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Nature creates certain patterns that seem to appear spontaneously, on different scales: spirals, hexagons, fractals, symmetries... Why is that? To what forces, needs or underlying order does this correspond? Why do they speak to our sense of aesthetics? These are the questions we are going to examine in simple terms in this episode. This poetic and scientific journey will take us to a multiplicity of fields (mathematics, physics, biology...) and will give us an opportunity to talk about fractals, chaos theory, the Fibonacci sequence, or the golden ratio. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This long compilation of episodes will accompany you for hours, as you relax, sleep, work, or are just curious about the topics. I have equalised the sound and there are no ads during the entire episode. Here are the themes I put together: History of Timekeeping, History of Astrology, History of Colours, History of Alchemy, History of Rooms in Homes Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Tonight I take you to two wonders of the World. First we will discover the Taj Mahal, maybe the most extraordinary mausoleum ever built. It was commissioned by the fifth emperor of the Mughal Empire, Shah Jahan, for his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal, and is a jewel of Mughal architecture, blending Indian, Persian, Central Asian and Islamic influences. After that, we will go to the two temples of Abu Simbel, built in Nubia by Ramesses II. These temples dedicated to him and his wife Nefertari are some of the most wonderful remains of the Egyptian civilization, and I will tell you about Ramesses' reign and how they were relocated when the Aswan Dam was built. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The silurian hypothesis is not a theory, but rather a thought experiment: what if a civilization had existed on Earth millions of years ago? After such a long time, could it have left any trace, taking into account the natural decay of all materials, sedimentation and plate tectonics? This video is not about an actual ancient civilization of which we have zero evidence. It is about how long the remains of a technically advanced civilization such as ours could last, and testify of our existence. This means looking into things such as the durabily of the materials we use and the things we build, the time it takes for our waste to disappear, geology, erosion... And also what kind of physical evidence of their existence different civilizations may leave behind them. 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.

In tonight's episode, I invite you to an overview of rooms, since humankind started to build homes. For much of our history, most people lived in single-room dwellings and multiple-room homes were a privilege for the happy few. This started to change after the 16th Century, and rooms multiplied for almost everyone, often influenced by aristocratic and bourgeois homes. From medieval long houses and manors, to aristocratic apartments, parlors or drawing rooms, to living rooms and modern bedrooms, we have a lot to discover! 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.

Our episode tonight takes us way back to 252 million years ago, at the end of the Permian geologic period. We will discover what marine life was like in the gigantic ocean called Panthalassa, as well as the flora and fauna of the supercontinent Pangea. In the last millions of years of the Permian, marine and land species began to go extinct in larger and larger numbers, culminating in the last million years in the most severe extinction event observed in the history of our planet. What are the possible causes of this extinction: volcanism, climate change, collision with a meteorite...? 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.

In this soft spoken ASMR video, I tell you about the Wars of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. We explore the transformation of society, politics, diplomacy and warfare that made Napoleon's destiny possible, and we follow him from his birthplace in Corsica to Toulon, Paris, Italy, Egypt until the coup that made him access to supreme power. But this was just a start: multiple conflicts saw him dominate Europe for a short time before a spectacular collapse. 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.

In this science talk for bedtime, I review the periodic table of the elements methodically and explain in simple terms plenty of phenomenons and concepts about chemistry and physics (the structure of atoms, valence and reactivity, isotopes, allotropes, ionic compounds, the definitions of metals, metalloids or noble gases, radioactivity...) as well as the industrial and economic relevance of some of these elements. 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 this very long bedtime story, we explore every single planet of the Solar System and many of their satellites. I tell you about their formation history, what they are made of, what to expect at their surfaces, and plenty of other things about orbits, chemistry, rocketry, or concepts such as terraformation. Our journey will take us even beyond Pluto, in the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud. 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.