Cryptology (SECRET CODES) with Dr, Simon Singh

Secret ciphers. Hidden treasure. Enigma breakers. Mysterious manuscripts. And … hog Latin. Cryptology expert and author of “The Code Book,” Simon Singh finally lets me ask him about the small mistakes that lost huge battles, the prison plots of Mary Queen of Scots, a cryptology reality show that I wish existed, the legacy of Alan Turing, Indigenous code-talking war heroes, hiding messages in your skin and guts, the role of A.I. in future deciphering and the possibility of a quantum computing apocalypse. Also: one whole ball of wax that you do not want to get into.

Listen via Apple, Spotify, iHeart, Podbay, Podcast Addict, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Visit Dr. Singh’s website and follow him on Bluesky and X

Browse Dr. Singh’s books including The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography, available on Bookshop.org and Amazon

A donation went to GiveWell


Links to things we discussed:

Cryptography: history and curiosities, the importance today

Steganography

Information hiding-a survey

Colonel’s Secret Recipe Gets Bodyguards

Acquisition of Pig Latin: a case study

Bernard Newman’s Secrets of German Espionage

Ciphers used by Mary Queen of Scots

Cryptiana’s Ciphers of Mary, Queen of Scots

Al-Kindi, the father of cryptanalysis

Pigpen cipher

Pig Latin Translator

Breaking encryption with a quantum computer just got 20 times easier

Cliff Cock’s 1973 top-secret classified encryption paper

Bombe in cryptography

Women in Bletchley Park

August 2022: Property where Bletchley Park codebreakers stayed as they intercepted Nazi codes with Alan Turing's Enigma machine goes on the market for £3.25million (and comes complete with its own WW2 bomb shelter)

Linear A

Is a quantum-cryptography apocalypse imminent?

Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian documentary The Power of Words: Native Languages as Weapons of War

Secrets of the Code Talkers | The Warrior Tradition

Digitized Voynich Manuscript via Yale

Rearrange this!: Cory Calhoun's Hamlet Anagram 

The Quest to Break America’s Most Mysterious Code—And Find $60 Million in Buried Treasure


Other episodes you may enjoy:

Egyptology (ANCIENT EGYPT)

Momiology (MUMMIFICATION)

Curiology (EMOJI)

Graphology (HANDWRITING/FORGERY)

Anagnosology (READING)

Oneirology (DREAMS)

Salugenology (WHY HUMANS REQUIRE HOBBIES)

Architectural Technology (COMPUTER PROGRAMMING)

Neurotechnology (AI + BRAIN TECH)

Artificial Intelligence Ethicology (WILL A.I. CRASH OUT?)

Abstract Mathematology (UH, IS MATH REAL?)


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Editing by Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio Productions and Jake Chaffee

Managing Director: Susan Hale

Scheduling Producer: Noel Dilworth 

Transcripts by Aveline Malek

Website by Kelly R. Dwyer

Theme song by Nick Thorburn