No Character Limit podcast

2:24:34

In this third episode on exploring how to determine what is quality information we continue explore the climate change debate and the origins of why such a seemingly lopsided debate never won in favor of the fact-finders. How long have we known about climate change really? How far back was it known to be a problem? Were climate scientists really believing there was going to be "global cooling" in the past or is that mostly a made-up story? How can we prove that humans are the cause of it really? How did we end up with the International Panel on Climate Change? Were accusations that it was corrupt founded or was the corruption that of those making the accusations? Just as in the last episode, we will be using the book Merchants of Doubt by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway to help guide us through where the climate debate came from and why we are here today. Subscribe! Link To This Episode! Sources For This Episode Support No Character Limit Paypal Bluesky / Reddit Main Page…

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Hiding From Ourselves: Muzzling Science In The Age Of Misinformation (Part 3) 1:17:50

11 weeks ago1:17:50

1:17:50

In this second episode on exploring how to determine what is quality information we continue following the ongoing debate on the purpose of science in a post-nuclear era into the 1980s. Do scientists have a moral and ethical responsibility to protect the planet or should they remain amoral stewards of policy-makers, leaving moral judgment to them? Legacy scientists from the Manhattan project, as well as popular astronomers Carl Sagan and Robert Jastrow, finally come to a head over what would happen if a nuclear war were to occur by using climate modeling. As a large bloc of America's most important scientists take a stand against further nuclear escalation a small handful of powerful and well-connected scientists begin to attack not only climate models for the first time, but all of science itself. Just as in the last episode, we will be using the book Merchants of Doubt by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway to help guide us through this cultural shift in the American psyche away from scientific guidance and towards an ideological one. Subscribe! Link To This Episode! Sources For This Episode Support No Character Limit Paypal Bluesky / Reddit Main Page…

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Hiding From Ourselves: Muzzling Science In The Age Of Misinformation (Parts 1 & 2) 1:33:01

13 weeks ago1:33:01

1:33:01

How do we know what information to trust and what to stay away from? Whether you find yourself wanting to question the science or prove the skeptics wrong, this episode is for you. In this episode you can find multiple stories where experts were proven wrong by those outside of their field, where once established fact was upended forever, as well as plenty of individuals, scientists, and industries that prey upon the uninformed solely for personal profit. Who to trust and how do we know? Today, there is no greater place to explore this idea than with the topic of climate science and in this episode we begin to explore that story with the help of the book Merchants of Doubt by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway. But before we get to how to know who to trust with climate science we need to dive in to the story of the top secret Manhattan Project, the Cold War's impact on the American psyche, the tobacco industry's research funding, and the infamous Love Canal - America's first superfund site. Subscribe! Link To This Episode! Sources For This Episode Support No Character Limit Paypal Bluesky / Reddit Main Page…

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Ultima Thule - Bonus Episode 1 1:25:08

17 weeks ago1:25:08

1:25:08

In this long awaited first bonus episode dedicated to Ultima Thule we take a look at some associated documentaries, research findings, and related information that has come up since Ultima Thule was first written in 2022. Consider the motivations of a Nazi that wanted to send people into space, learn about the long-lost sibling of the Sun, whether dark energy is speeding up or slowing down, and what the most recent missions to asteroids has revealed about our solar system. Come and listen to a celebration of space and time as well as the science that got us there and continues to uncover Ultima Thule today. Subscribe! Link To This Episode! Sources For This Episode Support No Character Limit Paypal Bluesky / Reddit Main Page…

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Ultima Thule (Episode 29) - The Great Beyond (Part 3) 1:38:13

40 weeks ago1:38:13

1:38:13

In this final episode of Ultima Thule we return to ancient Greece, where the term Thule first originated, and learn about their origin story of the Universe and how it compares to what we know about the Universe today. We then consider the concept of Ultima Thule through time and how people viewed the existence of the Earth, Moon, Sun, and stars from ancient Egypt to the Catholic Church. We make sure to pay homage to quality science and how it helped us reach our modern view of the Universe and give a final warning of the pseudoscience constantly attempting to creep in around the edges. What do we do with the knowledge that we have now that we are sitting upon the shoulders of giants upon giants? What if we don't like what we know? How do we try and grapple with what the science implies about the future of the Universe? I end this book with a little-known quote from The Christian Remembrancer about time and space.(29/29) Subscribe! Link To This Episode! Sources For This Episode Support No Character Limit Paypal Mastodon / Reddit Main Page…

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Ultima Thule (Episode 28) - The Great Beyond (Parts 1 & 2) 1:16:29

42 weeks ago1:16:29

1:16:29

We have finally reached the final chapter of Ultima Thule: Unraveling the Unknown. In the penultimate episode we see how humans have come to view Earth by looking back at it from space, known as the overview effect. But the primary focus of this episode is to try and understand what is both the most abundant and vacant thing in the universe - empty space. We look at first-hand accounts of what space is like from the likes of Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, as well as those who have flown to the other side of the Moon and lost sight of Earth all together. We also explore the substance of space - what is the vacuum comprised of? Does it have a smell? What does physics say is happening in any given square meter of empty space? Can any life survive in it? If so, for how long? How deep can we peer into it? What is dark matter and dark energy? How did the Universe begin? What does the future of the Universe look like based on current knowledge? (28/29) Subscribe! Link To This Episode! Sources For This Episode Support No Character Limit Paypal Mastodon / Reddit Main Page…

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Ultima Thule (Episode 27) - The Big Ones (Part 7) 1:05:13

44 weeks ago1:05:13

1:05:13

In this final episode of the largest meteorites to have ever hit Earth we focus on the most famous impact of them all - the Chicxulub impact that killed the dinosaurs. We explore what living at the time of impact must have been like and learn about the science behind how we know that it happened. Despite the most accepted theory by mainstream science we also learn about how the story of Walter and Luis Alvarez demonstrates that different branches of science can come in to conflict with one another. What other theories for the mass extinction of life 66 million years ago are out there and how valid are they? (27/29) Subscribe! Link To This Episode! Sources For This Episode Support No Character Limit Paypal Mastodon / Reddit Main Page…

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Ultima Thule (Episode 26) - The Big Ones (Parts 3 - 6) 1:14:17

46 weeks ago1:14:17

1:14:17

In the third installment on some of the largest meteorites to have ever hit Earth we explore some of the larger but lesser-known impacts on the planet. These include the impact sites of Chesapeake, Popigai, Manicouagan, Sudbury, and the largest of them all - Vredefort. We explore which may have been possible multiple-impact events, how they would've affected the world at the time, and how they continue to affect the world today. We go into the crater of one impact site deep underground to one of the most expensive scientific laboratories in the world which we use to study... outer space? (26/29) Subscribe! Link To This Episode! Sources For This Episode Support No Character Limit Paypal Mastodon / Reddit Main Page…

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Ultima Thule (Episode 25) - The Big Ones (Part 2) 1:01:54

48 weeks ago1:01:54

1:01:54

In this second episode on some of the biggest meteorites to have ever hit the planet we explore whether or not a large meteorite has ever hit a city. Currently, there are claims that this has happened twice in ancient times - at Tall el-Hammam in Jordan and Ch'ing Yang, China. But the evidence for each are very different. We uncover that the evidence for one of these is completely false and explore the evidence that proves it. We further explore how they connect to an entire network of pseudoscientific actors and their impact on the integrity of science. A must-listen for anyone interested in the importance of science in an age of misinformation and how easily a concerted effort in faking information can get a lot of media attention. (25/29) Subscribe! Link To This Episode! Sources For This Episode Support No Character Limit Paypal Mastodon / Reddit Main Page…

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Ultima Thule (Episode 24) - The Big Ones (Part 1) 55:18

50 weeks ago55:18

55:18

This is the first of four episodes dedicated to some of the biggest meteorite impacts in the history of the Earth. Today's episode is dedicated to the most mysterious - the 1908 Tunguska Event. What is actually known about what happened on that June morning in Siberia over a century ago? Where does the baseless speculation end and the evidence begin? In this episode we look at the evidence left behind by the only meteoritics expert who went to investigate - Leonid Kulik - and see what professionals today have to say about the most powerful event in recent history. (24/29) Subscribe! Link To This Episode! Sources For This Episode Support No Character Limit Paypal Mastodon / Reddit Main Page…

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Ultima Thule (Episode 23) - Cosmic Real Estate (Parts 5 - 7) 1:25:50

52 weeks ago1:25:50

1:25:50

In the last episode we explored how much people will pay to possess a meteorite and the wide ranging prices depending on the type of meteorite. But we saved the most valuable meteorites for this episode starting with the pallasite, which can go for hundreds of thousands of dollars for a slice. We learn about the first widely studied pallasite found by Peter Simon Pallas, a brilliant naturalist that does not get the recognition today that he deserves for helping the scientific community understand the natural world. The other valuable meteorites are those from other planets like Mars or even our own Moon. Then we dive into the some of the largest meteorite collections in the world that are worth millions of dollars. Finally, we explore one of the most mysterious meteorite landfalls of the modern world and the unusual situation meteorite hunters found themselves in after traveling to the remote region of Carancas, Peru. Did this meteorite truly make people sick? (23/29) Subscribe! Link To This Episode! Sources For This Episode Support No Character Limit Paypal Mastodon / Reddit Main Page…

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Ultima Thule (Episode 22) - Cosmic Real Estate (Parts 1 - 4) 1:26:16

1 year ago1:26:16

1:26:16

What happens when a rock from space falls onto our planet of complex property and ownership rights? Is it finders keepers? Is it owned by whose property it lands on? What if it hits you, do you own it? Welcome to the wild world of ownership rights of meteorites. In this episode we learn about some of the most well known meteorite hunters including Mike Farmer, Robert Ward, Darryl Pitt, and Robert Haag who both compete and collaborate with each other. Learn about Ann Hodges who was hit by a meteorite in the 1950s who ended up having to pay money for the meteorite while a nearby farmer sold another piece of the same meteorite for enough money to buy a house and a car. Auction houses like Bonhams and Christie's have documented what people will pay for all kinds of meteorites and in this episode we explore some of the prices different meteorites go for. Finally, can a meteorite be stolen? We follow the histories of two major meteorites - Willamette and Campo Del Cielo - and explore the ethics of claiming a meteorite for yourself. Owning a piece of the heavens is likely more complex than you originally thought. (22/29) Subscribe! Link To This Episode! Sources For This Episode Support No Character Limit Paypal Mastodon / Reddit Main Page…

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Ultima Thule (Episode 21) - Cometary Meteorology 1:32:55

1 year ago1:32:55

1:32:55

What is a meteor shower and how is it different from the lone fireball streaking across the sky? It turns out that meteor showers don't come from asteroids but instead comets. In fact, debris from meteor showers, unlike fireballs, very rarely ever make it to the ground, burning up on the way down. This has made it extremely difficult for scientists to study remnants from comets on Earth so instead scientists decided to leave Earth and go to them. The first mission to a comet - Giotto - was a huge international undertaking to chase down the most famous of them all - Halley's Comet. With the success of Giotto, multiple other missions have since gone to other comets around the solar system bringing back exciting results with glimpses into the Universe and even the possible origins of life. Finally, we learn about the greatest meteor storms in recorded history and how it led to people believing that they were living through the end of the world. (21/29) Subscribe! Link To This Episode! Sources For This Episode Support No Character Limit Paypal Mastodon / Reddit Main Page…

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Ultima Thule (Episode 20) - The Faith, Facts, And Pseudoscience Of Meteorites (Parts 3 &4) 1:04:15

1 year ago1:04:15

1:04:15

In the last episode we explored how meteors and meteorites have been intertwined with faith as far back as ancient Egypt and in to the modern day. But this fascination has a dark side - it creates large quantities of misinformation - both unintentional and intentional. In this episode we explore both kinds through looking at other possible historical meteorites including an alleged Nazi Tibetan meteorite statue, the Ephesian Artemis, and the original Magna Mater statue that was brought to Rome from Anatolia. We also follow the history of the earliest recorded meteorite recovery - Ensisheim. Through following the history of the Ensisheim meteorite we see how people tried to grapple with the idea that rocks fell from the sky as well as how both science and faith can both lead to errors in thinking. It took the brilliance of one man - Ernst Chladni - to put the first true theory together and become immortalized as the Father of Meteoritics. With many parallels to the modern world this episode can also help us reflect on our own consumption of information and the conclusions we choose to make. (20/29) Subscribe! Link To This Episode! Sources For This Episode Support No Character Limit Paypal Mastodon / Reddit Main Page…

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Ultima Thule (Episode 19) - The Faith, Facts, And Pseudoscience Of Meteorites (Parts 1 & 2) 1:00:19

1 year ago1:00:19