Backyard Philosophy Podcast

The American revolutionary war, a war that would define not just the beginning of a country but the beginning of a new way of life. A war filled with patriots and legends who sacrificed, to ensure freedoms many have today. But some of these legends would be the inspiration behind movies, have cities named after them and would help America redefine its military forces. This is a story about one of...

In the age of automation, AI and robotics…. we take many luxuries for granted. Luxuries that seem common in the modern world. But all the innovations we currently have, stem from many great people in history. And without their creativity, inventions and drive… the world would be a much different place. One such person in history is Ismail Al – Jazari. Nicknamed the father of robotics. Ismail would...

In this episode Mike and Nick reminisce on how they started a podcast, what they learned along the way and some of their favorite podcast episode. The beginnings of  figuring out the direction of their podcast and how they improved and grew along the way. They also discuss how the podcast is taking a slightly different direction and the future of this podcast. 

Two giants go at it to decided which ocean is truly the best ocean... the Atlantic or the Pacific. In this boxing match of knowledge, facts and jokes, Mike and Nick go head to head trying to explain and convert the other to join the superior ocean side. Get some laughs and learn some interesting facts along the way, as the fight for the best ocean rages between the two of them. 

From nearly every sci-fi, from Doctor who to Star Trek, time and space manipulation is somehow involved. The ability to warp space to travel faster, or to use a phenomenon to travel through time and everything in between has been used in science fiction. The authors of these tales come up with new and intriguing reasoning on how it is possible to do in the worlds they build. Quantum drives, gravit...

Nails and screws some of the earliest building blocks in human history. They are in almost everything manmade but a question arises where do nails come from and how did we advance the technology to the point it is today. Well join Nick and Mike as Nick tries to tell the history and advancements of nails as Mike makes puns jokes and dad jokes laughing all the way through.

In 1987 a war between two countries took place, Chad and Libya it was a war with much foreign influence. Many countries wanted one side to win and the other to loose. But what happens when one side is heavily armed with land mines, tanks and machine guns and the other side turns a fleet of Toyota pick up trucks into a form of modern Calvary.  You get the Toyota War... a war fought in the dessert a...

UBI... Universal Basic Income, a new type of economy or old ideas coming back from the past. The world is ever shifting and some major shifts are how people make money and how governments spend money. With those shifts the idea of a monthly stiffen, a yearly salary, a new welfare is heavily talked about. From politicians running on the idea of UBI to the fear of AI taking people jobs, has many tru...

Some species have survived the impossible, evolved to become the apex life form or to fight off the apex life form. Some species have lasted hundreds of thousands of years and all the turmoil that has happened in those centuries drought, asteroids, mammoths. But on specific life form that has survived it all and not only survived but flourished is the honey locus. A tree sharp, thorny, roots runni...

Are you real? A question that has plagued humanity since conscious formed. Are we just a figure of imagination or are we in a video game? A theory has emerged that is driving both physics and philosophers crazy... the simulation theory. And Mike and Nick attempt to deep dive into this possibility that simulation theory could be real. Going down avenues rarely talked about or questioned when to sim...

Billy the Kid, Jesse James, Wyatt Earl... famous cowboys that help define an era of the wild west. But one cowboy that doesn't get his true due is Bill Picket. A cowboy who wasn't scared of anything, so skilled so daring he would travel the world over and be a house hold name during his era. Join Mike and Nick as they talk about a bull biting, circus riding true cowboy through and through... this...

Since life was formed on this planet, creatures of all shapes and sizes has been taking from one another, sometimes for necessities other times just for fun. But one of the strangest creatures to walk this earth ... humans, steal for a weird wild and occasionally obvious reasons. Join Nick and Mike as they talk about how stealing is done, people mindset when stealing and how stealing is formed in...

Life always finds a way, sometimes it is evolution, dumb luck or adapting to the environment. Or perhaps a combination of all three and that's where hawks come into play. Their is a special type of hawk that as learned like mankind to use fire. Was this a freak accident, did the hawks learn it from humans or are they evolving right before our eyes. Join Nick and Mike as they discuss the strange ph...

Socrates vs Buddha.... Plato vs Confucius. East vs west philosophy two different mind sets two massively different cultures with some major similarities. Join Nick and Mike as they dive into different philosophy's of old. How eastern thought and western thought differ and has helped defined societies and cultures for centuries.   

Fish tales are sometimes not tall tales, sometimes there are hints of truth in them. Sometimes as a warning other as a helpful hint. One wives tale that has been around for centuries that the moon effects fish and change the times people should fish. Join Nick and Mike as they talk about how lunar cycles change fish patterns and when people should go fishing.

Apples and oranges... fruit so different they are used in idioms to show differences. But what happens when humanity decides to try to combine the two, to combine multiple different types of trees into a tree that bares multiple types of fruit. Is this a crime against nature, or a modern miracle. No, its tree graphing... the art and act of combining different types of trees to grow as one. Join Ni...

Just about everything is run on electricity, homes, cars even toothbrushes... but what goes into and how did humanity make an infrastructure that is able to do all of this? Well like most things society has built is was pieced together with tons of errors and decided it was good enough. So join Nick and Mike as they discuss the flaws and weaknesses in power grids and power infrastructure. Why powe...

Popes and pirates, two classes of people that don’t usually cross paths in history. But in this event, they do. This is a tale of greed and boredom spiced up with opportunity. Vast treasure, open seas and sailors hungry for adventure leading to a mass of power shifts and fortune being lost and gained. This is about the treasure of Thibaud de Castillon.

War ... a terrible human phenomena but also an extremely profitable one. And where there is large sums of money there is complex structure. Perhaps non as complex as the military industrial complex. A mass production industry with trillions of dollars on the line. A line of business that depends on the politicians voting in their favor and the threat of war always being on the horizon. Join Nick a...

When you think of Canadians, you probably think, hockey, maple syrup, ultra-nice people … too nice some may argue. Needless to say, you probably don’t think of fierce near unstoppable soldiers, defeating entire armies by themselves. Especially when I mention the word Canada. Well in the case of Canadian Leo Major he proved the sometimes the nice guys are the most dangerous especially when nice guy...

Lobbying has been part of civilization since societies formed. There as always been representatives, people asking for favors and trying to rule behind the curtain. And in todays episode, Nick and Mike peel behind that curtain to see how lobbying groups truly work. How they control K street in Washington DC, how the are able to create laws, influence elections and dictate a path for humanity that...

From time to time, we all miss place things or lose something, it is almost human nature to do so. But what happens when a government or more specifically a government agency loses something that makes you concern for your own safety, that makes countries concern for their safety. Something so powerful that you can’t believe they lost it. Well, you get the story of the CIA in the height of cold wa...

As we grow up we allowed by society more and more freedoms... freedom to drink, freedom to drive, freedom to get married. But why.... why are those age limits in place why has society decided you need to be a certain age to do a certain task. Well join Nick and Mike as they discuss from the romans to modern day why societies put age limits on certain abilities. How age limits has constantly change...

Drinking, partying, fireworks. All around the world millions if not billions of people celebrate the coming of a new year. A changing of seasons, a changing of time and for many a vow to change themselves. But New Years took a long journey to get where it is now. For most of history it wasn’t even on January 1st. A day of new beginnings itself has had many new beginnings but stems deep in humaniti...

Legal jargon is hard to understand even when you're a trained professional, and it is even harder when you're a fool.  So how do fool understand legal written bills better... with alcohol. Join Nick and Mike as they turn congress chip bill into a drinking game, a pork hunt drinking game. Showing and sharing odd and funny things located in the bill all entertained with drinking. Laugh and learn as...