PODCAST · society
The Eclectic Polymath Podcast
by Joshua German
There’s too much interesting stuff in the world to only care about one thing.The Eclectic Polymath Podcast explores a different curiosity every episode: fascinating people, strange moments in history, cultural shifts, political movements, religions, technologies, music, myths, ideas, and questions you may never have thought to ask.Some episodes explain how something became the way it is. Others unpack the life of someone worth knowing, trace an idea across centuries, or follow one rabbit hole until it connects to five others.You don’t need to be an expert. You just need to stay curious.
Episodes
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#215 Nithya Raman: Hollywood's Socialist Is Leading the Mayor's Race
Nineteen days before the election, the challenger is ahead. Nithya Raman endorsed Mayor Karen Bass for re-election in January, then filed to run against her hours before the February deadline, and the September Berkeley IGS poll has her leading the incumbent 39 to 28. You may know her as the...
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#214 David Ellison: Hollywood's New Landlord
Fifteen years ago David Ellison was the rich kid whose flying movie flopped. On October 6, 2026, he closed the deal that put Warner Bros. and Paramount in the same hands, and no mogul in history has held a combination like it. The education in between was real: financing other people's slates,...
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#213 Larry Ellison: Winning by Buying
For one day in September 2025, Larry Ellison was the richest man alive. He was 81, and the money did not come from a new invention. It came from forty years of databases, data centers, and a doctrine he never apologized for: if you cannot beat them, buy them. Ellison started with a borrowed name...
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#210 Mongolia: How to Stay Yourself Between Russia and China
Mongolia is the emptiest country on Earth — about two people per square kilometer — and a third of it still moves with the seasons. It's also the homeland of the largest land empire in history, now sitting quietly between Russia and China. This episode traces how that happens: nomadism as a...
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#209 Pompeii: The City That Didn't Know It Was Ending
In 79 AD, Pompeii was a working Roman city of bakeries, bars, election posters, and graffiti — and almost nobody there knew the mountain behind it was a volcano. Latin didn't even have a word for one. Then, over about eighteen hours, the city stopped mid-sentence. This episode tells it as a…
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#208 New Hollywood: The Decade the Directors Took Over
In 1967, American movies changed their mind about everything. The studio system that had run Hollywood for forty years collapsed — and for one strange decade, the keys went to film-school kids, method actors who looked like people you knew, and cinematographers who shot in the dark. The…
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#207 Iran-Contra: The Scandal That Pardoned Itself
In October 1986, a cargo plane carrying weapons was shot down over Nicaragua, and the sole survivor started talking. Within two months, the Reagan White House was admitting to one of the strangest schemes in American history: selling missiles to Iran — the enemy — and secretly funneling the…
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#206 The Ten Percent: CAA, WME, and the Invention of the Agent
Behind almost every famous name in entertainment stands someone you've never heard of — and they take ten percent of everything. The agent might be the most powerful job in Hollywood that nobody outside it understands, and it wasn't designed. It was improvised, piece by piece, by people solving...
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#205 1920s Harlem: How to Spot a Renaissance
In the 1920s, a few square miles of Manhattan became the capital of Black culture — and for a moment, the center of American art itself. Hughes, Hurston, Ellington, Aaron Douglas: an entire generation arrived at once, in one neighborhood. But the Harlem Renaissance wasn't an accident. It had...
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#204 Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: The Film That Watched Itself
In 1968, filmmaker William Greaves took a cast and crew into Central Park to shoot a screen test — and quietly designed the production so his crew would rebel against him on camera. The result, Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One, is a film inside a film inside a film: actors performing a melodrama…
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#203 Local Natives and the Last Indie Band of the 2000s
Local Natives were five kids from Orange County who moved into a Silver Lake house together, named their debut album after it — Gorilla Manor — and became one of the defining bands of the 2000s indie era. This episode tells their story as the door into that whole world: the blogs that could make…
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#202 The Polygraph: The Machine That Never Detected a Lie
For a hundred years, the polygraph has decided who gets hired, who gets believed, and who goes to prison — without ever actually detecting a lie. This episode traces the machine from John Larson's 1921 Berkeley prototype and the inventor who lived to regret it, through Marston (who also created...
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#201 Smoke Shops & Dispensaries: How Cannabis Got Its Storefront
For fifty years, the American smoke shop sold millions of dollars of cannabis gear under one rule: nobody could say what any of it was for. This episode traces the head shop from its 1966 counterculture birth — the Psychedelic Shop on Haight Street — through the "for tobacco use only" era,...
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#199 The Chakras: Blocked and Unblocked
What does it actually look like — in a real person's body, mind, and daily life — when an energy center is blocked, and what does it look like when it opens? This is the full chakra map: all seven centers, from root to crown, with the traditional Sanskrit wisdom, the specific bodily and mental...
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#198 Seinfeld: Who Was Really the Brains?
Everyone says Larry David was the real brains behind Seinfeld — but what actually went down? This is the full rundown: two stand-up comics, one fateful 1988 meeting with NBC's Rick Ludwin, and a pilot that tested so badly the network research memo got hung on the writers' room wall. We…
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#197 Spirit Halloween: The Business of the Pop-Up
Every fall, Spirit Halloween appears out of nowhere — 1,500 stores in dead malls and empty big boxes across America — and then vanishes by mid-November. How does a store that exists for 60 days make money? This is the full anatomy of the machine: the ~$1 billion seasonal business, the real-estate...
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#196 Charlie Sheen: The Truth Behind "Winning"
In 2011, Charlie Sheen — the highest-paid actor on television — went on live TV and declared he had "tiger blood" and "Adonis DNA," that he was "winning." America laughed, then watched it curdle in real time. But what was actually going on? This is the full story: the Malibu kid who became a…
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#195 Ari Emanuel: The Agent Who Ate Hollywood
He started as a kid from Chicago with dyslexia, ADHD, and a phone he wouldn't put down. Then Ari Emanuel got fired from his own job — and built Endeavor out of a walkout, turned a talent agency into a private-equity empire, and bought the UFC and the WWE along the way. This is the full story: the...
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#194 Obama's Shadow Wars: Drones, Raids, and the Power Vacuums They Left Behind
Three days after Barack Obama became president, missiles struck Pakistan. It was the beginning of a new kind of American war — no invasions, no occupations. Instead: drones, a kill list, and small teams of operators. 563 strikes across Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia, compared to 57 under Bush. This...
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#193 Why Cuba Is Where People Go to Vanish
"Fake my death, go to Cuba, that's the only option." Kendrick Lamar compressed an entire American fantasy into one line on "ELEMENT." (DAMN., 2017). He didn't do it — but the line works because every American ear already knows what Cuba means: the place you go when you need to disappear.…
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#192 Marriage: The Business Behind "I Do"
Two people can love each other for years without the government caring very much. Then they say "I do," sign a document, and suddenly courts, tax authorities, insurers, employers, immigration officials, and inheritance law all have something to say about their relationship. So what actually…
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#191 Diamonds: Love, Scarcity, and the Most Engineered Symbol in Romance
A diamond is carbon arranged in an extraordinary way. So how did a tiny crystal formed deep beneath the Earth become one of the most recognizable and expensive symbols of love in the world? This episode follows the diamond from mine to engagement ring: how natural diamonds form, how rough stones...
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#190 Church Hierarchy: From Apostles and Bishops to Pastors and Popes
Jesus didn't leave behind an org chart. There were no dioceses, seminaries, annual conferences, denominational boards, or Vatican departments. Yet Christianity eventually built one of the most elaborate collections of institutions in human history. This episode traces how that happened—from the...
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#189 DC's Identity Crisis: How the Original Superhero Empire Lost Hollywood to Marvel
Superman invented the superhero. Batman became one of the most adaptable fictional characters ever created. Wonder Woman became a global icon. So how did DC — the company that built the foundation of superhero culture — lose Hollywood's center of gravity to Marvel? This episode traces DC's...
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#188 Marvel's Dark Years: How the MCU Lost Its Magic
For more than a decade, Marvel Studios seemed unstoppable. What began as an ambitious experiment in interconnected storytelling became Hollywood's most successful franchise, culminating in Avengers: Endgame. Then something changed. The movies kept coming, the universe kept expanding, but the…
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#187 Philippines: How a Nation Remade What Empires Left Behind
The Philippines is a country where Catholic traditions coexist with ancient spiritual beliefs, American influences run through everyday life, and centuries of colonial history have produced a culture unlike anywhere else. But how did thousands of islands become a nation with such a layered...
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#186 The Five Percent Nation: From Supreme Mathematics to the Power of Knowledge in Hip-Hop
What do Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, and Wu-Tang Clan have in common beyond hip-hop? Their music carries the influence of a movement that began on the streets of Harlem and developed its own language for understanding identity, knowledge, and the universe. This episode traces the Five Percent Nation,...
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#185 Erykah Badu: Music, Mysticism, and the Black Cosmic Tradition
Erykah Badu has never really fit inside “neo-soul.” From the beginning, her music has pulled together spirituality, Black history, futurism, fashion, humor, wellness, and a fiercely self-defined sense of identity. This episode traces Badu from her South Dallas upbringing and the arrival of…
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#184 Mellody Hobson: The Power of Ownership
Mellody Hobson grew up experiencing financial instability. She eventually built a career around understanding exactly how money, ownership, and institutions work. This episode traces her rise at Ariel Investments from intern to Co-CEO and principal owner, alongside an expanding role in American...
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#183 Kamasi Washington Live at USC: Beyond Category
We’re doing something a little different. Instead of the usual Eclectic Polymath deep dive, this episode shares a conversation I attended with Kamasi Washington at the USC Thornton School of Music. Held September 17, 2026 at Newman Recital Hall, “Beyond Category” featured Washington in…
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#182 Editing Humanity: CRISPR, Embryos, and the Future of DNA
For most of human history, DNA was something we inherited. Increasingly, it’s becoming something we can read, interpret—and potentially rewrite. This episode traces the extraordinary rise of genomics, from discovering DNA’s structure to sequencing entire genomes and developing tools like CRISPR.…
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#181 When a Rap Beef Became a Conspiracy Investigation
The Kendrick Lamar–Drake battle didn’t end with diss tracks. Online, cryptic lyrics, anonymous accounts, photographs, and scattered clues became the raw material for an enormous amateur investigation. This episode separates what can actually be verified from the theories that grew around it. We...
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#180 Hello Kitty: The Strange Power of Cuteness
Hello Kitty barely has a face, doesn’t speak, and began as a tiny character on Japanese stationery. Somehow, she became one of the most recognizable cultural icons on Earth. This episode explores how Sanrio turned an intentionally simple design into a global licensing empire. We get into kawaii...
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#179 Elizabeth Holmes: How Theranos Fooled Silicon Valley
Theranos promised to reinvent medicine with a few drops of blood. Instead, it became one of Silicon Valley’s defining fraud stories. This episode traces Elizabeth Holmes from ambitious young founder to the center of a company valued on technology that couldn’t perform as promised. We get into the...
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#178 Taiwan: The Island at the Center of the 21st Century
Taiwan’s present makes more sense once you realize how many different worlds have passed through the island. This episode traces Taiwan from its Indigenous Austronesian roots through European encounters, Qing rule, Japanese colonialism, the arrival of the Nationalist government after World War…
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#177 Dieter Rams: Why “Less, but Better” Still Shapes Everything
You’ve probably used something influenced by Dieter Rams even if you’ve never heard his name. This episode traces Rams from postwar Germany and his early training in architecture and carpentry to the products he created at Braun and Vitsœ. We explore his Ten Principles of Good Design, his…
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#176 Islam: How Faith Organizes Everyday Life
What does it mean for religion to shape not just what you believe, but when you wake, when you pray, what you eat, how you give, and how you move through the year? This episode explores Islam as a lived practice, beginning with its origins in seventh-century Arabia and moving through the Five...
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#175 Chris Hansen: When Investigative Journalism Became a Spectacle
Before “take a seat” became an internet punchline, To Catch a Predator created one of television’s strangest collisions of journalism, law enforcement, and reality entertainment. This episode traces Chris Hansen from respected investigative reporter to pop-culture figure, unpacking how televised...
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#174 Aliko Dangote: How Africa’s Richest Man Built an Industrial Empire
Aliko Dangote didn’t build his fortune by chasing the newest industry. He built it by controlling the basic materials economies run on. This episode traces Dangote’s rise from a Kano merchant family into one of Africa’s most powerful industrialists. We get into cement, sugar, salt, logistics…
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#173 Apartheid: The System That Divided South Africa
Apartheid wasn’t simply prejudice written into law. Beginning in 1948, South Africa’s National Party expanded earlier segregation into an elaborate system that classified people by race and controlled where they could live, work, study, travel, and participate politically. This episode explores…
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#172 Benito Mussolini: How Fascism Took Over Italy
Before fascism became a global political force, Benito Mussolini was figuring out how to build it. Once a socialist, he broke with the movement during World War I, founded the Italian Fascist movement, and used the instability of postwar Italy to position himself for power after the March on Rome...
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#171 Asha Sharma: The Tech Outsider Reinventing Xbox
Xbox has spent years acquiring studios, expanding Game Pass, and building one of the largest portfolios in gaming. But owning more doesn’t automatically mean running a better business. This episode looks at Asha Sharma’s approach to reshaping Xbox around a more disciplined operating model. We get...
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#170 Hong Kong Under Japan: The Three Years and Eight Months That Changed the City
On Christmas Day 1941, Hong Kong surrendered to Japan after just 18 days of fighting. What followed became known locally simply as the “three years and eight months”—a period of military occupation that profoundly disrupted everyday life in the colony. This episode traces Hong Kong from the final...
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#169 Twice in Flames: Why Los Angeles Erupted in 1965 and 1992
Los Angeles erupted twice within a generation. The Watts Rebellion of 1965 and the 1992 Los Angeles uprising began with different immediate events, but both emerged from much deeper tensions around policing, economic exclusion, housing, and the geography of race in the city. This episode connects...
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#168 Anime: How Japan Built a Global Storytelling Language
Anime is everywhere now—but the style, industry, and storytelling language behind it were shaped by a very specific history. This episode traces anime from early Japanese animation and postwar production constraints through the influence of Osamu Tezuka, television, serialization, and the rise of...
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#167 Julian Assange: WikiLeaks and the War Over Secrets
WikiLeaks was built around a radical idea: what if governments and powerful institutions simply couldn’t keep their most important secrets? This episode traces Julian Assange from Australia’s early hacker culture to the creation of WikiLeaks and the disclosures that turned him into one of the…
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#166 Big Ben: How the Clock Changed the Way We Live
Time feels natural now. But the way we organize our lives around minutes, schedules, deadlines, and synchronized clocks is a human invention. This episode uses Big Ben as a doorway into the history of mechanical time and the world it helped create. We trace the shift from lives organized around...
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#165 Bruce Lee: How a Martial Artist Became a Way of Thinking
Bruce Lee became famous for fighting, but the deeper story is about how he thought. This episode traces Lee’s evolution from Wing Chun training in Hong Kong to the creation of Jeet Kune Do, a system built around flexibility, efficiency, and rejecting rigid tradition. We get into the experiences...
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#164 Kamasi Washington: South LA, Spiritual Jazz, and the Sound of the Infinite
Kamasi Washington didn’t emerge from nowhere. His sound was built inside a South Los Angeles musical ecosystem that had been developing for decades. This episode traces Washington’s path from family mentorship and the World Stage in Leimert Park to the West Coast Get Down collective and his years...
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#163 Mr. Robot: The TV Show That Understood the Internet Too Well
Mr. Robot felt paranoid when it premiered. A decade later, a lot of what it was worried about feels uncomfortably familiar. This episode looks at how Sam Esmail turned a hacker drama into one of television’s sharpest portraits of the digital age. We get into the show’s unusually authentic…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
There’s too much interesting stuff in the world to only care about one thing.The Eclectic Polymath Podcast explores a different curiosity every episode: fascinating people, strange moments in history, cultural shifts, political movements, religions, technologies, music, myths, ideas, and questions you may never have thought to ask.Some episodes explain how something became the way it is. Others unpack the life of someone worth knowing, trace an idea across centuries, or follow one rabbit hole until it connects to five others.You don’t need to be an expert. You just need to stay curious.
HOSTED BY
Joshua German
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The Eclectic Polymath Podcast have?
The Eclectic Polymath Podcast currently has 200 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The Eclectic Polymath Podcast about?
There’s too much interesting stuff in the world to only care about one thing.The Eclectic Polymath Podcast explores a different curiosity every episode: fascinating people, strange moments in history, cultural shifts, political movements, religions, technologies, music, myths, ideas, and questions...
How often does The Eclectic Polymath Podcast release new episodes?
The Eclectic Polymath Podcast publishes regularly with 200 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to The Eclectic Polymath Podcast?
You can listen to The Eclectic Polymath Podcast on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts The Eclectic Polymath Podcast?
The Eclectic Polymath Podcast is created and hosted by Joshua German.
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