substack
by Isaac Samuel
Isaac Samuel reconstructs precolonial Africa from its own sources and current scholarship — Yoruba city-states, the Nsibidi script, chariots in the ancient Sahara, African surgeons and physicians — and takes on the big-picture books that skip it, including a pointed critique of Why Nations Fail on the Kingdom of Kongo and another of Guns, Germs and Steel. Weekly, long and heavily cited: the corrective most general histories need.
July 13, 2026
Scott Alexander's team publishes its plan for AI going well, Joel Mokyr defends his Nobel thesis, and Ted Gioia argues the Odyssey belongs in the music department.
April 13, 2026
Experimental History on overlooked paths to impact, Dario Amodei's five-hour conversation with Lex Fridman, and Ethan Mollick on what just happened in AI.
March 30, 2026
Veritasium tells the story of antimatter's discovery, PBS Space Time asks if we can test quantum gravity, and Experimental History on why being serious matters.
