This was the interview of a lifetime and I am so thrilled to be able to finally share it with you all. Kathleen is a total gem of a human. Her passion and dedication to the work is palpable. I hope you enjoy the interview as much as I do!

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This past week I visited one of my dream destinations - Scotland. The history there is so tangible, it’s literally everywhere. I personally am so enamored with the tragic tale of Mary Queen of Scots and the two sister queens of Mary and Queen Elizabeth I. Both royalty, but with two very different fates.

It’s a story of many what if’s that only expanded after visiting the home of Mary Queen of Scots at Holyrood House in Edinburgh.

So, today I’m going to tell the story of Mary Queen of Scots.

Mary had royal blood through and through. She had French royal blood through her mother Mary of Guise, Scottish royal blood through her father King James V of Scotland AND English royal blood on her paternal grandmother’s side as Margaret Tudor was the sister of Henry VIII

Mary’s entire life really kickstarted when her father died when she was just 6 days old. She subsequently became Mary Queen of Scots - the first and only female ruler of Scotland.

This prompted King Henry VIII to propose a marriage between his son, Edward VI, and Mary to unite England and Scotland - a way of bringing Scotland under English rule via marriage. This became known as the rough wooing as Mary’s mother was totally against this. So she sent her infant Mary to France for her safety. In return for keeping the young princess safe, France wanted Mary to marry the Dauphin - the future king of France. Mary does wed the Dauphin, but it’s a short lived marriage, literally, because her husband died not too long after.

Now Mary was a widow at 18 years old with all this royal blood and no potential to waste.

So Mary returns to Scotland at her half brother James’s suggestion. His plan was for Mary to be a sort of puppet queen while he actually ruled in her stead. But Mary was not remotely interested in that plan. She wanted to be a real monarch like her cousin Elizabeth I. Mary really had everything going for her to be a successful monarch, she had a robust royal bloodline, power and was said to have an incredible presence.

Mary was strikingly beautiful and tall. She was 5’11” - that is tall even for today, and even more so for back then. For that reason, she often could look the men in her court eye to eye. The men who were trying to influence her and grasping at her power. You’d think her height and beauty would make her intimidating to most men, but it did the opposite. It made them want to overpower her even more for their own gain.

The thing is, if Mary had agreed to be a puppet queen, she likely would have lived longer. But she was courageous and dared to rule on her own like all the men that came before her and she ultimately died for it.

Unfortunately, Mary had many enemies within Scotland and abroad that did not want to see her on any throne period.

Arguably Mary Queen of Scots two biggest enemies were her own court and William Cecil, Queen Elizabeth I’s chief advisor.

No one is more fearsome than a self made man, which Cecil was. He came from a relatively modest background, but used his intellect to rise through the ranks to ultimately within the royal family circles. Because of his law background, Elizabeth I sought him out for advice as a young woman while her brother was still King and this is when their storied alliance began. The two had a lot of key interests in common, most notably their firm belief in Protestantism.

Now, this was something I never fully understood until it was explained to me on my recent trip to Scotland..why the English royalty and aristocrats were so hellbent on ensuring a protestant monarch stayed on the throne instead of a Catholic one. I always believed it to be just a strong notion towards this new faith over an old one, but that couldn’t be further from the truth - at least for the upper class.

When most people think of the English Reformation they think of the creation of the Church of England, when in fact it was really one of the largest transfers of land in English history.

Henry VIII famously broke ties with the Catholic Church so he could divorce his first wife Catherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn. This meant the pope no longer had religious authority in England AND, more importantly, all Catholic land and wealth now transferred over to the Church of England i.e. the Crown.

Before Henry VIII’s split, the Church of England owned approximately one third of all land in England making it the 2nd wealthiest entity aside from the Crown. This happened because people would often donate their land and wealth to the Church to secure their place in heaven.

This transfer of Catholic land to the Crown had a trickle down effect and in turn made many protestant aristocrats very wealthy. In fact, even part of Henry VIII’s dowry he paid to marry all his wives came from Catholic land.

Henry VIII used the land to fund wars, settle debts and bestow upon his noble subjects. Yet Henry himself was never a Protestant, his son, Edward VI was. But when Edward died, Mary I ascended the throne and swiftly repealed the Act of Supremacy and restored Catholicism in England. Her subsequent persecution of protestants is what earned her the moniker of “Bloody Mary”.

After Mary I’s death, England enjoyed relative peace under Queen Elizabeth I as a protestant queen who was religiously tolerant of Catholics. The aristocracy also continued to enjoy the wealth, land and titles granted to them through the dissolution of Catholic monasteries and other land.

So when Mary, Elizabeth’s first cousin, became a widow at 18 years old and returned to Scotland to rule as Mary Queen of Scots, the English aristocracy became wary of Mary, especially Cecil. He worried she may try to extend her rule to England because there were still people who’d argue that Mary was the legitimate heir to the English throne and not Elizabeth since Elizabeth was technically conceived illegally under Catholic law between Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn.

So that was one issue.

But, Mary had another problem. While she was away, Scotland also underwent a religious reformation with the vast majority of Scots now Protestant. John Knox, a notable protestant Scottish minister, who often shouted fire and brimstone from his pulpit already despised women in power, but a Catholic woman in power? Gods be good!

[Side note: John Knox was notorious for his scathing comments against women, particularly women leaders. It’s known that Queen Elizabeth despised the man. Probably from a witches' angle, he also despised magic. So, J.K. Rowling when she was writing Harry Potter, purposely made Dumbledore look like John Knox as a sort of “F U”.]

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In a breakthrough that *almost* rivals the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb a century ago, archaeologists in Egypt have located the burial chamber of Pharaoh Thutmose II. This marks the first major pharaoh tomb discovery in nearly 100 years.

Thutmose II, an ancestor of the famous King Tut, is perhaps best known for his marriage to Queen Hatshepsut, widely regarded as one of Egypt's most accomplished female rulers. What makes this discovery particularly intriguing is the tomb's location in the Western Valley, which is traditionally a burial ground for queens rather than kings.

How They Identified the Tomb

Archaeologists were able to confirm the tomb's royal occupant thanks to several key features. The chamber's ceiling remained remarkably intact, decorated with blue paint and yellow stars depicting scenes from the Amduat – a religious text exclusively reserved for kings. This initial clue suggested they had discovered not just a royal tomb, but a pharaoh's final resting place.

But, the definitive evidence that helped identify exactly who the tomb belonged to came from alabaster jars bearing inscriptions of both "Thutmose II and Hatshepsut." These jars were broken and for that reason were left behind in the move. What a happy accident too because without those jars we would not know who this tomb originally belonged to.

A Deliberately Emptied Tomb

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As California approaches its 175th anniversary of statehood this Saturday, a dark irony lurks in its most recognizable symbol. The grizzly bear adorning the state flag—proud, defiant, and facing west—was modeled after a real bear named Monarch, whose life story mirrors California's own transformation from untamed wilderness to industrial powerhouse.

The bear’s name was Monarch and his story captures a pivotal moment in California's history.

Thank you so much for subscribing to Today I Learned Science! Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to support our work and allow us to continue to bring you the best content in science and history!

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In the late 1960s, Pittsburgh's Hill District, along with countless other Black communities, faced a serious healthcare crisis. The predominantly African American neighborhood had virtually no reliable emergency medical services. When emergencies occurred, residents were typically picked up by police vehicles rather than proper ambulances, leading many to avoid calling for help altogether, even in life-threatening situations.

There was a major need for an emergency service that was safe for the Black community to use and that’s when a former Freedom House meals-on-wheels van was transformed into America's first modern ambulance service. Freedom House Ambulance Service were a laundry list of “firsts”:

Freedom House paramedics were the first in the country to: intubate a patient on the street, deliver an electric shock out on the field, reverse an opioid overdose with naloxone, and read and send an EKG while en route.

What made this program truly groundbreaking was their decision to staff it entirely with Black paramedics recruited from the local community - people who were often labeled "unemployable." One of the original Freedom House paramedics was a man named John Moon, whom I had the pleasure of interviewing. His story needs to be made into a movie asap. You can watch the full interview at the end of this article.

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While Cleopatra charmed Rome's elite, her fierce younger sister led armies and sparked rebellions. She was a brilliant strategist who might've changed history... if it wasn’t for her equally sharp and charming sister.

This isn't just another tale of sibling rivalry - it's a story of two ambitious young women in a world where there could only be one queen. And while Cleopatra became legend, her sister's incredible story has all but disappeared to a footnote in history.

Now in 2025, Arsinoë has popped back into the news headlines 2000 years after her death because the skull that was long believed to belong to her, turned out to be the skull to a 11 year old boy.

This has led to many more questions, primarily, where in the world is Arsinoë’s tomb then? Perhaps the answer lies in her past with Cleopatra.

For the full story on the archaeological find disproving Arsinoë’s tomb, click here. For the deep dive on Arsinoë and Cleopatra’s history, press play above!

P.S. this is a free post of Today I Learned Science Substack. Consider becoming a paid subscriber for just $5/month to receive even more content and support your favorite creator. Every dollar helps more than you know!

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But guess what, I come bearing gifts from the archaeology world. We got some Cleopatra adjacent information, so let’s get on to it!

As a reminder, I am actively posting here on Substack, Instagram and YouTube all @tilscience. So this is certainly not goodbye, it’s actually a hello to way more ways of consuming my content and interacting with each other on a new scale!

Here we go…

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This news just broke two days ago:

The skull of a person long believed to be Cleopatra’s half sister, Arsinoë IV, was reexamined using modern DNA analysis and was found to be the skull of a small boy instead! For nearly half a century, the world thought this skull was Arsinoë and now modern scientific methods have turned that theory on its head.

This just raises so many questions because archaeologists didn’t just think this skull was Arinsoe IV’s for no reason.

The very well preserved skull and partial skeleton was found in Ephesus Turkey buried in an elaborate sarcophagus in the Octagon, a royal burial chamber that architecturally emulates royal buildings in Alexandria Egypt, specifically Ptolemaic style architecture and artwork. The logical assumption at the time was that whoever was buried inside was of very high status, most likely royalty, of the Ptolemaic dynasty.

Now, the story of Arsinoë and Cleopatra is a very interesting one. I can do a video or an entire Substack post (or perhaps podcast?) on that if y’all want it, but it’s believed that Cleopatra herself ordered the murder of her younger sister for challenging her throne.

Arsinoë took up arms against her sister and briefly ruled in rebellion before Julius Caesar struck her down and paraded her around in golden chains through Rome. Ultimately, Arsinoë managed to escape, but at that point Cleopatra exiled her for good measure to modern day Turkey, where she would spend the rest of her days at the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus.

That was until Cleopatra had her lover Mark Antony kill her half sister to secure her place as the sole queen. As a result, Arsinoë was assassinated in 41 BCE on the steps of the Temple of Artemis, her blood staining one of the wonders of the ancient world. She was only about 20 years old.

So, when a skull was unearthed in a royal chamber at the Octagon in Ephesus, archaeologists were certain the body was the ‘queen for a day’, Arsinoë IV.

But, who did the skull actually belong to if it wasn’t Arsinoë IV’s?

The research team used Micro-CT, which is this super cool non-destructive imaging technique that uses X-rays to create 3D images of an object, plus radiocarbon dating and a DNA analysis to conclusively determine that the skull belonged to a young boy between 11-14 years old with Italian or Sardinian origins.

What’s more is that the skull suggested the boy was not well. He had a significant genetic developmental disorder, possibly something called Treacher Collins Syndrome, a rare disease that affects facial development.

This leads to more questions like - how did this young boy end up in this royal tomb? Who was he? What’s even more interesting is that the analysis placed the remains between 205–36 BCE, which matches the timing of Arsinoë IV’s death in 41 BCE, but of course the remains aren’t hers

This is leaving researchers scratching their heads a bit, because the Octagon was a monument erected in memory of an important figure. They think it’s possible that it was built for someone else, “even someone currently unknown to history”.

Now more than 2000 years later after Arsinoë’s fateful death, the final resting place of Cleopatra’s half sister remains unknown, which is such a twist of fate knowing that the location of Cleopatra’s tomb is also a mystery.

Perhaps Dr. Kathleen Martinez can take on Arsinoë’s case next.

Let me know if you want me to cover Arsinoë and Cleopatra’s history next!

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It’s Jonas Salk, the inventor of the polio vaccine. A medical icon who conquered polio. His name is etched in textbooks, museums, and institutes.

But, there’s another side to the polio story. Do you know this man?

Probably not. He also created a polio vaccine—a better one than Salk’s with the help of a special friend. Today’s Substack story was classified information until 2012.

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This is arguably the story that kicked off this entire career for me. It was the first video of mine that went viral, I mean really viral - I think I went from 5,000 followers to 60,000 followers overnight.

I went on a trip to Mexico City in May 2022. It was my first time visiting the pyramids of Teotihuacán and also my first time meeting Jane Kadala, a local expert, guide and President of the Heritage Protection Foundation to preserve the Teotihuacán pyramids.

There are so many unanswered questions and mysteries I cover on my channel. What happened to Amelia Earhart? What happened to MH370? But, for me, I want to know who were the people of Teotihuacán?

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This once vast, advanced and ancient civilization just outside Mexico City, performed one of the greatest disappearing acts in history. It was as if an entire civilization of 250,000 people just up and vanished, leaving all their belongings as is.

"We don't know their language, their rulers, or even what they called themselves." - Jane Kadala

The name “Teotihuacán” is the name the Mexicas or Aztecs gave the area when they accidentally stumbled upon the city in the 1300s.

When they found this magnificent city with its colossal pyramids, gridded roads and detailed carvings completely abandoned, they were shocked.

To this day, even after a century of excavations, there is still so much we don’t know about the original people who lived here and built the monumental pyramids of the Sun, Moon and Plumed Serpent.

And it only gets more curious.

The people of Teotihuacán were clearly advanced with highly skilled mathematicians and engineers because the Sun and Moon pyramid are in perfect alignment to Orion’s belt and in perfect alignment with the pyramids at Giza if you were to superimpose them.

On top of that, from an aerial view, the layout of Teotihuacán strangely resembles a computer circuit board, with the two pyramids as processor chips, but maybe that’s purely a coincidence…

For these reasons and more, the Mexicas believed they had stumbled upon a celestial city that was built for and by the Gods. Therefore they named this area “Teotihuacán” which means where “Man becomes God”.

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But then a major breakthrough came in 2003 when archeologist Sergio Gomez came into work and saw a 3 foot sinkhole appear right in front of the Plumed Serpent pyramid. What’s really intriguing here is that the Plumed Serpent pyramid is at the very geographic center of all of Teotihuacán. So to have a tunnel that goes directly beneath it implies that this particular tunnel was incredibly important to them.

When Gomez and his team excavated the sinkhole, it led to a massive underground tunnel measuring 330 ft long. There were rumors from the locals that whatever was down there was not meant to be unearthed and whoever went down there would be poisoned.

Gomez decided to take the risk and went down anyways. He may not have gotten poisoned, but he did realize the locals were partially right in that whatever was down there was meant to stay hidden.

Why?

Because there were 23 walls blocking entry to the rest of the chamber. What could be at the heart of this underground chamber that would warrant erecting 23 walls? Is it for protection or prevention?

What this also meant is that whatever is inside this tunnel has been completely untouched for 2000 years. The last people to enter and seal this tunnel were the Teotihuacán’s.

But, what were Sergio Gomez and his team hoping to find inside this tunnel?

Well, one of the biggest enduring mysteries that archeologists have been trying to unravel is who ruled Teotihuacán?

Some historians believe the area wasn’t ruled by one person, but rather several wealthy families. So, considering the geographical significance of the tunnel, Gomez was hoping to find a tomb that would solve the mystery once and for all.

But there was no tomb discovered in the tunnel.

Or so I thought.

I was so struck by the history of this site and by Jane that I vowed to come back and create a proper Today I Learned Science video. So a year later in during Labor Day 2023, I traveled back to Teotihuacán with all my camera gear and began filming.

It was on this second trip that Jane told me something she didn’t tell me last time…

I’ve captured all of it on camera and more for you to watch here:

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It’s in Cambodia called Angkor Wat. But, how has the largest Hindu temple in the world found a home in the dense jungles of Cambodia?

My initial research told me that Hinduism spread to South East Asia through Indian merchants. This answer didn’t satisfy me in the slightest for one main reason.

Hinduism wasn’t just a long lost piece of Cambodian culture, it was and is still very much a part of their culture.

Despite Buddhism being the predominant religion, the celebration of Hindu deities and awareness of sacred Hindu texts like the Mahabharata and Ramayana are common knowledge. At some points my husband and I joked that Cambodia almost felt more Indian than India.

So I went back to the drawing board and dug harder until I hit research gold.

The reason Hinduism spread to Cambodia is because the very first King of Cambodia was an Indian merchant. Yes, you read that right.

I will list the sources I used for further reading in case anyone is curious, but if you want a fantastic visual of this story please check out Odd Compass’s video. They did a phenomenal job.

Okay onto the story.

In the 1st century CE, a young man named Kaundinya was a wealthy merchant hailing from the Andhra region in Southern India.

He owned merchant vessels called Boitas and filled them with prized Indian and western goods from trade with Ancient Rome, which he would sell to other parts of South East Asia.

The journey from India to the South East was a treacherous one. The typical route involved sailing south along India’s coast line, stopping at trading ports along the way to pick up more goods. The last port would be at Sri Lanka, after which the vessel would cut straight across the Bay of Bengal until it hit somewhere along the South East coastline. This voyage was usually done during monsoon season, so navigating the open ocean in the Bay of Bengal was often under vicious conditions. The heavens opened up and night turned to day with the constant crackling of lightning. Not to mention pirates.

During one of Kaundinya's travels, his goods-filled boita was ambushed by pirates led by a female named Soma. Although Kaundinya bravely fought them off, the pirates still managed to get away with a good loot and Kaundinya’s ship was damaged as a result.

The damage to his vessel meant Kaundinya needed to make an unplanned pitstop somewhere along the banks of the Mekong to issue repairs. While on land, a local chieftain sought Kaundinya and his crew out.

To Kaundinya’s surprise, the local chieftan’s daughter was the female pirate that led his ambush attack. His daughter, Soma, was impressed with Kaundinya’s bravery against her pirates and became smitten with the Indian merchant.

The local chieftain offered Kaundinya his daughter’s hand in marriage. Whether out of fear of angering the local chieftain or wanting to facilitate good relations between the two regions, Kaundinya agreed to the marriage.

The marriage of Kaundinya to Soma is a beacon of Cambodian history, which marks the moment when “a new race emerged and a nation forged” to inaugurate the first true Kingdom in Cambodia, the Funan Kingdom with an Indian sitting on the throne.

But this international marriage was not as random as it may seem

India was the largest economy of the ancient and medieval world from the 1st to the 17th centuries CE, controlling ⅓-¼ of the world’s wealth.

That is a significant amount of wealth, power and control India possessed for nearly 17 centuries.

So tying the knot with an elite member of the wealthiest country in the world at the time was the quickest way to solidify your own region’s power and wealth. And Kaundinya and Soma’s union was far from the last.

From there the Funan Kingdom quickly grew into the mighty Khmer Empire, one of the largest South East Asian Empires to rule. It was under the power of the Khmer Empire that Angkor Wat was born.

But, how did Angkor Wat go from this…

To this?

For decades we had zero answers because there were no surviving records or accounts from Angkor Wat. Most records and manuscripts were written on palm leaves, which don’t keep for that long especially in tropical conditions.

So, nearly seven centuries of history lost to war, looting and time.

But then, historians all the way in China discovered a dusty journal written in August 1296 CE that finally opened a door that everyone believed had been shut forever…

Thank you for being a subscriber of Today I Learned Science! Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to access the rest of the article and support Dr. Bhat’s work. Unlock to reveal more deep dive science & history content!!

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