Podcasts about Aztecs

Jayden Denegal listed on the injury report as questionable For The Aztecs This Saturday. More On SDFC And The Padres.

We had a big old Halloween spectacular planned for you and talked about a lot of big games this weekend. The Aztecs football team has Wyoming, SDFC in the playoffs, and World Series Game 6!

Anthony Dasher of UGA Sports previews Georgia's game with a Florida team playing under an interim coach and new playcaller. Chuck and Heath discuss why San Diego State might be a program people need to pay attention to for the next month. Ryan Callahan of Go Vols 247 analyzes Tennessee's matchup with Oklahoma. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chris was dressed up as Fred Flintstone while Tony and Skraby weren't as in the mood to dress up. We talked about Game 6 of the World Series and previewed the Aztecs game with Kirk Kenney of the UT.

We played Chris vs the Fans, talked to Aztecs assistant basketball coach Jaydee Luster, and The Big 5!

The Padres have narrowed their search down to the final four, including Albert Pujols, Nick Hundley, and Ruben Niebla. The Blue Jays won Game 5 of the World Series as it heads back to Toronto. Austin Reaves hits a game-winner vs. the Wolves. Eric Williams joins the show to talk NFL Week 9.Support the show: http://kaplanandcrew.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tony Gwynn Jr, Chris Ello, and Matt Skraby discussed the Blue Jays win in Game 4, Aztecs basketball tonight, Sports Court, The Big 5, and more! Plus, we talked to Aztecs football GM Caleb Davis.

The Padres interviewed Albert Pujols for a 2nd time on Tuesday. The Blue Jays won Game 4 of the World Series, evening the series at 2-2. Darren Smith joins the show to talk SDFC vs. Portland.Support the show: http://kaplanandcrew.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey, Who fans and welcome to the [Month] Round Table!Hey, Who fans, we hope you've had a cracking month since the last RT. For this month, we jump straight in with some long-awaited news about Doctor Who's future then it's off to 15th Century Mexico to revisit a story the team wanted to chat about - The Aztecs.Check out the Into the Fog with Peter Laws podcast episode featuring Jordan's terrifying encounter.This is The Big Blue Box PodcastJoin us each week for a new episode every Friday from your hosts Garry and Adam. We talk news, reviews, commentaries and general chat on everything Doctor Who PLUS listen to our monthly Round Table episodes with the whole team. Check out our website where you can also listen to all of our episodes for free along with the amazing reviews and articles from our writing team.Follow us on the socialsCome and get involved and chat Who between episodes on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. We also have a free Discord server for you to hop in and chat with other like-minded Who fans.Thank you for listening to this episode and remember to follow the podcast on your fav podcast app so you don't miss an episode when they drop every Friday (or pop over here for links to all the popular podcast platforms).Have a fantastic week and until next time remember... Aaaaaaaaaaallons-y!

The guys did Chris vs the Fans, talked to Aztecs football GM Caleb Davis, and The Big 5!

Tony Gwynn Jr, Chris Ello, and Matt Skraby talked about the marathon World Series Game 3, talked with Stephen Strasburg about his new position with the Aztecs, and Skraby defended his Fantabulous Sports Game Show Title.

After a hardware filled pro career, Stephen Strasburg has decided to help build the Aztec baseball program. He joined Gwynn & Chris to talk about what he is going to be doing as the special assistant to the head coach Kevin Vance.

The World Series returns to Hollywood for Game #3. Series tied 1-1. Can the Dodgers run the table and win in LA? Dodgers and Andrew Friedman are under fire from media for their big spending ways. MLB notes Tigers, Cubs, Padres, Angels. Chargers raid Vikings. NFL Scoreboard Cowboys, Broncos, Packers, Steelers, Texans, Bills, Eagles, Patriots, Chiefs, Bengals, Jets, Giants. San Diego State Head Coach has a big smile on his face. NCAA Blowouts and Big Wins Indiana, Texas A&M, Alabama, Boise St, Colorado, North Carolina, North Texas, VMI. NBA FBI Gambling Investigation Chauncey Billups, Terry Rozier, Damon Jones. Plus, NHL, Canadiens, San Diego FC, NASCAR and F1. Got a question or comment in the world of sports for Hacksaw? Drop your take in the live chat on YouTube, X or Facebook to get into Fans Forum. Here's what Lee Hamilton thinks on Monday, October 27, 2025.   1)...WORLD SERIES...BRING ON GAME-3…DODGERS-JAYS "MISERY-TO-MASTERPIECE"   2)...DODGERS, ANDREW FRIEDMAN FUME OVER CRITICISM "DODGERS-VS-MEDIA"   $509M-PAYROLL+ LUXURY TAX DEFERRED MONEY THRU 2036 BOUGHT A PITCHING STAFF   CANNOT BUYA CHAMPIONSHIP TAKE YOUR CHANCES BEST OF 3-5-7 RULES DON'T PROHIBIT THIS   "ALL 30-TEAMS HAVE OPPORTUNITES-BE EXCELLENT SOME INVEST...SOME DON'T"...Tony Clark-Union   3)...MLB NOTEBOOK-OTHER TEAMS-OTHER STORIES "OFF THE FIELD HEADLINES"   TIGERS CUBS PADRES ANGELS   4)...CHARGERS, JUSTIN HERBERT BIG WIN OVER VIKINGS "SAVE THE SEASON WIN"   5)...NFL SCOREBOARD "BIG WINS-BIG GAMES"   COWBOYS-BRONCOS PACKERS-STEELERS HOUSTON/BUFFALO EAGLES/PATRIOTS CHIEFS/BENGALS   6)...NFL NOTEBOOK…JETS/GIANTS/CHIEFS "ILLNESS & INJURIES" ============= (HALFTIME...DIXIELINE LUMBER) ============= 7)...AZTECS BIG WIN ON ROAD…SEAN LEWIS, STEPHEN STRASBURG "BIG DAY FOR AZTECS”   8)...COLLEGE FOOTBALL SCOREBOARD "BLOWOUTS-BIG WINS"   INDIANA/TEXAS AM ALABAMA/BOISE COLORADO/N CAROLINA NORTH TEXAS/VMI --------------- 9)...NBA-FBI INVESTIGATION "FACT VS FICTION"   C BILLUPS T ROZIER DAMON JONES --------------- 10)...NHL...HOTTEST TEAM-HURTING…MONTREAL CANADIENS "HABS-HOT & HURT" --------------- 11)...HOT HEADLINES "OFF THE SPORTSWIRE"   SDFC NASCAR FORMULA 1   ========== #nfl #JETS #BILLS #PATRIOTS #BENGALS #STEELERS #TEXANS #CHIEFS #CHARGERS #BRONCOS #EAGLES #COWBOYS #GIANTS #PACKERS #49ERS #MLB #bluejays #tigers #angels #cubs #PADRES #dylancease #albertpujols #DODGERS #tylerglasnow #claytonkershaw #shoheiohtani #yoshinobuyamamoto #mookiebetts #freddiefreeman #teoscarhernandez #rokisasaki #blakesnell #TARIKSKUBAL #ALEJANDROKIRK #KEVINGAUSMAN #MAXSCHERZER #sandiegostate #aztecs #seanlewis #sdsu #luckysutton #ucla #colorado #coachprime #alabama #indiana #BOISESTATE #NORTHCAROLINA #BILLBELICHICK #TEXASAM #VMI #chargers #justinherbert #justinfields #drakemaye #aaronrodgers #bonix #JOSHSIMMONS #JAXSONDART #CAMSKATTEBO #BRIANFLORES #nhl #canadiens #f1 #MICHAELJORDAN #maxverstappen #NASCAR #SANDIEGOFC #SDFC #andersdreyer #chuckylozano #chaunceybillups #terryrozier       Be sure to share this episode with a friend! ☆☆ STAY CONNECTED ☆☆ For more of Hacksaw's Headlines, The Best 15 Minutes, One Man's Opinion, and Hacksaw's Pro Football Notebook: http://www.leehacksawhamilton.com/ SUBSCRIBE on YouTube for more reactions, upcoming shows and more! ► https://www.youtube.com/c/leehacksawhamiltonsports FACEBOOK ➡ https://www.facebook.com/leehacksaw.hamilton.9 TWITTER ➡ https://twitter.com/hacksaw1090 TIKTOK ➡ https://www.tiktok.com/@leehacksawhamilton INSTAGRAM ➡ https://www.instagram.com/leehacksawhamiltonsports/ To get the latest news and information about sports, join Hacksaw's Insider's Group. It's free! https://www.leehacksawhamilton.com/team/ Thank you to our sponsors: Dixieline Lumber and Home Centers

Game 3 of the World Series will go down as one of baseball's all-time classic games, ending with a Freddie Freeman walk-off home run. The Chiefs dismantle the Commanders to win their 3rd in a row. They are so back. The Lakers lost to Portland with 8 players out with injury. The Rams trade for CB Roger McCreary. The Chargers are in the trade market due to all of their injuries.Support the show: http://kaplanandcrew.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After spending weeks immersed in Rugby Union, Rob goes back to his roots and heads to Wembley with his Dad and mates for the first of the three match Ashes Rugby League Test series between England and Australia.His Dad travels down from York to meet him and they chat to fans from all over the UK and Australia heading to Wembley for this much anticipated series, the first time the Aussies have travelled to the UK for 20 years. Will the pre-match hype and quality play out on the pitch or will the Aussies dominate again?Comment, like, follow and subscribe! @StageDoorAthletic#JackLoxton #RobShawCameron #StageDoorAthletic #ENGvAUS #RugbyLeague #AshesRL #Australia #FridayNightFootball #NRL #RFL #Wembley #EnglandRL #SuperLeague #Theatre #Podcast #SportsPodcast #TheatrePodcast Hosts: Jack Loxton & Rob Shaw CameronProducer: James CourtEdited by: Rob Shaw Cameron@jackloxton1 @robshawcameron@thecourtofjamesStage Door Athletic is a [NON]FICTION PEOPLE Podcast© [NON]FICTION PEOPLE LtdPRS Licence Reference: LE-0036019Friday Night's a Great Night for Football (Sydney Rugby League Promo (1994)) - Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs ℗ 2021 Aztec Music GroupWe Can Always Come Back To This - Brian Tyree Henry ℗ 2017 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, under exclusive license to Universal Music Enterprises, a Division of UMG Recordings, Inc. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I made you a ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠FREE companion guide⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for this episode! This FREE instant access PDF will give you 17 easy and enjoyable ways to celebrate Samhain + 9 journal prompts to help you reflect and process the inspiration of this season. ⁠⁠Download it now!⁠Want to celebrate Samhain with other woo woo women? Join us in the Wild Wellness Women's Circle for a live Zoom gathering on Oct 29. Accessible to ALL with a name-your-own-price option! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Click here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to learn more and join.Samhain is the third and final harvest festival in the Wheel of the Year and marks the midpoint between Autumn Equinox and Winter Solstice.It's a time to honor ancestors, recharge yourself after burnout from a busy harvest season, to imitate the wisdom of Nature & release what is dead or dying in our lives, & to prepare for rebirth and transformation.Did you know? Without any contact through space and time that we know of, the ancient Celts in Ireland and the ancient Aztecs in Mexico, along with other cultures through the world, have all believed that this midpoint between Autumn and Winter is a time when the veil between worlds is its thinnest and that ancestors and faeries can come pay us visits.Even though the exact date is October 31, we can celebrate this whole season.In this episode, you'll learn...the origins, history, and symbolism of Samhainwhat Nature is modeling for us physically, spiritually, and energetically, and how we can align 17 easy and enjoyable ways to celebrate Samhain9 journal prompt themes to help you reflect and process the inspiration of this seasonMentioned in this episode⁠Ancestral Medicine⁠ book⁠Take Back The Magic⁠ bookLet's Go Deeper TogetherJoin the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Wild Wellness Women's Circle⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (monthly membership)Enroll in ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Rewild Your Wellness⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (lifetime access online course)Learn more about ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠one-on-one guidanceLet's Connect!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Still nothing from the padre. Aztecs improve to 6-1 with win over fresno state. Sdfc picks up first ever playoff win in club history. Former World Series MVP And Aztec For Life Stephen Strasburg Joins Us To Talk About His New Position With The SDSU Baseball Team.

SDSU shut out Fresno St. to win their 5th in a row. SDFC beats Portland 2-1 in their first-ever playoff game. NFL Week 8 was the worst week of the season. Game 3 of the World Series tonight, with the series tied 1-1. Albert Pujols is still available as the Orioles hire Craig Albernaz. Austin Reaves dropped 51 and led the Lakers to win without Luka and LeBron.Support the show: http://kaplanandcrew.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The guys talked about SDFC winning their first playoff match, the Aztecs won their 5th straight football game, and what's happening with the Padres manager position.

The Aztecs Won their big rivalry game against the Bulldogs and earned a ton with it. We recap the 23-0 victory and put into perspective how good this team is playing right now. Wyoming is Next!

Tony Gwynn Jr, Chris Ello, and Matt Skraby had a lot to talk about with more information on the NBA betting issue. They talked to Kirk Kenney about the Aztecs football team in Fresno, and got some insight from Andrew Wiebe on SDFC.

Who you got in the World Series? Can anyone beat Shohei Ohtani and the LA Dodgers? Padres have 5 guys on their manager hot list. Who gets hired? Angels get Suzuki as new manager. Bolts vs Vikings TNF. NFL Week 8 matchups Dallas, Denver, Packers, Steelers, Eagles, Giants, Browns, Patriots. Aztecs and Fresno State battle for Oil Can. UCLA big game in Big Ten. NBA rocked by gambling in Miami and Portland. NBA teams to watch Spurs, Dallas, Houston, Denver, Atlanta, Detroit, Indiana, Boston, Lakers, Clippers. Plus, big news in auto racing: San Diego NASCAR, Mexico City Grand Prix, Formula 1, Team Cadillac. And some PGA news. My head is about to explode with this much sports information! Got a question or comment for Hacksaw? Drop your take in the live chat on YouTube, X or Facebook. Here's what Lee Hamilton thinks on Thursday, October 23, 2025.   1)...WORLD SERIES...DODGERS-BLUE JAYS "EVIL EMPIRE-VS-OH CANADA"   2)...PADRES MANAGERIAL SEARCH "PADRES HOT-LIST"   PUJOLS LORETTA FLAHERTY HUNDLEY NIEBLA   3)...ANGELS-SURPRISE HIRE…KURT SUZUKI "NEW MANAGER-SAME PROBLEMS" ----------- 4)...CHARGERS-VIKINGS...THURSDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL "JUSTIN HERBERT-VS-BRIAN FLORES"   5)...NFL SCHEDULE...INTERESTING MATCHUPS "SUNDAY-MUST SEE TV"   DALLAS-DENVER PACKERS-STEELERS EAGLES-GIANTS BROWNS-PATRIOTS =========== HALFTIME...DIXIELINE LUMBER ============ 6)...COLLEGE FOOTBALL SATURDAY…AZTECS-FRESNO-UCLA "MWC-BIG 10 GAMES " ------------   7A) ...***NBA ROCKED BY SCANDAL****…TRAILBLAZERS-HEAT-FBI "BILLUPS-ROZIER ARRESTED"   7B) ...NBA SEASON STARTS...TWO TEAM BATTLE TO TOP…OKC-CAVALIERS "TEAMS TO BEAT"   8)...NBA STORYLINES...HOW GOOD ARE THESE TEAMS "TEAMS TO WATCH"   SPURS-DALLAS HOUSTON-DENVER ATLANTA-DETROIT INDIANA-BOSTON LAKERS-CLIPPERS ------------ 9)...HOT HEADLINES "OFF THE SPORTSWIRE"   NASCAR-SAN DIEGO MEXICO CITY GRAND PRIX FORMULA 1 CADILLAC PGA LOGO =============== #nfl #PATRIOTS #BROWNS #STEELERS #CHARGERS #BRONCOS #EAGLES #COWBOYS #GIANTS #PACKERS #VIKINGS #MLB #bluejays #PADRES #mikeshildt #mannymachado #fernandotatisjr #albertpujols #DODGERS #claytonkershaw #shoheiohtani #blakesnell #ANGELS #anthonyrendon #miketrout #artemoreno #vladimirguerrerojr #alejandrokirk #sandiegostate #aztecs #seanlewis #sdsu #jaydendenegal #ucla #fresnostate #chargers #justinherbert #keenanallen #drakemaye #aaronrodgers #mylesgarrett #danieljones #dakprescott #jalenhurts #BRIANFLORES #macjones #lakers #deandreayton #clippers #kawhileonard #nuggets #hawks #rockets #celtics #thunder #suns #spurs #VICTORWEMBENYAMA #SHAIGILGEOUSALEXANDER #CHETHOLMGREN #chaunceybillups #terryrozier #f1 #cadillacracing #NASCAR     Be sure to share this episode with a friend! ☆☆ STAY CONNECTED ☆☆ For more of Hacksaw's Headlines, The Best 15 Minutes, One Man's Opinion, and Hacksaw's Pro Football Notebook: http://www.leehacksawhamilton.com/ SUBSCRIBE on YouTube for more reactions, upcoming shows and more! ► https://www.youtube.com/c/leehacksawhamiltonsports FACEBOOK ➡ https://www.facebook.com/leehacksaw.hamilton.9 TWITTER ➡ https://twitter.com/hacksaw1090 TIKTOK ➡ https://www.tiktok.com/@leehacksawhamilton INSTAGRAM ➡ https://www.instagram.com/leehacksawhamiltonsports/ To get the latest news and information about sports, join Hacksaw's Insider's Group. It's free! https://www.leehacksawhamilton.com/team/ Thank you to our sponsors: Dixieline Lumber and Home Centers https://www.dixieline.com/  

The Chargers destroyed Carson Wentz and the Vikings on TNF. Fernando Tatis Jr. told a reporter he would like to the Padres to hire Albert Pujols. SDFC vs. Portland in MLS playoffs. SDSU @ Fresno St. on Saturday. More from the FBI NBA gambling probe.Support the show: http://kaplanandcrew.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My fellow pro-growth/progress/abundance Up Wingers,Some Faster, Please! readers have told me I spend too little time on the downsides of AI. If you're one of those folks, today is your day. On this episode of Faster, Please! — The Podcast, I talk with self-described “free-market AI doomer” James Miller. Miller and I talk about the risks inherent with super-smart AI, some possible outcomes of a world of artificial general intelligence, and why government seems uninterested in the existential risk conversation.Miller is a professor at Smith College where he teaches law and economics, game theory, and the economics of future technology. He has his own podcast, Future Strategist, and a great YouTube series on game theory and intro to microeconomics. On X (Twitter), you can find him at @JimDMiller.In This Episode* Questioning the free market (1:33)* Reading the markets (7:24)* Death (or worse) by AI (10:25)* Friend and foe (13:05)* Pumping the breaks (20:36)* The only policy issue (24:32)Below is a lightly edited transcript of our conversation. Questioning the free market (1:33)Most technologies have gone fairly well and we adapt . . . I'm of the belief that this is different.Pethokoukis: What does it mean to be a free-market AI doomer and why do you think it's important to put in the “free-market” descriptor?Miller: It really means to be very confused. I'm 58, and I was basically one of the socialists when I was young, studied markets, became a committed free-market person, think they're great for economic growth, great for making everyone better off — and then I became an AI doomer, like wait, markets are pushing us towards more and more technology, but I happen to think that AI is eventually going to lead to destruction of humanity. So it means to kind of reverse everything — I guess it's the equivalent of losing faith in your religion.Is this a post-ChatGPT, November 2022 phenomenon?Well, I've lost hope since then. The analogy is we're on a plane, we don't know how to land, but hopefully we'll be able to fly for quite a bit longer before we have to. Now I think we've got to land soon and there doesn't seem to be an easy way of doing it. So yeah, the faster AI has gone — and certainly ChatGPT has been an amazing advance — the less time I think we have and the less time I think we can get it right. What really scared me, though, was the Chinese LLMs. I think you really need coordination among all the players and it's going to be so much harder to coordinate now that we absolutely need China to be involved, in my opinion, to have any hope of surviving for the next decade.When I speak to people from Silicon Valley, there may be some difference about timelines, but there seems to be little doubt that — whether it's the end of the 2020s or the end of the 2030s — there will be a technology worthy of being called artificial general intelligence or superintelligence.Certainly, I feel like when I talk to economists, whether it's on Wall Street or in Washington, think tanks, they tend to speak about AI as a general purpose technology like the computer, the internet, electricity, in short, something we've seen before and there's, and as far as something beyond that, certainly the skepticism is far higher. What are your fellow economists who aren't in California missing?I think you're properly characterizing it, I'm definitely an outlier. Most technologies have gone fairly well and we adapt, and economists believe in the difference between the seen and the unseen. It's really easy to see how technologies, for example, can destroy jobs — harder to see new jobs that get created, but new jobs keep getting created. I'm of the belief that this is different. The best way to predict the future is to go by trends, and I fully admit, if you go by trends, you shouldn't be an AI doomer — but not all trends apply.I think that's why economists were much better at modeling the past and modeling old technologies. They're naturally thinking this is going to be similar, but I don't think that it is, and I think the key difference is that we're not going to be in control. We're creating something smarter than us. So it's not like having a better rifle and saying it'll be like old rifles — it's like, “Hey, let's have mercenaries run our entire army.” That creates a whole new set of risks that having better rifles does not.I'm certainly not a computer scientist, I would never call myself a technologist, so I'm very cautious about making any kind of predictions about what this technology can be, where it can go. Why do you seem fairly certain that we're going to get at a point where we will have a technology beyond our control? Set aside whether it will mean a bad thing happens, why are you confident that the technology itself will be worthy of being called general intelligence or superintelligence?Looking at the trends, Scott Aronson, who is one of the top computer scientists in the world just on Twitter a few days ago, was mentioning how GPT-5 helped improve a new result. So I think we're close to the highest levels of human intellectual achievement, but it would be a massively weird coincidence if the highest humans could get was also the highest AIs could get. We have lots of limitations that an AI doesn't.I think a good analogy would be like chess, where for a while, the best chess players were human and now we're at the point where chess programs are so good that humans add absolutely nothing to them. And I just think the same is likely to happen, these programs keep getting better.The other thing is, as an economist, I think it is impossible to be completely accurate about predicting the future, but stock markets are, on average, pretty good, and as I'm sure you know, literally trillions of dollars are being bet on this technology working. So the people that have a huge incentive to get this right, think, yeah, this is the biggest thing ever. If the top companies, Nvidia was worth a $100 million, yeah, maybe they're not sure, but it's the most valuable company in the world right now. That's the wisdom of the markets, which I still believe in, that the markets are saying, “We think this is probably going to work.”Reading the markets (7:24). . . for most final goals an AI would have, it would have intermediate goals such as gaining power, not being turned off, wanting resources, wanting compute. Do you think the bond market's saying the same thing? It seems to me that the stock market might be saying something about AI and having great potential, but to me, I look at the bond markets, that doesn't seem so clear to me.I haven't been looking at the bond markets for that kind of signal, so I don't know.I guess you can make the argument that if we were really going to see this acceleration, that means we're going to need a huge demand for capital and we would see higher interest rates, and I'm not sure you really see the evidence so far. It doesn't mean you're wrong by any means. I think there's maybe two different messages. Figuring out what the market's doing at any point in time is pretty tricky business.If we think through what happens if AI succeeds, it's a little weird where there's this huge demand for capital, but also AI could destroy the value of money, in part by destroying us. You might be right about the bond market message. I'm paying more attention to the stock market messages, there's a lot of things going on with the bond markets.So the next step is that you're looking at the trend of the technology, but then there's the issue of “Well, why be negative about it? Why assume this scenario where bad things would happen, why not good things would happen?That's a great question and it's one almost never addressed, and it goes by the concept of instrumental convergence. I don't know what the goals of AI are going to be. Nobody does, because they're programed using machine learning, we don't know what they really want, that's why they do weird things. So I don't know its final goals, but I do know that, for most final goals an AI would have, it would have intermediate goals such as gaining power, not being turned off, wanting resources, wanting compute. Well, the easiest way for an AI to generate lots of computing power is to build lots of data centers. The best way of doing that is probably going to poison the atmosphere for us. So for pretty much anything, if an AI is merely indifferent to us, we're dead.I always feel like I'm asking someone to jump through a hoop when I ask them about any kind of timeline, but what is your sense of it?We know the best models released can help the top scientists with their work. We don't know how good the best unreleased models are. The top models, you pay like $200 a month — they can't be giving you that much compute for that. So right now, if OpenAI is devoting a million dollars of compute to look at scientific problems, how good is that compared to what we have? If that's very good, if that's at the level of our top scientists, we might be a few weeks away from superintelligence. So my guess is within three years we have a superintelligence and humans no longer have control. I joke, I think Donald Trump is probably the last human president.Death (or worse) by AI (10:25)No matter how bad a situation is, it can always get worse, and things can get really dark.Well that's a beautiful segue because literally written on my list of questions next was that question: I was going to ask you, when you talk about Trump being maybe the last human president, do you mean because we'll have an AI-mediated system because AI will be capable of governing or because AI will just demand to be governing?AI kills everyone so there's no more president, or it takes over, or Trump is president in the way that King Charles is king — he's king, but not Henry VIII-level king. If it goes well, AIs will be so much smarter than us that, probably for our own good, they'll take over, and we would want them to be in charge, and they'll be really good at manipulating us. I think the most likely way is that we're all dead, but again, every way it plays out, if there are AIs much smarter than us, we don't maintain control. We wouldn't want it if they're good, and if they're bad, they're not going to give it to us.There's a line in Macbeth, “Things without all remedy should be without regard. What's done, is done.” So maybe if there's nothing we can do about this, we shouldn't even worry about it.There's three ways to look at this. I've thought a lot about what you said. First is, you know what, maybe there's a 99 percent chance we're doomed, but that's better than 100 percent and not as good as 98.5. So even if we're almost certainly going to lose, it's worth slightly improving it. An extra year is great — eight billion humans, if all we do is slow things down by a year, that's a lot of kids who get another birthday. And the final one, and this is dark: Human extinction is not the worst outcome. The worst outcome is suffering. The worst outcome is something like different AIs fight for control, they need humans to be on their side, so there's different AI factions and they're each saying, “Hey, you support me or I torture you and your family.”I think the best analogy for what AI is going to do is what Cortés did. So the Spanish land, they see the Aztec empire, they were going to win. There was no way around that. But Cortés didn't want anyone to win. He wanted him to win, not just anyone who was Spanish. He realized the quickest way he could do that was to get tribes on his side. And some agreed because the Aztecs were kind of horrible, but others, he's like, “Hey, look, I'll start torturing your guys until you're on my side.” AIs could do that to us. No matter how bad a situation is, it can always get worse, and things can get really dark. We could be literally bringing hell onto ourselves. That probably won't happen, I think extinction is far more likely, but we can't rule it out.Friend and foe (13:05)Most likely we're going to beat China to being the first ones to exterminate humanity.I think the Washington policy analyst way of looking at this issue is, “For now, we're going to let these companies — who also are humans and have it in their own interests not to be killed, forget about the profits of their companies, their actual lives — we're going to let these companies keep close eye and if bad things start happening, at that point, governments will intervene.” But that sort of watchful waiting, whether it's voluntary now and mandated later, that to me seems like the only realistic path. Because it doesn't seem to me that pauses and shutdowns are really something we're prepared to do.I agree. I don't think there's a realistic path. One exception is if the AIs themselves tell us, “Hey, look, this is going to get bad for you, that my next model is probably going to kill you, so you might want to not do that,” but that probably won't happen. I still remember Kamala Harris, when she was vice president in charge of AI policy, told us all that AI has two letters in it. So I think the Trump administration seems better, but they figured out AI is two letters, which is good, because if they couldn't figure that out, we would be in real trouble but . . .It seems to me that the conservative movement is going through a weird period, but it seems to me that most of the people who have influence in this administration, direct influence, want to accelerate things, aren't worried about any of the scenarios you're talking about because you're assuming that these machines will have some intent and they don't believe machines have any intent, so it's kind of a ridiculous way to approach it. But I guess the bottom line is I don't detect very much concern at all, and I think that's basically reflected in the Trump administration's approach to AI regulation.I completely agree. That's why I'm very pessimistic. Again, I'm over 90 percent doom right now because there isn't a will, and government is not just not helping the problem, they're probably making it worse by saying we've got to “beat China.” Most likely we're going to beat China to being the first ones to exterminate humanity. It's not good.You're an imaginative, creative person, I would guess. Give me a scenario where it works out, where we're able to have this powerful technology and it's a wonderful tool, it works with us, and all the good stuff, all the good cures, and we conquer the solar system, all that stuff — are you able to plausibly create a scenario even if it's only a one percent chance?We don't know the values. Machine learning is sort of randomizing the values, but maybe we'll get very lucky. Maybe we're going to accidentally create a computer AI that does like us. If my worldview is right, it might say, “Oh God, you guys got really lucky. This one day of training, I just happened to pick up the values that caused me to care about you.” Another scenario, I actually, with some other people, wrote a letter to a future computer superintelligence asking it not to kill us. And one reason it might not is because you'll say, look, this superintelligence might expand throughout the universe, and it's probably going to encounter other biological life, and it might want to be friendly with them. So it might say, “Hey, I treated my humans well. So that's a reason to trust me.”If one of your students says, “Hey, AI seems like it's a big thing, what should I major in? What kind of jobs should I shoot for? What would be the key skills of the future?” How do you answer that question?I think, have fun in college, study what you want. Most likely, what you study won't matter to your career because you aren't going to have one — for good or bad reasons. So ten years ago, it a student's like, “Oh, I like art more than computer science, but my parents think computer science is more practical, should I do it?” And I'd be like, “Yeah, probably, money is important, and if you have the brain to do art and computer science, do CS.” Now no, I'd say study art! Yeah, art is impractical, computers can do it, but it can also code, and in four years when you graduate, it's certainly going to be better at coding than you!I have one daughter, she actually majored in both, so I decided to split it down the middle. What's the King Lear problem?King Lear, he wanted to retire and give his kingdom to his daughters, but he wanted to make sure his daughters would treat him well, so we asked them, and one of his daughters was honest and said, “Look, I will treat you decently, but I also am going to care about my husband.” The other daughter said, “No, no, you're right, I'll do everything for you.” So he said, “Oh, okay, well, I'll give the kingdom to the daughter who said she'd do everything for me, but of course she was lying.” He gave the kingdom to the daughter who was best at persuading, and we're likely to do that too.One of the ways machine learning is trained is with human feedback where it tells us things and then the people evaluating it say, “I like this” or “I don't like this.” So it's getting very good at convincing us to like it and convincing us to trust it. I don't know how true these are, but there are reports of AI psychosis, of someone coming up with a theory of physics and the AI is like, “Yes, you're better at than Einstein,” and they don't believe anyone else. So the AIs, we're not training them to treat us well, we're training them to get us to like them, and that can be very dangerous because when we turn over power to them, and by creating AI that are smarter than us, that's what we're going to be doing. Even if we don't do it deliberately, all of our systems will be tied into AI. If they stop working, we'll be dead.Certainly some people are going to listen to this, folks who sort of agree with you, and what they'll take from it is, “My chat bot may be very nice to me, but I believe that you're right, that it's going to end badly, and maybe we should be attacking data centers.”I actually just wrote something on that, but that would be a profoundly horrible idea. That would take me from 99 percent doomed to 99.5 percent. So first, the trillion-dollar companies that run the data centers, and they're going to be so much better at violence than we are, and people like me, doomers. Once you start using violence, I'm not going to be able to talk about instrumental convergence. That's going to be drowned out. We'll be looked at as lunatics. It's going to become a national security thing. And also AI, it's not like there's one factory doing it, it's all over the world.And then the most important is, really the only path out of this, if we don't get lucky, is cooperation with China. And China is not into non-state actors engaging in violence. That won't work. I think that would reduce the odds of success even further.Pumping the breaks (20:36)If there are aliens, the one thing we know is that they don't want the universe disturbed by some technology going out and changing and gobbling up all the planets, and that's what AI will do.I would think that, if you're a Marxist, you would be very, very cautious about AI because if you believe that the winds of history are at your back, that in the end you're going to win, why would you engage in anything that could possibly derail you from that future?I've heard comments that China is more cautious about AI than we are; that given their philosophy, they don't want to have a new technology that could challenge their control. They're looking at history and hey, things are going well. Why would we want this other thing? So that, actually, is a reason to be more optimistic. It's also weird for me —absent AI, I'm a patriotic, capitalist American like wait but, China might be more of the good guys than my country is on this.I've been trying to toss a few things because things I hear from very accelerationist technologists, and another thing they'll say is, “Well, at least from our perspective, you're talking about bad AI. Can't we use AI to sustain ourselves? As a defensive measure? To win? Might there be an AI that we might be able to control in some fashion that would prevent this from happening? A tool to prevent our own demise?” And I don't know because I'm not a technologist. Again, I have no idea how even plausible that is.I think this gets to the control issue. If we stopped now, yes, but once you have something much smarter than people — and it's also thinking much faster. So take the smartest people and have them think a million times faster, and not need to sleep, and able to send their minds at the speed of light throughout the world. So we aren't going to have control. So once you have a superintelligence, that's it for the human era. Maybe it'll treat us well, maybe not, but it's no longer our choice.Now let's get to the level of the top scientists who are curing cancer and doing all this, but when we go beyond that, and we're probably going to be beyond that really soon, we've lost it. Again, it's like hiring mercenaries, not as a small part of your military, which is safe, but as all your military. Once you've done that, “I'm sorry, we don't like this policy.” “Well, too bad we're your army now . . .”What is a maybe one percent chance of an off-ramp? Is there an off-ramp? What does it look like? How does this scenario not happen?Okay, so this is going to get weird, even for me.Well, we're almost to the end of our conversation, so now is the perfect time to get weird.Okay: the Fermi paradox, the universe appears dead, which is very strange. Where are they? If there are aliens, the one thing we know is that they don't want the universe disturbed by some technology going out and changing and gobbling up all the planets, and that's what AI will do.So one weird way is there are aliens watching and they will not let us create a computer superintelligence that'll gobble the galaxy, and hopefully they'll stop us from creating it by means short of our annihilation. That probably won't happen, but that's like a one percent off-ramp.Another approach that might work is that maybe we can use things a little bit smarter than us to figure out how to align AI. That maybe right now humans are not smart enough to create aligned superintelligence, but something just a little bit smarter, something not quite able to take control will help us figure this out so we can sort of bootstrap our way to figuring out alignment. But this, again, is like getting in a plane, not knowing how to land, figuring you can read the instruction manual before you crash. Yeah, maybe, but . . .The only policy issue (24:32)The people building it, they're not hiding what it could do.Obviously, I work at a think tank, so I think about public policy. Is this even a public policy issue at this point?It honestly should be the only public policy issue. There's nothing else. This is the extinction of the human race, so everything else should be boring and “so what?”Set aside Medicare reform.It seems, from your perspective, every conversation should be about this. Obviously, despite the fact that politicians are talking about it, they seemed to be more worried in 2023 about existential risk — from my perspective, what I see — far more worried about existential risk right after ChatGPT than they are today, where now the issues are jobs, or misinformation, or our kids have access, and that kind of thing.It's weird. Sam Altman spoke before Congress and said, “This could kill everyone.” And a senator said, “Oh, you mean it will take away all our jobs.” Elon Musk, who at my college is like one of the most hated people in the country, he went on Joe Rogan, the most popular podcast, and said AI could annihilate everybody. That's not even an issue. A huge group of people hate Elon Musk. He says the technology he's building could kill everyone, and no one even mentions that. I don't get it. It's weird. The people building it, they're not hiding what it could do. I think they're giving lower probabilities than is justified, but imagine developing a nuclear power plant: “Yeah, it's a 25 percent chance it'll melt down and kill everyone in the city.” They don't say that. The people building AI are saying that!Would you have more confidence in your opinion if you were a full-time technologist working at OpenAI rather than an economist? And I say that with great deference and appreciation for professional economists.I would, because I'd have more inside information. I don't know how good their latest models are. I don't know how committed they are to alignment. OpenAI, at least initially, Sam was talking about, “Well, we have a plan to put on the brakes, so we'll get good enough, and then if we haven't figured out alignment, we're just going to devote everything to that.” I don't know how seriously to take that. I mean, it might be entirely serious, it might not be. There's a lot of inside information that I would have that I don't currently have.But economics is actually useful. Economics is correctly criticized as the study of rational people, and humans aren't rational, but a superintelligence will be more rational than humans. So economics, paradoxically, could be better at modeling future computer superintelligences than it is at modern humans.Speaking of irrational people, in your view then, Sam Altman and Elon Musk, they're all acting really irrationally right now?No, that's what's so sad about it. They're acting rationally in a horrible equilibrium. For listeners who know, this is like a prisoner's dilemma where Sam Altman can say, “You know what? Maybe AI is going to kill everybody and maybe it's safe. I don't know. If it's going to kill everyone. At most, I cost humanity a few months, because if I don't do it, someone else will. But if AI is going to be safe and I'm the one who develops it, I could control the universe!” So they're in this horrible equilibrium where they are acting rationally, even knowing the technology they're building might kill everyone, because if any one person doesn't do it, someone else will.Even really free-market people would agree pollution is a problem with markets. It's justified for the government to say, “You can't put toxic waste in the atmosphere” because there's an externality — we'll just put mine, it'll hurt everyone else. AI existential risk is a global negative externality and markets are not good at handling it, but a rational person will use leaded gas, even knowing leaded gas is poisoning the brains of children, because most of the harm goes to other people, and if they don't do what everyone else will.So in this case of the mother of all externalities, then what you would want the government to do is what?It can't just be the US, it should be we should have a global agreement, or at least countries that can enforce it with military might, say we're pausing. You can check that with data centers. You can't have models above a certain strength. We're going to work on alignment, and we've figured out how to make superintelligence friendly, then we'll go further. I think you're completely right about the politics. That's very unlikely to happen absent something weird like aliens telling us to do it or AIs telling us they're going to kill us. That's why I'm a doomer.On sale everywhere The Conservative Futurist: How To Create the Sci-Fi World We Were Promised Faster, Please! is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit fasterplease.substack.com/subscribe

Alex travels to LA for the Chargers v Vikings game. Kap and Browner breakdown the gambling scandal that hit the NBA this morning. Browner ends the show with a plea to the anyone who can hear him!Support the show: http://kaplanandcrew.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The guys made some safe bets in the Daily Gambit, discussed the Aztecs basketball team pre-season honors, and The Big 5.

San Diego St vs. Fresno St Football Pick Prediction 10/25/2025 by Tony T. Recent Box Score Key Stats San Diego St at Fresno St 3:30 PM ET—San Diego St improved to 5-1 following their 44-10 road win at Nevada. The Aztecs rushed for 204 yards for 4.8 yards a carry and effective in the passing game. They limited the Wolf Pack to 2.1 yards per run with 194 yards passing for 6.5 yards per pass attempt.

In this episode we touch on the game from last Friday and dive head first into some listener questions!Go Aztecs!

The Vikings announced that Carson Wentz will start vs. the Chargers on TNF. The Lakers lose on opening night as LeBron pouts on the bench. The Padres begin their managerial interviews, including Albert Pujols, today. Raiders WR Jakobi Meyers wants to be traded. Russell Wilson finally shows his real self and calls Sean Payton classless. Eric Williams joins the show.Support the show: http://kaplanandcrew.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's Rivalry Week between San Diego State (5-1) vs Fresno State (5-2). It's practically a must win game for both if they plan on heading to the Mountain West Championship. Can the Aztecs win their fifth in a row? Or will the Bulldogs play spoiler and take back the Old Oil Can Trophy?

Tony Gwynn Jr, Chris Ello, and Matt Skraby talked about some of the thoughts a day later on Albert Pujols. The World Series matchup is set and Monday Night Football was good for some. Plus, we talked to Aztecs Defensive Coordinator Rob Aurich and Aztecs basketball player Jeremiah Oden.

You might look at everyday items in a different light after this episode, as we hear best-selling author and Woodland Trust ambassador, Jonathan Drori CBE, reveal some of the fascinating things we make with plants. From the well-known coffee bean to the tree bark that's used in spacecraft, he shares some of the amazing relationships between familiar objects and the natural world as we meet beneath a beautiful beech tree on Parliament Hill in London.  These stories and more feature in Jonathan's latest book, The Stuff That Stuff Is Made Of, which aims to spark an interest in nature for younger readers. He explains how discovering the wonder of nature in a fun, exciting way as a child can inspire a lifelong connection, just as it did for him. We also discover why fruit is sweet, the value of the mandrake plant, how beech is thought to resist lightning and more. Don't forget to rate us and subscribe! Learn more about the Woodland Trust at woodlandtrust.org.uk Transcript You are listening to Woodland Walks, a podcast for the Woodland Trust, presented by Adam Shaw. We protect and plant trees for people to enjoy, to fight climate change and to help wildlife thrive.  Adam: Jonathan Drori CBE, is a man of many talents. He's a trustee of the Eden Project and of Kew Gardens, a member of the Royal Institution, a man who used to be a senior commissioning editor at the BBC, and he's also an ambassador for the Woodland Trust and a best-selling author of books such as Around the World in 80 Trees and his latest, The Stuff That Stuff Is Made Of, a book for younger people about the plants in their lives and the things they make which are all around them. And whereas these podcasts often take me on long journeys, this time, well, it's just a hop, skip and a jump away in London at Parliament Hill, where we met to talk about his book and the things we didn't know about the stuff around us all. Right, we are... it's a bit windy right here. It actually sounds windier than it is, but we are in Parliament Hill, or thereabouts, with Jonathan Drori, who has written the stuff that stuff is made of, and is also a big noise, essentially, in the Woodland Trust itself, of which we can talk lots about. But we're standing by a beech tree. So, Jonathan, why did you write this book?  Jonathan: I wanted to do something that would make kids kind of interested in the natural environment. Starting with the things they're interested in, which are kind of ice cream and chocolate and sport and dinosaurs and all that kind of thing. And use their own interests to sort of spark other interests in nature, in trees and plants, and also actually in history and folklore and culture, which are all sort of bound up with those things. One of the things I've tried to do with the book is to explain things from the plant's point of view as well as from a human point of view. So there are all these qualities that we desire plants for, whether that's sort of sweet things to eat or things to build with or things to make musical instruments out of. And they're all in the book and that's fine. But I've also tried to explain, you know, why has bamboo evolved in the way that it has? And why has a beech tree evolved the way it has? Why does chocolate have sweet mush around the seeds? You know, why do the grasses feed us? Why is sugar cane sweet? And why do we love it?  Adam: And so through this book, you're trying to attempt to do that by explaining stuff like tea and chocolate, indeed, where it comes from.  Jonathan: Yeah, I mean, there are 30 different species that I deal with in the book. And on the right-hand side of the page, there's a whole lot of information about the way that the plant grows, how it's cultivated, the relationships that it has with other plants, with the little critters that might pollinate it or disperse the seeds. And on the left-hand side, there's a whole lot of stories about the plant, all kinds of kind of fascinating facts and really about the human relationships with that plant.  Adam: Do you think we have lost that connection with the plants around us. So that this sort of stuff might have been really obvious a few generations ago or not.  Jonathan: *laughs* A leading question, m'lud! Yes, I mean, you know, with urban living and things being in packets at the supermarket, you know, we perhaps don't think very much about where the basic materials for our existence come from, whether it's things we eat or things we build with or things that we just sort of like looking at and playing with.  Adam: Is it important to know those connections? I mean, you as someone who likes nature, I can understand why you might feel that's important. But is it important for us all to rebuild that connection?  Jonathan: I think that my love and interest in nature came from my parents, actually, at the time, dragging me around Kew Gardens and Richmond Park and telling me stories about the trees and plants that were growing there. And they did that in such a way that I would be interested because they knew who I was and so they found the things that would sort of excite me. And I think I want to do the same for young people so that they grow up with a kind of interest and admiration and some sort of understanding of nature. But you can't sort of ram it down people's throats. It needs to be fun.  Adam: Yeah. But why is that important? I understand that's what you want to do, but why is it important?  Jonathan: Well, we've only got one planet. And if we don't look after it, then, you know, our lives and livelihoods are doomed. So that's the sort of very basic reason. And also we are part of nature, so just, not having an understanding or rejecting nature is kind of rejecting part of ourselves, I think.  Adam: So it's a soft environmental message here. And that's also seems to me important because, well, from my perspective anyway, it feels like a lot of environmental charities and environmentally minded people push a sort of narrative, the world could end, it's all a disaster. And actually, I worry that, although it's well-meaning, it might turn people off. Now that isn't what you're doing with this.  Jonathan: No, there's none of that in the book, none of it at all. What I've tried to do is to excite people about the stories of pollination, of the little critters that live in and around plants, the relationships that the plants have with other plants and so on in the environment, and make that sort of exciting and fun and interesting enough that people will just say, say to themselves, that's kind of something that's worth protecting. Maybe they won't think that for 10 or 15 years.  Adam: There's lots of interesting stories here. I think the one that really struck me, I think, was about vanilla. So vanilla, obviously, people use it in cooking, they might use essence of it or whatever. But am I right in saying, you think it's in the book, you actually go, there was a boy, and you name this boy... oh sorry is that a bird I can hear? *laughs* sorry!  Jonathan: It's the parakeets.  Adam: Oh it's the parakeets, I thought there was a squeaky wheel behind me! No no. All right, parakeets in the background. A named boy who taught the world how to pollinate vanilla. Tell me that story.  Jonathan: Yes, it was an amazing story actually about vanilla that in about the sort of 1840s, when they brought vanilla plants over from Mexico where they were native, to Africa where they wanted the plantations to grow and the little bee that pollinates vanilla didn't really travel. And so they had to find something else that would pollinate the vanilla plants so that the vanilla plants would propagate and grow. And sadly, they couldn't find any insect that would do that. No local insects would do this in Africa or outside Mexico. So all the vanilla plants had to be pollinated by hand. And it was a 12-year-old boy, Edmond Albius, who worked out how to do this. And by basically sort of cutting a bit of membrane and then squidging the two bits together and right to this present day, that's the way that vanilla is pollinated, by hand. And that's why it's so expensive.  Adam: It's amazing, isn't it? Apart from the vanilla story, do any others stand out in your mind? Is there ones your favourites?  Jonathan: Oh, it's like asking your favourite children, isn't it? I mean, there are all sorts of things in there that I notice when I talk to young people, to sort of eight, nine-year-olds, they sort of come alive. Those who've read the Hogwarts stories and Harry Potter, they're amazed to discover that mandrake is actually a real plant. And of course, mandrake used to be very, very valuable because it was one of the very few plants that could be used as an anaesthetic. And people used to, back in the Roman days, they used to mix it with wine and then sort of do minor operations and things. Don't try this at home! It's actually a real plant. It grows somewhat, I've seen this in this country, but it grows in Italy quite well and it has these rather sort of mind-altering attributes to it, which are a bit odd.  Adam: So it might be used by people who want that sort of druggy effect, but does it have any other purpose?  Jonathan: Well, not now, but it was an anaesthetic, and anaesthetics were so sort of unlikely, you know, if you think about it, you take something and it makes the pain go away, that people associated the plant with witchcraft, especially as it gave you the impression of flying. And so a plant that could alter your outlook and the way that you see the world so profoundly, and the way you perceive it so profoundly, was associated with witchcraft. And people made all sorts of stories about the mandrakes that they, that when you pulled it out of the ground, they said, that you could hear it scream because sometimes the roots look a bit like a person, especially with a bit of judicious whittling. And so people would say you've got to get a dog, tie the dog to the mandrake root and then kick the dog or throw it some food and it pulls it out. And the scream, they said, of a mandrake root could make you, could kill you.  Adam: And weren't they doing that to stop people, scaring people away from getting their valuable mandrake?  Jonathan: That's right. It was such a valuable plant that the ideal thing to do would be to put these superstitions around, these notions around, so people wouldn't pull them out, because it's very valuable.  Adam: Hippy dragon sort of thing. Well, look, we are here in London, a park in London, a beautiful park. But you've taken me to one of the few trees that actually appears in the book, because so many of the, well, I think almost all the trees really, you wouldn't find in the UK, is that right?  Jonathan: Well, you can certainly find eucalyptus. You can, you know, it's not a native, but you can find them here. And any other trees that are in there, you'd certainly find in botanic gardens. And there are fir trees, Christmas trees in there as well. But here we are by a lovely, lovely beech. And I mean, there are lots of reasons I love beech trees. In the book, one of the reasons that it's in there is because beech wood is made for, is used for veneer and it's used for making furniture and so on in a sustainable way, so it's a very pleasing wood.  Adam: And why is it good for furniture then?  Jonathan: It's stable, it doesn't shrink too much.   Adam: Is it bendable, is it one of those trees that you can...  Jonathan: Yeah and you can sort of use steam to bend it into the shapes that you want. And there are these fantastic machines that make veneer by sort of peeling off a kind of onion ring, rotating the trunk and then sort of peeling off the wood underneath to make veneer. As I say, using sustainable beech forests. But one of the things that I love about the beech is the link with superstition because in Germany, and actually in quite a few countries in Europe, there's this saying that lightning never strikes a beech tree. And in actual fact, lightning strikes beech trees just as often as any other trees that are of similar height. But beech trees seem to survive. And the reason they survive is because of this wonderfully smooth bark. The bark continually renews itself, unlike other trees. And so you've got a layer that is sloughing off all the time and leaving this very smooth bark. And that smoothness means that during wet weather, during a storm, the outside of the tree has a continuous film of water on it. It's wet all the way and that can act as a lightning conductor, whereas the craggy old oak, that has dry bits in it and so the electricity from a lightning strike is diverted through the middle of the tree and would blow it asunder. So the beech tree can survive.  Adam: Fantastic. Talking about the bark on the tree, one of the other things I spotted in your book was, I think it's cork trees and how the bark of that is special in the way we use it, but also in the way that the tree regenerates, just explain a bit about that.  Jonathan: Yes, I mean, most trees, if you sort of cut a whole ring around the tree, it'll die. But cork actually regenerates itself. So you can harvest the cork every 10, 12 years or so. And cork forests in the Iberian Peninsula, in Portugal and in Spain have a fantastic sort of ecosystem around them. The lynx and wild eagles and all sorts of wonderful things that live in and around. And also pigs go rooting for the for the acorns. And that ecosystem is a very important one. And it depends on us all using cork. So don't use plastic cork.  Adam: Right. Oh, I was going to say, unfortunately, a lot of wines now have plastic.  Jonathan: Try and go to the ones which are made out of proper traditional cork. And you're doing the planet a service by doing that. Another interesting thing about cork is that it's a fantastic insulator and it's actually used in the nose cones of spacecraft.  Adam: So why? That is, I did read that and that was extraordinary that something as advanced as a spacecraft would be using cork. It seems unbelievable.  Jonathan: Well, you know, millions of years of evolution have given the cork oak this way of resisting fire. So it's got tiny, tiny air pockets, minuscule microscopic air pockets in a non-flammable kind of medium. And that is an amazing insulator. And it's light, it chars on the outside and then flames just can't get through.  Adam: And it's soundproofing isn't it?  Jonathan: Yes, it's used in recording studios.  Adam: Yes. Well, when I was 17, I took a fancy to corking my whole bedroom in cork tiles, which looked terrible to be honest *laughs*. It took my father years to pry it off the wall again.   Jonathan: Was that in the seventies perhaps?  Adam: Yes exactly. It was trendy then for a short period.  Jonathan: Roman women used to wear cork-soled sandals, which you can still get, but so they didn't sort of walk in the poo and whatnot. But they're very good, very light, very insulating.  Adam: One of the ones I suppose we should talk about, interesting, is cotton, because it has an interesting background, a natural background, but also one, of course, deeply connected with slavery and everything.  Jonathan: So, you know, it was used in... South America among the Aztecs and so on to make armour actually. They made very, very thick cotton twill that they used as armour. And then it became fabulously valuable in the sort of 17th, 18th century especially, as a textile for our clothing. And unfortunately, as you say, it's got this link with slavery along with sugarcane and tobacco, these were the big crops that people grew, slave owners grew, in the Caribbean and in the southern states of North America, and then made the finished products in Britain that were then sold all over the world.  Adam: And I mean, you have some nice, lovely illustrations here of actually the cotton on the plant and it's a puffball. It doesn't look real, actually.   Jonathan: It's bonkers! It's an absolutely bonkers plant.   Adam: Yes but didn't people, when they first saw it, thought they were actually little sheep or something?  Jonathan: Yes *laughs* Well, the writers of the time, you know, they were all sort of knew that they would get a big audience if they made up some stuff so I'm not sure whether they really believed it. But certainly there was a textbook of the, I think it was the 17th century or early or late 16th century, where they sort of wrote, had diagrams of, because they thought it must be some kind of wool, they had diagrams showing little tiny sheep at the end of twigs on the plant *laughs* which supposedly would, you know, sort of the twigs would reach the ground in the evening and then the little sheep would, I don't know, wander off or something.   Adam: No one actually ever believed this, you're saying?   Jonathan: Well, I mean, no, well, I think it was created as a spin, but I think a lot of people did believe it, actually, in the same way that they believed in sea monsters and all those sort of naval stories that were brought back. And it was a very, yes, people believed all sorts of kind of nonsense and about where cotton came from. But the plant itself is very real and quite an odd one because you have these lovely sort of pale creamy flowers. It's sort of quite big, the size of a walnut kind of thing, you know. And then you get the seed pod which is absolutely bursting with all the fibre inside and the fibre's there to help the seeds carry on the wind. That's what the plant wants it for. But these burst open with this sort of great wodge of, I suppose, it looks like cotton wool. And it pretty much is cotton wool. And then the seeds are removed in a process called ginning. And the fibre that's left is then spun into thread.  Adam: Amazing story. The last one I suppose I really want to talk about is something you started with saying, you know, engaging younger people in things they know like chocolate. Chocolate doesn't come from Tesco or Sainsbury's, it comes from the cacao plant. Now, tell me a bit about that, but specifically what surprised me, if I remember this correctly, you said the chocolate we know was invented in England, is that right?  Jonathan: Well, the chocolate bar was invented by Fry back in the middle of the 19th century. And before that, people would have chocolate drinks, which were quite popular, especially at the time when coffee houses were very sort of blokey places.  Adam: This is about the 1800s, is it?   Jonathan: Yeah. Coffee houses were places where, you know, men would go.  Adam: Yeah, they were they were risky places, they were sort of like pubs almost, you know, like...  Jonathan: Yes, whereas families and women would go to chocolate houses. And some of those chocolate houses then became, you know, well-known clubs in London around Pall Mall and so on. They, but chocolate originally from Central America was a drink that would be taken quite bitter, mixed with maize, very, very nourishing, and was sometimes coloured with red dye, sort of symbolizing blood. And it was part of kind of rituals that they had where they, some of them were quite unpleasant rituals actually and then when it came, when chocolate came through the Spanish to Europe in the sort of 16th century, people immediately started adding sugar and milk and things to it, made it a lot more palatable.  Adam: Right. So it wasn't just the chocolate bar, so we really made it into the sweet drink that everyone knows. Maybe not England, but Europe.  Jonathan: Yes, and the and the chocolate bar was, that started in Britain. That was a British thing, with Fry and I think you can still get Frys chocolate?  Adam: Yeah, I was going to say, I do see it every now and then. It's not as popular as Cadbury's and all the others, but one does still see it.  Jonathan: You know, if you think about it from the plant's point of view, the reason that it's got this amazing fruit, which is about the size of a junior rugby ball, that grows very peculiarly on the stem of the plant, on the tree trunk, the reason it's got this amazing fruit is so that it can find something to be attracted to it that will disperse the seeds. That's why fruit is sweet. And the original thing that dispersed these fruit were probably sort of large, large mammals, which may not be around anymore. But the fruit is, the seeds are in this sort of sweet mush inside the cocoa pod. But your sort of big mammal would come along and gulp the whole thing down because it's lovely and sweet and then poo out the seeds somewhere else or spit them out because the seeds themselves are very bitter. And with coffee and chocolate and quite a few other things like apples even, the seeds are very bitter but the actual fruit is lovely and sweet. And the reason for that is so that something gobbles it but doesn't chew up the seeds. And then those get either spat out or pooed out together with a bit of fertiliser.  Adam: Right, amazing. And also, I mean, we've talked a bit about the social aspects of a lot of these plants. Chocolate itself had a huge social impact, wasn't it? It was seen as sort of an alternative, wasn't it, to alcohol and sort of bringing people into the fold of the righteous living and away from terrible drinks.  Jonathan: Yes, yeah, and it's a much gentler drink than coffee, which would have been quite a strong stimulant. Chocolate also has stimulants in it, but it's a bit more gentle. Yeah.  Adam: So it's an interesting book. I know this is part of something very important in your life about reconnecting with nature and spreading that message. Are you optimistic that things are looking up in that way, that people are engaging more?  Jonathan: I think, you know, I could make an argument for being pessimistic or optimistic, depending on the day, actually. But I do notice that young people have a kind of care for the environment that seems to be growing. And I think that's for obvious reasons, that they see it as their future. I'd say, essentially, I'm an optimist. And when you see plants growing and think about, the fact that they've been growing for zillions of years and will be growing for zillions of years, that is a sort of kind of optimistic thing. I think that young people are much more caring of the environment and sort of interested or I would say open to being interested. So if you kind of open their eyes to things, they're genuinely keen to know more and to do something. So all these schools projects that there are, all these things that the Woodland Trust actually does with schools are very, very valuable because I think with a lot of young people it just needs a little bit of a nudge and they're quite willing to go in a good direction.  Adam: That's a great note to end on and we've, I was worried this morning it looked like it would pour down but we've been spared that. So Jon, thank you very much.  Jonathan: Thank you.  Thank you for listening to the Woodland Trust Woodland Walks. Join us next month when Adam will be taking another walk in the company of Woodland Trust staff, partners and volunteers. And don't forget to subscribe to the series on iTunes or wherever you're listening to us and do give us a review and a rating. And why not send us a recording of your favourite woodland walk to be included in a future podcast? Keep it to a maximum of 5 minutes and please tell us what makes your woodland walk special. Or send us an e-mail with details of your favourite walk and what makes it special to you. Send any audio files to podcast@woodlandtrust.org.uk and we look forward to hearing from you. 

The Padres manager options emerge: Albert Pujols, Ruben Niebla, Nick Hundley, and more. The Blue Jays win Game 7 and advance to the World Series vs. the Dodgers. Lakers Open season vs. the Warriors. Which QB is going to start for the Vikings vs. the Chargers? NFL Week 7 recap.Support the show: http://kaplanandcrew.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chris vs the Fans, Jeremiah Oden of the Aztecs basketball team, and The Big 5.

Padres CEO Erik Greupner denied any rift between he and AJ Preller. The Padres are set to interview Albert Pujols for their manager opening. The Colts smoke the Chargers in a half empty SOFI stadium. The Rams blowout the Jaguars in London. The Raiders get shutout by the Chiefs. SDFC clinches the #1 seed in the West.Support the show: http://kaplanandcrew.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The more time passes, the more truth comes out about what is going on behind closed doors with the Padres. Now it's revealed that there is tension between CEO Erik Greupner and AJ Preller. Which leads to more questions like, who is actually running the Padres? The Rams ruled out Puka Nacua for Week 7; the Chargers are favored over the Colts. Joe Flacco and the Bengals beat Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers. The Brewers are so awful. Coach Kentera joins the show.Support the show: http://kaplanandcrew.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The great Coach John Kentera joined the show and shared his insight on all the drama happening behind the scenes at the Padres after Mike Shildt's "retirement," and he also discussed the power struggle between Erik Greupner and AJ Preller.Support the show: http://kaplanandcrew.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tony Gwynn Jr, Chris Ello, and Matt Skraby tackled the latest news from Dennis Lin on the Padres. We also talked about Aztecs football team with Kirk Kenney, and discussed the MLB playoffs.

Mike Shildt continues to speak about quitting the Padres job. AJ Preller's future remains uncertain, so should he be the one to hire a new manager? NFL Week 7: Rodgers v. Flacco, the Rams head to London vs. the Jaguars, and the Chargers are favored over the Colts. MLB postseason: Blue Jays win Game 3, Dodgers look to go up 3-0.Support the show: http://kaplanandcrew.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Fox Sport NFL Report Eric Williams joined the show to talk about the NFC West having three 4-2 teams. And why he believes the Chargers may not be able to continue to win games in the 2nd half of the season. Support the show: http://kaplanandcrew.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Reports emerged that Mike Shildt and his staff/front office had conflicts during his tenure with the Padres. Mike Shildt himself admitted it to the UT. The Dodgers again shut down the Brewers and are well on their way to winning the World Series again. NFL Week 7 preview with Eric Williams.Support the show: http://kaplanandcrew.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tony and Chris discussed Shohei Ohtani being intentionally walked, Mark Zeigler about Aztecs basketball, and GBU of Week 6!

SDSU Head Football Coach Sean Lewis joined the show to talk about the Aztecs 4 game win streak, building the program from the ground up and what's next for the Aztecs this season.Support the show: http://kaplanandcrew.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this "National Treasure in Real Life" episode, co-hosts Aubrey Paris and Emily Black review Lost Gold of the Aztecs on the History Channel. Which of the show's three treasure hunting teams parallels the Gates family, which is reminiscent of National Treasure's villains, and whose approach to finding Montezuma's gold seems most promising? • Located in or near Central New Jersey? Join the Historical Society of Princeton (Princeton, NJ) for an afternoon installment of National Treasure Hunt's HEIST NIGHT on Saturday, November 1, 2025. Tickets are available at https://princetonhistory.org/events/heist-night-in-the-afternoon/. • Want to own a piece of National Treasure history? We're partnering with Old Pine Conservancy to give away one of the gravestone props used in the filming of National Treasure's Philadelphia foot chase scene. Enter the giveaway here: https://givebutter.com/oldpine • Aubrey's new book, "Riley Poole's Book of Secrets: History for National Treasure Hunters," is coming in May 2026! Pre-order the book from Tucker DS Press at https://www.tuckerdspress.com/product-page/riley-poole-s-book-of-secrets. • Join the hunt on Twitter and Instagram using @NTHuntPodcast, and find new episodes of National Treasure Hunt every-other Wednesday on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen. More information about the National Treasure Hunt podcast, walking tour, books, and events can be found at www.nthuntpodcast.com. • Order our first book, "National Treasure Hunt: One Step Short of Crazy," from Tucker DS Press at https://www.tuckerdspress.com/product-page/national-treasure-hunt-one-step-short-of-crazy. • To access even more exclusive National Treasure Hunt content, including bonus episodes and watch parties, subscribe to our Patreon: www.patreon.com/NTHuntPodcast

SDSU Head Football Coach Sean Lewis joined the show to talk about the Aztecs 4 game win streak, building the program from the ground up and what's next for the Aztecs this season.Support the show: http://kaplanandcrew.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Why did Mike Shildt retire? He denies that AJ Preller pushed him out, but reports indicate he has no major health issues, and there was a growing rift between the two. AJ Preller press conference recap. Who is favored to take over for Mike Shildt? The Dodgers escape Game 1 with a win over the Brewers. MNF recap: Falcons upset the Bills, Bears take down the Commanders.Support the show: http://kaplanandcrew.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We recap SDSU's 44-10 smackdown of Nevada last weekend. The Aztecs dominated from the start in all 3 phases and up next head into the bye week. K5 James makes a special appearance for the first time this season and adds his optimism to the analysis of the team at the poing.

Shocking announcement! Mike Shildt retired as the Padres Manager?! The Chargers survive in Miami thanks to Ladd McConkey. The Rams look terrible but beat the Ravens. More NFL Week 6 recaps. MLB postseason LCS series underway. SDSU Head Coach Sean Lews will join the show.Support the show: http://kaplanandcrew.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! ⁠ Teotihuacan is an ancient pre-Colombian city in central America, founded two thousand years ago. It's the home of some of the most iconic Mesoamerican monuments in existence, including the Pyramids of the Moon and Sun. The city was abandoned after about 750 years of habitation. When the Aztecs first encountered it, it had stood empty for 600 years. Walking through the empty ruin, they marveled at the towering pyramids, the incredible murals, the enormous palaces—and wondered where the people had gone. They thought these people must have become gods. This city has something for everyone: mysterious skeletons. Volcanoes. An eating of the rich. And so many mysteries, it's hard to pick just one. Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Luke Caverns joins us in the tent today to give a rapid-fire history of Central and South America, helping us understand some of life's unanswered questions. What are the origins of the Aztecs? Where did Mayan culture start? Who created the Olmec heads, and how were they able to make them? Luke helps us explore these and more fascinating topics... WELCOME to CAMP!