
scienceNov 30, 20254:26pending
The Long Count Engine: Maya Math, GMT, and Time Without End
About this episode
Meet the Maya long count, a non-repeating calendar built on a modified base-20 system that stretches time far beyond the 52-year calendar round. We decode how kin, winal, tun, katun, and baktun fit together, why the 18 in the second place matters for a 360-day year, and how the GMT correlation anchors August 11, 3114 BCE to a single tick in the Julian Day count. The story is backed by annals, radiocarbon dating of wooden lintels at Tik’al, and astronomy that aligns lunar and Venus cycles, showing the long count as both brilliant math and practical timekeeping—far from an apocalypse clock.
Note: This podcast was AI-generated, and sometimes AI can make mistakes. Please double-check any critical information.
Sponsored by Embersilk LLC
Get every episode summarized
Each time Intellectually Curious publishes, we email you a written briefing from the transcript — the topics, who appeared, and any specific claims, with the ad reads skipped.
Email me new episodesFree for 3 shows. No card needed.
Hosts & guests
No transcript yet
This episode has not been transcribed. Request it and it moves to the front of the queue.
More episodes
More from Intellectually Curious

Free Pause Tokens Solve AI Multitasking
Intellectually Curious
Sep 14, 20266:39failed

Claude’s Autonomous Formalization of Fermat’s Last Theorem
Intellectually Curious
Sep 13, 20266:48completed

Random Attention: How AI Gets Faster by Forgetting
Intellectually Curious
Sep 12, 20266:13completed

The Alien Anatomy of the Bigfin Squid
Intellectually Curious
Sep 11, 20265:48completed