The Hungry Minds Podcast

This time Noah Charney sits down with a guest who couldn't be a better fit: Aaron Dismuke, the voice behind Dr. Stone’s English lead. It’s a natural crossover. Rebuilding civilization through sheer human ingenuity is the core engine of both The Book and Dr. Stone. But the connection runs even deeper: Aaron was actually hooked on The Book long before this interview, after his partner (and fellow Dr. Stone voice actor!) gifted him a copy.  

What starts with anime quickly morphs into a wide-ranging, surprisingly deep conversation. Together, they chart a path through the hilarious translation quirks of adapting anime for Western audiences, how technology functions as magic, and whether humanity could ever build a truly universal language. They unpack the tug-of-war between cold logic and emotion, explain why living flesh actually outlasts solid steel, and reveal Aaron’s personal “Roman Empire” (spoiler: it’s literally his very own podcast about ancient Carthage).

Links:

Noah Charney: https://www.instagram.com/slovenology/
Aaron Dismuke: https://www.instagram.com/alethiometric/
Hungry Minds: https://hungryminds.com/
The Book: https://hungryminds.com/products/the-book
The Black Book: https://hungryminds.com/products/the-black-book

Inspired by The Odyssey, Noah sets off on a voyage through some of the ancient world’s strangest and most sophisticated inventions. We tend to picture antiquity as technologically simple: swords, sandals, ships and the occasional catapult. The reality was considerably weirder.
In this solo episode, discover:
 

• The Claw of Archimedes, a giant mechanical grappling device apparently capable of lifting and destabilizing Roman warships.
• Archimedes’ Death Ray, the legendary mirror weapon supposedly used to set enemy ships on fire—and the modern experiments that tried to find out whether it could actually work.
• The Antikythera Mechanism, a 2,000-year-old system of intricate bronze gears often described as the world’s first analogue computer.
• Heron of Alexandria’s inventions, including a primitive steam turbine, automatic temple doors and a coin-operated holy-water vending machine.
• Talos, a legendary giant bronze robot who guarded Crete and later inspired the Colossus of Rhodes.
• Greek Fire, Byzantium’s terrifying flamethrower-like naval weapon, whose closely guarded formula eventually vanished.
• And the larger mystery behind them all: how can sophisticated technology be invented—and then simply disappear?

Some of these machines definitely existed. Some are known only from ancient descriptions. Others occupy the wonderfully murky territory between history and legend. Together they reveal an ancient world filled with engineers, experimenters and dreamers asking essentially the same question that drives Hungry Minds: I wonder what happens if we try this?

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Dr Noah Charney

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Learn more about Hungry Minds’ books and magical artifacts by visiting the website www.hungryminds.com

www.hungryminds.com

www.hungryminds.com