Imagine you find an old alchemy book, and inside it says something like, Take our fiery dragon
that hides the magical steel in its belly with our magnet and mix them with torrid vulcan.
These might not seem like real instructions that someone could follow.
And yet, some researchers are trying to recreate alchemists' work hundreds of years later.
What they've found is that there's actually interesting science hidden away
behind some of the bizarre metaphors in these old texts.
That's this week on The Unexplainable Podcast.
So, question, who's the most consequential American elected official over the last, say, 25 years?
Donald Trump is the obvious answer.
But you could say Barack Obama, Mitch McConnell,
but I'd argue Nancy Pelosi, the former House Speaker and Congressional Leader of Democrats
who shepherded countless legislation over the Obama years and some during the Trump years.
She's about to turn 86 next week.
And her fingerprints are all over the most consequential legislation that passed through Congress over the last couple decades.
Now, Pelosi is set to retire after this midterm elections.
But before that, I had the chance to talk with her at this year's South by Southwest conference.
And I wanted to put in front of her all the questions that I had.
What made her stick around Congress after she almost was going to retire in 2016?
How would she define her legacy?
And of course, considering the political violence