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See the video: https://youtu.be/3kGTgRjpcRw Last week, John Carreyrou and Dylan Freedman of The New York Times reported that Satoshi Nakamoto is Adam Back. Read the full New York Times article (and to bypass the NYT paywall legally). Or if you have a NYT subscription, read the original. Last year, I interviewed Benjamin Wallace about his remarkable book, "The Mysterious Mr. Nakamoto." Watch the interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0KVOcLJe50X post by a pro programmer comparing Adam Back's code with Satoshi Nakamoto's code, circa 2008. My video mentions: https://x.com/JohnCarreyrou https://x.com/BenJWallace At the start of the NYT Daily podcast, Carreyrou said he is "99.5% and 100%" sure Satoshi is Adam Back. That surprised me for two reasons: 1. I respect Carreyrou's reporting. He's best known for unmasking Elizabeth Holmes, proving she was a deceptive crook. Carreyrou is a brilliant reporter. He's not into hyperbole. If he says he's 99.75% sure, we must pay attention. 2. I also respect Benjamin Wallace's reporting, especially regarding Nakamoto. Wallace has spent probably ten times more time researching Satoshi than Carreyrou has. And Wallace is unconvinced that Adam Back is Satoshi. Wallace thinks Adam could be Satoshi, but he's confident that Satoshi is someone else. Adam is not one of Wallace's top two candidates. Indeed, on WanderLearn Show, Wallace said there's "more than a 50% chance" that Satoshi is none of the dozens of candidates he evaluated in his book. Therefore, we have a dilemma. Whom should we believe: Carreyrou or Wallace? Both are outstanding reporters. Wallace and I exchanged emails after the NYT's declaration. He's busy reporting, so he didn't have time to appear on the podcast again this month, but his book explains why Wallace is unconvinced that Adam Back is Nakamoto. Although the NYT used stylometry to match Back & Satoshi based on their writing in bitcoin forums, the NYT did not use it to match their programming stylometry, whereas Wallace did. Programmers, like English prose writers, have style tics. Adam Back's programming style does not match Satoshi's. Some observers argue that the code style does not line up cleanly. A few commentators described Back’s code as looking like typical academic Unix-programmer code, while Satoshi’s looked more like the work of a professional software engineer, suggesting stylistic differences rather than a strong match. Let’s review his points: Page 27: Amir Taaki told Wallace, “Adam has a consistent style across his projects. His style does not match Satoshi’s.” “Amir elaborated that Back followed standard programming conventions, wrote in C, and was a Unix/Linux programmer, while Nakamoto was stylistically erratic, wrote in C++, and was a Windows guy. Back was also known at the time as a privacy absolutist, someone likely to balk at Bitcoin’s anonymity trade-offs.... I also thought it implausibly clumsy for someone trying to elude detection, who’d cited only a handful of precedents, to include his own work among them.” On the other hand, Carreyrou’s article says: “And Back’s thesis project focused on C++ — the same programming language Satoshi used to code the first version of the bitcoin software.” Everyone agrees that Satoshi wrote in C++, but Wallace says Back wrote in C, while Carreyrou says that Back’s PhD thesis focused on C++. Naturally, both could be correct: Adam Back may be fluent in C and C++. The language he uses may depend on what kind of application he is writing. C and C++ overlap heavily in low-level systems programming. Non-programmers like these two journalists may overestimate the importance of these two similar programming languages. This programmer examined Back’s & Satoshi’s code and concluded that they are quite different coding styles. Adam Back chimed in on the X thread: Wei Dei doesn’t think Adam Back is Nakamoto. Page 38: “I don’t think [Satoshi] is anyone I know,” Wei continued, regarding Nakamoto, “since he apparently invented Bitcoin independently and was not aware of my b-money article until Adam Back pointed it out to him.” If Adam & Satoshi were the same person, Wei’s statement would be odd. But maybe Adam Back did that to throw off cybersleuths like Wallace 15 years later. Wallace addresses this cloak-and-dagger theory on page 99: “All of this assumed both an elaborate campaign of misdirection at a time when there was no particular reason to assume Bitcoin would succeed, and a ham-handed impersonation by Nick [Szabo] of someone who wasn’t him.” On page 160, Wallace addresses Barely Sociable’s YouTube Channel, whose 3-part video expose reached the same conclusion as the NYT years before the NYT. Ex-cypherpunk Jon Callas said, “The primary argument against Adam Back is he couldn’t keep his mouth shut.” In other words, Satoshi was a recluse, whereas Back was an extrovert. Page 183: To believe Adam Back was Satoshi, “you needed to swallow the inconvenient fact of Nakamoto, an all-time OPSEC champ, naming his own work among just eight citations in the Bitcoin white paper.” Page 250: Ray Dillinger destroyed his hard drive and correspondence with Satoshi and “he thought Nakamoto was likely to have done something similar. ‘His OPSEC was flawless. He would not leave evidence.’” Yet Adam Back kept (and shared) all his Satoshi correspondence for the Craig Wright trial. Stylometry Although the NYT used stylometry to match Back & Satoshi based on their writing in bitcoin forums, the NYT did not use it to match their programming stylometry, whereas Wallace did. Programmers, like English prose writers, have style tics. Adam Back’s programming style does not match Satoshi’s. Some observers argue that the code style does not line up cleanly. A few commentators described Back’s code as looking like typical academic Unix-programmer code, while Satoshi’s looked more like the work of a professional software engineer, suggesting stylistic differences rather than a strong match. Carreyrou writes, “In short, Back envisioned nearly every facet of bitcoin — and used the same rationalization as Satoshi to excuse its main flaw — a decade before bitcoin was created.” So what? Telephone. Before Bell’s practical telephone, Charles Bourseul had already suggested transmitting sound electrically. Tesla predicted wireless transmission of voice, documents, music, and video, which reads strikingly like a description of later radio and smartphone-era capabilities. The pattern is usually this: people first identify a capability that would be valuable, then later inventors find the engineering path to make it real. So a precursor may “list the attributes” an invention needs long before the full machine exists, but that is different from creating the breakthrough itself. What this means for the Bitcoin argument That is why “Back anticipated many Bitcoin design features” is interesting but not decisive by itself. Invention history is full of cases where someone saw the direction early, yet the later creator still had to solve the hard implementation problems and combine the pieces into a working system. Carreyrou makes a big deal that Back pointed out the key features that bitcoin needed to have 10 years before it came out as evidence that he is Satoshi. However, it could prove the opposite: if Back knew what needed to be done 10 years before it happened, why did he wait 10 years to do it? Maybe another person, Satoshi, needed to come along to make it happen. Charles Bourseul didn’t invent the phone. Carreyrou asked Back for the metadata of his emails with Satoshi. Adam ghosted him. Carreyrou wondered, “But why? With the precautions Satoshi had taken, what was there to even hide? Unless Satoshi had made some sort of mistake?” Probably not. The most likely explanation is that Adam Back is sick & tired of detectives annoying him about Satoshi. Why should he spend the hour it would take to dig up the metadata of all those 20-year-old emails when he’s busy trying to take his company public? He’s got better things to do with his time is a far more likely explanation than the metadata being revealing. The NYT cites Wallace’s book, which observes that “Back was a privacy absolutist and bitcoin’s privacy features were weak.” Carreyrou countered: “Back had spent the past decade at Blockstream pioneering innovations to strengthen bitcoin’s privacy, which I felt weakened that argument considerably.” Not exactly. Wallace’s point is that had Adam created BTC, he would have made it robustly private from the start. Satoshi Nakamoto’s Motivations In the first two minutes of the Daily podcast, John Carreyrou wonders: “Who is this person who has upended our financial landscape? What was motivating him? What caused him to create this decentralized electronic currency?” At minute 48 of the Daily podcast, Carreyrou asks Back, “ Isn’t there a public interest there in knowing what the motivations were for creating this? Once Bitcoin has accumulated enough users, infrastructure, liquidity, and mindshare, Nakamoto’s motives don’t change Bitcoin’s present behavior in any direct way. In that sense, BTC does have a life of its own, because its value and persistence are now strongly tied to network effects rather than to the creator’s private intentions. Finally, I’m puzzled why Carreyrou is wondering what Nakamoto’s motivations were. Carreyrou has done an outstanding job answering that question through his investigative reporting: Nakamoto was motivated to create an ecash that could replace our fiat monetary system. Like Back, Nakamoto was a Libertarian or anarcho-capitalist. Nakamoto wrote about his motivations and philosophy on various online forums and emails. One of Satoshi’s biggest motivations and dreams is in the title of the Bitcoin White Paper: Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System Satoshi failed: Nakamo

Corporations are often seen as evil, selfish entities. We overlook that they allow billions of parents to feed, educate, and heal their kids. Jobs also generate taxes that allow governments to build roads, hospitals, and schools. Taxes fund welfare and protect national parks. None of this would be possible (or at least easy) without corporations. Don’t believe me? Consider humanity before corporations. Our global standard of living was far lower than today. Still don’t believe me? Listen or watch this episode with Sawyer CEO Kurt Avery. https://youtu.be/yAzYx2psyXQ Buy his book, Sawyer Think. Timeline 00:00 Sawyer’s charitable actions 05:00 Sawyer Think book 10:00 Protecting Against Bugs 12:20 Origin Story 17:00 Burning off the COGs 19:00 The Why 20:30 Decision Matrix 22:55 Math Trap 27:10 Final Advice If you’re a backpacker, you’ve heard of Sawyer & probably used their filters. In this show, Kurt Avery explains what he’s been doing for decades through his company. It might surprise even the most cynical of you out there. It might give you a bit of hope for humanity, too. If this episode inspires you, consider giving to the Sawyer Foundation. Or, if you want a win-win, buy their Sawyer’s products online or at your local retailer. A portion of Sawyer’s profits always goes to charity. Connect Send me an anonymous voicemail at SpeakPipe.com/FTapon You can post comments, ask questions, and sign up for my Substack newsletter. If you like this podcast, subscribe and share! On social media, my username is always FTapon. Connect with me on: * Facebook * X * YouTube * Instagram * TikTok * LinkedIn * Pinterest * Tumblr Sponsors 1. My Patrons sponsored this show! Claim your monthly reward by becoming a patron for as little as $2/month at https://Patreon.com/FTapon 2. For the best travel credit card, get one of the Chase Sapphire cards and get 75-100k bonus miles! 3. Get $5 when you sign up for Roamless, my favorite global eSIM with its unlimited hotspot & data that never expires! Use code LR32K 4. Or get 5% off when you sign up with Saily, another global eSIM with a built-in VPN & ad blocker. 5. Get 25% off when you sign up for Trusted Housesitters, a site that helps you find sitters or homes to sit in. 6. Start your podcast with my company, Podbean, and get one month free! 7. In the United States, I recommend trading cryptocurrency with Kraken. 8. Outside the USA, trade crypto with Binance and get 5% off your trading fees! 9. For backpacking gear, buy from Gossamer Gear Get full access to Francis Tapon at ftapon.substack.com/subscribe

Sometimes a brief meeting with one human can change your life. Lauren Speeth, President of Elphenworks Productions, met US President Jimmy Carter decades ago. Watch! Lauren Speeth, PhD, combines a lifelong background in Silicon Valley technology with a commitment to educational, pro‑social storytelling. A classically trained violinist and longtime member emeritus of The Peninsula Symphony’s first violin section, she is also a voting member of The Recording Academy and has produced films and media projects that address poverty, inequality, and the climate crisis while aiming to foster hope. Her work in social impact has led to advisory roles with leading institutions: she serves as an External Advisor to Stanford’s Center on Poverty and Inequality, where she helped architect the Center’s first website and co-orchestrated its launch with a Concert for Hope, and she is a Lifetime Member of the Board of Councilors at The Carter Center. In higher education, she has held positions as a Regent Emeritus of Saint Mary’s College of California and has taught and lectured widely in management, statistics, computer science, and social entrepreneurship, including ongoing involvement with Bakke Graduate University. Speeth’s activism and philanthropy were shaped in part through a mentoring relationship with former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, whom she came to know through her deep engagement with The Carter Center. As a Life Member of its Board of Councilors, she sought guidance from Carter while framing the mission and operating principles of The Elfenworks Foundation; during these conversations, he encouraged her to “risk failure for worthy causes,” advice that helped her define the foundation’s core pillars of having a clear vision, working in partnership, avoiding duplication, sharing credit, measuring results, and staying the course. Speeth has since carried Carter’s counsel into her writing and public speaking, including her book Taking the Stairs and Liking It: 7 Steps to an Amazing Life, which draws directly on his wisdom along with her own research and global experience. I bought the book & it’s only 99 cents on Amazon. Timeline 00:00 Jimmy Carter meeting 13:00 How to get feedback 16:30 Stamina Connect Send me an anonymous voicemail at SpeakPipe.com/FTapon You can post comments, ask questions, and sign up for my Substack newsletter. If you like this podcast, subscribe and share! On social media, my username is always FTapon. Connect with me on: * Facebook * X * YouTube * Instagram * TikTok * LinkedIn * Pinterest * Tumblr Sponsors 1. My Patrons sponsored this show! Claim your monthly reward by becoming a patron for as little as $2/month at https://Patreon.com/FTapon 2. For the best travel credit card, get one of the Chase Sapphire cards and get 75-100k bonus miles! 3. Get $5 when you sign up for Roamless, my favorite global eSIM with its unlimited hotspot & data that never expires! Use code LR32K 4. Or get 5% off when you sign up with Saily, another global eSIM with a built-in VPN & ad blocker. 5. Get 25% off when you sign up for Trusted Housesitters, a site that helps you find sitters or homes to sit in. 6. Start your podcast with my company, Podbean, and get one month free! 7. In the United States, I recommend trading cryptocurrency with Kraken. 8. Outside the USA, trade crypto with Binance and get 5% off your trading fees! 9. For backpacking gear, buy from Gossamer Gear Get full access to Francis Tapon at ftapon.substack.com/subscribe

Watch this interview to enjoy the b-roll https://youtu.be/35UMP6SV-zw Hal makes informative videos about Vietnam.1st video of the series: Subscribe to Hal's outstanding YouTube channel B-Roll credit: @HalOnEarth Timeline 00:00 Do The Vietnamese Like China More Than The USA? 03:20 Learning the Vietnamese language 05:00 YouTube channel goals 07:00 What Hal Loves & Hates about Vietnam 10:00 Sexism in Vietnam? 13:00 Religion 14:45 Educational system 19:00 Vietnam's future Hal's videos mentioned in the interview: SE Asia 30 years ago Connect Send me an anonymous voicemail at SpeakPipe.com/FTapon You can post comments, ask questions, and sign up for my Substack newsletter. If you like this podcast, subscribe and share! On social media, my username is always FTapon. Connect with me on: Facebook X YouTube Instagram TikTok LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Sponsors 1. My Patrons sponsored this show! Claim your monthly reward by becoming a patron for as little as $2/month at https://Patreon.com/FTapon 2. For the best travel credit card, get one of the Chase Sapphire cards and get 75-100k bonus miles! 3. Get $5 when you sign up for Roamless, my favorite global eSIM with its unlimited hotspot & data that never expires! Use code LR32K 4. Or get 5% off when you sign up with Saily, another global eSIM with a built-in VPN & ad blocker. 5. Get 25% off when you sign up for Trusted Housesitters, a site that helps you find sitters or homes to sit in. 6. Start your podcast with my company, Podbean, and get one month free! 7. In the United States, I recommend trading cryptocurrency with Kraken. 8. Outside the USA, trade crypto with Binance and get 5% off your trading fees! 9. For backpacking gear, buy from Gossamer Gear. Get full access to Francis Tapon at ftapon.substack.com/subscribe

Watch the video version of this podcast Hal makes informative videos about Vietnam. See my previous video with him: Subscribe to Hal's outstanding YouTube channel. Connect Send me an anonymous voicemail at SpeakPipe.com/FTapon You can post comments, ask questions, and sign up for my Substack newsletter. If you like this podcast, subscribe and share! On social media, my username is always FTapon. Connect with me on: * Facebook * X * YouTube * Instagram * TikTok * LinkedIn * Pinterest * Tumblr Sponsors 1. My Patrons sponsored this show! Claim your monthly reward by becoming a patron for as little as $2/month at https://Patreon.com/FTapon 2. For the best travel credit card, get one of the Chase Sapphire cards and get 75-100k bonus miles! 3. Get $5 when you sign up for Roamless, my favorite global eSIM with its unlimited hotspot & data that never expires! Use code LR32K 4. Or get 5% off when you sign up with Saily, another global eSIM with a built-in VPN & ad blocker. 5. Get 25% off when you sign up for Trusted Housesitters, a site that helps you find sitters or homes to sit in. 6. Start your podcast with my company, Podbean, and get one month free! 7. In the United States, I recommend trading cryptocurrency with Kraken. 8. Outside the USA, trade crypto with Binance and get 5% off your trading fees! 9. For backpacking gear, buy from Gossamer Gear Get full access to Francis Tapon at ftapon.substack.com/subscribe

Hal makes informative videos about Vietnam. Watch the video of this podcast https://youtu.be/RFcLm9fe4a0 Hal gets credit for the B-roll in the video! Subscribe to Hal's outstanding YouTube channel. Timeline 00:00 Who is Hal Medrano? 04:00 Pittsburgh, PA 06:30 Why Hal Returned to Vietnam 08:00 Hal On Earth Channel Hal's videos mentioned in the interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fo0mkcMbDHI SE Asia 30 years ago Connect Send me an anonymous voicemail at SpeakPipe.com/FTapon You can post comments, ask questions, and sign up for my Substack newsletter. If you like this podcast, subscribe and share! On social media, my username is always FTapon. Connect with me on: * Facebook * X * YouTube * Instagram * TikTok * LinkedIn * Pinterest * Tumblr Sponsors 1. My Patrons sponsored this show! Claim your monthly reward by becoming a patron for as little as $2/month at https://Patreon.com/FTapon 2. For the best travel credit card, get one of the Chase Sapphire cards and get 75-100k bonus miles! 3. Get $5 when you sign up for Roamless, my favorite global eSIM with its unlimited hotspot & data that never expires! Use code LR32K 4. Or get 5% off when you sign up with Saily, another global eSIM with a built-in VPN & ad blocker. 5. Get 25% off when you sign up for Trusted Housesitters, a site that helps you find sitters or homes to sit in. 6. Start your podcast with my company, Podbean, and get one month free! 7. In the United States, I recommend trading cryptocurrency with Kraken. 8. Outside the USA, trade crypto with Binance and get 5% off your trading fees! 9. For backpacking gear, buy from Gossamer Gear Get full access to Francis Tapon at ftapon.substack.com/subscribe

Jost Kobusch, a 32-year-old German mountaineer who summited Denali in winter, is attempting what some experts give a 1% chance of success: he wants to summit Everest in winter, alone, without supplemental oxygen, and following a rarely climbed route, the dangerous West Ridge. https://youtube.com/watch?v=b1QtNL4CqJo In this WanderLearn Show, Jost discusses his overall goal, the extreme winter conditions at Everest’s altitude, being blown off the mountain on past attempts, why he chose the West Ridge, details on route maps, filming mishaps, rope use, when he might change his plan, the story of Mallory and Irvine, and what it would mean if he died after summiting. Timeline 00:00 Jost’s goal 01:00 Everest is 9,000 meters in winter 06:00 Blown off the mountain 07:20 Why West Ridge Route? 08:23 Map of Route 13:25 Filming Disasters 19:00 How Jost uses rope 21:00 When would he change? 23:30 Mallory & Irvine 24:30 What if he dies after summitting? 26:30 Follow Jost Credits In the video interview, you’ll see some b-roll from the following sources: ALONE video: 3D Everest Map Jost Photos by Daniel Hug In my next interview with Jost, what would you like me to ask him? Put it in the comments! Here are my future questions for Jost: - Will you fly down the mountain? (He loves to paraglide off mountains.) - Why not do the route alone during May-June first as a proof of concept? Connect Send me an anonymous voicemail at SpeakPipe.com/FTapon You can post comments, ask questions, and sign up for my Substack newsletter. If you like this podcast, subscribe and share! On social media, my username is always FTapon. Connect with me on: * Facebook * X * YouTube * Instagram * TikTok * LinkedIn * Pinterest * Tumblr Sponsors 1. My Patrons sponsored this show! Claim your monthly reward by becoming a patron for as little as $2/month at https://Patreon.com/FTapon 2. For the best travel credit card, get one of the Chase Sapphire cards and get 75-100k bonus miles! 3. Get $5 when you sign up for Roamless, my favorite global eSIM with its unlimited hotspot & data that never expires! Use code LR32K 4. Or get 5% off when you sign up with Saily, another global eSIM with a built-in VPN & ad blocker. 5. Get 25% off when you sign up for Trusted Housesitters, a site that helps you find sitters or homes to sit in. 6. Start your podcast with my company, Podbean, and get one month free! 7. In the United States, I recommend trading cryptocurrency with Kraken. 8. Outside the USA, trade crypto with Binance and get 5% off your trading fees! 9. For backpacking gear, buy from Gossamer Gear. Get full access to Francis Tapon at ftapon.substack.com/subscribe

I bumped into Erik while visiting Big Basin National Park in Nevada, USA. He's been a nomad, living out of his Subaru on a modest budget, and vlogging about his experience. He shows us how he does it. youtu.be/BhUD0pjITsU https://youtu.be/BhUD0pjITsU Follow Erik's YouTube channel Why Erik Ditched His Teardrop Trailer Loneliest American Road CREDIT FOR THE TWO EMBEDDED VIDEOS:Kenai Pop-Up Truck Camper Tour - Scout Campers Overland Ready! 2024 Toyota Tacoma with Kimbo Camper Walkaround - Salty Gears Off Road Get full access to Francis Tapon at ftapon.substack.com/subscribe

Dr. Isabelle Morley is a couples therapist and author of "They're Not Gaslighting You." https://youtu.be/cPahcRnG_Fg The kiss cam moment exposes much more than a couple’s private drama—it reveals how we judge, label, and punish one another in the court of public opinion. In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Isabelle Morley to unpack why cheating feels unforgivable to most people, how labels and “therapy-speak” get weaponized online, and what gaslighting really looks like beyond the memes. We also explore when it makes sense to set boundaries, walk away from toxic situations, or hire a therapist instead of relying on social media for armchair diagnosis. 00:00 Kiss Cam Scandal 05:00 Why is cheating unforgivable for most people? 10:00 Why do people label? 11:20 Gaslighting 13:48 When attacked? 15:15 When to quit 16:45 When do you hire a therapist 18:30 Using therapy-speak 20:30 Bounderies 22:15 ADHD Book Watch the first time I interview Dr. Morley: youtube.com/watch?v=rPm8U3P_GLg Get full access to Francis Tapon at ftapon.substack.com/subscribe

WanderLearn explores travel, tech, and transformation. This is a tech-related episode. Aleksandar Svetski is the CEO of Satlantis.io, which began as a travel app but has pivoted toward events, including travel-related events. Satlantis is a new kind of social network for “Sovereign Individuals.” It aims to become the go-to place for people who want more out of life and refuse to conform to the mainstream. Satlantis is part map, part directory, part aggregator, and part social app. Imagine elements of Instagram, Google Places, Meetup, TripAdvisor, NomadList, and Facebook Groups, but built for the next era. They’re using Nostr, which is crucial to creating a user-centered internet. Timeline 00:00 What is Satlantis.io? 08:45 BTC Lightning payments 14:00 Who is adopting it? 16:00 Stablecoins on BTC in 2026 17:30 Vision of 2030 21:30 Free events 24:00 Vision of 2026 Connect Send me an anonymous voicemail at SpeakPipe.com/FTapon You can post comments, ask questions, and sign up for my Substack newsletter. If you like this podcast, subscribe and share! On social media, my username is always FTapon. Connect with me on: * Facebook * X * YouTube * Instagram * TikTok * LinkedIn * Pinterest * Tumblr Sponsors 1. My Patrons sponsored this show! Claim your monthly reward by becoming a patron for as little as $2/month at https://Patreon.com/FTapon 2. For the best travel credit card, get one of the Chase Sapphire cards and get 75-100k bonus miles! 3. Get $5 when you sign up for Roamless, my favorite global eSIM with its unlimited hotspot & data that never expires! Use code LR32K 4. Or get 5% off when you sign up with Saily, another global eSIM with a built-in VPN & ad blocker. 5. Get 25% off when you sign up for Trusted Housesitters, a site that helps you find sitters or homes to sit in. 6. Start your podcast with my company, Podbean, and get one month free! 7. In the United States, I recommend trading cryptocurrency with Kraken. 8. Outside the USA, trade crypto with Binance and get 5% off your trading fees! 9. For backpacking gear, buy from Gossamer Gear. Get full access to Francis Tapon at ftapon.substack.com/subscribe

Dr. Robert Edwards, author of The Last Step but One, proposes 5 hypotheses about Mallory and Irvine’s final ascent of Everest. Two of the hypotheses have sub-hypotheses, bringing the total number of conjectures to 8. Robert Edwards's Mallory & Irvine book. Watch the YouTube video Timeline 00:00 Hypothesis 1 06:10 Hypothesis 2 09:00 Hypothesis 3 12:20 Hypothesis 4.1 19:30 Hypothesis 4.2 23:00 Hypothesis 5.1 25:35 Hypothesis 5.2 28:30 Hypothesis 5.3 31:50 Reflections DISCLOSURE: I used AI to generate the thumbnail for this video. So if you're wondering why the image is inaccurate, you'll know why. Connect Send me an anonymous voicemail at SpeakPipe.com/FTapon You can post comments, ask questions, and sign up for my Substack newsletter. If you like this podcast, subscribe and share! On social media, my username is always FTapon. Connect with me on: * Facebook * Twitter * YouTube * Instagram * TikTok * LinkedIn * Pinterest * Tumblr Sponsors 1. My Patrons sponsored this show! Claim your monthly reward by becoming a patron for as little as $2/month at https://Patreon.com/FTapon 2. For the best travel credit card, get one of the Chase Sapphire cards and get 75-100k bonus miles! 3. Get $5 when you sign up for Roamless, my favorite global eSIM with its unlimited hotspot & data that never expires! Use code LR32K 4. Or get 5% off when you sign up with Saily, another global eSIM with a built-in VPN & ad blocker. 5. Get 25% off when you sign up for Trusted Housesitters, a site that helps you find sitters or homes to sit in. 6. Start your podcast with my company, Podbean, and get one month free! 7. In the United States, I recommend trading cryptocurrency with Kraken. 8. Outside the USA, trade crypto with Binance and get 5% off your trading fees! 9. For backpacking gear, buy from Gossamer Gear. Get full access to Francis Tapon at ftapon.substack.com/subscribe

It’s easier to watch the episode because of all the slides. The comments on YouTube will be interesting to read, too! TIMELINE 00:00 Exclusive announcement!05:00 What we know10:30 Odell sighting14:00 Ice ax17:00 Oxygen bottle19:25 Mallory's body23:45 Irvine's boot29:30 What we do NOT know Robert Edwards’s Mallory & Irvine book DISCLOSURE: I used AI to generate this video's thumbnail. So if you're wondering why the image is inaccurate, you'll know why.On the 100th anniversary of George Mallory and Sandy Irvine's death on Mount Everest, I interviewed Dr. Robert Edwards, author of Mallory, Irvine, and Everest: The Last Step But One, which reexamined their mysterious story in detail.Watch my original interview with Dr. Edwards, my most popular interview in 2024. It provides an excellent background for today's interview. Dr. Edwards went on the WanderLearn Show to discuss Jimmy Chin's surprising October 2024 announcement that he found Andrew Comyn Irvine's foot! Andrew Irvine's nickname was Sandy.WATCH National Geographic sponsored the expedition and announced the momentous news. The rest of Sandy's body has not been found yet.Sandy died 100 years ago. In 1960, Chinese climber Wang Fuzhou claimed he spotted a dead European climber who had to be Sandy Irvine. Assuming that sighting was accurate, nobody has seen Irvine since then ... until now.Famed mountaineer and photographer Jimmy Chin found Sandy's foot inside the 100-year-old boot. Robert Edwards wrote his initial impressions of Sandy's discovery on Goodreads. In this interview, we delve into greater detail, including the map Dr. Edwards made. Connect Send me an anonymous voicemail at SpeakPipe.com/FTapon You can post comments, ask questions, and sign up for my Substack newsletter. If you like this podcast, subscribe and share! On social media, my username is always FTapon. Connect with me on: * Facebook * X * YouTube * Instagram * TikTok * LinkedIn * Pinterest * Tumblr Sponsors 1. My Patrons sponsored this show! Claim your monthly reward by becoming a patron for as little as $2/month at https://Patreon.com/FTapon 2. For the best travel credit card, get one of the Chase Sapphire cards and get 75-100k bonus miles! 3. Get $5 when you sign up for Roamless, my favorite global eSIM with its unlimited hotspot & data that never expires! Use code LR32K 4. Or get 5% off when you sign up with Saily, another global eSIM with a built-in VPN & ad blocker. 5. Get 25% off when you sign up for Trusted Housesitters, a site that helps you find sitters or homes to sit in. 6. Start your podcast with my company, Podbean, and get one month free! 7. In the United States, I recommend trading cryptocurrency with Kraken. 8. Outside the USA, trade crypto with Binance and get 5% off your trading fees! 9. For backpacking gear, buy from Gossamer Gear. Get full access to Francis Tapon at ftapon.substack.com/subscribe

Buy Dan’s book, Waterborne. Dan Rubinstein undertakes a 1,200‑mile solo stand‑up paddleboarding journey from Ottawa through Montreal, New York City, Toronto, and back, traveling rivers, lakes, and canals over ten weeks. Along the way, he explores the concept of “blue space”—how being in, on, or near water can promote healing, enhance mental and physical health, and foster care for the natural world—while meeting a diverse range of people connected to these waterways. Blending research, interviews, and a reflective, anticolonial adventure narrative, the book argues that water can reconnect fractured communities and help address modern social and environmental challenges without requiring an epic expedition. Video 2: Surprises 00:00 Quitting02:00 Surprises Connect Send me an anonymous voicemail at SpeakPipe.com/FTapon You can post comments, ask questions, and sign up for my Substack newsletter. If you like this podcast, subscribe and share! On social media, my username is always FTapon. Connect with me on: * Facebook * Twitter * YouTube * Instagram * TikTok * LinkedIn * Pinterest * Tumblr Sponsors 1. My Patrons sponsored this show! Claim your monthly reward by becoming a patron for as little as $2/month at https://Patreon.com/FTapon 2. For the best travel credit card, get one of the Chase Sapphire cards and get 75-100k bonus miles! 3. Get $5 when you sign up for Roamless, my favorite global eSIM with its unlimited hotspot & data that never expires! Use code LR32K 4. Or get 5% off when you sign up with Saily, another global eSIM with a built-in VPN & ad blocker. 5. Get 25% off when you sign up for Trusted Housesitters, a site that helps you find sitters or homes to sit in. 6. Start your podcast with my company, Podbean, and get one month free! 7. In the United States, I recommend trading cryptocurrency with Kraken. 8. Outside the USA, trade crypto with Binance and get 5% off your trading fees! 9. For backpacking gear, buy from Gossamer Gear. Get full access to Francis Tapon at ftapon.substack.com/subscribe

In this two-part interview, Canadian Dan Rubinstein discusses the logistics and surprises of his stand-up paddleboard (SUP) journey! Buy Dan’s book, Water Borne. Dan Rubinstein undertakes a 1,200‑mile solo stand‑up paddleboarding journey from Ottawa through Montreal, New York City, Toronto, and back, traveling rivers, lakes, and canals over ten weeks. Along the way, he investigates the idea of “blue space”—how being in, on, or near water can heal, improve mental and physical health, and inspire care for the natural world—while meeting a wide range of people connected to these waterways. Blending research, interviews, and a reflective, anticolonial adventure narrative, the book argues that water can reconnect fractured communities and help address modern social and environmental challenges without requiring an epic expedition. 00:00 Gear selection05:00 Route selection07:00 Campsite selection Connect Send me an anonymous voicemail at SpeakPipe.com/FTapon You can post comments, ask questions, and sign up for my Substack newsletter. If you like this podcast, subscribe and share! On social media, my username is always FTapon. Connect with me on: * Facebook * Twitter * YouTube * Instagram * TikTok * LinkedIn * Pinterest * Tumblr Sponsors 1. My Patrons sponsored this show! Claim your monthly reward by becoming a patron for as little as $2/month at https://Patreon.com/FTapon 2. For the best travel credit card, get one of the Chase Sapphire cards and get 75-100k bonus miles! 3. Get $5 when you sign up for Roamless, my favorite global eSIM with its unlimited hotspot & data that never expires! Use code LR32K 4. Or get 5% off when you sign up with Saily, another global eSIM with a built-in VPN & ad blocker. 5. Get 25% off when you sign up for Trusted Housesitters, a site that helps you find sitters or homes to sit in. 6. Start your podcast with my company, Podbean, and get one month free! 7. In the United States, I recommend trading cryptocurrency with Kraken. 8. Outside the USA, trade crypto with Binance and get 5% off your trading fees! 9. For backpacking gear, buy from Gossamer Gear. Get full access to Francis Tapon at ftapon.substack.com/subscribe

I made several gloomy predictions for 2025 that did not occur. So, now, like a lousy gambler, I am doubling down on those gloomy predictions and reiterating some of them for 2026! A broken clock is correct twice a day! I will be a glorious Nostradamus in 2026! 1. Global recession strikes. I incorrectly predicted that we’d have a recession in 2025, so how about 2026? I asked Perplexity.ai, and most experts say my prediction is wrong. Screw them. I say that the US unemployment rate will rise above 7%. Tariffs send the world into a downward spiral. 2. Renewables Overtake Coal as Top Global Power Source. Renewables will generate over 6,000 terrawatts, more than at any other time in history, and surpassing coal for the first time. 3. Bitcoin revisits its 300-week moving average. BTC’s bear market deepens. Bitcoin’s 2025 peak was approximately $125k, so it must drop by at least 50%, meaning it will likely dip below $70k, and possibly as low as $50k, which is near its current 300-week moving average. Many analysts think the 200-week moving average represented the floor of BTC’s price, but with diminishing returns, the new floor is the 300-week moving average, which BTC tagged in March 2020 and crossed in November 2022. All bear markets must now cross the 300-week moving average, not just the 200-week. By the end of 2026, BTC will be climbing back from its cycle low, but it won’t revisit $100k in 2026 (except maybe in the first quarter). 4. One in four light vehicle sales will be electric. Although electric car sales in the USA may decline, the rest of the world will continue adopting them aggressively, reaching an all-time high in market share. 5. Democrats win back the US House of Representatives Midterm elections are rarely good news for the incumbent US President. 6. Republicans retain the Senate. A divided Congress plagues the lame-duck period of Trump’s final term. 7. MSTR drops 80% from its all-time high and dips to $100. In 2025, Strategy was once worth $543. In 2026, it will be worth $100. 8. Humans will revisit the Moon in a flyby. NASA will successfully launch the Artemis II mission, sending four astronauts around the moon in the first crewed lunar mission since 1972. They will NOT land on the Moon. 9. I’ll finish The Unseen Africa. I’ll stay in Chile until it’s done! To see my previous forecasts, check out my predictions for 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025. Feedback Email me at [email protected] or leave an anonymous voicemail that I could use on the podcast at Speakpipe. Connect Send me an anonymous voicemail at SpeakPipe.com/FTapon You can post comments, ask questions, and sign up for my newsletter at https://wanderlearn.com . If you like this podcast, subscribe and share! On social media, my username is always FTapon. Connect with me on: * Facebook * Twitter * YouTube * Instagram * TikTok * LinkedIn * Pinterest * Tumblr Sponsors 1. My Patrons sponsored this show! Claim your monthly reward by becoming a patron for as little as $2/month at https://Patreon.com/FTapon 2. For the best travel credit card, get one of the Chase Sapphire cards and get 75-100k bonus miles! 3. Get $5 when you sign up for Roamless, my favorite global eSIM with its unlimited hotspot & data that never expires! Use code LR32K 4. Or get 5% off when you sign up with Saily, another global eSIM with a built-in VPN & ad blocker. 5. Get 25% off when you sign up for Trusted Housesitters, a site that helps you find sitters or homes to sit in. 6. Start your podcast with my company, Podbean, and get one month free! 7. In the United States, I recommend trading cryptocurrency with Kraken. 8. Outside the USA, trade crypto with Binance and get 5% off your trading fees! 9. For backpacking gear, buy from Gossamer Gear. Get full access to Francis Tapon at ftapon.substack.com/subscribe