Athenians, Romans -- outbreak after outbreak Variola major has been a pox on our house from time immemorial. No other disease has weakened and crippled empires and wiped entire peoples off the earth like smallpox. It killed 400-500 million in the 20th Century alone. And now, through a millennium-long effort of blowing scab powder, scraping lesions, and really listening to dairy maids, it's gone. Almost.     Artwork: Oz by Ian Armstrong

The puking flea apocalypse! This is one of the rare events in history where the death toll is constantly being revised HIGHER as new data comes in. By recent estimates, possibly 40% of THE WORLD killed by the Great Plague. What was it like to live during the end of the world? What did the dying -- and those who remained alive -- experience?  How did people understand what was happening? Who did they burn and torture? In this episode are 1st hand accounts of the Black Death. A blow-by-blow recounting of the havoc one particular bacteria has wrought on humanity.  And, or course, the way in which the human imagination is capable to taking a bad situation and turning it into something truly ghastly and despicable. Famine, pestilence, maudlin displays of self-mutilation, cruelty in the guise of piety, and, yes, nobility and heroism.  Welcome to Europe during the Crisis of the Late Middle Ages.   Graphic: Oz by Ian Armstrong

Where did the plague that ravaged Europe in the mid-1300's come from? How did it get there? Today we begin a three episode series on the Great Black Death Plague of Europe that killed millions and rewrote history. We stare unblinking into the face of arguably the worst catastrophe in the history of humanity.  Herein you will hear of flying corpses, the dawn of germ warfare, where some of the deadliest diseases known to man hang out, and why one English Princess never made it to her own wedding. In the Next Episode we will cover Plague Life. Finally, the third Plague episode will cover the collateral damage to societies and the social repercussions of the Plague. Yikes. Note: There were some annoying issues with the audio of the episode that will be corrected in the next episode. Cover Art: Oz by Ian Armstrong

In which we begin our "Adapt or Die" Series. The Byzantine empire was under attack, and tens of thousands of people in Constantinople were dying every week. It wasn't the Vandals or the Ostragoths, it was a disease that brought terror and death on a massive scale. Even the Great Justinian himself is not spared from the illness. Corpse halls, ghost ships, headless sailors, plague-ridden serpents, fever dreams and apocalyptic visions, and the wrath of God. We begin the episode with an intro to our complex relationship to one of the most ancient of all life forms. If you want to skip all bacteria stuff, The Plague of Justinian begins at 14:30

The conclusion to the worst people ever series winds up falling to Godwin's Law. This is one of those rare cases where cliche, popular opinion, and received knowledge happen to be absolutely right: Hitler was as bad as human beings get. Aggressor and instigator of world's most deadly war. Instigator of thuggery and riots. Murderer of former friends. Head of the coldest, most clinical and industrial, act of mass murder in history. Prancing ranting provocateur. Mama's boy.    

The Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755 and The Holocaust  What do these events have in common? They were both seminal events that challenged two different eras relationship to, and understanding of, evil.  Today I speak with Dr. Susan Neiman, director of The Einstein Forum, devotee of the enlightenment, moral crusader (well, sort of?), and author of "Evil in Modern Thought: An Alternative History of Philosophy." Link: https://www.amazon.com/Evil-Modern-Thought-Alternative-Philosophy/dp/0691168504 We speak about the way evil shapes human actions and understanding of the world.    Pre-order her new book: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/learning-from-the-germans-susan-neiman/1129556836?ean=9780374184469 Image: Oz by Ian Armstrong

The Real Life Big Brother that brought fear, suspicion, and distrust to the lives of 200 million people.  A man who believed you should kill your enemies, but kill your friends first. He demanded suppression, repression, execution, deportation, and propaganda on an empiric scale.  A man so vain that showing a picture of him with his blemishes could put you on his list of enemies. He sent squads to ice-axe murder a rival. His final activity as leader was to plan another glorious show-trial terror campaign against, get ready for it, Jewish doctors. This one couldn't die soon enough.      

The first English settlement in the New World was *ahem* less than successful. You've seen the Disney version. Now hear the real story, which is so much better. Greed, incompetence, flayings, drownings, salted wife, thumb screws and executions, boiled saddles, cracked skulls, gunpowder burns, shipwrecks and mutiny, rats and cats and serpents, and many other "things which seame incredible." High drama, now recovered in the long lost kickoff to the cannibalism series.     Graphic: Oz by Ian Armstrong      

A man in whom there is much to admire. Except for his pioneering studies in mass genocide, I guess. And all the gratuitous violence, of course. And the fact that he killed and displaced so many humans that the earth's climate changed. How many, you ask? I'll see you Iron Man's 5% and raise you 5% more. Enough to make him the most prolific killer of humans the world has ever seen. Why not number 1 all time worst, you ask?  It's because we have to make allowance for the fact that, after all, these people did make him angry.

Can science tell us right from wrong?  Can it serve as a foundation for morality? Sam Harris believes it can. David Hume said it can’t almost 300 years ago     Note!!! This is a break from "The Worst People Ever" Series. Sam Harris is not, to my knowledge, anywhere close to one of the worst people in history.   Instead, his ideas on morality, such as they are, are critiqued.  

Dissolute, drunken, perverted and depraved. A man who went on "violence binges" every time he got wasted, which was all the time; and whose actions were considered beyond the pale by almost all other Nazis. Meet the 4th Worst Homo sapiens sapiens of all time, a man you might not have ever heard of, but who you will now find hard to forget. Although I do not catalog his atrocities in explicit detail (there are plenty of places you can find that) the subject matter is mature. And revolting.      Cover Art: Oz by Ian Armstrong

This festering bubo in the armpit of humanity was the "medical director" of the infamous Japanese Unit 731.  In pursuit of the deadliest possible biological warfare agent, and with a hearty dose of sheer sadistic curiosity, he performed his experiments in the spirit of true egalitarianism: on prisoners of war; on Chinese, Soviet, Indian, British and American troops; on civilians in the surrounding countryside. On anyone he could get his hands on. Caveat Auditor: This man's deeds are so odious that it's painful to research them and difficult to hear them. Not kidding.   Cover Art: Oz by Ian Armstrong    

Meet the one-man plague, the skull-stacker, the maker of incendiary camels, a man whose coffin curse is worse than any mummy because it actually panned out. In the annals of history, there have been very few people who accomplished what this man did. Too bad this genius was also an all-around dismal excuse for a human being.      

We take a well-earned break from the worst people in history to speak about the factors that influence what is best in us. Dr. Paul Zak is a renowned and prolific public intellectual, author, corporate advisor, and researcher. His groundbreaking work on the role of oxytocin in sociality has been profoundly and broadly influential.  In this interview we discuss the role of oxytocin in moral [read:pro-social] behavior, how it is released, and the significant life benefits that accrue from the behaviors it engenders. I raise Dr. Zak's hackles asking about psychopathy among corporate CEOs and question him about potentially contrary effects of oxytocin release.  Dr. Zak responds and teaches with characteristic grace and practical wisdom. I typically do my best to avoid sharing any kind of practical or useful knowledge with my audience. I am afraid I failed splendidly in this episode. Dr. Zak is famous: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_J._Zak And handsome: http://pauljzak.com/ And respected: https://www.ted.com/t

It's hard to argue with the top-ten status of these two horrors.  A scorned, vindictive, spiteful, misogynistic, brutal sadist. A loving wife and devoted mother, who also happened to get aroused by killing on a world-historic level. Both with vast piles of wealth and unchecked control over their victims. Both so powerful as to be almost untouchable. Sounds like a pair of nightmares in real life.     Cover Art: Oz by Ian Armstrong

In this episode I speak with a philosopher of evil, Todd Calder, PhD. Although more seraphic surfer than demonic, Todd wrote the article on the concept of evil in the Stanford Internet Encyclopedia of Evil: The Concept of Evil He has also authored numerous scholarly articles and presented at conferences and symposia on the topic, and is currently working on a book-length project "The Concept of Evil." See his CV and a selected bibliography here: Todd Calder CV Todd addresses whether such a thing as evil exists, what relevance it has or doesn't currently, why some want the whole term abolished and others want it rehabilitated, whether we can commit evil when trying to do good, if there can be evil without harm, whether ignorance of the consequences absolves you from evil acts, and, the question you are all hoping for an answer to:  was Thanos evil?

I didn't want to place him on this list.  But what choice did I have? Beloved national hero or sadistic monster. It depends on who you ask. If you ask a circa 1830 history teacher you will get one answer. If you ask the people he set his dogs on, the slaves he burned alive when they tried to escape, or the Spanish colonists he whipped to death, you might get a different one. http://columbusfourvoyages.com/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/columbus-confusion-about-the-new-world-140132422/ http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/40/183.html http://library.umac.mo/ebooks/b13617424.pdf

In this shocking, baffling, and powerful episode, Laura Johnston Kohl gives us an insider's look into Jonestown. She shares her interactions with Jim Jones -- his sick manipulations, twisted ambitions, bizarre shaming meetings, his craving for power and control, his creepy dark glasses, his chimpanzee, his suicide practice runs, and culminates with the fatal events of November 18, 1978. Some elements of this podcast might be too intense for children. Laura's Book: Jonestown Survivor Her webpage: www.jonestownsurvivor.com Like her on Facebook: Laura Johnston KOHL   Thank You Laura for an amazing, heartfelt, and wise interview. Cover Art: Oz by Ian Armstrong