Listen to a dozen podcasts featuring the elder adventurer Sym Blanchard!

In this episode, Sym Blanchard and I discuss geopolitics and Bitcoin:

00:00 Israel and Gaza10:00 Ukraine War16:00 Coming Recession19:40 Bitcoin

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Send me an anonymous voicemail at SpeakPipe.com/FTapon

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8. For backpacking gear, buy from Gossamer Gear.

In 2025, I catch up with one of the most remarkable 72-year-olds you’ll ever meet, Sym Blanchard!

Watch this podcast!

This page features five episodes starring Sym.

Listen to all the episodes featuring Sym Blanchard since 2018!

* A 66-year-old Adventurer Shows How To Live A Meaningful Life in 2018 (one of the top 5 most popular WanderLearn episodes!)

* Traveling To Find One’s Ancestors in 2019

* Near Death on the CDT + Sym’s 60-Year Love Story in 2020

* Nine Shows Sharing Travel Wisdom Featuring Sym Blanchard in 2022

* Unstoppable 70-year-old Adventurer Sym Blanchard in 2023

Is Veganism & Osteoporosis Linked?

You’ll want to watch the video because it’s the only part of this podcast series with Sym that I filmed in 2025.

Timeline

00:00 Introducing Sym

04:00 Reversing Aging

08:50 Veganism and osteoporosis

19:45 Testosterone creams on your genitals

22:00 Aging advice

25:00 Dating Lessons

In the episode, we discuss the connection between veganism and osteoporosis. Neither of us is a doctor, and you shouldn’t take anecdotal evidence as proof of anything.

I asked Perplexity.ai about the issue, and it said:

There is evidence linking veganism and osteoporosis, though the relationship is nuanced and influenced by diet quality and nutritional adequacy.

* Increased Risk with Poorly Planned Diets: Multiple extensive studies and systematic reviews have found that vegans—especially those consuming diets low in calcium, vitamin D, vitamin B12, protein, zinc, and omega-3 fatty acids—tend to have lower bone mineral density (BMD) and an increased risk of both osteoporosis and bone fractures compared to omnivores. This elevated risk has been observed in major cohort studies, such as the EPIC-Oxford study, which reported a significantly higher risk of fractures among vegans even after adjusting for body mass index and lifestyle factors.

* Nutritional Deficiencies Matter: The increased risk is primarily attributed to common deficits in key nutrients critical for bone health, such as calcium, vitamin D, and B12, which are less prevalent in plant-based foods unless supplemented or fortified. Protein intake is also sometimes lower in vegan regimens, which can further impact bone strength.

* Well-Planned Vegan Diets & Positive Outcomes: Recent research shows that a “well-planned” vegan diet—emphasizing adequate intake of calcium, vitamin D, B12, protein, and other bone-related nutrients (often through fortified foods or supplements)—does not significantly increase the risk of osteoporosis compared to omnivorous diets. Some studies have found that a healthful, plant-based diet may even reduce the risk of osteoporosis due to increased intakes of bone-protective nutrients like vitamin K, magnesium, and antioxidants, as well as because such diets tend to produce a lower acid load, which may reduce bone resorption.

* Physical Activity Modifies the Risk: There is also evidence that resistance exercise (such as weightlifting or strength training) can improve bone strength in vegans, potentially offsetting some of the increased risk associated with plant-based diets.

* Summary Table: Veganism and Osteoporosis Risk

Type of Diet

Bone Health Risk Factors

Osteoporosis/Fracture Risk

* Unbalanced vegan

* Low calcium, D, B12, protein, zinc, omega-3s

* Increased fracture/osteoporosis risk

* Well-planned vegan

* Supplemented/fortified nutrients, diverse plant foods

* Similar risk as a balanced omnivorous diet or slightly reduced risk

* Omnivorous

* Generally, a higher intake of bone-critical nutrients

* Standard baseline risk

Key takeaways:

* Vegans who do not carefully plan their diet are at higher risk of osteoporosis and fractures.

* With mindful planning and supplementation, a vegan diet can support good bone health.

* Ensuring sufficient calcium, vitamin D, B12, protein, and engaging in regular weight-bearing exercise are crucial for vegans to minimize their risk of osteoporosis.

Sponsors

1. My Patrons sponsored this show! Claim your monthly reward by becoming a patron for as little as $2/month at https://Patreon.com/FTapon

2. For the best travel credit card, get one of the Chase Sapphire cards and get 75-100k bonus miles!

3. Get $5 when you sign up for Roamless, my favorite global eSIM! Use code LR32K

4. Get 25% off when you sign up for Trusted Housesitters, a site that helps you find sitters or homes to sit in.

5. Start your podcast with my company, Podbean, and get one month free!

6. In the United States, I recommend trading cryptocurrency with Kraken.

7. Outside the USA, trade crypto with Binance and get 5% off your trading fees!

8. For backpacking gear, buy from Gossamer Gear.

True story:

I bumped into Reinhold Messner at the base of Mount Sabyinyo in Rwanda on December 31, 2016.

Because I had read several of his books, I instantly recognized him with his signature disheveled hair and gray beard.

Still, I politely asked, "Excuse me. Are you Reinhold Messner?"

He looked at me, grumbled an unclear non-answer, and turned away to join his small group.

I shuffled over to Rejoice Tapon and said, "I'm 95% sure that that man over there is Reinhold Messner, the greatest mountaineer ever!"

She'd never heard of him, but she said, "I'll get a selfie with him!"

Rejoice boldly asked him for a selfie.

Perhaps Messner was impressed with her beauty, or didn't want to appear racist by turning down what he figured was a local Rwandan (Rejoice is from Cameroon). Regardless, he agreed. And she triumphantly showed it off to me to rub it in.

I mention this story because I laughed when I read Messner's confession on Kindle Location 3057 of "Against the Wind." He wrote: "Approachability and sociability have never been my strong points."

This sums up what I hope is NOT his final book.

His book is full of criticisms of Messner.

Most criticisms originate from journalists, climbers, or partners.

However, sometimes he criticizes himself (like his poor social skills).

For Messner, all these criticisms are a constant "headwind" that he has faced throughout this remarkable long life (he's over 80).

This book is NOT what I expected.

I've read five of his books and loved them all, especially "Crystal Horizon," which is about his solo climb up Everest's north face in 1980 without oxygen.

I expected profound reflections and wisdom.

The book's subtitle even promises "reflections."

However, the reflections are shallow.

The subtitle should be, "Defending Myself Against an Army of Critics."

He spends about 25% of the book discussing the tragic loss of his brother, Gunther, on Nanga Parbat.

Throughout the book, he has long excerpts of articles that heavily criticize Messner, especially about how he "abandoned" his brother after summitting.

I admire Messner for sharing what his critics say and then offering his rebuttal.

He could have made a series of strawman arguments that he could easily tear down.

Instead, he gives his critics a strong platform, and they crucify him.

I never doubted his story, which I read in one of his previous books.

He said that after he and Gunther summited, they traversed the mountain by descending the Rupal Face instead of returning the way they ascended.

Reinhold was significantly ahead of Gunther, who died in an avalanche.

Messner spends MANY pages refuting idiotic claims that others have made.

For example, they claim Messner went down one way while he told his brother to go down a different way, alone.

They claim that he planned all along to traverse the mountain, which he denies.

What's sad is that you don't need to invent lies to make Messner look bad.

Just use his words against him.

I'll do so by just taking three points from his latest book.

1. Messner repeatedly said that Gunther was extremely weak at the summit and suffering from altitude issues.

2. His book says, "Reinhold reported that he was about one and a half hours in front of his brother and had lost sight of him."

3. However, later in the book, Messner writes, "During the descent, I was convinced that he was right behind me."

I'm a mountaineer who has been in many difficult situations and sometimes been with a weak or injured partner.

I would certainly get ahead of my weak partner to scout the terrain, to find the easiest path down.

However, I would ALWAYS remain within sight or earshot, ESPECIALLY if my partner is feeble.

If they're suffering from high altitude issues, they could collapse at any moment.

This is common sense & prudence.

How can Messner claim, "I was convinced that he was right behind me," and admit that he was "about one and a half hours in front of his brother and had lost sight of him."

That's a ridiculous contradiction.

It's normal that in the darkness, you might get ahead of your partner and lose visual and auditory contact for several minutes.

The moment you realize that you're disconnected, you should stop and wait for your partner to catch up.

If he doesn't appear after 15 minutes, it's time to backtrack.

To get 90 minutes ahead of your weakened partner is negligent.

That fact is all I need to know that Messner was wrong, negligent, and irresponsible.

He screwed up.

That's all he needs to say.

However, instead of addressing this obvious failure, Messner spends pages proving that his critics are wrong about many of their false claims.

Enough about their claims! Shut up, Messner!

Address the elephant in the room, which you readily admit!

And yet, he doesn't clearly and unambiguously say that he was a horrible brother and climbing partner during that descent.

The closest he comes to admitting his mistake is when he writes:

"Felix Kuen was also one and a half hours ahead of his climbing partner when he reached the summit. Sigi Löw lagged behind during the descent from the summit in 1962 and fell. The very nature of the glacier also caused us to be so far apart."

B******t. No glacier forces two climbers to be 90 minutes apart!

On the contrary!

Most glaciers force climbers to rope up together in case one falls into a crevasse.

Instead, "Messner explains that it’s standard practice among mountaineers for the partner who is feeling fitter to go first to find the best way down through crevasses."

Yes, but not 90 minutes ahead!!!

I hoped that 80-year-old Messner would not spend 25% of the book disproving the lies or stupid hypotheses of his critics.

Instead, he should have simply said, "I regret not staying close to Gunther throughout the descent. Yes, that might mean that we would both get caught in a deadly avalanche, but given his weakened state, I should never have gotten 90 minutes ahead of him. Ten minutes max. I screwed up."

Another bewildering part of the book:

"I have been ostracized, slandered, and harmed by people I have shared personal bonds with. The worst thing for me was when I was kicked out of my family home at the age of seventy-five, by my wife. I was given no warning or reason. Despite being often apart from my wife and children while on my many expeditions, I am a family man.We also traveled to places together and I was often at home for months at a time."

WTF? Really? "No warning or reason"? C'mon, Messner.

If you have no clue why your 2nd wife kicked you out, you're not only the Greatest Mountaineer of All Time (GOAT), but you're also the Most Oblivious Man of All Time.

OTHER TIDBITS

He writes, "I’ve had heart surgery twice."

I didn't know, but that suggests he's probably in his final decade.

He writes, "I failed three times on an eight-thousander."

I wish he reflected on those failures.

As Nietzsche puts it: “There are two types of tragedy in our lives. Not reaching our goals—and even worse, reaching our goals.”

CONCLUSION

This book is filled with flaws and is disappointing.

Messner wastes all his reflections on his critics.

How shallow.

You'd think a god like Messner would rise above such petty people and their words.

You'd think one of the most mentally tough people in history would not have such thin skin and a fragile ego that any stupid critic can make mighty Messner squirm and get defensive.

Who cares?!

You're MESSNER!

The GOAT!

Messner should make a poster in his house that quotes Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, who said, "No one ever erected a statue of a critic."

Messner will have statues and accolades forever.

His critics will be forgotten.

It's so sad to see that they get underneath his thin skin.

I was hoping he was tougher and could brush them off like he brushes off the lack of oxygen.

So why do I give it 4 stars instead of 1 star?

Because, like it or not, the book is a window into Messner's soul.

And I find that revealing and interesting, even if it's a bit disappointing.

Watch the PREVIOUS episode on YouTube!

Watch THIS episode on YouTube or click below!

TIMELINE

00:00 AI Computational Approach13:00 Decoding Voynich19:30 Hoax?21:00 Could women have written it?26:15 What to ask the manuscript’s producer27:00 How do we know we’ve cracked the code?30:00 Reconsidering Voynich

Egyptian hieroglyphics confounded Egyptologists for centuries until the discovery of the Rosetta Stone.

The Voynich Manuscript is another old text that has perplexed experts since its discovery about 600 years ago.

Dr. Robert H. Edwards specializes in investigating the biggest mysteries of the 20th century. I interviewed him on the 100th anniversary of George Mallory’s death. I interviewed him again after we found Mallory’s climbing partner’s foot. Spoiler: We still don’t know whether they reached Everest’s summit.

The other mystery Edwards investigated was D. B. Cooper, who stole $200,000 and disappeared after skydiving.

Now, Edwards turns his analytical brain to the world’s most mysterious manuscript: the Voynich Manuscript.

Voynich Reconsidered: The Most Mysterious Manuscript in the World is Dr. Edwards’s attempt at decoding this headache-producing document. If you think James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake is hard to decipher, try the Voynich Manuscript!

Excerpts from Voynich Reconsidered

The parchment for these four folios was most probably produced sometime in the first half of the fourteenth century.

Who wrote the Voynich Manuscript?

Nobody knows. Edwards debunks the idea that Roger Bacon authored it:

D’Imperio devoted considerable effort to the study of the supposed link between the manuscript and Roger Bacon. She could not have known that the Voynich parchment would eventually be submitted to radiocarbon technology and that the samples would be dated, with up to 92 percent probability, to periods ranging between 1308 and 1458. Therefore, she could not have known that Bacon, who lived in the thirteenth century, would be excluded as the author of the manuscript, or at least as its producer or as one of its scribes.

Is the Voynich Manuscript a hoax?

Before we embark on our own voyage of investigation of the Voynich manuscript, we must consider the alarming possibility that it is a journey to nowhere. That is to say: it may be that the manuscript cannot be translated or deciphered because it has no intrinsic meaning. For want of better words, we must consider that the manuscript could be a hoax or a forgery.

What’s the Voynich Manuscript about?

There is an “herbal” section, consisting of 129 pages and thereby comprising more than half of the book.

The astronomical, cosmological, and astrological sections are short. Edwards is “tempted to group them together into a ‘cosmic’ theme, occupying thirty-one pages.”

The Voynich manuscript invites, for those who are so disposed, the insertion of a preconceived narrative. In this respect, it bears comparison with the notorious proliferation of narratives relating to the man who came to be known as D.B. Cooper, and his hijacking of Northwest Airlines Flight 305 on November 24, 1971.

Do we know what the Voynich Manuscript’s message is?

For many years, the mission controllers at NASA resisted demands for another photographic targeting of the “Face. ” Finally, they relented. In 2001, the Mars Global Surveyor took the first new image of the object, at a much higher resolution than that of the Viking. It was revealed to be an eroded mesa with a pleasing symmetry, and certainly with gulleys and hollows that conveyed elements of a human face. Whether that is the end of the story, the reader may decide. This author is content for the mesa to be the product of erosion, by wind or by water, and not the work of ancient Martians, however much we would like it to be so. Likewise, determined researchers of the Voynich manuscript can find, within its cryptic and inscrutable pages, that which they wish to find

Conclusion

I loved Dr. Edwards’s other two books (Mallory & Cooper). Although I liked this one about the Voynich manuscript, it’s such an inscrutable and inaccessible document that I found it challenging to stay engaged.

Moreover, I don’t understand why some people believe that old documents are worth much more than their historical value. Religious texts are helpful because they reveal the values and ideas of the past, but are often utterly wrong, especially when it comes to scientific facts. Even when they’re not mistaken, they’re often incomplete. A modern botanist knows far more about plants than a 14th-century writer.

Some fans of the Voynich manuscript seem to believe that if we can somehow decode it, we’ll learn a mind-bending revelation. I doubt it.

Other fans, including Dr. Edwards, find the Voynich manuscript fascinating for the same reason people are drawn to Sudoku or a crossword puzzle: it’s fun to solve a mystery even if it yields little practical benefit.

If you’re drawn to puzzles and the Voynich manuscript, you must buy the Voynich Manuscript and then read Voynich Reconsidered: The Most Mysterious Manuscript in the World. You’re guaranteed to learn countless remarkable facts about the manuscript in Dr. Edwards’s splendid and thorough analysis.

For others, I’d first start by reading Dr. Edwards’s other two books, which are more accessible than this one.

Verdict: 7 out of 10 stars.

Connect

Send me an anonymous voicemail at SpeakPipe.com/FTapon

You can post comments, ask questions, and sign up for my newsletter at

https://wanderlearn.com

If you like this podcast, subscribe and share!

On social media, my username is always FTapon. Connect with me on:

* Facebook

* Twitter

* YouTube

* Instagram

* TikTok

* LinkedIn

* Pinterest

* Tumblr

Sponsors

1. My Patrons sponsored this show! Claim your monthly reward by becoming a patron for as little as $2/month at https://Patreon.com/FTapon

2. For the best travel credit card, get one of the Chase Sapphire cards and get 75-100k bonus miles!

3. Get $5 when you sign up for Roamless, my favorite global eSIM with its unlimited hotspot & data that never expires! Use code LR32K

4. Or get 5% off when you sign up with Saily, another global eSIM with a built-in VPN & ad blocker.

5. Get 25% off when you sign up for Trusted Housesitters, a site that helps you find sitters or homes to sit in.

6. Start your podcast with my company, Podbean, and get one month free!

7. In the United States, I recommend trading cryptocurrency with Kraken.

8. Outside the USA, trade crypto with Binance and get 5% off your trading fees!

9. For backpacking gear, buy from Gossamer Gear.

Egyptian hieroglyphics confounded Egyptologists for centuries until the discovery of the Rosetta Stone.

The Voynich Manuscript is another old text that has perplexed experts since its discovery about 600 years ago.

Watch this episode on YouTube to see nonstop images of the book itself!

Dr. Robert H. Edwards specializes in investigating the biggest mysteries of the 20th century. I interviewed him on the 100th anniversary of George Mallory's death. I interviewed him again after we found Mallory's climbing partner's foot. Spoiler: We still don't know whether they reached Everest's summit.

The other mystery Edwards investigated was D. B. Cooper, who stole $200,000 and disappeared after skydiving.

Now, Edwards turns his analytical brain to the world's most mysterious manuscript: the Voynich Manuscript.

Voynich Reconsidered: The Most Mysterious Manuscript in the World is Dr. Edwards's attempt at decoding this headache-producing document. If you think James Joyce's Finnegans Wake is hard to decipher, try the Voynich Manuscript!  

Here is my interview about the Voynich Manuscript with Dr. Edwards:

Video

Excerpts from Voynich Reconsidered

The parchment for these four folios was most probably produced sometime in the first half of the fourteenth century.

Who wrote the Voynich Manuscript? 

Nobody knows. Edwards debunks the idea that Roger Bacon authored it:

D’Imperio devoted considerable effort to the study of the supposed link between the manuscript and Roger Bacon. She could not have known that the Voynich parchment would eventually be submitted to radiocarbon technology and that the samples would be dated, with up to 92 percent probability, to periods ranging between 1308 and 1458. Therefore, she could not have known that Bacon, who lived in the thirteenth century, would be excluded as the author of the manuscript, or at least as its producer or as one of its scribes.

Is the Voynich Manuscript a hoax?

Before we embark on our own voyage of investigation of the Voynich manuscript, we must consider the alarming possibility that it is a journey to nowhere. That is to say: it may be that the manuscript cannot be translated or deciphered because it has no intrinsic meaning. For want of better words, we must consider that the manuscript could be a hoax or a forgery.

What's the Voynich Manuscript about?

There is an “herbal” section, consisting of 129 pages and thereby comprising more than half of the book.

The astronomical, cosmological, and astrological sections are short. Edwards is "tempted to group them together into a 'cosmic' theme, occupying thirty-one pages."

The Voynich manuscript invites, for those who are so disposed, the insertion of a preconceived narrative. In this respect, it bears comparison with the notorious proliferation of narratives relating to the man who came to be known as D.B. Cooper, and his hijacking of Northwest Airlines Flight 305 on November 24, 1971.

Do we know what the Voynich Manuscript's message is?

For many years, the mission controllers at NASA resisted demands for another photographic targeting of the “Face. ” Finally, they relented. In 2001, the Mars Global Surveyor took the first new image of the object, at a much higher resolution than that of the Viking. It was revealed to be an eroded mesa with a pleasing symmetry, and certainly with gulleys and hollows that conveyed elements of a human face. Whether that is the end of the story, the reader may decide. This author is content for the mesa to be the product of erosion, by wind or by water, and not the work of ancient Martians, however much we would like it to be so. Likewise, determined researchers of the Voynich manuscript can find, within its cryptic and inscrutable pages, that which they wish to find

Conclusion

I loved Dr. Edwards's other two books (Mallory & Cooper). Although I liked this one about the Voynich manuscript, it's such an inscrutable and inaccessible document that I found it challenging to stay engaged.

Moreover, I don't understand why some people believe that old documents are worth much more than their historical value. Religious texts are helpful because they reveal the values and ideas of the past, but are often utterly wrong, especially when it comes to scientific facts. Even when they're not mistaken, they're often incomplete. A modern botanist knows far more about plants than a 14th-century writer. 

Some fans of the Voynich manuscript seem to believe that if we can somehow decode it, we'll learn a mind-bending revelation. I doubt it.

Other fans, including Dr. Edwards, find the Voynich manuscript fascinating for the same reason people are drawn to Sudoku or a crossword puzzle: it's fun to solve a mystery even if it yields little practical benefit.

If you're drawn to puzzles and the Voynich manuscript, you must buy the Voynich Manuscript and then read Voynich Reconsidered: The Most Mysterious Manuscript in the World. You're guaranteed to learn countless remarkable facts about the manuscript in Dr. Edwards's splendid and thorough analysis.

For others, I'd first start by reading Dr. Edwards's other two books, which are more accessible than this one.

Verdict: 7 out of 10 stars.

Connect

Send me an anonymous voicemail at SpeakPipe.com/FTapon

You can post comments, ask questions, and sign up for my newsletter at https://wanderlearn.com.

If you like this podcast, subscribe and share! 

On social media, my username is always FTapon. Connect with me on:

Facebook

Twitter

YouTube

Instagram

TikTok

LinkedIn

Pinterest

Tumblr

Sponsors

1. My Patrons sponsored this show! Claim your monthly reward by becoming a patron for as little as $2/month at https://Patreon.com/FTapon

2. For the best travel credit card, get one of the Chase Sapphire cards and get 75-100k bonus miles!

3. Get $5 when you sign up for Roamless, my favorite global eSIM! Use code LR32K

4. Get 25% off when you sign up for Trusted Housesitters, a site that helps you find sitters or homes to sit in.

5. Start your podcast with my company, Podbean, and get one month free!

6. In the United States, I recommend trading cryptocurrency with Kraken. 

7. Outside the USA, trade crypto with Binance and get 5% off your trading fees!

8. For backpacking gear, buy from Gossamer Gear.

Egyptian hieroglyphics confounded Egyptologists for centuries until the discovery of the Rosetta Stone.

The Voynich Manuscript is another old text that has perplexed experts since its discovery about 600 years ago.

Dr. Robert H. Edwards specializes in investigating the biggest mysteries of the 20th century. I interviewed him on the 100th anniversary of George Mallory's death. I interviewed him again after we found Mallory's climbing partner's foot. Spoiler: We still don't know whether they reached Everest's summit.

The other mystery Edwards investigated was D. B. Cooper, who stole $200,000 and disappeared after skydiving.

Now, Edwards turns his analytical brain to the world's most mysterious manuscript: the Voynich Manuscript.

Voynich Reconsidered: The Most Mysterious Manuscript in the World is Dr. Edwards's attempt at decoding this headache-producing document. If you think James Joyce's Finnegans Wake is hard to decipher, try the Voynich Manuscript!  

Here is my interview about the Voynich Manuscript with Dr. Edwards:

Nobody knows. Edwards debunks the idea that Roger Bacon authored it:

D’Imperio devoted considerable effort to the study of the supposed link between the manuscript and Roger Bacon. She could not have known that the Voynich parchment would eventually be submitted to radiocarbon technology and that the samples would be dated, with up to 92 percent probability, to periods ranging between 1308 and 1458. Therefore, she could not have known that Bacon, who lived in the thirteenth century, would be excluded as the author of the manuscript, or at least as its producer or as one of its scribes.

Before we embark on our own voyage of investigation of the Voynich manuscript, we must consider the alarming possibility that it is a journey to nowhere. That is to say: it may be that the manuscript cannot be translated or deciphered because it has no intrinsic meaning. For want of better words, we must consider that the manuscript could be a hoax or a forgery.

There is an “herbal” section, consisting of 129 pages and thereby comprising more than half of the book.

The astronomical, cosmological, and astrological sections are short. Edwards is "tempted to group them together into a 'cosmic' theme, occupying thirty-one pages."

The Voynich manuscript invites, for those who are so disposed, the insertion of a preconceived narrative. In this respect, it bears comparison with the notorious proliferation of narratives relating to the man who came to be known as D.B. Cooper, and his hijacking of Northwest Airlines Flight 305 on November 24, 1971.

For many years, the mission controllers at NASA resisted demands for another photographic targeting of the “Face. ” Finally, they relented. In 2001, the Mars Global Surveyor took the first new image of the object, at a much higher resolution than that of the Viking. It was revealed to be an eroded mesa with a pleasing symmetry, and certainly with gulleys and hollows that conveyed elements of a human face. Whether that is the end of the story, the reader may decide. This author is content for the mesa to be the product of erosion, by wind or by water, and not the work of ancient Martians, however much we would like it to be so. Likewise, determined researchers of the Voynich manuscript can find, within its cryptic and inscrutable pages, that which they wish to find

I loved Dr. Edwards's other two books (Mallory & Cooper). Although I liked this one about the Voynich manuscript, it's such an inscrutable and inaccessible document that I found it challenging to stay engaged.

Moreover, I don't understand why some people believe that old documents are worth much more than their historical value. Religious texts are helpful because they reveal the values and ideas of the past, but are often utterly wrong, especially when it comes to scientific facts. Even when they're not mistaken, they're often incomplete. A modern botanist knows far more about plants than a 14th-century writer. 

Some fans of the Voynich manuscript seem to believe that if we can somehow decode it, we'll learn a mind-bending revelation. I doubt it.

Other fans, including Dr. Edwards, find the Voynich manuscript fascinating for the same reason people are drawn to Sudoku or a crossword puzzle: it's fun to solve a mystery even if it yields little practical benefit.

If you're drawn to puzzles and the Voynich manuscript, you must buy the Voynich Manuscript and then read Voynich Reconsidered: The Most Mysterious Manuscript in the World. You're guaranteed to learn countless remarkable facts about the manuscript in Dr. Edwards's splendid and thorough analysis.

For others, I'd first start by reading Dr. Edwards's other two books, which are more accessible than this one.

Verdict: 7 out of 10 stars.

Send me an anonymous voicemail at SpeakPipe.com/FTapon

You can post comments, ask questions, and sign up for my newsletter at https://wanderlearn.com.

If you like this podcast, subscribe and share! 

On social media, my username is always FTapon. Connect with me on:

1. My Patrons sponsored this show! Claim your monthly reward by becoming a patron for as little as $2/month at https://Patreon.com/FTapon

2. For the best travel credit card, get one of the Chase Sapphire cards and get 75-100k bonus miles!

3. Get $5 when you sign up for Roamless, my favorite global eSIM! Use code LR32K

4. Get 25% off when you sign up for Trusted Housesitters, a site that helps you find sitters or homes to sit in.

5. Start your podcast with my company, Podbean, and get one month free!

6. In the United States, I recommend trading cryptocurrency with Kraken. 

7. Outside the USA, trade crypto with Binance and get 5% off your trading fees!

8. For backpacking gear, buy from Gossamer Gear.

Hrish Lotlikar of the Superworld app interviewed me in 2025.

You might enjoy it. Here's what the Superworld Channel wrote: 

What if you could leave behind the corporate grind and explore the world—without a trust fund? That’s precisely what Francis Tapon did. After earning an MBA from Harvard and working in Silicon Valley, he walked away from it all to spend five years traveling through every country in Africa and 3.5 years exploring Eastern Europe.

In this episode of Building a Better World with Hrish Lotlikar, Francis shares:

✅ The biggest misconceptions about "dangerous" countries and why most are safer than you think
✅ How he picked up 3,000 hitchhikers across Africa and what it taught him about humanity
✅ Why leaving behind a traditional career was the best decision of his life
✅ His top strategies for traveling on a budget—without sacrificing incredible experiences
✅ What his upcoming book, The Unseen Africa, reveals about the world’s most misunderstood continent

🌍 Want to see the world differently? Don’t miss this conversation!

Send me an anonymous voicemail at SpeakPipe.com/FTapon

You can post comments, ask questions, and sign up for my newsletter at https://wanderlearn.com.

If you like this podcast, subscribe and share! 

On social media, my username is always FTapon. Connect with me on:

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1. My Patrons sponsored this show! Claim your monthly reward by becoming a patron for as little as $2/month at https://Patreon.com/FTapon

2. For the best travel credit card, get one of the Chase Sapphire cards and get 75-100k bonus miles!

3. Get $5 when you sign up for Roamless, my favorite global eSIM with its unlimited hotspot & data that never expires! Use code LR32K

4. Or get 5% off when you sign up with Saily, another global eSIM with a built-in VPN & ad blocker.

5. Get 25% off when you sign up for Trusted Housesitters, a site that helps you find sitters or homes to sit in.

6. Start your podcast with my company, Podbean, and get one month free!

7. In the United States, I recommend trading cryptocurrency with Kraken. 

8. Outside the USA, trade crypto with Binance and get 5% off your trading fees!

9. For backpacking gear, buy from Gossamer Gear.

It's part 2 of 2 of my conversation with Dr. Johnny Hanson! His 2025 book, Living with Lynx: Sharing Landscapes with Big Cats, Wolves and Bears, is a nuanced analysis of the complex topic of rewilding. 

00:00 Myths

04:00 What surprised Hanson?

06:00 The hardest to co-exist with

12:00 Paradox of Tourism

18:00 Recommendations

In this two-part interview (this is part 2), we discuss the pros and cons of reintroducing apex predators in areas where they have gone extinct. 

Visit my website for part 1.

Can we co-exist with this megafauna? 

If we live with lynx, what will happen?

What do you think we should do?

Send me an anonymous voicemail at SpeakPipe.com/FTapon

You can post comments, ask questions, and sign up for my newsletter at https://wanderlearn.com.

If you like this podcast, subscribe and share! 

On social media, my username is always FTapon. Connect with me on:

• Facebook


• Twitter


• YouTube


• Instagram


• TikTok


• LinkedIn


• Pinterest


• Tumblr

1. My Patrons sponsored this show! Claim your monthly reward by becoming a patron for as little as $2/month at https://Patreon.com/FTapon

2. For the best travel credit card, get one of the Chase Sapphire cards and get 75-100k bonus miles!

3. Get $5 when you sign up for Roamless, my favorite global eSIM with its unlimited hotspot & data that never expires! Use code LR32K

4. Or get 5% off when you sign up with Saily, another global eSIM with a built-in VPN & ad blocker.

5. Get 25% off when you sign up for Trusted Housesitters, a site that helps you find sitters or homes to sit in.

6. Start your podcast with my company, Podbean, and get one month free!

7. In the United States, I recommend trading cryptocurrency with Kraken. 

8. Outside the USA, trade crypto with Binance and get 5% off your trading fees!

9. For backpacking gear, buy from Gossamer Gear.

Dr. Johnny Hanson's new book, Living with Lynx: Sharing Landscapes with Big Cats, Wolves and Bears, is a nuanced analysis of the complex topic of rewilding. 

In this two-part interview, we discuss the pros and cons of reintroducing apex predators in areas where they have gone extinct. 

What do you think we should do?

00:00 What's the book about?

04:50 Limousine Liberals

Send me an anonymous voicemail at SpeakPipe.com/FTapon

You can post comments, ask questions, and sign up for my newsletter at https://wanderlearn.com.

If you like this podcast, subscribe and share! 

On social media, my username is always FTapon. Connect with me on:

• Facebook


• Twitter


• YouTube


• Instagram


• TikTok


• LinkedIn


• Pinterest


• Tumblr

1. My Patrons sponsored this show! Claim your monthly reward by becoming a patron for as little as $2/month at https://Patreon.com/FTapon

2. For the best travel credit card, get one of the Chase Sapphire cards and get 75-100k bonus miles!

3. Get $5 when you sign up for Roamless, my favorite global eSIM with its unlimited hotspot & data that never expires! Use code LR32K

4. Or get 5% off when you sign up with Saily, another global eSIM with a built-in VPN & ad blocker.

5. Get 25% off when you sign up for Trusted Housesitters, a site that helps you find sitters or homes to sit in.

6. Start your podcast with my company, Podbean, and get one month free!

7. In the United States, I recommend trading cryptocurrency with Kraken. 

8. Outside the USA, trade crypto with Binance and get 5% off your trading fees!

9. For backpacking gear, buy from Gossamer Gear.

Benjamin Wallace's new book is The Mysterious Mr. Nakamoto: A Fifteen-Year Quest to Unmask the Secret Genius Behind Crypto.  

It's the greatest whodunit. Whoever created Bitcoin became the world's richest person, yet we don't know who he is. In fact, we don't even know if it's one person.

There have been other cases where identities have been hidden for a while:

• 
  

  Mysterious Whistleblowers (Deep Throat)

  
  


• 
  

  Mysterious Authors (Ferrante, Klein, Publius)

  
  


• 
  

  Mysterious Artists (Banksy)

  
  


• 
  

  Mysterious Spies / Hackers (Cambridge Five, QAnon figureheads, Cicada 3301)

  
  

However, nothing tops the enigma of Satoshi Nakamoto. Watch my interview with Benjamin Wallace on the WanderLearn Show:

1. In 60 seconds, tell us why we should be curious about who Satoshi Nakamoto was.


2. What's the percentage chance that Satoshi Nakamoto is more than one person?


3. What's the percentage chance that Satoshi Nakamoto is dead?


4. Assuming he's alive, what's the percentage chance that Satoshi Nakamoto will voluntarily reveal himself in his old age or via a dead man's switch video?


5. Who are your top 4 candidates for Satoshi Nakamoto?


6. If those 4 candidates are in a pie chart, how big is the 5th piece of the pie: the Someone Else slice? 


7. Although Nakamoto's OPSEC was impeccable, is it realistic to believe that he faked his Britishisms, his double-spacing after periods, and potentially running his prose & code through a stylometry mixer because he was certain that Bitcoin would become a multi-trillion-dollar asset?


8. What new insights have you had since you wrote the book?


9. What's the percentage chance that we will definitively solve this mystery like we solved the Deep Throat mystery? Or will the ending be more like Forrest Fenn (e.g., a partial conclusion because we know the treasure was found and by whom, but we don't know where)? 


10. What surprised you in your investigation?


11. It seems you want Nakamoto to be Hal Finney, but it's hard to believe he didn't tap into the fortune when his life was on the line. And why not admit to being Nakamoto when he was on his deathbed? Perhaps to protect his family from assaults? Perhaps because he collaborated with someone else and doesn't want to unmask him. But then he could admit that he was part of the Satoshi team and leave it at that.

In his book, Wallace writes that any plausible Nakamoto candidate should have the following characteristics:

• Software tools


• Coding quirks


• Age


• Geography


• Schedule


• Use of English


• Nationality


• Prose style


• Politics


• Life circumstances (How had Nakamoto found the time to launch Bitcoin? Why had he left the project when he did?"


• Resume ("I'm not a lawyer.")


• Emotional range (humble, confident, testy, appreciative)


• Motivation to create Bitcoin


• Rationale, and the foresight and skill, to create a bulletproof pseudonym (Who would bother wiping a crime scene clean before it was a crime scene? Who was already that good at privacy in 2008?)


• Monkish capacity to renounce a fortune

Although this list severely restricts who Satoshi Nakamoto could be, it still leaves countless possibilities.

Wallace, who has been trying to crack this mystery for 15 years, has yet to meet a candidate who checks all the boxes.

Wallace refrains from declaring that he has solved the mystery, even though countless "detectives" have already done so.

He interviews people who tell him, with 100% certainty, that Satoshi Nakamoto is:

• Nick Szabo


• James A. Donald


• Adam Back


• Hal Finney


• Peter Todd (according to HBO)


• Elon Musk


• Numerous other options

It's tempting to select what you think is the most viable candidate, throw in a heavy dose of confirmation bias, and declare, "Mystery solved, Sherlock!"

Plenty have done so.

It requires great restraint to resist the temptation of calling it a day, and instead, persevere pugnaciously like Wallace has in what is the greatest whodunit of the 21st century. 

Many suspects seem highly implausible. Elon Musk, for example, is a bombastic self-promoter who would love to proclaim he was the genius behind Bitcoin. It's unimaginable why he would keep his mouth shut.

Hal Finney was a sincere, honest, and good guy. As he said many times when he was dying of ALS, he had no reason NOT to reveal that he was Satoshi Nakamoto. Therefore, it's not him, even though it would provide a neat explanation as to why the old Satoshi Nakamoto bitcoins haven't moved. 

Adam Back is plausible, although ex-cypherpunk Jon Callas says, "The primary argument against Adam Back is he couldn't keep his mouth shut."

Still, an engrossing 3-part documentary argues that Nakamoto is Adam Back. Here's the final episode:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfcvX0P1b5g 

For several years, I believed Nick Szabo was Satoshi Nakamoto. It was an unoriginal deduction since Szabo is a popular choice among amateur Nakamoto detectives. Indeed, Szabo was one of Wallace's prime candidates for a long time.

However, in his book, Wallace explains why Szabo has too many strikes against him:

• Szabo is a scatterbrain when it comes to projects. He doesn't focus on one thing for years. He juggles 150 balls. Nakamoto was laser-focused for 18 months.


• He told Jeremy Clark that Szabo "seemed to think that his bit gold was better" than Bitcoin.


• Clark also said Szabo is an "incoherent" presenter, whereas Nakamoto was "lucid." 


• Although Szabo is intensely private, he's not a complete recluse. He likes sharing ideas and getting public recognition. 


• Minor point: Satoshi Nakamoto wrote, "I'm not a lawyer," but Szabo is one.

Although these points suggest Szabo is unlikely to be Satoshi, Szabo remains a strong Nakamoto candidate, given the absence of a perfect candidate.

Besides, Clark's points are easily refuted. Just because Szabo implied Bitgold was better than Bitcoin means little. Szabo could say that to shake off people who think he's Satoshi. Or he could genuinely believe that aspects of Bitgold were superior to Bitcoin. Clark said Szabo "seemed to think..." He didn't say, "Szabo emphatically said..."

Also, I listened to Szabo speak for 2.5 hours on the Tim Ferriss Show, and he sounded plenty lucid to me. 

Szabo is a decent speaker.

Naturally, Szabo always denies he's Satoshi.

As Wallace says, denying you're not the guy proves nothing. Mark Felt was an obvious suspect for being the Deep Throat in the Watergate scandal. He denied for decades. And guess what? He was Deep Throat! Sometimes the most obvious suspect is the criminal (think O.J. Simpson).

After reading The Mysterious Mr. Nakamoto, I added another suspect to my short list: James A. Donald.

Satoshi Nakamoto used the rare term "hosed" a few times. Donald did so twice. 

Furthermore, Donald was the first person to respond to Satoshi Nakamoto's original Bitcoin post, albeit in a critical way. He has various other attributes that Satoshi Nakamoto shares (read the book to see them all). 

However, Donald is rough around the edges, whereas Satoshi Nakamoto was silky smooth, polite, and unoffensive. Again, James A. Donald is no slam dunk candidate. Nobody is.

Hence, the mystery endures. 

The only negative aspect about this book is that it may provide too much detail for the casual reader with limited interest in this mystery. If you're just looking for the answer, I'll tell you now: we do not know who Satoshi Nakamoto is. 

For Satoshi sleuths, there is no better resource than The Mysterious Mr. Nakamoto: A Fifteen-Year Quest to Unmask the Secret Genius Behind Crypto. It delves deeper and wider than any video, article, or book about the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto. Believe me, I've gone down that rabbit hole.

Many argue we don't need to know who Satoshi Nakamoto is because:

• Knowing his identity could taint the "immaculate conception" of Bitcoin because we might learn that Satoshi Nakamoto was an a*****e.


• We should respect Satoshi Nakamoto's right to privacy. He obviously wanted to be pseudonymous, so let him be.


• If Satoshi Nakamoto is alive, it would imbue him with too much power, especially over the Bitcoin protocol. 

I strongly disagree with this lack of curiosity. Why?

There's a chance that in the 25th century, historians will consider Bitcoin one of the top 10 inventions of all time. I'm not saying that Bitcoin will be around in the 25th century, but something like it will exist and be the global currency, and historians will link its existence to Bitcoin.

In 2001, Arthur C. Clarke predicted that by 2016, "All existing currencies are abolished. A universal currency is adopted based on the 'megawatt hour.'"

Eight years before Clarke's prediction, Bitcoin was created.

Although Clarke was wrong about other currencies being abolished,  Bitcoin's value is loosely correlated with its energy consumption. I explain why Bitcoin is worth anything.

Imagine if we didn't know who these inventors were:

1. 
   

   The Printing Press - Johannes Gutenberg (c. 1440): This invention revolutionized communication, allowing for the mass production of books and the widespread dissemination of knowledge, leading to the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution.

   
   


2. 
   

   The Electric Light Bulb - Thomas Edison (1879): While others experimented with electric lighting, Edison created a practical, long-lasting, and commercially viable incandescent light bulb, which transformed society by extending the day and enabling new industries.

   
   


3. 
   

   The Telephone - Alexander Graham Bell (1876): The telephone revolutionized long-distance communication, enabling people to speak to each other across vast distances in real time.

   
   


4. 
   

   The Steam Engine - James Watt (1778): Watt's improvements to earlier steam engines significantly increased their efficiency, powering the Industrial Revolution and leading to the mechanization of factories, transportation, and other industries.

   
   


5. 
   

   The Automobile - Karl Benz (1885): Benz is credited with creating the first practical automobile powered by an internal combustion engine, ushering in the age of personal transportation and reshaping urban and rural life.

   
   


6. 
   

   Alternating Current (AC) Electrical System - Nikola Tesla (late 1880s): While Edison championed direct current (DC), Tesla's work on AC made it possible to transmit electricity over long distances, laying the groundwork for modern electrical grids.

   
   


7. 
   

   The Airplane - Orville and Wilbur Wright (1903): The Wright brothers achieved the first successful controlled, powered flight of a heavier-than-air aircraft, fundamentally changing travel, commerce, and warfare.

   
   


8. 
   

   Penicillin - Alexander Fleming (1928): Fleming's discovery of the first antibiotic revolutionized medicine by providing a cure for many bacterial infections, saving millions of lives.

   
   


9. 
   

   The Internet / World Wide Web - Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn (Internet, 1970s) & Tim Berners-Lee (World Wide Web, 1989): These inventions created a global network of information and communication, transforming almost every aspect of modern society, from business and education to personal life.

   
   


10. 
    

    The Computer - Charles Babbage (early 19th century): Babbage's designs for the "Analytical Engine" laid the theoretical groundwork for modern computers. Later, inventors like John Atanasoff, Alan Turing, and others developed the first electronic and programmable computers.

    
    

Imagine if we had no clue who invented penicillin or the telephone. Wouldn't historians do their best to figure that out, especially since they were recent and impactful inventions? Would you just shrug your shoulders and say, "Who cares? My telephone works."

Sure, many wouldn't give a s**t. However, for other, more curious minds, we'd like to know. 

Here are four major inventions whose creator is a mystery:

• 
  

  The Wheel: The invention of the wheel is one of the most important technological advancements in human history, enabling transportation and mechanization. Archaeological evidence suggests it originated in Mesopotamia around 3500 BC, but there is no record of who first conceived of it. The challenge wasn't just creating the wheel itself, but also the wheel-and-axle system, which required precise engineering.

  
  


• 
  

  Writing: The development of writing systems enabled the permanent storage and transmission of information, transforming human society. The earliest known writing system, cuneiform, emerged in Sumer (ancient Mesopotamia) around 3400 BC. However, like the wheel, it was likely the result of a gradual process of development by many different people, not the work of a single inventor.

  
  


• Fire making: Some person probably rubbed two sticks together, and the rest is history. Since we can't know who that individual was, it would still be fascinating to know where it started and if it was developed in more than one place independently, like Calculus. 


• 
  

  Bitcoin: Yeah, it's a major invention. It's been the best-performing asset since 2010, it's worth more than any company, and Satoshi Nakamoto is the wealthiest person ever. It has sparked a multi-trillion-dollar industry in just 15 years. So, yes, it's important, and yet we don't know who created it.

  
  

Admittedly, I'm a Bitcoin fan who has produced many videos and articles about the first cryptocurrency, so I'm biased.

Still, if you love a perplexing mystery, you will love trying to solve this one. The good news is that we haven't solved it yet. 

There's a good chance that Satoshi Nakamoto is around my age. If so, he also has a 30-year life expectancy. 

I hope that in 2050, a video appears on the Internet that shows an old man who says, "I am Satoshi Nakamoto. To prove it, I will do what no Satoshi pretender has been able to do: move the 'Satoshi' coins that have been dormant since I mined them in 2009."

He records himself and his computer screen, and with a few clicks and keyboard taps, the transactions get broadcast onto the Bitcoin blockchain for all to see.   

Next, he says, "I am donating my one million bitcoins to the Bitcoin Core for ongoing maintenance and to the following charities." Or perhaps he'll use the one million Bitcoins to create a Bitcoin node on the Moon. Or perhaps he will "burn" his Bitcoin, reducing the total BTC supply to 20 million coins, not 21 million.

Regardless, I hope Nakamoto will finally unmask himself, just like Mark Felt (aka Deep Throat) did when he was 91 (he died at 95). 

Yeah, this fantasy is unlikely, but we can dream, can't we?

Send me an anonymous voicemail at SpeakPipe.com/FTapon

You can post comments, ask questions, and sign up for my newsletter at https://wanderlearn.com.

If you like this podcast, subscribe and share! 

On social media, my username is always FTapon. Connect with me on:

• Facebook


• Twitter


• YouTube


• Instagram


• TikTok


• LinkedIn


• Pinterest


• Tumblr

1. My Patrons sponsored this show! Claim your monthly reward by becoming a patron for as little as $2/month at https://Patreon.com/FTapon

2. For the best travel credit card, get one of the Chase Sapphire cards and get 75-100k bonus miles!

3. Get $5 when you sign up for Roamless, my favorite global eSIM with its unlimited hotspot & data that never expires! Use code LR32K

4. Or get 5% off when you sign up with Saily, another global eSIM with a built-in VPN & ad blocker.

5. Get 25% off when you sign up for Trusted Housesitters, a site that helps you find sitters or homes to sit in.

6. Start your podcast with my company, Podbean, and get one month free!

7. In the United States, I recommend trading cryptocurrency with Kraken. 

8. Outside the USA, trade crypto with Binance and get 5% off your trading fees!

9. For backpacking gear, buy from Gossamer Gear.