The golden ratio is irrational. This was a heavily guarded secret for Pythagoreans. They would burn me alive or something like that for revealing it.

Is anyone still listening to this? I occasionally listen to an episode before sleeping

Episode #45 - Physics and Esoteric Metaphysics might be of interest to the more sceptical wing of the forum. A discussion of pneuma, sympatheia, and logos. Even from a merely linguistic historical perspective, there is some good stuff; how 'logos' morphs from word to God and back, for example.

#49. https://shwep.net/podcast/the-long-secret-history-of-the-jews-part-ii-second-temple-judaism/

Those of us that were brought up with some kind of view of Jews and Judaism as a homogeneous single lineage with a single unchanging monotheistic religion, will find some surprises. This episode can pretty much stand alone and gives some background to early Christianity as (yet another) Jewish sect with odd beliefs and practices, and charts a strong interaction of Judaism (and thus Christianity) with Greek religion.

#55. https://shwep.net/podcast/naomi-janowitz-on-ancient-jewish-magic/

We live in a social world of constructed meaning, and and meaning is made of ritual. This is a really good episode, that speaks to various debates we have here about knowledge as social construct, language as social construct, performativity and the intersection of race and gender with ritual and magic.
Certificates displayed on walls, passports, are objects imbued with real magical power; written incantations. There is a huge amount to think about in this episode - highly commended.

Aldous Huxley's The Perennial Philosophy and Han Jonas' The Gnostic Religion suffice for day trips down the rabbit hole of Wonderland "Esotericism". :sparkle:

Honorable mention:
Pierre Hadot's Veil of Isis

I've listened to almost every episode of this now... it's good to listen to before sleeping, especially the ones about dreams and the noetic realm