
Struck Down In His Prime At 90 Years Young
From It‘s Probably (not) Aliens! by Tristan Johnson & Scott Niswander
April 21, 2026 · 1h 23m · Season 5 · Episode 153
About this episode
The season premiere features corrections on various topics including Erich von Däniken's death, Ash Ketchum's retirement, and discussions on historical literacy and theological incompatibilities.
Season premiere corrections episode! Erich von Däniken is dead (despite what the Ancient Aliens community assured us about his extraordinary health), Ash Ketchum retired, and nobody told Tristan, and a listener named Leif has been emailing corrections since the Biden administration. This episode: batteries, Thailand's impressive colonial-era diplomacy, why calling medieval people historically illiterate sells them short, the difference between Zoroastrian Mithra and Roman Mithras, the scholarly consensus on whether Josephus actually mentioned Jesus, and why Christianity and Nazism are theologically incompatible, but that's never stopped anyone. Plus: the oldest known piece of writing is basically a one-star Yelp review, Tristan wasted a week researching AI-generated slop, and Scott wants to play Taps on air horns. Get new episodes early and support the show on Patreon and Nebula! Subscribe to It's Probably (not) Aliens for weekly episodes about cool ancient history! And give us a 5-star review if you have the time. It really helps us out! Tristan Johnson Bluesky | Twitter | YouTube Scott…
People in this episode
Hosts: Tristan Johnson, Scott Niswander
Topics covered
- corrections
- ancient history
- Christianity
- Nazism
- medieval literacy
- Zoroastrianism
- AI research
Keywords
- Erich von Däniken
- Ash Ketchum
- medieval people
- Zoroastrian Mithra
- Josephus
- Christianity
- Nazism
- AI-generated content
- one-star Yelp review
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Patreon, Nebula
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