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Take a profound and distant journey. Call it Deep Travel, Immersive Travel, Slow Travel, or Vagabonding. Francis Tapon guides you to the intersection of travel, technology, and transformation. The podcast will compel you to go beyond your comfort zone. Occasionally, you‘ll also delve into the misunderstood world of cryptocurrencies.
Episodes
4 days ago
4 days ago
Watch the Video
This podcast is an edited version of the video, where I have removed the unboxing section, as it's challenging to follow in an audio-only format.
After reviewing the Keystone 3 Pro, I wanted to inspect the Keystone Tablet Plus, a steel slab similar to the Coinkite Seed Plate and the Scaletron Crypto Seed Capsule, both of which I've reviewed.
Watch the video below for my review, but also read the text below, as it includes one additional PRO and one additional CON that I did not mention in the video.
Timeline
00:00 Why buy a metal tablet?
02:20 Unboxing
05:00 Using it
06:30 What is special about the Plus?
07:45 Pros
09:45 Cons
12:00 Verdict
3 Pros of the Keystone Tablet Plus
1. Reusability! Unlike the Coinkite Seed Plate or the Scaletron Crypto Seed Capsule, the Keystone Tablet Plus is reusable. If you change seed phrases, you rearrange the letters accordingly.
2. Extra security! Two security features make the Keystone Tablet Plus stand out. First, the package includes tamper-evident tape. Second, it has a hole that allows you to put a padlock. Admittedly, neither of these features prevents a thief from outright stealing the metal plate and cutting the lock off. However, they can alert you if someone is trying to snoop on your seed phrase slyly and quietly drain your wallet.
3. Ease of use. I forgot to mention this in the video. Unlike the Coinkite Seed Plate or the Scaletron Crypto Seed Capsule, the Keystone Tablet Plus doesn't require you to awkwardly and permanently bang out your seed phrase. It
3 Cons of the Keystone Tablet Plus
1. No passphrase option. I forgot to mention this in the video review, but I thought about it after reviewing the Scaletron Crypto Seed Capsule.
2. 304 stainless steel might not survive a super-hot fire. It should survive a standard house fire, but if it's unlucky enough to go through hell, it may not make it. An affordable solution to this is to place it in a fireproof envelope to double your protection.
3. Won't survive a crushing. True, but this is highly unlikely.
Keystone 3 Pro
In case you missed it, check out my review of the Keystone 3 Pro, an outstanding cryptocurrency hardware wallet that can also serve as a Bitcoin-only hardware wallet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5Mdqq5GrXo
Visit the Keystone website to learn more about the company and its cryptocurrency products.
🌱 What Is BIP39?
Seed phrases usually use the BIP39 word list.
BIP39 seed phrases are a cornerstone of modern cryptocurrency wallets, and understanding why they exist—and how they function—reveals a great deal about the balance between security and usability in cryptographic systems.
BIP39 stands for Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 39, which defines a method for generating and using mnemonic phrases (typically 12–24 words) to back up and restore wallets. These phrases are derived from a specific list of 2048 words.
🔐 Why Use BIP39 Words Instead of Random Passwords?
✅ Human Usability
- Random strings such as
x8F$3kL@9z!are hard to remember, write down, or type correctly. - BIP39 uses real words that are easier to recognize, pronounce, and transcribe.
✅ Error Resistance
- The word list is carefully curated:
- No words sound too similar (e.g., “lead” vs “led”).
- Each word is unique in the first 4 letters, minimizing confusion.
- This reduces the chance of mistakes when writing or entering the phrase.
✅ Cross-Compatibility
- BIP39 is a standard, meaning wallets from different providers can interpret the same seed phrase.
- This makes it easier to switch wallets or recover funds if one provider goes offline.
🧭 Why Not Just Use Random Passwords?
While random passwords can be secure, they:
- Lack of standardization for wallet recovery.
- Are error-prone and hard to manage.
- Don’t offer checksum validation.
- Aren’t interoperable across wallets.
BIP39 strikes a balance between security, usability, and portability—which is crucial when dealing with irreversible financial transactions.
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:
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.
7 days ago
7 days ago
Watch Video on YouTube
Five years ago, I predicted Plan B's Bitcoin stock-to-flow model (S2F) would fail in this decade because it had 8 flaws.
During Bitcoin's spectacular 2022 crash, many analysts declared the S2F models dead.
I surprised everyone when I (one of Plan B's most prominent critics) said, "It's not dead yet."
The reason Plan B's stock-to-flow Bitcoin models are not dead is not because they're correct, but because they have a wide range of acceptable values that will allow them to survive until the next halving.
In 2025, the S2F average price has risen to a staggering $500,000, while Bitcoin (BTC) hovers around $120,000 as of August 11, 2025, when I released this video.
Therefore, even though BTC has increased by over $100,000 from its $15,000 price in November 2022, and should be a cause for massive celebration for BTC fans, Plan B is lamenting the relatively low price appreciation of this "strange, flat bull market."
In my annual S2F update, I'll examine how the S2F model is doing and explain why it will begin its slow and painful death at the end of this year.
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:
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.
Friday Aug 01, 2025
Friday Aug 01, 2025
I encourage you to watch this 3-minute podcast on YouTube.
YouTube is now dubbing my English videos into 10 other languages:
- Dutch
- French
- German
- Hindi
- Indonesian
- Italian
- Japanese
- Korean
- Polish
- Portuguese
- Spanish
In my "After the Spike" video, YouTube only offers 8 languages.
I don't know why.
I'm fluent in French and Spanish, so I can confirm that the translation is surprisingly accurate! I suppose it's the case for other languages that I don't speak.
Try it out!
- Go to any of my videos.
- Click on the Settings Wheel in the lower-right corner.
- Change the audio track to whatever language you understand!
What do you think of the translation accuracy?
Why me?
YouTube added this slick feature to my YouTube channel because I participate in their Partner Program and my channel is educational.
I suspect they will roll out the feature to more video creators in 2026.
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:
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.
Monday Jul 28, 2025
Monday Jul 28, 2025
See 20 other misused terms or expressions
Rather than a left/right political spectrum, I prefer the 5 categories in the pictured grid. Take the test to discover where you stand.
The terms "left" and "right" on the political spectrum can be confusing, partly because their meanings have evolved significantly over time and differ across countries and historical contexts.
The same applies to the term "liberal."
Initially, "left/right" originated from the seating arrangements during the French Revolution, where those who sat on the left supported revolutionary change. At the same time, those on the right favored the monarchy and the status quo.
Today, “left” generally refers to progressive, reformist, or socialist policies, and “right” to conservative or traditionalist views. However, the specific policies and ideologies associated with each can vary dramatically between countries and eras.
-
In the United States, “left” is often associated with Democrats or progressives, supporting ideas like social welfare, civil rights expansion, and government intervention in the economy.
-
In parts of Europe, some parties that call themselves "liberal" actually promote free-market policies (which, in the U.S., are usually considered “right” of center).
-
In Latin America, "right-wing" can sometimes mean supporting authoritarian regimes, while “left-wing” can carry connotations of populist or anti-imperialist movements, which again differ from European or North American understandings.
The term "Liberal" is another example of shifting meaning:
-
In the United States, "liberal" tends to refer to people who favor more government intervention in social and economic affairs, aligning with the political left.
-
In the UK, "Liberal" historically meant support for free markets, individual liberties, and limited government, often closer to what Americans would call "libertarian" or even (in some cases) "conservative."
-
In Australia or Canada, "liberal" can fall anywhere along the spectrum: in Australia, the Liberal Party is a major right-of-center party.
Because political contexts, historical developments, and party platforms differ by place and time, these terms do not have a fixed, universal meaning. As a result, simply labeling someone or a policy as “left,” “right,” or "liberal" can cause confusion or miscommunication unless the specific context is clearly defined.
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:
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.
Saturday Jul 19, 2025
Saturday Jul 19, 2025
Do you know people who wail about "the media"? Whenever that happens, it's always an incomplete sentence. They should say, "The media I disagree with."
Saying "the media" implies there is only one media or that they have a united message.
Media isn't unified. Just skim the Internet for a few minutes, and you'll get wildly different points of view and reporting.
In the mini-episode, I elaborate.
This mini-episode is another Public Service Announcement from a grammar Nazi. It's my simple effort to clean up sloppy English.
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:
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.
Sunday Jul 13, 2025
Sunday Jul 13, 2025
Simon & Schuster provided me with an advanced copy of the superb book After the Spike: Population, Progress, and the Case for People, scheduled for release on July 8, 2025.
The University of Texas authors, Dean Spears and Michael Geruso, have written a mind-blowing book! It's my second favorite book of 2025! My favorite 2025 book is They're Not Gaslighting You.
Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-JfpjJRkok
Podcast
The Population Whimper
When I was born, Paul R. Ehrlich's book, The Population Bomb, was a mega-bestseller. Although I never read the book, my generation believed the book's message that humanity is dangerously overpopulated. The book gave me one major reason not to have children. The book made intuitive sense, built on Thomas Malthus's observations, that if our population continues to expand, we will eventually hit a brick wall.
However, Ehrlich, a Stanford biologist, made these stunningly wrong predictions in The Population Bomb:
- Mass Starvation in the 1970s and 1980s: The book opened with the statement, "The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s, hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now."
- England's Demise by 2000: He suggested that England would not exist by the year 2000 due to environmental collapse related to overpopulation.
- Devastation of Fish Populations by 1990: He predicted that all significant animal life in the sea would be extinct by 1990, and large areas of coastline would need to be evacuated due to the stench of dead fish.
- India's Famine: He predicted catastrophic food shortages in India in the 1990s that did not materialize.
- United States Food Rationing by 1984: He envisioned the U.S. rationing food by 1984.
Instead of all this doom and gloom, here's what happened: we went from 3.5 billion (when Ehrich wrote his doomsday book) to 8 billion people today, most of whom are fat. Today, our biggest problem isn't famine but obesity.
Dean Spears and Michael Geruso's new book should have been called The Population Whimper because it says the opposite of what The Population Bomb said. Forget a catastrophic demographic explosion. We're going to suffer a catastrophic demographic implosion.
The graph on the cover of After the Spike sums up the problem: during a 200-year time period, the human population will have spiked to 10 billion and then experienced an equally dramatic fall.
Three criticisms of After the Spike
For a book packed with counterintuitive arguments, it's remarkable that I can only spot three flaws. Admittedly, these are minor critiques, as they will disappear if we stabilize below 10 billion.
1. Wildlife lost
The authors correctly argue that the environment has been improving even as the human population has been growing rapidly. For example:
- Air and water are now cleaner than they were 50 years ago, when the population was half its current size.
- Our per capita CO2 consumption is falling.
- Clean energy production is at an all-time high.
There's one metric that authors overlooked: wildlife.
As the human population doubled, we've needed more space for growing food. This has led to a decrease in habitat, which is why biologists refer to the Anthropocene Extinction.
- While fish farms are efficient, overfishing continues.
- The Amazon gets denuded to make space for soy and cattle plantations.
- The loss of African wildlife habitats is acute, as the African population is projected to quadruple in this century.
I imagine that the authors of After the Spike would counter:
- National parks didn't exist 200 years ago.
- Green revolutions and GMO foods have made the most productive farmers ever.
- De-extinction may restore extinct species.
And they're correct. There are bright spots.
However, as we approach 10 billion, wildlife will continue to suffer and be marginalized. The book should have mentioned that.
Dean Spears and Michael Geruso would likely agree that if humans continue to grow nonstop, wildlife will continue to suffer.
However, they aren't arguing for nonstop human expansion. They want stabilization.
When you combine stabilization with technology (e.g., vertical farming and lab-grown animal products), we would reverse the downward trend in wildlife habitat.
2. Increased energy consumption
Dean Spears and Michael Geruso celebrate humanity's progress in energy efficiency and productivity. However, they overlook these facts:
1. The Rebound Effect (Jevons Paradox):
As energy efficiency improves, the cost of using energy services effectively decreases. This can lead to:
- Increased usage of existing services: For example, more efficient air conditioners might lead people to cool their homes to lower temperatures or for longer periods. More fuel-efficient cars might encourage more driving.
- Adoption of new energy-intensive activities: The increased affordability of energy services can enable entirely new consumption patterns that were previously too expensive to adopt. Think about the proliferation of data centers for AI and digital services, or the growth of electric vehicles. While individual electric vehicles (EVs) are more efficient than gasoline cars, the rapid increase in their adoption contributes to overall electricity demand.
2. Economic Growth and Rising Living Standards:
- Increased demand for energy services: As economies grow and incomes rise, people generally desire greater comfort, convenience, and a wider range of goods and services. This translates to greater demand for heating and cooling, larger homes, more personal transportation, more manufactured goods, and more leisure activities, all of which require energy.
- Industrialization and urbanization: Developing economies, in particular, are undergoing rapid industrialization and urbanization. This involves massive construction, increased manufacturing, and the expansion of infrastructure, all of which are highly energy-intensive. Even with efficiency gains, the sheer scale of this growth drives up overall energy consumption.
- Emerging technologies: The growth of data centers, AI, and other digital technologies is leading to a significant increase in electricity demand.
3. Population Growth:
While efficiency might improve per unit of output, the overall global population continues to grow. More people, even if individually more efficient, will inherently consume more energy in total.
4. Shifting Economic Structures:
- Some economies are shifting from less energy-intensive sectors (like agriculture) to more energy-intensive ones (like manufacturing or specific services).
- Even within industries, while individual processes might become more efficient, the overall scale of production can increase dramatically.
5. Energy Price and Policy Factors:
- Low energy prices: If energy remains relatively inexpensive (due to subsidies or abundant supply), the incentive for significant behavioral changes to reduce consumption might be diminished, even with efficient technologies available.
- Policy limitations: Although many countries have energy efficiency policies, their impact may be offset by other factors that drive demand.
Conclusion: While technological advancements and efficiency measures reduce the energy intensity of specific activities, these gains are often outpaced by the aggregate increase in demand for energy services driven by economic growth, rising living standards, population increases, and the adoption of new, energy-intensive technologies and behaviors. The challenge lies in achieving a proper decoupling of economic growth from energy consumption, and ultimately, from carbon emissions.
Humanity's per capita energy consumption has been steadily increasing with each passing century, a trend that is unlikely to change soon. Therefore, humans of the 26th century will consume far more energy than those of the 21st century.
The authors of After the Spike would probably argue that in 2525, we'll be using a clean energy source (e.g., nuclear fusion), so it'll be irrelevant that our per capita energy consumption increases ten times.
Again, short term, we're going in the wrong direction. However, in a stabilized world, we won't have a problem.
3. Designer babies
The authors of After the Spike never addressed the potential impact that designer babies may have. I coined the term "Homo-enhanced" to address our desire to overcome our biological limitations.
Couples are already using IVF to select the gender and eye color of their babies. Soon, we'll be able to edit and select for more complex traits such as height or even intelligence. It's easy to imagine a world like Gattaca, where parents collaborate with CRISPR-powered gene tools to create custom-made babies.
One reason some people don't want to reproduce is that it's a crap shoot. Any parent who has more than one child will tell you that each of their children is quite different from the others. Given that they grow up in the same environment, it suggests that genetics is a decisive factor.
Until now, we couldn't mold our children's DNA. Soon, we will.
If we were to remove the lottery aspect of having a child and allow parents to design their children, perhaps there would be a baby boom.
Dean Spears and Michael Geruso would probably argue that this is unlikely or centuries away from happening. We'll be descending the steep population slope long before we are homo-enhanced.
One trillion humans in this millennium?
In the Bulgaria chapter of The Hidden Europe, I observed that Bulgaria is depopulating faster than any other European country. Having peaked at 9 million in the late 1980s, a century later, it will be half that size.
Despite that, in that chapter, I predicted that in 500 years, we'll have one trillion humans in the solar system, with at least 100 billion on Earth.
This video explains how and why that may happen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lJJ_QqIVnc
Conclusion
In 2075, will After the Spike: Population, Progress, and the Case for People look as stupid as The Population Bomb looks 50 years after publication? Does After the Spike make the same errors as The Population Bomb?
Paul Ehrlich's underestimated technology and the continued collapse in fertility rates. As Dean Spears and Michael Geruso point out, fertility rates have been declining since they were first measured. Had Ehrlich extrapolated the trendline, he would have realized that our demographic collapse was imminent, not an explosion. Furthermore, technology solved many of the problems Ehrlich imagined.
Is After the Spike making the same error?
Fertility rates won't fall forever. They must stop. Otherwise, we'll become extinct.
However, will fertility rates soar due to technology or some other reason? What could make our fertility rates return to three or more? Here are a few ideas:
- We master fusion energy, providing us with ultra-cheap energy and dramatically decreasing the cost of having children.
- Robots perform most jobs, leaving humans with ample time to raise large families.
- As the negative effects of depopulation start rippling across the world, a global cultural panic erupts, prompting people to prioritize reproduction.
- Homo-enhanced humans, merged with artificial general intelligence, decide to proliferate to dominate the planet.
- Vertical farms and lab-grown cultured meat improve the environment so dramatically that humans feel less guilty about having three or more children, and generous subsidies offset the costs.
Admittedly, these scenarios are unlikely to occur during the next 50 years, so After the Spike won't become the joke that The Population Bomb became in 50 years.
Still, I predict that Ehrlich's great-great-granddaughter will write The Population Bomb II: Thomas Malthus Will Be Right Someday.
Verdict
10 out of 10 stars!
Excerpts
The excerpts below are from an advanced copy, which may have undergone edits. Hence, some of these excerpts may have been reworded or deleted in the final print. The reason I am quoting them is that even if the excerpts are removed in the final edition, they illustrate the book's overall message.
It would be easy to think that fewer people would be better—better for the planet, better for the people who remain. This book asks you to think again. Depopulation is not the solution we urgently need for environmental challenges, nor will it raise living standards by dividing what the world can offer across fewer of us.
Despite what you may have been told, depopulation is not the solution we urgently need for environmental challenges like climate change. Nor will it raise living standards by dividing what the world can offer across fewer of us. To the contrary, so much of the progress that we now take for granted sprang up in a large and interconnected society.
Part I’s big claim: No future is more likely than that people worldwide choose to have too few children to replace their own generation. Over the long run, this would cause exponential population decline.
Whether depopulation would be good or bad depends on the facts and depends on our values. We ask about those facts and values, building up to an overall assessment: Part II and Part III’s big claim: A stabilized world population would be better, overall, than a depopulating future.
Part IV’s big claim: Nobody yet knows how to stabilize a depopulating world. But humanity has made revolutionary improvements to society before— we can do it again if we choose.
We won’t ask you to abandon your concerns about climate change; about reproductive freedom and abortion access; or about ensuring safe, healthy, flourishing lives for everyone everywhere. We won’t ask you to consider even an inch of backsliding on humanity’s progress toward gender equity. We insist throughout that everyone should have the tools to choose to parent or not to parent.
This book is not about whether or how you should parent. It’s about whether we all should make parenting easier.
In 2012, 146 million children were born. That was more than in any year of history to that point. It was also more than in any year since. Millions fewer will be born this year. The year 2012 may well turn out to be the year in which the most humans were ever born— ever as in ever for as long as humanity exists.
Within three hundred years, a peak population of 10 billion could fall below 2 billion.
The tip of the Spike may be six decades from today.
For every 205 babies born, human biology, it turns out, would produce about 100 females.
Average fertility in Europe today is about 1.5. That means the next generation will be 25 percent smaller than the last.
Birth rates were falling all along. For as long as any reliable records exist, and for at least several hundred years while the Spike was ascending, the average number of births per woman has been falling, generation by generation.
In the United States in the early 1800s, married white women (a population for whom some data were recorded) gave birth an average of seven times.
If life expectancy doubles to 150 years, or quadruples to 300 years, couldn’t that prevent the depopulating edge of the Spike? The surprising answer is no.
The story of the Spike would stay the same, even if life expectancy quadrupled to three hundred years. In contrast, if adults’ reproductive spans also changed, so people had, say, one or two babies on average over their twenties, thirties, and forties and then another one on average over their fifties, sixties, and seventies, then that would stop depopulation— but it would be because births changed, not because later-adulthood deaths changed.
Where exactly should humanity stabilize? Six billion? Eight? Ten? Some other number? This book makes the case to stabilize somewhere. Exactly where will have to be a question for public and scientific debate.
So the extra greenhouse gas emissions contributed by the larger population would be small, even under the assumption here that the future is bleak and we go on emitting for another century.
The environmental costs of a new child are not zero. Not by a long shot. Not yet. But they are falling. Each new person who joins the ranks of humanity will add less CO2 than, well, you over your lifetime.
Humanity could choose a future that’s good, free, and fair for women and that also has an average birth rate of two. There is no inescapable dilemma. In that kind of future, people who want to parent would get the support that they need (from nonparents, from taxpayers, from everyone) to choose parenting.
The most plausible way humanity might stabilize— and the only way this book endorses— is if societies everywhere work to make parenting better.
Globally, we now produce about 50 percent more food per person than in 1961.
“endogenous economic growth.” Endogenous means “created from the inside.” Ideas do not come from outside the economy. They come from us.
Because scale matters, a depopulating planet will be able to fill fewer niches.
A threat with a fixed cost: A threat has arisen that will kill all humans (however many) unless a large cost is paid to escape it (such as by deflecting an asteroid) within a certain time period.
Could a kajillion lives ever be the best plan? That question goes beyond the practical question that this book is here to answer.
Between our two families, we have had three live births, four miscarriages, and three failed IVF rounds.
Parenting will need to become better than it is today. That’s what we, your authors, hope and believe.
The opportunity cost hypothesis: Spending time on parenting means giving up something. Because the world has improved around us, that “something” is better than it used to be.
In no case is there evidence that more support for parents predicts more births.
Nobody— no expert, no theory— fully understands why birth rates, everywhere, in different cultures and contexts, are lower than ever before.
I hope these excerpts compel you to buy the book. If you're still undecided, consider that the book features numerous graphs and illustrations that will rewire your brain. Buy After the Spike: Population, Progress, and the Case for People.
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:
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.
Friday Jul 04, 2025
Friday Jul 04, 2025
Happy 4th of July, 2025! Celebrate your independence by exploring outside!
In 3 WanderLearn episodes, Alex Hutchinson and I discuss his new book, The Explorer's Gene. This is the 3rd of 3 episodes.
The Explorer's Gene examines human exploration broadly, going beyond traditional expeditions to investigate why humans explore everything from new foods to music.
Watch my First Video Interview with Alex
Video #2: Does Tech Impact on Our Desire to Explore? Is Exploration Required for Fulfillment?
Video #3: Exercising Your Explorer Muscle. Exploring vs. Exploiting. Exploration in our DNA.
Timeline for Episode 3
0:00 Tips
02:00 Endurance & Exploring
05:30 Exploiting vs. Exploring
07:00 Exploring in our DNA
09:00 Many ways to explore
About the book, The Explorer's Gene
The Explorer's Gene is made of 3 parts:
1) Why do we explore
2) How do we explore
3) What does exploring mean
Written in an engaging style that combines narrative stories with scientific research, it's comparable to Malcolm Gladwell's work but with stronger research foundations.
It has a comprehensive scope and accessibility. It investigates human and animal exploratory behavior.
The book connects external exploration to internal growth, offering insights into decision-making and personal development.
It blends entertainment with scientific rigor, appealing to readers interested in human behavior, science writing, and personal growth.
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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.
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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.
Wednesday Jun 25, 2025
Wednesday Jun 25, 2025
Michael Zervos is the fastest traveler ever!
Now that Michael Zervos has traveled to all the countries faster than anyone else, what's next for him?
Additionally, what advice would he offer to anyone who wants to break his speed record?
Did you know Zervos has a book deal? Exciting!
We cover it all in 13 minutes!
Timeline
00:00 Advice to the next person who tries to beat the record
04:50 Next steps
Michael Zervos has visited every country faster than anyone else while recounting the happiest moments in people's lives. In this interview series, we talk about his Project Kosmos.
Michael Zervos makes well-produced social media content. Visit Michael Zervos's Linktree for all his links.
Follow Michael Zervos on Instagram.
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:
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. Get $5 when you sign up for Roamless, my favorite global eSIM! Use code LR32K
3. Get 25% off when you sign up for Trusted Housesitters, a site that helps you find sitters or homes to sit in.
4. Start your podcast with my company, Podbean, and get one month free!
5. In the United States, I recommend trading cryptocurrency with Kraken.
6. Outside the USA, trade crypto with Binance and get 5% off your trading fees!
7. For backpacking gear, buy from Gossamer Gear.
Friday Jun 20, 2025
Friday Jun 20, 2025
I'm celebrating the 350th podcast episode with Michael Zervos! He did it!
Many people try to travel to all the countries in the world quickly, but most fail.
Therefore, when I met Zervos in Côte d'Ivoire in February 2024, when he was just 10% into his race, it seemed highly unlikely that he would succeed where so many others had failed.
Still, there was something about Zervos that made me believe he would pull off this stunt.
Although many things impressed me about Zervos, the most important was his level of organization. He had secured valuable sponsors who would help him get visas, which is the biggest bottleneck in this quest. As someone who has visited 127 countries, I know how visas limit you more than money. Having two passports would help in obtaining visas, although he did most of the journey with only his US passport.
After completing his quest, Zervos and I discussed the following topics:
00:00 The stats
03:00 Deported from Nicaragua
6:16 Two other surprises
10:45 One regret
12:45 Where to revisit
16:30 Where not revisit
Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfprfrcYrvU
Podcast
Michael Zervos has visited every country faster than anyone else while recounting the happiest moments in people's lives. In this interview series, we talk about his Project Kosmos.
Michael Zervos makes well-produced social media content. Visit Michael Zervos's Linktree for all his links.
Follow Michael Zervos on Instagram.
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:
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. Get $5 when you sign up for Roamless, my favorite global eSIM! Use code LR32K
3. Get 25% off when you sign up for Trusted Housesitters, a site that helps you find sitters or homes to sit in.
4. Start your podcast with my company, Podbean, and get one month free!
5. In the United States, I recommend trading cryptocurrency with Kraken.
6. Outside the USA, trade crypto with Binance and get 5% off your trading fees!
7. For backpacking gear, buy from Gossamer Gear.
Friday Jun 13, 2025
Friday Jun 13, 2025
Nomadic Matt is a pioneering travel blogger. One day, we'll call him the grandfather of travel blogging during the Golden Era of travel blogs.
He's not known for his travel feats but rather for the extensive tips he's provided on his popular website, which focuses on budget travel.
Watch the Video
The book's budget used to be $50/day, but inflation and a post-COVID world forced Matt to update his book.
In 2025, he refreshed his bestselling book, which is now called How to Travel the World on $75 a Day.
As part of his book tour, he's appearing on the WanderLearn Show twice!
Nomadic Matt discusses
00:00 When to book a hotel
02:40 Why is Africa left out of his book?
05:10 Bilt Rewards Credit Card
08:10 Airline booking tips
09:20 Travel insurance
12:00 Tourist Cards
15:00 Why Matt travels less than before
18:30 Blogging is dead?
Questions
- What's the most embarrassing or ridiculous thing you've done to save money while traveling?
- What's the difference between EatWith, WithLocals, and Traveling Spoon?
- When do you usually book your hotels?
- Why is Africa left out?
- Are tourism cards still worth it?
- When do you use travel insurance?
- Why not use Kiwi?
- What are Bilt Rewards?
His book is packed with tips. Here are my favorite ones.
The best websites to keep track of the latest credit card deals
Pay your rent and get frequent flyer points with Bilt Rewards
Matt's top three airline booking sites
My favorite airline website is Kiwi, and use this link to get $10 off. He doesn't mention Kiwi in his book.
Instead, his favorite flight booking sites are:
For insurance
- Safety Wing
- World Nomads
- MedjetAssist
- IMG
- InsureMyTrip for comparison shopping
Sell your old clothes to raise money for your trip
Online Garage sale to raise funds and downsize
- VarageSale
- OfferUp
- Swappa for electronics
- Gazelle
- Decluttr
Anytime Mailbox starts at $6 and has several locations.
Lodging Sites
- LateRooms
- Last Minute
- Hotel Tonight
- Priceline
- Hotwire
- Roomer allows you to buy someone else's hotel reservation at a steep discount
- Agoda excels in East Asia
Food
Matt is a foodie. I am not. Here are some of his favorite sites:
- EatWith has 5000+ hosts in over 130 countries
- WithLocals
- Traveling Spoon
Ride-sharing or hitchhiking for the 21st century
Search for "ride-sharing" and the name of the region/country where you are traveling. You'll usually find options. I've used BlaBlaCar in Europe, for example.
Tourism Cards
Nomadic Matt sold me on the tourism cards that give you access to popular sites and public transportation. Although that can save you nearly half the price, it's only suitable for those doing a whirlwind, fast, and comprehensive tour. If you want to see the British Museum, don't get the London Pass. But it makes sense if you're going to see most of the significant sites.
Why is Africa left out?
The first half of the book offers general, practical advice. The second provides specific guidance to various regions. For example, he has a section about Australia.
You'd think a book that helps travelers live on $75 a day would encourage tourists to visit Africa. Like Southeast Asia, parts of Africa have a low cost of living.
For example, in 2013, in Benin, I rented a two-room place with a shower (but a shared outhouse for a toilet) for $10 per month! Ten years later, maybe the price has doubled to $20 a month!
Still, Nomadic Matt confesses, "I had to make trade-offs and omit the lesser-visited countries and regions..." (Kindle Location 1434).
I won't quibble with his decision or logic.
Conclusion
When I got an advanced copy of Nomadic Matt's book, I expected to be bored out of my mind. I figured it was a book for beginners or intermediate travelers, not hyper-experienced travel studs like me.
As usual, I was wrong.
Nomadic Matt pumped me with many ideas I was oblivious to. Although I shared my favorite ones on this page, buy How to Travel the World on $75 a Day to get all his excellent advice.
Feedback
Leave anonymous audio feedback at SpeakPipe
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:
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. Get $5 when you sign up for Roamless, my favorite global eSIM! Use code LR32K
3. Get 25% off when you sign up for Trusted Housesitters, a site that helps you find sitters or homes to sit in.
4. Start your podcast with my company, Podbean, and get one month free!
5. In the United States, I recommend trading cryptocurrency with Kraken.
6. Outside the USA, trade crypto with Binance and get 5% off your trading fees!
7. For backpacking gear, buy from Gossamer Gear.