Sleep and ASMR by The French Whisperer

What could space colonization in the next few decades look like, if it ever happens? Is it possible and does it make sense to establish bases on the Moon, mine asteroids, or build a "star bridge", also known as a space elevator? These are some of the questions I will tell you about in this episode. We will talk about the limitations of rockets, high-performance materials such as carbon nanotubes, what asteroids and the Moon are made of, why helium-3 could be a strategic resource, and many more things. Timestamps: 0:00 Near-Space Colonization 1:04 Limitations of Rockets 9:50 Space Elevator 19:19 High-Performance Materials and Construction 32:43 Space Mining 42:40 Colonization of the Moon 49:22 Helium-3 59:19 Lunar Base Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Let's go back to Prehistory tonight! Behavioral modernity is a concept created to describe a series of traits and behaviors that our species, Homo Sapiens, adopted over the past 100,000 years. The list of these traits, their timelines, their maps and the way archaeological records reflects them are still debated among paleontologists and paleoanthropologists. However, there is no doubt the phenomenon is real, and in this episode I tell you about the concept of behavioral modernity itself, its manifestations (burials, figurative art, long distance transportation of resources, better blades and tools...) and what could have triggered it. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What is this subjective experience, this awareness of existence, that we call consciousness? In tonight's episode, we will examine some of the aspects of this philosophical, scientific and spiritual question. Is consciousness a binary thing, or is it a kind of continuum with different "levels"? Do animals experience a degree of consciousness and how can it be infered of measured? Is it reductible to biology, is it the product of the treatment of information, is it something immaterial and detached from the physical world? Could an AI acquire consciousness from a silicon substrate, and if yes, what would be the pre-conditions and consequences? These are some of the questions we will try to answer, or at least understand better. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

For tonight, I take you to two "lost" cities, because they were deserted or replaced with another one, but their stories are windows on chapters of human history. First we will go to Mycenae, a city-state and palace from the second millenium BC, that represents well the rise of Bronze Age palatial culture in Greece, long before the more familiar periods of Classical or Hellenistic Greece. Then we will move to Mesoamerica and discover the history of Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec Empire. Tenochtitlan was a marvel of urban planning and engineering, built on an island on lake Texcoco, just where Mexico City now is. With around 200,000 inhabitants, it was one of the largest cities in the world in the 15th century, until its fall to the Spanish Conquest of Mexico. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Tonight's episode is an overview of the history of gold and other precious metals: how much is there on Earth? Where is it? How was gold discovered and how did it acquire its powerful symbolism as a symbol of wealth and power, that make it a store of value? From the tombs of ancient pharaohs to the reserves of central banks, let's delve into this history. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode will give you an overview of the concept of multiverse: where does it come from? What are the various meanings and ideas behind that term? I will detail different versions of this idea, coming from cosmology (the "Eternal Inflation Multiverse" or the "Cosmic Landscape Hypothesis", derived from String Theory), quantum mechanics (the "Many-Worlds Interpretation"), or the "Computational Multiverse" hypothesis. I will also tell you about thinkers such as Anaximander, Copernic or Giordano Bruno, who all contributed in their own ways to the intellectual revolutions necessary for this concept to emerge. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In these new mystery stories set in New York City, we will travel through time at different periods of the history of the city, from its foundation as New Amsterdam to our days. Stories include: - Captain Kidd's Treasure, that could be hidden somewhere on Manhattan, Long Island or Gardiner's Island; - The wreck of the HMS Hussar in the East River with a big treasure on board during the American Revolution; - The Leatherman, a mysterious vagabond who travelled constantly on the same 365 miles loop in Connecticut and New York for more than 30 years, coming back to the same towns every five weeks; -The disappearance of Judge Joseph Crater, a Supreme Court judge who vanished into thin air in shady circumstances, that illustrate the intense corruption of the 1920's and 30's; - The existence and sometimes rediscovery of many hidden underground structures, such as the pneumatic tube mail system, the City Hall subway station, the Atlantic Avenue Tunnel or the maze of tracks, platforms and rooms under Grand Central Terminal. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This new space journey will take you to the mysterious and gigantic expanse that exists beyond the planet Neptune. We will discover different bodies from the Kuiper Belt, including its most famous resident: Pluto, its satellites like Charon, and other dwarf planets such as Haumea, Makemake and Eris. I will also tell you about tilted orbits and why they happen, tholins, regolith, the mysterious "Planet Nine", the Oort Cloud beyond the Kuiper Belt, and more things... Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.