From Cameron
Hey folks! Another busy week here at podcast headquarters. Ray and I recorded a hella fun Caesar show yesterday, where I spent the better part of an hour quoting Pliny the Elder’s chapter in Natural History on the many uses of menstrual blood. You don’t want to miss that one when it comes out. We’re about to head out of lunch with my old friend Peter Ellyard. He’s been on various podcasts over the years. I published his book “Designing 2050” about a thousand years ago. He’s in his 80s now, still working as a futurist, still doing yoga every day, and one of my favourite people to spend time with. One of the few people I can talk about anything and everything with – history, science, Shostakovich, philosophy, anything. And he’s a lovely human being, too boot. So is his partner, Robyn, who Chrissy thinks of as an older sister (much, much older, but she’s uber-cool).
My Thought For The Day
“What is China’s strategy for becoming number 1? The Chinese have concluded that their best strategy is to build a strong and prosperous future, and use their huge and increasingly highly skilled and educated workers to out-sell and out-build all others. They will avoid any action that will sour up relations with the U.S. To challenge a stronger and technologically superior power like the U.S. will abort their “peaceful rise.”
“Lee Kuan Yew”, Graham Allison.
Our TikTok of the Week
This Week’s Episodes
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Life of Caesar · Published 13 July 2026 A River of Gold – Vespasian #24We’re covering the triumph of Vespasian and Titus, and our eyewitness is Josephus…. a Jewish priest who watched Rome parade the looted contents of his own temple down the street and somehow managed to keep it together enough to write one of the most vivid accounts of a Roman triumph we have. The menorah, the multi-storey floats, rivers of gold and ivory, Jewish prisoners dressed in finery to hide how emaciated they were. It’s an extraordinary document from an extraordinarily… |
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Cold War · Published 9 July 2026 Cold War 312: Fatherland or Death (CUBAN REVOLUTION #37)A Belgian munitions ship called La Coubre blows up in Havana Harbour, killing somewhere between 75 and 100 people…. and Castro immediately points the finger at Washington, which is awkward given that the US had already been bombing Cuban sugar fields from Florida. Also at this funeral, Alberto Korda snaps a photo of Che Guevara that will eventually end up on condoms worldwide, and Castro coins the phrase that becomes the revolution’s motto: Patria O Muerte. The diplomats are starting… |
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Renaissance · Published 3 July 2026 The Silence of Marguerite – The Renaissance #242The Beguines were a movement of independent women who lived like nuns, owned property, preached in the vernacular, and answered to no man or church…. which, predictably, the church absolutely could not stand. We work through three of the great Beguine mystics, including Marguerite Porete, who spent 18 months on trial giving the Inquisition the silent finger before being burned alive in Paris in 1310. Her book survived, was read seriously by theologians for centuries, and wasn’t definitively credited to… |
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The Bullshit Filter · Published 10 July 2026 Havel’s Power of the Powerless – BS Filter #148Today we pick apart Václav Havel’s “Power of the Powerless” – with guest Michael Romahn – and why going along to get along is exactly how every rotten system keeps itself alive. If you would like to listen to the full episode, sign up and become a supporter of the show! It’s less than the cost of a single coffee a week. The post Havel’s Power of the Powerless – BS Filter #148 appeared first on The BS Filter . |
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QAV Australia · Published 15 July 2026 Phigital Monopoly: IGL — QAV AU #928 |
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QAV America · Published 16 July 2026 Conan the Barbarian (TEO): QAV America #61This week we do a full Pulled Pork on Telecom Argentina (TEO), a near-monopoly telco that owes much of its shine to one of the most unhinged political stories on the planet right now. Cameron walks through the Javier Milei backstory, dead dogs, clones, chainsaw economics and all, before getting into the actual numbers, which are genuinely solid. We also cover IBM’s ugly 25% overnight drop, Leslie’s pool company going haywire with trading halts every five minutes, and what the… |