Dr. Justin Sledge is a professor of philosophy and religion whose work focuses on the Western Esoteric Tradition, particularly in religious and philosophical thought. He's also the host and creator of the extremely popular Youtube channel, Esoterica. In this exhilarating conversation we talk about the fascinating tradition of summoning demonic entities, mystical experiences and magic, as well as the brutal medieval persecution of esoteric practices.

As an undying fan of Ridley Scott's Gladiator, I've always wanted to learn the real history of these celebrated, yet mysterious figures - and now I finally have the chance... Alexander Mariotti is a Roman historical consultant and a leading speaker on gladiatorial life, combat, and weaponry. Following academic work, his main focus has been working as an advisor to the media, featuring in countless documentaries, TV shows, and movies, most recently for the Amazon Prime TV show, Those about to...

Dr. Emmanuel Maggiori is a software engineer, writer, and speaker, who's on a mission to help develop a more balanced view about the tech and AI industries in the midst of the relentless hype. He's also the author of the books Smart Until It's Dumb and Siliconned: How the tech industry solves fake problems, hoards idle workers, and makes doomed bets with other people's money. We talk about the potential rise of artificial consciousness, the way large language models really work, doomsday AI...

Professor Norman Finkelstein is a political scientist whose primary fields of research are the politics of the Holocaust and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. He's the author of many books, such as The Holocaust Industry, I'll burn that bridge when I get to it, and Gaza: an Inquest into its martyrdom. We talk about the origins of Zionism, the current state of Israeli society, the horror of the conflict in Gaza, the prospects of Kamala Harris... as well as his notorious debate with the popular...

The story of dog domestication seems as simple as pie - humans took some wolf puppies, brought them over to the campfire and the rest is history... However, the truth is far less straightforward and far murkier, sometimes even downright bizarre. From rabbits and chickens, to dogs and cats, prof. Greger Larson, an evolutionary geneticist from University of Oxford breaks down the extremely complicated story of humans and the process of animal domestication.

Daniel McClellan is a scholar of the Bible and religion, and an honorary fellow at the University of Birmingham's Cadbury Centre for the Public Understanding of Religion. He's also the c0-host of the Data over Dogma podcast and runs a brilliant Tik Tok channel where he tackles common questions and misunderstandings about the Bible. In this amazingly illuminating conversation we talk about the origins of the Old Testament, the historicity of its personalities, the inconsistencies in the four...

Chris Stringer is a physical anthropologist celebrated for his work on human evolution, as well as a research leader in human origins at the Natural History Museum in London. He comes back to Smart Cookies to share of his vast knowledge on my favourite archaic humans, the Neanderthals. We discuss their origins, culture, language, technology, interbreeding with Homo Sapiens, their eventual extinction... as well as the rise of garbage origin theories propagated by the likes of Graham Hancock.

In the second part of the fantastic conversation about the FRENCH REVOLUTION with historian David Andress, we discuss the downward spiral of Louis XVI, the relentless reign of terror, the bloody civil wars that rocked France... as well as the eventual rise of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Professor David Andress is a renowned historian of the French Revolution at the University of Portsmouth. In this episode we talk about the prelude to arguably the most important revolution of all time, the deteriorating social conditions before the storm, the emerging class of urban revolutionaries, the that were ideas driving them... as well as the events that finally push France into irreversible turmoil.

Thomas Lockley is Associate Professor at Nihon University College of Law in Tokyo, where he teaches courses about the international and multicultural history of Japan and East Asia. We talk about the REAL HISTORY behind the "Shogun" TV show, but also about feudal Japan, the Samurai, the arrival of Europeans... as well as Prof. Lockley's latest book "A Gentleman from Japan."

Peter Heather is Chair of Medieval History at King's College London. Some of his most famous books include The Fall of the Roman Empire, Rome Resurgent, Christendom, and most recently Why Empires Fall: Rome, America and the Future of the West. We talk about the last days of the western Roman empire, the role of barbarians, the rise of the Persian empire, decadence, popular cliches, the worst Roman Emperor of all time and many parallels of falling Rome with the West today.

Alison Rowlands is a Professor of European history at the University of Essex researching witchcraft of the early modern period in central Europe. We talk about medieval beliefs in the supernatural, witch trials, the Inquisition, torture, the role of gender in accusations of witchcraft, as well as witchcraft in popular culture.

The Illegals was a network of sleeper agents created by KGB, who were sent into western countries, pretending to be ordinary citizens. Jack Barsky was a young German man when he signed up and became one of the few Illegals who sent straight into the belly of the beast - into the US. We discuss his early life in East Germany, the KGB training he went through in Moscow, his mission in the US, the eventual arrest by the FBI, as well as famous films portraying spying.

Jacob Mikanowski is a Polish-American journalist, writer and academic who's recently published an amazing book on the history of EASTERN EUROPE called "Goodbye Eastern Europe: An Intimate History of a Divided Land." Jacob and I talk about the origins of Slavs, the surprising role of slavery in early kingdoms, the colourful medieval Slavdom, as well as modern stereotypes and our unique sense of humour.

Uwe Boll is an infamous German film director, a Hollywood outcast consistently panned by critics, who produced and directed more than 30 films, working with some of the biggest names in show business. We talk about his everlasting passion for film, humble beginnings, first feature, developing a hard skin, hanging out with Mike Tyson and boxing his critics in the ring.

Most of us believe our lives are ordered by reason, or at least some kind of a sensible narrative... However, much as we hate to admit it, chance, randomness and chaos all play a crucial role in our lives (as well as our societies) - and that's exactly what Brian Klaas, associate professor in Global politics at University College London, wrote a phenomenal book about (called Fluke: Chance, Chaos and Why Everything We Do Matters). We also discuss the pervasive ideology of individualism,...

I talk to Norman Ohler, the author of the best-selling book Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany. We discuss the hidden history of widespread drug use in the Third Reich, the mass consumption of methamphetamines by the German army, as well as Adolf Hitler's spiralling dependence on "injections" administered to him by his doctor, Theo Morell.

Brent Lee is an ex-conspiracy theorist who's managed to escape the rabbit hole after dwelling in its depths for 15 years. These days he's known as the host of the "Some Dare Call It Conspiracy" podcast, through which he's trying to help people who are still caught up in these beliefs. We talk about his descent into the bizarre world of conspiracies, the impact they had on his personal life, his beliefs at the time, the con men "influencers" he encountered, as well as his mission of trying to...

Dr. Michael Rowe is a Reader in modern European History at King's College London. Over the last two decades he has published extensively on the period of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars. In this episode of Smart Cookies we talk about Napoleon's rise, his personality, conquests and defeats, as well as his relationship with Josephine and finally, bout Ridley Scott's divisive Napoleon biopic.

Dr. Tobias Jones is a researcher, historian and lecturer of Mongol history at Leiden University. Back by popular demand, he returns to Smart Cookies to talk about some of the most powerful women of the Mongol Empire. We also talk discuss upbringing and the role of Mongolian women, the ancient custom of bride kidnapping, levirate marriage, whispers of warrior women, and Marco Polo doing kung-fu in China.

Bruce Greyson is a Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Neuro-behavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia, who has studied near-death experiences for more than 45 years and is one of the world’s leading experts on their science and significance. He is the author of After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal about Life and Beyond, co-author of Irreducible Mind and co-editor of The Handbook of Near-Death Experiences. We talk about his research on near-death experiences,...

Tariq Ali is a writer, filmmaker and a leading figure of the international left since the 60s. He is a long-standing editor of the New Left Review and a political commentator published on every continent. His books include The Clash of Fundamentalisms, The Obama Syndrome and the latest, Winston Churchill: His Times, His Crimes, which we discuss in this episode. We also talk about Churchill's racist views, support of British Imperialism, World War 2, Class Warfare and his role in The Bengal...

During one of the most dramatic summers in recent memory, filled with record breaking temperatures, devastating wildfires and destructive floods, a bombshell report released by the IISD exposed the fact that our governments are pumping RECORD amounts of money into big oil... I talk to one of the reports' authors, Tara Laan, to figure out WHY. We also discuss climate anxiety, the relationship between pollution and health, climate summits, COP28 and climate activism.

Professor Avi Loeb is a former Chair of the astronomy department at Harvard University, founding director of Harvard's Black Hole Initiative and director of the Institute for Theory and Computation at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. He is also the head of the Galileo Project - the Systematic Scientific Search for Evidence of Extraterrestrial Technological Artifacts. We talk about the US government's "secret retrieval program" testimony by David Grusch, UFO and UAP sightings,...