The Rosenberg Podcast

The disappearance of Jack McLennan remains one of Australia’s strangest unsolved missing-person cases. The 27-year-old vanished from Ficks Crossing in Queensland in October 2024, leaving behind scattered belongings, missing clothing and a phone that has never been found. Two years later, there is still no body, no publicly identified suspect and no clear explanation for what happened to Jack McLennan.

Also in this episode: a classified Cold War spy satellite known as USA 32 suddenly broke apart in orbit. The American intelligence satellite was launched in 1988, and the cause of the breakup remains unknown.

In Michigan, police are investigating possible patterns surrounding five deaths near the Lansing River Trail. 

We also look at the latest Amelia Earhart search, as researchers travel to Nikumaroro to investigate the mysterious Taraia Object and determine whether it could be connected to Earhart’s missing Lockheed Electra.

Then there’s the bizarre Malta ghost story in Xewkija, Gozo, where frightened holidaymakers called police over an alleged haunting, officers responded to the property, a priest became involved, and the incident eventually made its way into Malta’s parliament.

And finally, astronomers discover a so-called “phoenix planet,” a strange world that may have formed from material left behind after the death of its star.

Strange times indeed.

FEATURED BOOKS

Lost: Amelia Earhart’s Three Mysterious Deaths and One Extraordinary Life
by Rachel Hartigan

A new look at Amelia Earhart’s disappearance, the competing theories about what happened to her, and the decades-long obsession with finally solving one of history’s most famous mysteries.

https://link.amazon/B0gClBgAv

Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government’s Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis
by Annie Jacobsen
A fascinating look at the decades-long U.S. government effort to investigate psychic phenomena, remote viewing, ESP and other abilities that seemed to sit somewhere between intelligence work, science and the paranormal.
https://link.amazon/B00q6p8rB

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A woman’s body turns up at a Wichita fire station inside a suitcase. 

The Pentagon releases footage of six mysterious spherical objects over the Middle East. 
An amateur astronomer may have spotted an enormous ancient impact crater on Google Maps. Scientists describe one of the strangest dinosaurs yet, and a tiny wildcat from Bolivia turns out to be an entirely new species.

Then there’s the Unknown Wanderer—a man who died by cyanide in an Idaho church in 1982 and remained unidentified for more than four decades. Investigators finally know his name, and his past has raised an extraordinary question: could he have had some connection to the still-unsolved Chicago Tylenol murders?

Strange times indeed.

FEATURED BOOK

Tymurs: The 1982 Tylenol Murders
by Scott Bartz

A deeper look into the still-unsolved 1982 poisonings at the center of Episode 7's final—and strangest—story.

https://link.amazon/B0gHkG7fU

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youtube.com/@Mister.Rosenberg

🎙️ Like My Audio Setup? Lots of People Do:

Microphone
https://amzn.to/4bXdyHs

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As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. Thanks for supporting the channel.

Can Ozempic Make You Live Longer? AI Jedi Mind Tricks & Other Strange Things | Episode 6

What do longevity drugs, accidental inventions, ancient discoveries, strange plants, dinosaurs, and gullible artificial intelligence have in common?

Apparently, they all ended up in this episode.

I start with a fascinating new study in which older mice treated with semaglutide—the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy—lived about 12% longer. That leads me down a rabbit hole about how science and technology rarely develop in a straight line. Sometimes we invent something for one purpose only to discover that its real significance is something completely different.

From there, things get stranger: an unusual archaeological discovery, a rather demonic-looking flower, a newly discovered dinosaur—and finally, researchers finding ways to essentially Jedi mind-trick artificial intelligence into ignoring its own rules.

This is the new Rosenberg Podcast: science, technology, mysteries, strange discoveries, whatever is happening in the world that makes me stop and say, Wait...what?

New episodes weekly.

🎥 Rosenberg on YouTube:
youtube.com/@Mister.Rosenberg

🎙️ Like My Audio Setup? Lots of People Do:

Microphone
https://amzn.to/4bXdyHs

Audio Interface
https://amzn.to/4g6hqby

🛒 My Amazon Storefront:
https://www.amazon.com/shop/teeberghq

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. Thanks for supporting the channel.

There's a cup sitting on my desk.

It seems ordinary. But inside that cup is a history of religion, information, commerce, empire, labor—and one of the most widely consumed psychoactive drugs on Earth.

Long before coffee became the fuel of offices, factories, night shifts and morning commutes, people gathered around it to pray, talk, exchange news, argue about politics and do business.

In this episode of The Rosenberg Podcast, Dan Rosenberg follows coffee from its early use in Yemen through the coffeehouses of the Ottoman world, into the information networks of London, the beginnings of Lloyd's, the industrial workplace, the coffee break—and eventually the energy drink.

It's the story of how a drink became a social network, an information network, and eventually something remarkably well suited to a world obsessed with productivity.

And it raises a strange question:

Did modern civilization simply develop a taste for coffee—or did coffee help shape modern civilization?

The Rosenberg Podcast is a podcast about history, psychology, technology, communication, mystery, and the ideas and hidden forces that shape the world around us.

Hosted by Dan Rosenberg, from the eastern edge of The Pacific.

Go further down the rabbit hole
If this episode made you look at your morning coffee a little differently, The World Atlas of Coffee by James Hoffmann is a beautiful deep dive into where coffee comes from, how it's grown and processed, and the enormous world behind what's in your cup.

The World Atlas of Coffee — James Hoffmann
https://amzn.to/45xQdsh

Kurukahveci Mehmet Efendi Turkish Coffee
This is the Turkish coffee I personally drink and recommend. Mehmet Efendi has been making coffee in Istanbul since the 19th century, so it also has a nice connection to the Ottoman and Turkish coffee culture I talk about in this episode:
https://amzn.to/4xHHUpA

As an Amazon Associate, I may earn from qualifying purchases.

What happens when the future destroys the past?

The automobile replaced the horse economy.

Streaming wiped out video rental stores. 

The internet transformed newspapers. 

And now artificial intelligence may be reshaping the world all over again.

In this episode of Rosenberg, we explore the idea of Creative Destruction—the strange process by which old industries disappear, new ones emerge, and societies struggle to adapt to change.

But this isn't really a story about economics.

It's a story about fear.

About uncertainty.

And about what it feels like to live through a moment when the future arrives before anyone is ready for it.

Maybe the fear isn't irrational.

Maybe it's human.

🎙️ Rosenberg is an audio-first podcast exploring history, technology, culture, psychology, and the strange stories that help us understand ourselves.

▶ Watch the video version and Shorts on the Rosenberg YouTube channel.
https://www.youtube.com/@HerrRosenberg

🛍️ Gear, books, and things I actually use:
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Thanks for listening.
-Rosenberg

#CreativeDestruction #AI #Technology #History #Psychology #Economics #Podcast #Rosenberg

In 1938, a Swiss chemist named Albert Hofmann created a compound called LSD-25.

Nobody thought much about it.

The company shelved it, and it sat there for years.

Then something strange happened.

Hofmann couldn't stop thinking about it.

What followed would become one of the most unusual stories of the twentieth century—a story involving accidental discovery, secret government experiments, the counterculture of the 1960s, Silicon Valley, and humanity's endless fascination with consciousness itself.

In this episode of Rosenberg, we explore how a forgotten laboratory compound escaped into the wider world and became one of the most influential and controversial substances in modern history.

Topics discussed:

• Albert Hofmann
• Bicycle Day
• LSD-25
• MKUltra
• The CIA
• Counterculture
• Consciousness
• Psychology
• Silicon Valley
• Steve Jobs
• The history of psychedelics

History • Technology • Culture • Society

Rosenberg is an audio-first exploration of the stories, ideas, and historical moments that shape how we understand ourselves and the world around us.

Today we think of the printing press as one of humanity's greatest inventions.

But when it first appeared, many people feared it.

Some worried about misinformation. Others feared job loss. Some believed it threatened society itself.

In this episode, Rosenberg explores how the fears surrounding the printing press sound surprisingly similar to today's anxieties about artificial intelligence.

Topics discussed:

• Johannes Gutenberg
• Medieval scribes
• Technological change
• Artificial intelligence
• Human psychology
• Media history
• The fear of innovation

History • Technology • Culture • Society

Rosenberg is an audio-first exploration of the ideas, inventions, and forces that shape human behavior.

New episodes explore history, media, technology, psychology, and culture through thoughtful storytelling and commentary.

Most people think the attention economy began with social media.

It didn't.

In this first episode of Rosenberg, we explore how newspapers transformed from political tools into commercial businesses competing for attention. Along the way, we look at how media shapes our understanding of the world, why shared stories matter, and what the rise of newspapers can teach us about today's digital platforms.

From nineteenth-century publishers to modern algorithms, the technology has changed—but the business remains the same.

The business is attention.

Topics discussed:

 • History of newspapers
 • The attention economy
 • Walter Lippmann
 • Benedict Anderson
 • Neil Postman
 • Media history
 • Communication
 • Social media and algorithms
 • Human behavior

Rosenberg explores history, media, psychology, communication, and human behavior through thoughtful audio storytelling.