Backyard Philosophy Podcast

Mankind has always had the hunger the need to push, to race, to challenge not only others but ourselves. For many of us we crave this feeling and sadly for many of us the opportunity never comes. But occasionally the fates listen and grant a chance to a weary soul. A chance to do something one has always dreamed of. But as the saying goes everything has a cost and be careful what you wish for. This is the tale of Frank Hayes a man dreamed to race horses.

Quite often I find myself late at night thinking about random and odd things… and of course me being me I decide to investigate my thoughts and find myself deep down the rabbit hole to a point in which I wish I never started. Rather than my brain hurt alone I decided to bring you all with me, bring you on the adventure on where serving sizes and nutrition labels come from. Trust me it’s weird. How they were created, how they are part of a vicious cycle that feeds into itself and how food labels are not always as they seem.

We currently live in an era of information abundance… where in majority of the world… information is free and out there for those who seek it. But like some places in the world that knowledge that information is gate kept and in it wasn’t always like the luxury we have today. Time and time again in history… kingdoms, governments, people in power have decided to control and limit knowledge. By burning books, erasing history and forcing people to bend the knee. And time and time again people resist against tyranny and want knowledge to flow free. In this episode this is one such time, a time when the Lithuanian people rose up against Russian rule and created one of the biggest book smuggling rings of all time.

Good luck … something I rarely ever have. And for many they lack too. Might be because of karma might be divine destiny might just be statistics not being in one’s favor. No matter what the cause many turn to everything and anything to change their fortune around. Rather it be religion, superstitions, or talismans. One such route people have chosen for good luck and to symbolize good luck since well basically since humanity formed is the small but mighty rabbit. And for modern times specifically the rabbit’s foot. So leave your holy hand grenades at home. As we venture down the rabbit hole we go… couldn’t help myself with that pun and Monty python reference… to tell how humans went from worshiping rabbits to carrying their foot in their pockets.

There is a saying, sometimes it is better to ask for forgiveness rather than permission. That saying sometimes goes into the mind of scientists. Which can go one of two ways either really good or really bad. One such time when scientists rolled the dice would be in the beginning of World War 2, when a group of scientists decided it would be a good idea to put a nuke, a nuclear reactor under a stadium in the city of Chicago. No this isn’t about the batman movie this actually happened this is the tale of Chicago Pile 1. 

The American revolutionary war, a war that would define not just the beginning of a country but the beginning of a new way of life. A war filled with patriots and legends who sacrificed, to ensure freedoms many have today. But some of these legends would be the inspiration behind movies, have cities named after them and would help America redefine its military forces. This is a story about one of those men. This is the story of Francis Marion … The Swamp Fox.

In the age of automation, AI and robotics…. we take many luxuries for granted. Luxuries that seem common in the modern world. But all the innovations we currently have, stem from many great people in history. And without their creativity, inventions and drive… the world would be a much different place. One such person in history is Ismail Al – Jazari. Nicknamed the father of robotics. Ismail would design, create and inspire … inventors for centuries to come. This is the story of one of the first roboticists, a man who helped shape the modern world.

In this episode Mike and Nick reminisce on how they started a podcast, what they learned along the way and some of their favorite podcast episode. The beginnings of  figuring out the direction of their podcast and how they improved and grew along the way. They also discuss how the podcast is taking a slightly different direction and the future of this podcast. 

Two giants go at it to decided which ocean is truly the best ocean... the Atlantic or the Pacific. In this boxing match of knowledge, facts and jokes, Mike and Nick go head to head trying to explain and convert the other to join the superior ocean side. Get some laughs and learn some interesting facts along the way, as the fight for the best ocean rages between the two of them. 

From nearly every sci-fi, from Doctor who to Star Trek, time and space manipulation is somehow involved. The ability to warp space to travel faster, or to use a phenomenon to travel through time and everything in between has been used in science fiction. The authors of these tales come up with new and intriguing reasoning on how it is possible to do in the worlds they build. Quantum drives, gravitons and … time crystals. Turns out there may be some truth to fiction. A new state of matter called time crystals is making some headlines and warping the physics world.