iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Patrick Wyman

Patrick Wyman @patrickwyman.bsky.social · 6h

New Past Lives: Around 600 CE, a man died and was buried near the city of Verona in northern Italy. He had led an interesting life, including a migration from present-day Hungary. Most intriguing of all, his right hand had been amputated and replaced with a knife prosthesis. pod.link/1852618120/e...

pod.link

The Man with a Knife for a Hand (Lombard Italy, Late 6th Century)

Listen to The Man with a Knife for a Hand (Lombard Italy, Late 6th Century) from Past Lives wherever you get your podcasts!

512917

Patrick Wyman @patrickwyman.bsky.social · 3h

Jesus Christ, what an abomination. Everyone involved in making this happen should take a long, hard look in the mirror and ask what kind of person they really are.

619814

Patrick Wyman @patrickwyman.bsky.social · 3h

Watched "The Invite" on the plane today, highly recommend, what an incisive little movie

3432

Patrick Wyman @patrickwyman.bsky.social · 6h

pod.link

The Man with a Knife for a Hand (Lombard Italy, Late 6th Century)

Listen to The Man with a Knife for a Hand (Lombard Italy, Late 6th Century) from Past Lives wherever you get your podcasts!

512917

Reposted by Patrick Wyman

John Leavitt @leavittalone.bsky.social · 14h

I think it was @patrickwyman.bsky.social who defined a period of collapse as”everyone knows there are huge problems to fix but no one wants to fix them” or everyone knows that bridge needs repair but somehow it never gets done

09014

Reposted by Patrick Wyman

your friend oriana @schwindter.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

this was how it *started*

three people sitting behind microphones on a small stage: Patrick Wyman, Josh Gondelman, and Claire Aubin. A large screen behind them reads “team aubin #1: player: Robert Moses. Sport/position: formula 1 driver”

3466

Patrick Wyman @patrickwyman.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Thanks so much to everyone who came out to the live show with @ceaubin.com @joshgondelman.bsky.social and I in NYC tonight! We drafted teams of some truly terrible people in American history, two of the most rancid blunt rotations imaginable, and it was beyond fun. You all rule!

7812

Reposted by Patrick Wyman

ArtButMakeItSports @artbutmakeitsports.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Circus Performers, by Walt Kuhn, 1978, 📸 via @marisakabas.bsky.social

176123282626

Patrick Wyman @patrickwyman.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I talk about this a lot in "Lost Worlds" - the world didn't begin with people alive today, and it won't end with people today. Apocalypticism is a wonderful way of making it so you don't have to think about the real long-term consequences of your actions. If it's all going to end, why think further?

623946

Patrick Wyman @patrickwyman.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

"Could it be that I'm a moron who can't be bothered to do the tiniest bit of due diligence before accusing someone of perjury and calling him a dirtbag? No, it must be a conspiracy." It's hard to find a better encapsulation of where we're at than this. This people are serious, and they're morons.

814515

Reposted by Patrick Wyman

Hannah Vardit @hannahvardit.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

i worry that men think being A Good Guy is dramatically and heroically intervening on behalf of an endangered woman and then being publicly rewarded on a grand scale when actually being A Good Guy is just usually saying, “hey man that’s not funny” or “wow that’s fucked up” and there is no reward

10130513616

Reposted by Patrick Wyman

Claire E. Aubin @ceaubin.com · 29/09/2026

ALAS. Manny is sick and unable to host, which sucks enormously. HOWEVER! The incredible Josh Gondelman @joshgondelman.bsky.social is now hosting tonight, so grab your last minute tickets if you haven't already!

1293

Reposted by Patrick Wyman

Asher Elbein @asherelbein.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I don't mean what I'm about to say in a sappy way, but a fairly hard-nosed one: natural ecosystems are often remarkably good at recovering from serious local natural disasters *if they are given the chance.*

21414402

Patrick Wyman @patrickwyman.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

The fact that we've gotten to the point where this man feels comfortable speaking his mind in public is such an indictment of the 21st century as a whole

54943239

Reposted by Patrick Wyman

milo edwards @miloedwards.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

a special treat for any big boy enthusiasts attending my vancouver show:

2361

Patrick Wyman @patrickwyman.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

On my way to Vancouver BC for the first time to see the man himself, my longtime cohost and friend, @miloedwards.bsky.social, do some of that comedy stuff. I’ll be there for less than 24 hours, know nothing about the city, and couldn’t be more excited!!!

5971

Patrick Wyman @patrickwyman.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Failson "property developer" who believes in lizard people, supports Medicare for All, likes Pete Hegseth but hates RFK, voted for Clinton in 2016, Trump in 2020, and Harris in 2024.

82086

Patrick Wyman @patrickwyman.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I put together a little Instagram video on the fantastic new paper by @jenniferraff.bsky.social and colleagues on the initial peopling of the Americas: www.instagram.com/p/DdrcOUfOZQq/

instagram.com

Instagram

Create an account or log in to Instagram - Share what you're into with the people who get you.

1283

Patrick Wyman @patrickwyman.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

A defensible analysis of early modern European history, IMO, but you want to lead with that in an essay rather than finishing with it

51568

Patrick Wyman @patrickwyman.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Been thinking more about this and it seems to me that the key to figuring all this out is going to be really intensive archaeological work around what used to be glacial lakes south of the ocean sheets in what are now Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Minnesota, but that landscape was SCOURED by floods.

5573

Reposted by Patrick Wyman

Jennifer Raff @jenniferraff.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Oh hey I have a new paper out with my amazing co-authors 😃

2579

Reposted by Patrick Wyman

Patrick Wyman @patrickwyman.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

New Past Lives: Xin Zhui, the Best-Preserved Mummy of All Time. Around 168 BC, a woman named Xin Zhui died of a heart attack in southern China. She made elaborate preparations for her death, and those preparations succeeded in preserving her body to an unprecedented degree. pod.link/1852618120/e...

pod.link

Xin Zhui, the Best-Preserved Mummy of All Time

Listen to Xin Zhui, the Best-Preserved Mummy of All Time from Past Lives wherever you get your podcasts!

310421

Patrick Wyman @patrickwyman.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Doesn't conflict - it tells us we need to be looking at a scenario where the group that made those footprints (assuming the dating is correct and all that) didn't leave a major genetic legacy to later inhabitants of the Americas. They could be one of the ghost populations, but not necessarily.

2801

Patrick Wyman @patrickwyman.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Outstanding new review of ALL of the currently available DNA evidence for the peopling of the Americas, led by Bethany Potter (and the amazing @jenniferraff.bsky.social!): www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

sciencedirect.com

722353

Patrick Wyman @patrickwyman.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

pod.link

Xin Zhui, the Best-Preserved Mummy of All Time

Listen to Xin Zhui, the Best-Preserved Mummy of All Time from Past Lives wherever you get your podcasts!

310421

Reposted by Patrick Wyman

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 23/09/2026

i think you can fairly say that the second trump administration is the most racist federal administration since woodrow wilson and honestly i'm not sure that it isn't more racist than wilson's

164113112105

Patrick Wyman @patrickwyman.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Real Gs move in silence like lasagna

3953

Patrick Wyman @patrickwyman.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Just finished reading Kyle Harper's new book, "The Last Animal: Human History and the Fate of Life on Earth from the Ice Age to the Sixth Extinction," and folks, it's a banger. He really did the dang thing. Beautifully written, extraordinarily well-researched and thoughtful, paradigm-defining.

51038

Reposted by Patrick Wyman

lastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

One of the basic points in Mills' The Racial Contract (originally published in 1997!) was that, if nothing else, White Supremacy deserves to be taken seriously as one of the great motivating ideologies of modernity and it's bizarre that political philosophers are so disinclined to treat it as such.

191280280

Patrick Wyman @patrickwyman.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Academia argumentation isn't generally funny but sometimes timing makes it so, like the guys who published a massive "Actually, the Justinianic Plague wasn't a big deal at all" two months before COVID started spreading like wildfire around the planet

222120

Patrick Wyman @patrickwyman.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

One of the ways you can Zohran's Got It is that he can deal productively with a pudding-brained psychopath in productive ways because he knows it's his fucking job, as the mayor of NYC, to deal with a pudding-brained psychopath. Your constituents can't afford you opting out of that meeting.

526728

Patrick Wyman @patrickwyman.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

If these numbers hold, and are indicative of what's happening nationwide (and at present they seem to be), then the sheer number of new faces in American politics is by itself going to change the bounds of what seems possible. Wave elections change winning parties, not just losing ones.

1528031

Patrick Wyman @patrickwyman.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

This artifact was excavated at Harappa and radiocarbon dating places it c. 1900 BC

113410

Patrick Wyman @patrickwyman.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Migration is humanity's oldest, most reliable, and most effective tool when dealing with climate change, full stop. Can't find food here? Don't like the weather? Babies dying of diseases? Move somewhere else. There are always intermediate steps and causal factors, but it's almost that simple.

328333

Patrick Wyman @patrickwyman.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Why were Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru's bodies so crispy? Blasters don't do that.

241195

Reposted by Patrick Wyman

lauren @lauren.rotatingsandwiches.com · 19/09/2026

rough first week for humans at the intergalactic council. everyone was really nice but we spent a lot of time at orientation trying to figure out what made us unique among all the galaxy's species. turns out we're the only ones who thought to deep fry cheese. that's it. we're the fried cheese planet

751514177

Patrick Wyman @patrickwyman.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

I just realized that 99 percent of pseudoarchaeology/ancient alien conspiracies can be easily debunked by introducing the stunning concept of "wooden rollers that reduce friction when you're dragging heavy things."

3337636

Patrick Wyman @patrickwyman.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Dr. El-Sayed please come to Phoenix and hang out with me in my garage gym and lift weights and we can talk about public health policy while we crush some heavy overhead presses

931313

Reposted by Patrick Wyman

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 18/09/2026

i am genuinely bewildered by people who say that the rise of white nationalism in the republican party is a response to the "woke left." like, did the woke left cause pat buchanan's 1992 presidential campaign? is the woke left why steve king had a long career in congress?

430103801921

Patrick Wyman @patrickwyman.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I've spent a lot of years studying a lot of collapses, and the truth of the matter is that they're always mundane: mild climatic shifts that reduce crop yields, a dumbass in power who makes some terrible decisions, neglecting things that obviously matter but the will to fix them can't be summoned.

292563610

Reposted by Patrick Wyman

Andrew Bloomberg @andrewbloomberg.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

My history interest lately can be broadly defined as “globalization and cultural and geographic exchange, in any era and any part of the globe.” So I obviously love shit like this (also I’m almost done with Patrick’s audiobook, which is great).

2394

Reposted by Patrick Wyman

David_j_roth @davidjroth.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

There is simply no other podcast that dares to ask these questions.

933821

Reposted by Patrick Wyman

Patrick Wyman @patrickwyman.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

New Past Lives: How Do You Get Bitten by a Lion in Roman York? Around 1800 years ago, a man was decapitated and buried on the outskirts of York, in northern England. He had been bitten at least twice by a lion around the time he died. Who was he, and how did this happen? pod.link/1852618120/e...

pod.link

How Do You Get Bitten by a Lion in Roman York?

Listen to How Do You Get Bitten by a Lion in Roman York? from Past Lives wherever you get your podcasts!

1020628

Patrick Wyman @patrickwyman.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Mostly impressed, I think, that I more or less have the career I dreamed of when I was growing up; but disappointed by how little beer I drink, how few football games I attend, and the absence of a large, loud motorcycle as my primary vehicle

31710

Reposted by Patrick Wyman

sarah jeong @sarahjeong.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

a lot freaks me out about AI but 0% of my anxiety is about AGI. i think this is the part that freaks me out the most right now -- the many many indications that no one is at the wheel and no adults are present

322233397

Patrick Wyman @patrickwyman.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

New Past Lives Bonus: What if the Normans Hadn't Conquered England? It's counterfactual time, and I chat about how the Norman Conquest marked a break from Britain's orientation toward the North Sea throughout the early Middle Ages and why that didn't have to happen. www.patreon.com/PastLivesMed...

patreon.com

Bonus - What if the Normans Hadn't Conquered England? | Past Lives

Bonus - What if the Normans Hadn't Conquered England? by Past Lives on Patreon. Join Past Lives's community for exclusive content and updates.

7464

Patrick Wyman @patrickwyman.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Reflecting on my trip to Italy in April and wondering if I'm the first person to pop in a citrus Zyn in the Sistine Chapel's long history

11740

Patrick Wyman @patrickwyman.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

pod.link

How Do You Get Bitten by a Lion in Roman York?

Listen to How Do You Get Bitten by a Lion in Roman York? from Past Lives wherever you get your podcasts!

1020628