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© Matjaz Juren 2022
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Host Zaza talks to some of the SMARTEST PEOPLE on the planet, getting his greedy hands on as many topics as he can 😋ðŸ§
74Â Episodes
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The old version of the story went something like this - Homo Sapiens appeared in Africa around 2 to 300.00 years ago and for most of that time, we lived in small hunter gatherer communities, competing with other animals, sometimes more, and sometimes less successfully. That was, until one day we had a gnarly idea to start growing crops, build settlements and settle down for good.However, the mind-boggling discovery of the dazzling Gobekkli Teppe, has thrown this attractively simple narrative into question. But how is it possible that such an impressive complex of monuments, built 12.000 years ago (thousands of years before the first cities ever appeared), was put there by "simple" hunter gatherers... and most of all, why?To tackle these question I turn to Jens Notroff, a German archeologist who actually worked on the site for many years.
In the past 2 decades literacy rates have dropped dramatically... and so have our IQ scores. Writer James Marriott believes these two facts are connected. His Substack article, "The dawn of the post-literate society and the end of civilisation," in which he argues that the absence of reading might signify the end of our civilisation, caused a big stir online...In this conversation we talk about the history of reading, why this immense transfer of knowledge led to the breakdown of feudal society (while making us smarter), but also about how smartphones are fracturing our political systems while robbing us of our most cherished possession - our ability to think.
Joseph Kellner is a historian of Russia and the Soviet Union at the University of Georgia. He's also the author of the recently released book The Spirit of Socialism - Culture and Belief at the Soviet Collapse. Contrary to Western narratives, culture within the USSR wasn't an eternally grey monolith that we used to see in James Bond movies. Quite the opposite - it was a diverse, often flourishing organism. But what happened to it during the brutal dissolution of the Soviet Union? In this conversation, Prof. Kellner and I discuss the decline and the indescribable shock that accompanied the sudden dissolution of the USSR, before turning our attention to an explosion of wild, "exotic" cultural countries springing up in the new country of Russia.
Podcaster Joe Rogan keeps claiming that climate change doesn't really exist and that the Earth is in fact, cooling down, negating all available climate science (as well as plain observation). To address this misleading take, and the often cited Washington Post article accompanying it, I talk to Prof. David Armstrong McKay, climate scientist from the University of Sussex.We also talk about the rate of warming in 2025, the global lack of progress on climate targets, the danger of tipping points and whether the Paris Accords target of keeping the warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius is really dead in the water.
We all know it - the internet has become a huge garbage heap, guided by malignant algorithms and filled with useless apps, mind numbing social media and AI slop. In a word - it's shitty. But how did we get here? And how can we restore the better internet of old?Cory Doctorow, author of the groundbreaking book ENSHITIFICATION: Why Everything Was Built to Break, has a couple of ideas.
The horrific war that Israel is waging against the predominantly civilian population in Gaza has been going on for almost two years, and yet, the slaughter continues to this day. Why is that? To discuss one of the biggest crimes of our time, I talk Mouin Rabbani, an analyst, and commentator specialising in Palestinian affairs, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the contemporary Middle East. We discuss the Western world's immoral support for Israel, Hamas' aims, Netanyahu's plan for Gaza, the indifference of Arab states and finally, the chances for the latest peace plan brought forward by Donald Trump to succeed and finally end the genocide.
Few conflicts have been as impactful as the two Opium Wars fought between China and the Western powers during the 19th century. These unjust wars, unanimously won by the West, ultimately resulted in a series of devastating concessions and ushered in China's so-called century of humiliation, the memory of which is still shaping global politics today. But how did it all start? Why was Britain intent on pushing opium on this vast and ancient empire? And how come Qing dynasty China crumbled in an instant? In this episode of the Smart Cookies podcast, Yang-Wen Zheng, Professor of Chinese History at the University of Manchester, takes us through through this tricky, yet monumental chapter of global history.
Neoliberal capitalism is dead. But what kind of a system has replaced it?In the era of tech titans, weakening institutions and growing social tensions it's hard to get a grip on the forces that are governing our lives. Throw the chaotic administration of Donald Trump into the mix and the political landscape becomes truly unrecognisable.Are we living in the era of technofeudalism, platform capitalism or libertarian authoritarianism? And how do increasing political killings, such as the one of MAGA influencer Charlie Kirk, fit into the mix?Professor William Davis, sociologist and political economist, author of the impactful books Happiness Industry and Nervous States, takes us through these unprecedented and transitory times.
It's the middle of the 13th century and the Mongols have bulldozed their way through a host of Middle Eastern kingdoms like they are playing a strategy game with a cheat code. One after the other, the powerful Christian, as well as Islamic, states fell until there were almost none left on the map. The conquest of EVERYTHING seemed inevitable... However, in one of history's greatest upsets of all time, the Mongols finally met their match. This is the second part of the conversation with Prof. Nicholas Morton, author of the Mongol Storm, an unputdownable history of Mongol conquests of the Middle East. We talk about the mysterious Assassins, the fall of the Crusader States, and the rise of the Ottomans, an empire that will dominate the Mediterranean for hundreds of years to come...
The Byzantine Empire, Anatolian Seljuks, The Ayyubid Empire, Kingdom of Armenia, The Crusader States, The Abbasid Caliphate, the Nizari Assassins... this isn't a list of factions for a new Age of Empires video game, it's a snapshot of the Middle East in the middle of the 13th century - a time (and place) of incredible diversity, sophistication and struggle.All of these states, whether Christian or Muslim, are continuously interlocked into alliances and division, cooperation and armed conflict. But however different, they suddenly have 1 thing in common - the whispers of a TERRIFYING new power rising in the East, approaching their borders with unprecedented speed...How will they deal with this apocalyptic threat? Will they try diplomacy, submit or go to war? Will they stand together or fall separately? All of these questions are the subject of "The Mongol Storm: Making and Breaking Empires in the Medieval Near East," a fascinating book by historian Nicholas Morton, professor of Medieval history at Nottingham Trent University.* This is the FIRST PART of our conversation. The SECOND part will be available next week... unless you're a PATREON subscriber. Then you can access it straight away!
In the mainstream media China still occupies the role of the main adversary of the West. It's usually portrayed negatively, as a belligerent country and a paragon of human rights abuses. But is China really just an endless Asian gulag, or is the picture a bit more complicated?To find out I talked to Kaiser Kuo, creator and host of the Sinica podcast, and former Director of International Communications at the Chinese search giant Baidu.In this wonderfully illuminating conversation we discuss inaccurate Western perceptions, China's unique political system, its breathtaking technological advances, as well as the realities and challenges of everyday life in a first-tier Chinese city in 2025.
The omnipresent problem of bad leadership in politics and business seems to be more pressing than ever. So why do we keep choosing incompetent leaders? What kind of people get ahead in the workplace? What does good leadership actually look like? And finally - do I have what it takes to fulfil my lifelong dream and become an effective basketball coach? Tune in to my convo with historian Martin Gutmann, author of the best-selling book The Unseen Leader, to find out!
Marci Shore is a historian, chair in European Intellectual history, a professor at the Munk School of Global affairs, and the author of The Taste of Ashes: The Afterlife of Totalitarianism in Eastern Europe. Since she's an expert in the history of totalitarian regimes, I ask her about Hitler's Nazi Germany, the brutal claustrophobia of Stalinism, the twisted psychology of Soviet purges and the totalitarian mechanisms that turned ordinary people into monsters. As prof. Shore recently made headlines when she announced she is leaving the US due to Donald Trump and his policies, we can't get past the question on how close current America is to a totalitarian state and even to civil war. Tovarishi and tovarischitze, you don't wanna miss this one!
What are the motivations of artificial intelligence CEO's, people like Peter Thiel, Elon Musk and Sam Altman? What kind of ideologies are animating Silicon Valley? Why are AI companies, such as Palantir, suddenly signing huge military contracts with the Pentagon? I addressed all of these questions to Nick Srnicek, Senior Lecturer in Digital Economy at King's College London and author of Silicon Empires: The Fight for the Future. Check out the full conversation on what our AI future holds here!
Marcus Chown is an award-winning writer, broadcaster and former radio astronomer at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. He's the author of The Ascent of Gravity, Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt you and Afterglow of Creation.His latest title, A Crack in Everything: How Black Holes Came in from the Cold and Took Cosmic Centre Stage details the mind-blowing science of black holes, and traces this, once preposterous idea to its obscure beginnings.In this interstellar conversation we discuss what would have happened if you managed to fall into a black hole, whether time travel is indeed possible, why black holes aren't really black and finally, why do we find them at the centre of every galaxy in space.
In light of a scandalous recent Guardian article which explored why Zoomers think we Millennials are profoundly uncool, I desperately needed some answers. So I turned to Dr. Carolina Are, an Innovation Fellow and a social media researcher at Northumbria University’s Centre for Digital Citizens.We proceeded to talk about the list of perceived millennial sins, the many different aesthetic sensibilities we inhabit, the various unique challenges that only Gen Z faces, the nature of cringe... and last but not last, about Goblin mode.
Dr. Christopher Dillon is Senior Lecturer in Modern German History at King’s College London who has authored many books and articles on the history of the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany.In this conversation we tackle the supposedly failing economy of the Weimar Republic, how this perception helped the Nazis take power, why big business supported Hitler, but also what economic policies did the Nazis actually implement? Obviously we can't get past the big elephant in the room, namely the often repeated notion that the Wall Street Crash of 1929 launched Hitler straight to the top of the weakened German State.
Welcome back to the second episode of the extraordinary history of the CRUSADES, with renowned historian Prof. Nicholas Morton from Nottingham Trent University.In this episode we discuss the unexpected military success of the First Crusade, the horrific massacres that followed, the resulting establishment of the Crusader States and the initiation of the Knights Templar - but also their ultimate demise, the grim reality of the so-called Children's Crusade and finally, Ridley Scott's epic crusader film, Kingdom of Heaven.
Nicholas Morton is an Associate Professor in Middle Eastern history at Nottingham Trent University in the UK, and has been teaching Medieval - Middle Eastern History, especially the history of the Crusades, since 2008.In the first part of our conversation on the CRUSADES, we talk about the conditions in medieval Europe at the turn of the 11th century, the religious ideas that made the prospect of a holy war possible in the first place... as well as the first military expedition that ventured to the Holy Land and it's completely unexpected success, that culminated in the eventual conquest of Jerusalem.
Dr. James Glattfelder is a theoretical physicist turned complexity scientist, who's interested in the really big picture, questions such as the nature of consciousness, the universe and reality itself. He's also the author of the book The Sapient Cosmos: What a modern-day synthesis of science and philosophy teaches us about the emergence of information, consciousness, and meaning.In this mind-bending conversation we talk about the stubborn limits of known science, mind-altering experiences, the problem of consciousness, as well as the wisdom of mystics and shamans that can help bridge the gap between the rational mind and the great beyond...
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full of crying for lost communist era , moralising to right option politics . I bet author did even not born in that time