Episodios

  • Episode 295-The Most Complicated Machine Ever Built

    Episode 295-The Most Complicated Machine Ever Built
    Oct 3 2025
    Episode 295-The Most Complicated Machine Ever Built by Dr. Steven Shepard
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    19 m
  • Episode 294-Serendipity and Curiosity in Monterey

    Episode 294-Serendipity and Curiosity in Monterey
    Oct 3 2025
    I spent a great deal of my life in Monterey, California, most of it under the water while teaching SCUBA diving. I recently discovered a Monterey story that held me spellbound. It begins like this: A marine biologist, a mythologist, and a novelist walk into a bar...
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    11 m
  • Episode 293-Homage to Greatness Revisited

    Episode 293-Homage to Greatness Revisited
    Oct 3 2025
    An homage to Jane Goodall and others like her. This is a repost from 2021.
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    15 m
  • Episode 292-The Lessons of History

    Episode 292-The Lessons of History
    Jul 24 2025
    This essay contains an important story for the ages. Given current events, and the absolute truth that history does repeat, the lesson is plain, and chilling. 1492 and the years leading up to it in Medieval Spain, were times that should not be repeated. And yet…
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    14 m
  • Episode 291-The Dance of Curiosity, Awe and Wonder

    Episode 291-The Dance of Curiosity, Awe and Wonder
    Jul 24 2025
    Sometimes, curiosity, awe and wonder are the only tools we have. But when it comes to the majesty and magnitude of the night sky, of all the things about it we can’t possibly comprehend, they’re actually the best tools we can have. In this episode we talk about the magic and wonder that happens late at night, when it’d just you, the sky, and pure awe.
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    23 m
  • Episode 290-The Research Myth

    Episode 290-The Research Myth
    Jul 24 2025
    I recently had a conversation about technology’s impact on research today. It’s an argument I could make myself—that technology has resulted in access to more data and information. For example, before the invention of moveable type and the printing press, the only books that were available were chained to reading tables in Europe’s great cathedrals—they were that rare and that valuable. BUT: Does technology give me access to BETTER data and information? I believe the answer to that is no, for a very specific reason: It leaves out the all-important human element in the knowledge molecule, the element that makes sense of the data and then converts it to information. Have a listen.
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    8 m
  • Episode 289-The Generational Blame Game

    Episode 289-The Generational Blame Game
    Jul 6 2025
    It’s human nature for each generation to criticize the generation that preceded it, often using them as a convenient scapegoat for all that’s wrong in the world. The current large target is my own generation, the Baby Boomers. I recently overheard a group of young people—mid-20s—complaining at length about their belief that the Boomers constitute a waste of flesh who never contributed much to society. Respectfully, I beg to differ; this is my response, along with a plea to ALL generations to think twice about that conclusion.
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    23 m
  • Episode 288-The Wonderful, Terrible Gift of Science

    Episode 288-The Wonderful, Terrible Gift of Science
    Jul 1 2025
    Musings on science, philosophy, and the limits of human knowledge.
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    36 m