James Stewart
speaker
4,486 appearances
22 recordings
2 series
first heard Apr 2025
last heard 3d ago
James Stewart’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 17 in all, peaking in Sep 2026 with 3.
Appearances
It was hidden away in a small cave in the hills, showing the man covered in gold going out into a sacred lake, the real story of El Dorado.
So yeah, in the end scientists weren't able to uncover a city of gold, but they did find something arguably way more valuable.
Now we go deeper, literally, because one of the Amazon's strangest secrets isn't in a wall or a road, but instead is its soil.
Bear with me here.
I know that doesn't sound as exciting, but trust me, it is.
Because if humans lived in all those amazing sites we've showcased in this video, which does seem very likely, how did they exist in spite of the rainforest's naturally poor and nutrient-depleted soil?
How did they grow stuff?
It's impossible, right?
Remember at the start of the video, when we said all of those expeditions, right from the 1500s to poor old Percy Fawcett in 1925, all of those had scientists saying part of the reason the cities couldn't be found
was because the soil was too infertile to support human life.
Remember that?
Well, modern day science has since shown that to be wrong too, actually, but in the most shockingly brilliant way.
New research shows something surprising.
Ancient Amazonians intentionally created patches of rich, dark soil, known as terra preta or Amazonian dark earth, to make farming possible, and this was no accident.
In fact, they're still doing it today.
Modern indigenous communities like the Kwikuru still make dark, fertile soil by firstly piling up food scraps and organic waste, then spreading charcoal and ash around fields, before finally creating these compost middens.
Over time, these practices produce carbon-rich soil that thrives with nutrients, even in a region where untouched soils are typically infertile.
Try and get your head around this.
Ancient Amazonians weren't just passive forest dwellers.
They actively managed landscapes.
Showing 2741–2760 of 4,486 · page 138 of 225
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