WanderLearn: Travel to Transform Your Mind & Life

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TIMELINE

00:00 AI Computational Approach13:00 Decoding Voynich19:30 Hoax?21:00 Could women have written it?26:15 What to ask the manuscript’s producer27:00 How do we know we’ve cracked the code?30:00 Reconsidering Voynich

Egyptian hieroglyphics confounded Egyptologists for centuries until the discovery of the Rosetta Stone.

The Voynich Manuscript is another old text that has perplexed experts since its discovery about 600 years ago.

Dr. Robert H. Edwards specializes in investigating the biggest mysteries of the 20th cent...

Egyptian hieroglyphics confounded Egyptologists for centuries until the discovery of the Rosetta Stone.

The Voynich Manuscript is another old text that has perplexed experts since its discovery about 600 years ago.

Watch this episode on YouTube to see nonstop images of the book itself!

Dr. Robert H. Edwards specializes in investigating the biggest mysteries of the 20th century. I interviewed him on the 100th anniversary of George Mallory's death. I interviewed him again after we found Mallory's climbing partner's foot. Spoiler: We still don't know whether they reached Everest's summit.

The other my...

Egyptian hieroglyphics confounded Egyptologists for centuries until the discovery of the Rosetta Stone.

The Voynich Manuscript is another old text that has perplexed experts since its discovery about 600 years ago.

Dr. Robert H. Edwards specializes in investigating the biggest mysteries of the 20th century. I interviewed him on the 100th anniversary of George Mallory's death. I interviewed him again after we found Mallory's climbing partner's foot. Spoiler: We still don't know whether they reached Everest's summit.

The other mystery Edwards in...

Hrish Lotlikar of the Superworld app interviewed me in 2025.

You might enjoy it. Here's what the Superworld Channel wrote: 

What if you could leave behind the corporate grind and explore the world—without a trust fund? That’s precisely what Francis Tapon did. After earning an MBA from Harvard and working in Silicon Valley, he walked away from it all to spend five years traveling through every country in Africa and 3.5 years exploring Eastern Europe.

In this episode of Building a Better World with...

It's part 2 of 2 of my conversation with Dr. Johnny Hanson! His 2025 book, Living with Lynx: Sharing Landscapes with Big Cats, Wolves and Bears, is a nuanced analysis of the complex topic of rewilding. 

00:00 Myths

04:00 What surprised Hanson?

06:00 The hardest to co-exist with

12:00 Paradox of Tourism

18:00 Recommendations

In this two-part interview (this is part 2), we discuss the pros and cons of reintroducing apex predators in areas where they have gone extinct. 

...

Dr. Johnny Hanson's new book, Living with Lynx: Sharing Landscapes with Big Cats, Wolves and Bears, is a nuanced analysis of the complex topic of rewilding. 

In this two-part interview, we discuss the pros and cons of reintroducing apex predators in areas where they have gone extinct. 

What do you think we should do?

00:00 What's the book about?

04:50 Limousine Liberals

Send me an anonymous voicemail at SpeakPipe.com/FTapon

You ca...

Benjamin Wallace's new book is The Mysterious Mr. Nakamoto: A Fifteen-Year Quest to Unmask the Secret Genius Behind Crypto.  

It's the greatest whodunit. Whoever created Bitcoin became the world's richest person, yet we don't know who he is. In fact, we don't even know if it's one person.

There have been other cases where identities have been hidden for a while:

Mysterious Whistleblowers (Deep Throat)

Mysterious Authors (Ferrante, Klein, Publius)

Mysterious Artists (Banksy)

M...

Replaceable You by Mary Roach is science writing with a mischievous grin. This book dives headfirst (and sometimes with prosthetic limbs) into humanity’s never-ending quest to patch, upgrade, and outright swap out our squishiest parts. 

I've read all of Roach's books. Roach, as always, brings her snort-laugh wit to the party, dragging us through a parade of oddballs, surgeons, biohackers, and the occasional harvested cadaver limb. 

You’ll read about everything from organs grown in stem cell “hair nurseries” to attempts at 3D printing spare parts. 
Spoiler: no...

Watch this episode on YouTube! 

Derek has accomplished numerous impressive feats. He founded CD Baby. In 2008, he sold CD Baby for $22 million and donated the proceeds to a charitable trust dedicated to music education. After selling the company, he transitioned into writing and speaking.

Derek's books are short, dense, and profound. In honor of his style, I've broken up my interview with him into three fascinating segments.

It would be great if you could buy Derek's new book, Useful Not True, from Amazon, as I receive a small commission. However, i...

This is episode 2 of 3 featuring Derek Sivers.

Watch it on YouTube!

Derek has accomplished numerous impressive feats. He founded CD Baby. In 2008, he sold CD Baby for $22 million and donated the proceeds to a charitable trust dedicated to music education. After selling the company, he transitioned into writing and speaking.

Derek's books are short, dense, and profound. In honor of his style, I've broken up my interview with him into three fascinating segments.

It would be great if you could buy Derek's new book, Useful Not True...

Video #1: What's Useful, Not True?

This is episode 1 of 3 featuring Derek Sivers. 

Derek has accomplished numerous impressive feats. He founded CD Baby. In 2008, he sold CD Baby for $22 million and donated the proceeds to a charitable trust dedicated to music education. After selling the company, he transitioned into writing and speaking.

Derek's books are short, dense, and profound. In honor of his style, I've broken up my interview with him into three fascinating segments.

It would be great if you could buy Derek's new book, Useful Not True, from A...

Watch the Video

This podcast is an edited version of the video, where I have removed the unboxing section, as it's challenging to follow in an audio-only format.

After reviewing the Keystone 3 Pro, I wanted to inspect the Keystone Tablet Plus, a steel slab similar to the Coinkite Seed Plate and the Scaletron Crypto Seed Capsule, both of which I've reviewed.

Watch the video below for my review, but also read the text below, as it includes one additional PRO and one additional CON that I did not mention in the video.<...

Watch Video on YouTube

Five years ago, I predicted Plan B's Bitcoin stock-to-flow model (S2F) would fail in this decade because it had 8 flaws.

During Bitcoin's spectacular 2022 crash, many analysts declared the S2F models dead.

I surprised everyone when I (one of Plan B's most prominent critics) said, "It's not dead yet."

The reason Plan B's stock-to-flow Bitcoin models are not dead is not because they're correct, but because they have a wide range of acceptable values that will allow them to survive until the next halving.<...

I encourage you to watch this 3-minute podcast on YouTube.

YouTube is now dubbing my English videos into 10 other languages:

In my "After the Spike" video, YouTube only offers 8 languages.

I don't know why.

I'm fluent in French and Spanish, so I can confirm that the translation is surprisingly accurate! I suppose it's the case for other languages that I don't speak.

See 20 other misused terms or expressions

Rather than a left/right political spectrum, I prefer the 5 categories in the pictured grid. Take the test to discover where you stand.

The terms "left" and "right" on the political spectrum can be confusing, partly because their meanings have evolved significantly over time and differ across countries and historical contexts.

The same applies to the term "liberal."

Initially, "left/right" originated from the seating arrangements during the French Revolution, where those who sat on the left supported revolutionary change. At...

Do you know people who wail about "the media"? Whenever that happens, it's always an incomplete sentence. They should say, "The media I disagree with."

Saying "the media" implies there is only one media or that they have a united message. 

Media isn't unified. Just skim the Internet for a few minutes, and you'll get wildly different points of view and reporting.

In the mini-episode, I elaborate.

This mini-episode is another Public Service Announcement from a grammar Nazi. It's my simple effort to clean up sloppy English.

Simon & Schuster provided me with an advanced copy of the superb book After the Spike: Population, Progress, and the Case for People, scheduled for release on July 8, 2025.

The University of Texas authors, Dean Spears and Michael Geruso, have written a mind-blowing book! It's my second favorite book of 2025! My favorite 2025 book is They're Not Gaslighting You.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-JfpjJRkok

When I was born, Paul R. Ehrlich's book, The Population Bomb, was a mega-bestseller. Although I never...

Happy 4th of July, 2025! Celebrate your independence by exploring outside!

In 3 WanderLearn episodes, Alex Hutchinson and I discuss his new book, The Explorer's Gene. This is the 3rd of 3 episodes.

The Explorer's Gene examines human exploration broadly, going beyond traditional expeditions to investigate why humans explore everything from new foods to music.

Michael Zervos is the fastest traveler ever!

Watch the Video

Now that Michael Zervos has traveled to all the countries faster than anyone else, what's next for him? 

Additionally, what advice would he offer to anyone who wants to break his speed record? 

Did you know Zervos has a book deal? Exciting! 

We cover it all in 13 minutes!

00:00 Advice to the next person who tries to beat the record

04:50 Next steps

Michael Zervos has...

I'm celebrating the 350th podcast episode with Michael Zervos! He did it!

Many people try to travel to all the countries in the world quickly, but most fail.

Therefore, when I met Zervos in Côte d'Ivoire in February 2024, when he was just 10% into his race, it seemed highly unlikely that he would succeed where so many others had failed.

Still, there was something about Zervos that made me believe he would pull off this stunt. 

Although many things impressed me about Zervos, the most important was hi...

Nomadic Matt is a pioneering travel blogger. One day, we'll call him the grandfather of travel blogging during the Golden Era of travel blogs.

He's not known for his travel feats but rather for the extensive tips he's provided on his popular website, which focuses on budget travel.

The book's budget used to be $50/day, but inflation and a post-COVID world forced Matt to update his book.

In 2025, he refreshed his bestselling book, which is now called How to Travel the World on $75 a Day. 

Nomadic Matt is a pioneering travel blogger. One day, we'll call him the grandfather of travel blogging during the Golden Era of travel blogs.

He's not known for his travel feats but rather for the extensive tips he's provided on his popular website, which focuses on budget travel.

Watch the video interview

The book's budget used to be $50/day, but inflation and a post-COVID world forced Matt to update his book.

In 2025, he refreshed his bestselling book, which is now called How to Travel the World on $75...

Battle of the Big Bang: The New Tales of Our Cosmic Origins examines the most profound idea: how did the universe begin?

Although I'm not a physicist, I have read many books about the Big Bang, physics, and the universe.

This book is an in-depth exploration of the competing models that hypothesize about our origins.

I appreciated learning about the Ekpyrotic universe and Conformal Cyclic Cosmology (CCC), two novel ideas. For instance, CCC posits that "the universe is c...

I’ve never highlighted a book as much as They’re Not Gaslighting You: Ditch the Therapy Speak and Stop Hunting for Red Flags in Every Relationship. 

It's my favorite book in 2025!

Author Dr. Isabelle Morley gives us a timely book that rejects the reckless proliferation of the following terms: 

Dr. Morley is not a chronic gaslighter trying to convince the wor...

Charles Veley explains why having a travel checklist can be beneficial and how the MTP app helps.

Charles Veley is often referred to as one of the world's most traveled people, but whether he is definitively the most traveled depends on the criteria used. 

I've met Charles Veley four times, and for the fourth time, we recorded our conversation! 

In 2005, Charles Veley founded the Most Traveled People (MTP) community. MTP divides the world into 1,500 areas. As of May 2025, Charles Veley has been to 1,322 of them! That's why he's been called th...

Charles Veley and I discuss his mini-adventure at the Chile-Bolivia border. It illustrates how no matter how much you travel, you keep having fun and unexpected moments.

Charles Veley is often referred to as one of the world's most traveled people, but whether he is definitively the most traveled depends on the criteria used. 

I've met Charles Veley four times, and for the fourth time, we recorded our conversation! 

In 2005, Charles Veley founded the Most Traveled People (MTP) community. MTP divides the world into 1,500 areas. As of May 2025, Charles Veley ha...

Matthew Weinzierl and Brendan Rosseau are the authors of Space to Grow: Unlocking the Final Economic Frontier. The new book explains the business side of space.

Watch all four videos about Space to Grow

I interview Brendan Rousseau, one of the two co-authors.

Watch our interview on YouTube!

Matthew Weinzierl and Brendan Rosseau are the authors of Space to Grow: Unlocking the Final Economic Frontier. The new book explains the business side of space.

Watch all four videos about Space to Grow

I interview Brendan Rousseau, one of the two co-authors.

See the video interview.

In 3 WanderLearn episodes, Alex Hutchinson and I discuss his new book, The Explorer's Gene. This is episode 2 of 3.

The Explorer's Gene examines human exploration broadly, going beyond traditional expeditions to investigate why humans explore everything from new foods to music.

0:00 Tips
02:00 Endurance & Exploring
05:30 Exploiting vs. Exploring
07:00 Exploring in our DNA...

I interviewed Michael Zervos in Côte d'Ivoire 14 months ago. He was 10% done with his every-country-speed tour. 

I interviewed him today, April 8, 2025, when he's over 90% done!

00:00 Only 23 countries to go

05:20 Time left

08:15 How he gets tourist visas

16:16 Greek Passport

20:00 Finish line

Follow him on Instagram

To leave an anonymous voicemail that I could use on the podcast, go to SpeakPipe.com/FTapon

In 3 WanderLearn episodes, Alex Hutchinson and I discuss his new book, The Explorer's Gene.

The Explorer's Gene examines human exploration broadly, going beyond traditional expeditions to investigate why humans explore everything from new foods to music.

0:00 Tips
02:00 Endurance & Exploring
05:30 Exploiting vs. Exploring
07:00 Exploring in our DNA
09:00 Many ways to exp...

Charles Veley is often referred to as one of the world's most traveled people, but whether he is definitively the most traveled depends on the criteria used. 

I've met Charles Veley four times, and for the fourth time, we recorded our conversation! 

In 2005, Charles Veley founded the Most Traveled People (MTP) community. MTP divides the world into 1,500 areas. As of April 2025, Charles Veley has been to 1,322 of them! That's why he's been called the Godfather of Systematic Travel!

Download the MTP app or create a pro...

Matthew Weinzierl and Brendan Rosseau are the authors of Space to Grow: Unlocking the Final Economic Frontier. The new book explains the business side of space.

Watch all four videos about Space to Grow

I interview Brendan Rousseau, one of the two co-authors.

Current Role:

Strategy Manager - New Glenn, Blue Origin: Fo...

This mini-episode is another Public Service Announcement from a grammar Nazi. It's my simple effort to clean up sloppy English.

I explain why you should never say something is:

Perplexity.ai elaborates:

This mini-episode is another Public Service Announcement from a grammar Nazi. It's my simple effort to clean up sloppy English.

I explain why you should never say something is:

Perplexity.ai...

Major League Baseball, an exclusively North American league, says its best annual team is the "World Champions," having won the "World Series." No other continent is invited to compete.

Similarly, the NBA's top team is called the "World Champions," even though, once again, only North American teams can compete.

In 20 seconds, I complain about how North American leagues use the term "World Champs."

For a more in-depth analysis, consider what Perplexity.ai wrote:

The terms "World Champions" in NBA basketball and "World Series" in MLB are contentious...

Matthew Weinzierl and Brendan Rosseau are the authors of Space to Grow: Unlocking the Final Economic Frontier. 

The new book explains the business side of space. I interview both authors. 

Here's my interview with Matthew Weinzierl.

00:00 Intro

02:00 Low-hanging fruit

07:00 Surprises

09:30 Space is vast and crowded

11:30 Kessler Syndrome

16:30 What won't happen in space?

21:45 Moon and Mars predictions

25:21 Advice for Entrepreneurs

28:00 New ne...

When people win awards or are honored in some way, they often say they are "humbled" to receive the recognition.

That's absurd.

It's the wrong word.

Say you're thrilled, happy, or honored, but don't say you're humbled!

You can post comments, ask questions, and sign up for my newsletter at http://wanderlearn.com.

If you like this podcast, subscribe and share! 

On social media, my username is always FTapon. Connect with me on:

Happy Valentine's Day 2025!

Matthew Halteman and I discuss his book Hungry Beautiful Animals.

Professor Halteman mentions NutritionFacts.org.

See/Hear all four episodes with Matthew Halteman.

You can post comments, ask questions, and sign up for my newsletter at http://wanderlearn.com.

If you like this podcast, subscribe and share! 

On social media, my username is always FTapon. Connect with me on:

Matthew Halteman and I discuss his book Hungry Beautiful Animals. Here's the timeline of our discussion in case you want to skip to a section.

00:00 Know yourself

05:15 Negotiating and compromising

09:15 Cognitive Dissonance 

Have you tried lab-grown meat?

It has many other names:

Lab-grown meat has many other names: