Joe Chambers hosts a show built around curiosity, asking the big questions about who we are, how we got here and what our real place in the universe might be. He travels to far-flung corners of the world to meet the people who live there and hear their stories first-hand. Along the way he chases the answers most of us never stop to ask for. New episodes appear regularly, and listeners are invited to send in their own questions and share what they love.
Episodes
Why Did Every Ancient Culture Have a Lightning God?
Chapters0:00 Rebuilding after the flood2:28 Lightning and fertile soil3:43 Gods of storm and harvest4:51 Return to the stones7:05 Watching the sky8:09 The Altar Stone and Calanais9:45 Thunderstorm generators12:30 The white horses13:02 Silbury Hill16:11 From Wiltshire to Egypt18:26 Testing the story20:36 Back to WiltshireWatch next: Was the Great Pyramid a Power Plant? An Engineering Perspectivehtt
Crop Circles: From Conversation to Creation?
In July 2006, a group of crop circle researchers sat in a Wiltshire pub looking through a tarot book and stopped at card zero, the Fool. The next morning, a formation resembling it appeared in a nearby wheat field.Coincidence? Maybe. But it isn't the only story like it. In 1997, Dutch scientist Klaas van Egmond sat beside an empty field near Silbury Hill, left, and came back three hours later
Is this who's behind crop circles? | Karen Alexander, Temporary Temples
Karen Alexander has spent thirty-five years documenting crop circles. In this episode we talk about what they might be saying: the geometry, the mathematics, and what these formations do to the people who go and stand inside them.We talk about the Chilbolton formation of 2001, which appeared beside a radio telescope in Hampshire laid out in the same 73 x 23 grid we used to send the Arecibo message
Are We Ready for Disclosure? | Neil Nixon
Is society ready for disclosure? In this episode I sit down with writer, journalist, and academic Neil Nixon — a longtime Fortean Times contributor who's spent over 40 years investigating UFOs and the paranormal — to talk about where official disclosure actually stands, why he's skeptical of cases like Roswell, and his own theory that we're heading toward discovery, not disclosure.We g
The Chambers That Could Rewrite History | Gunung Padang | Danny Hilman Natawidjaja
Under a hill in West Java, geophysical scans show hollow spaces — chambers, twenty and fifty metres down. Nobody has ever been inside one. Before the end of the last ice age, Java, Sumatra and Borneo were joined into a single landmass. Geologists call it Sundaland. Then the ice melted, the sea rose more than a hundred metres, and most of it disappeared. Danny Hilman Natawidjaja is an Indonesian ge
Crop Circles, Falling Lights, and the Limits of the Scientific Method | Klaas van Egmond
He spent nearly thirty years bringing instruments into a phenomenon that wouldn't hold still for science — magnetometers, thermal cameras, time-lapse rigs. Almost all of them came back with nothing.Klaas van Egmond is an emeritus professor of Environmental Science and Sustainability at Utrecht University. He ran environmental research at the RIVM (the Dutch national institute for public health
Stonehenge Wasn't Built to Be Seen - It Was Built to Be Heard | Greg Moffitt
What if our ancient ancestors experienced the world through sound as much as sight? In this episode I'm joined by Greg Moffitt - writer, broadcaster and host of the long-running Legalise Freedom podcast - to talk about archaeoacoustics: the study of how ancient sites were built to sound, not just to look.We get into why stone circles like Stonehenge and Avebury may have been deliberately shaped to
Russia warns ‘consequences’ | Inside Swindon's Drone Boom: Jobs, Weapons and War | Will Stone MP
Drone warfare isn't a niche part of modern conflict anymore — it's becoming the main way wars are fought. And Britain's chosen my hometown, Swindon, as one of the places to build for it.In this episode I sit down with Will Stone, Labour MP for Swindon North, to talk about how a town with no defence industry two years ago now has five drone companies setting up, a Ministry of Defence te
What Do We Get Wrong About Britain's Indian History? | Shrabani Basu
What really happened when an Indian-Muslim princess became a British spy in WWII — and paid for it with her life?In this episode, Joe Chambers interviews Shrabani Basu, an award-winning journalist, author and historian who has spent decades uncovering overlooked Indian stories at the heart of British history.Her books include 'Spy Princess: The Life of Noor Inayat Khan', 'Victoria &
Crop Circles Are Lining Up With Ones That Vanished Two Years Ago | Dan Vidler
2026 has been an extraordinary year for crop circles. More formations, more complexity, and more people asking questions that do not have easy answers.Dan Vidler has spent 23 years researching these formations at ground level, and he means that literally. While most of us are looking at drone footage, Dan is on his hands and knees studying the details almost everybody walks straight past. His book
What's Happened to Britain? | Alan Mardghum & 140 Years of the Durham Miners' Gala
In 2017 I went to the Durham Miners' Gala for the first time. Jeremy Corbyn was Labour leader, socialism felt like it was breathing again, and tens of thousands of people packed into Durham with something that looked a lot like hope. Seven years later, more people voted for Corbyn in defeat than voted for Keir Starmer in victory — and Britain feels more divided than at any point in living memo
Why Serious Researchers Won't Let the Crop Circle Mystery Die | Andy Thomas
Andy Thomas has spent 35 years reading the evidence on crop circles, and he still does not think all of them are man-made.He is one of Britain's most prolific authors on unexplained phenomena: Vital Signs, the standard reference on crop circles, along with The Truth Agenda, The New Heretics, and most recently Strange: Paranormal Realities in the Everyday World. He has organised the Glastonbury
He Films Unexplained Orbs Over Wiltshire - Watch and Decide | Simon Young
While the rest of the culture argues about whether the lights in the sky are real, Simon Young has spent years pointing a camera at them and pressing record.He films over the crop circles of Wiltshire: glowing orbs, plasma-like objects moving in formation, lights interacting with the formations themselves. He calls them plasmoid orbs. Sentient plasmoids. Words that until recently you would only he
The Geometry Inside Crop Circles Is Too Precise to Dismiss | Bert Janssen
The same geometric pattern turns up in the Great Pyramid of Giza, in the crop circles of Wiltshire, in the Vatican, in Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man, and in paintings made by Carl Jung's patients who had never seen any of it.Bert Janssen is a Dutch researcher who has spent decades studying crop circles and sacred geometry. In this conversation he makes the case that there is an organising princ
Egypt's Forgotten Revolution: Akhenaten & Tutankhamun | Professor Aidan Dodson
Uncover the mysteries of ancient Egypt through the lens of one of the world's leading Egyptologists. Professor Aidan Dodson takes us on a captivating journey from the grandeur of the Grand Egyptian Museum to the intriguing stories behind Tutankhamun, Akhenaten, and even Imhotep. Discover how Egypt's history spans over 3,000 years of unchanging religion, revolutionary art, and shifting dynasties —
Changing Lives in Kenya: Cyndy B Waters and the Orbit Village Project
In this episode, I speak with Cyndy Waters, founder of the Orbit Village Project, a humanitarian initiative serving vulnerable children and families near Nairobi, Kenya. 🇰🇪Cyndy’s journey began in 1995 when she first visited a small quarry village outside Nairobi and was confronted with the difficult realities facing many children in the community. What started as a calling eventually became the O
Why Reform Took Durham | A Labour Councillor on the Ground, Rob Crute
In this episode, Joe Chambers speaks with Councillor Rob Crute about the challenges facing the County Durham community, including housing instability, the impact of political changes, and the rise of Reform UK. They discuss the importance of local governance, the role of social media in shaping political narratives, and the future of the Labour Party. The conversation also highlights the significa
There Were Multiple Arks of the Covenant? Professor Yigal Levin Explains
In this episode, Joe Chambers interviews Yigal Levin, a professor specializing in biblical history and teaches at the Israel and Golda Koschitzky Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. He is currently working on a three-volume commentary on the Book of Chronicles. Levin discusses his journey into the study of the Book of Chronicles, highlighting its h
What is the lasting impact of German Colonialism? With Henning Melber
The conversation delves into the forgotten history of German colonialism, the genocide in German South West Africa, comparative colonial atrocities, acknowledgment and reparations, personal experience and legacy, economic motives and impact, and German influence and land ownership in Namibia. The conversation delves into the lasting impact of German colonialism in Namibia, highlighting the appropr
We Sent a Message Into Space. The Reply Appeared in a Field in England | Simon Young
In November 1974 we transmitted the Arecibo message from Puerto Rico towards a star cluster 25,000 light years away. Numbers, the atomic elements of life, a strand of DNA, a human figure, our solar system, and a diagram of the telescope that sent it.In August 2001 a formation appeared in a field directly beside the Chilbolton radio telescope in Hampshire. Its structure mirrored the Arecibo message
The British Empire's Enduring Impact: What the Evidence Actually Shows | Professor Corinne Fowler
🌍 Have you ever considered how your favorite countryside walks are intertwined with Britain's colonial past? 🇬🇧In our latest episode, Professor Corinne Fowler uncovers the surprising connections between English landscapes and the history of the British Empire. We discuss the contents of her latest book ‘Our Island Stories: Country Walks Through Colonial Britain’https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/4480
Thatcher's Legacy on Britain’s Broken Communities with Professor Stephen Farrall
In this episode, I speak with Professor Stephen Farrall, one of the UK’s leading experts on the long-term social and political impact of Margaret Thatcher’s government. Farrall, Professor of Criminology at The University of Nottingham, has spent decades researching how the policies of the 1980s reshaped British life — from housing and employment to crime, punishment, and deprivation.Together, we e
The Dutch East India Trading Company: Global Trade and Empire With Professor Jos Gommans
🎙️ In this episode, I sit down with Professor Jos Gommans, a leading historian of colonial and global history at Leiden University in the Netherlands. We dive deep into the rise and reach of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) — one of the most powerful and influential trading corporations in history — and explore how it shaped global trade, empire, and cultural exchange.But our conversation doesn’
How can humour save the U.K? With Attila the Stockbroker
In this episode, I spoke with Attila the Stockbroker, to explore the intersection of art, humour, and activism. We delve into the power of poetry and performance in driving social change, discuss the legacy of Brighton's football club, and reflect on the current political landscape in the UK. Discover how humour can be a tool for unity and transformation. Don't miss out on this thought-pro
Not Every Crop Circle Can Be Made With a Board and String | Simon Young
Two people with a plank and a length of rope can flatten a field overnight. That has been demonstrated, repeatedly, and nobody serious disputes it. The argument is about what is left over once you have accounted for the ones that were.Simon Young has spent years filming formations from the air across Wiltshire. In this conversation we go into the physical characteristics that complicate the hoax e
