Bestiaries were medieval compendiums that contained information and illustrations of real and legendary animals. Following this ancient tradition, I have put together talks about the origins of different legendary and fantasy creatures. Make yourself comfortable, this will be a long historical, anthropological and mythological journey around the world. Timestamps: 0:00 Bestiaries 1:37 Elf 27:37 Dwarf 41:12 Ork 47:32 Goblin 55:25 Troll 1:05:45 Phoenix 1:33:45 Unicorn 1:53:25 Mermaid 2:15:00 Werew...
May 30, 2026•3 hr 30 min•Ep. 125
Alexander the Great is a name that sounds almost more legendary than real. In tonight's episode, we will dive into his time, his life and his conquests. Born from King Philip II of Macedon and Olympias of Epirus, educated by Aristotle, Alexander takes the lead of the League of Corinth, a coalition of Greek states. He leads his army into the conquest of the greatest empire of the time: the empire of the Achaemenids. He ends up conquering it entirely, defeating Darius III at the decisive battles o...
May 21, 2026•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 124
Machines and humans live in a symbiosis, something we are so accustomed to that we barely think about it. You are using a machine to read this, and your headset or speakers, your clothes, your chair or your bed, most of the objects around you, were made with machines or are machines. We create them and they bring extraordinary advantages. They free us, but we also adapt to them. Think about how our work, be it remote or in production facilities where machines are located, the way we socialize, e...
Apr 27, 2026•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 123
What are the origins of well-known legendary figures, such as the phoenix, the unicorn and the mermaid? From ancient symbols and myths to medieval bestiaries, we are going to explore their appearance and evolution, and try to dig a bit deeper. Why do certain motifs such as the phoenix appear across various cultures? What are the Physiologus and the illustrated bestiaries from the Middle Ages? What is the psychological and cultural appeal of part-human, part-animal hybrids such as the mermaid? Le...
Apr 06, 2026•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 122
We all know of modern fantasy creatures, and also that they owe a lot to J.R.R. Tolkien, other fantasy authors of the last 60 years, Dungeons & Dragons, or different franchises like Warhammer or Warcraft. But how did these different figures actually form: what are the mythologies, the folklores and the more recent elements that gave birth to them? This is what we are going to examine in this episode, an exploration journey that will take us from ancient Germanic, Norse and Celt myths, to med...
Mar 16, 2026•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 121
In this new story, we will explore the cultural history of three colours: yellow, black and white. How were pigments for art and crafts, or dyes, obtained? What were the meanings, symbolisms and status of these colours, across various ancient cultures and to our days? Let's find out. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Feb 23, 2026•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 120
This new compilation of episodes will take you to several stories taken from or inspired by Germanic myths and legends. I have equalised the sound and there are no ads during the entire episode. As always, I tell you the stories and also take a bit of time to explain the historical and cultural context. Here are the episodes I put together: - The Ring of the Nibelung - Beowulf - Norse Mythology Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collec...
Feb 16, 2026•3 hr 23 min•Ep. 119
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...
Feb 02, 2026•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 118
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.
Jan 26, 2026•4 hr 59 min•Ep. 117
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...
Jan 12, 2026•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 116
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. ...
Dec 22, 2025•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 115
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 ma...
Dec 02, 2025•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 114
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, ...
Nov 23, 2025•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 113
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 detach...
Nov 16, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 112
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 p...
Nov 12, 2025•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 111
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. ...
Nov 09, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 110
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 Ad...
Nov 07, 2025•3 hr 4 min•Ep. 109
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 advert...
Nov 05, 2025•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 108
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 informat...
Nov 03, 2025•3 hr 8 min•Ep. 107
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 Giordan...
Nov 01, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 106
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...
Oct 30, 2025•6 hr•Ep. 105
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 loo...
Oct 28, 2025•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 104
This episode is a time travel to the Celtic era, to examine historical mysteries and discover more about Celtic culture. I will tell you about the druids: what we know of their emergence, their functions, their cultural importance, and also the many aspects of druidism that remain mysterious. We will also travel to the Hill of Tara in Ireland, examine the mystery of the vitrification of hillforts, and take a look at the enigmatic Gundestrup Cauldron. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See...
Oct 25, 2025•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 103
This new space journey will take you to the mysterious and gigantic expanse that exists beyond the planet Neptune. We will discover different bodies from the Kuiper Belt, including its most famous resident: Pluto, its satellites like Charon, and other dwarf planets such as Haumea, Makemake and Eris. I will also tell you about tilted orbits and why they happen, tholins, regolith, the mysterious "Planet Nine", the Oort Cloud beyond the Kuiper Belt, and more things... Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWi...
Oct 23, 2025•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 102
Tonight's episode takes us on a historical tour of monasticism, especially Catholic monasteries. I get that the topic of monasticism may sound at the same time random and particularly arid. But bear with me: I promise that if you are not familiar with it, you will discover a world of ideas, social experiments, spirituality, or controversies, that you did not realize you needed to know about. Give it a shot! You will learn what anchorites and cenobites are, how Christian monasticism appeared in t...
Oct 21, 2025•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 101
This is the compilation of the first 4 wonders of the Middle Ages I detailed in recent episodes (Mont Saint-Michel, Tower of London, Towers of Bologna, Charlemagne's palace in Aachen), with a new section at the beginning that explains how the medieval period is defined by historians. There will be more medieval wonders coming soon! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Oct 19, 2025•3 hr 19 min•Ep. 100
Tonight's episode takes us on a historical tour of salt: how much is there on Earth? Why did it start to be an important commodity for humans in the Neolithic? How was it extracted and transported in ancient times? We will explore all this, and more: how the taxation of salt helped early states to function, how salt was extracted and transported in medieval times, the history of various food preservation methods using salt, and how it was partially replaced with other techniques such as canning ...
Oct 17, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 99
In tonight's episode, we take a look at two mysteries that keep sparking debates in their respective scientific communities: - The Cambrian Explosion: at the beginning of this period of our planet's history, the number of life forms and their complexity increased dramatically - both in terms of body plans and behaviours, with the emergence of ecological complexity, like predator-prey relationships. But why did it happen? - Dark Energy: like Dark Matter, Dark Energy is a hypothesis, a way of reco...
Oct 15, 2025•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 98
Before the times of its decadence, the merchant republic of Venice was a great power of the Middle Ages. Its partnership with Byzantium, its shipbuilding and seafaring traditions and its trading capability made it powerful and respected. The building of the city of Venice, and its spectacular basilica (Saint Mark's) were extraordinary accomplishments for a city that began as a muddy outpost created by people fleeing the collapse of the late Western Roman Empire. In this episode, we explore this ...
Oct 13, 2025•43 min•Ep. 97
The Palatine Chapel that is part of Aachen's Cathedral is the best preserved remain of the palace that Charlemagne built when the city was his preferred residence. What is it like, and how was Charlemagne's empire? In tonight's story, we will explore this little known chapter of history and discover the rise of the Frankish Kingdom, the Merovingian and Carolingian dynasties, the attempts at creating a medieval successor to the Roman Empire, and how the seeds of feudality were planted. Hosted by ...
Oct 11, 2025•51 min•Ep. 96
