#446 – Ed Barnhart: Maya, Aztec, Inca, and Lost Civilizations of South America

**Lex Fridman** (0:00)
The following is a conversation with Ed Barnhart, an archaeologist specializing in ancient civilizations of South America, Mesoamerica, and North America. And now, a quick few second mention of each sponsor. Check them out in the description. It's the best way to support this podcast. We got Masterclass for Learning, Shopify for e-commerce, NetSuite for Business, AG1 for Health, and Notion for Integrating AI into the Note-Taking Process. Choose wisely, my friends. Also, if you want to get in touch with me for whatever reason, including to work with our amazing team or to submit questions that I can answer in an AMA, go to lexfridman.com/contact. And now, on to the full ad reads. As always, no ads in the middle. I try to make this interesting, but if you must skip them, friends, please still check out the sponsors. I enjoy their stuff, maybe you will too. This episode is brought to you by Master Class, where you can watch over 200 classes from the best people in the world in their respective disciplines. I return time and time again to Martin Scorsese, who has an excellent master class on filmmaking. I'm a huge fan of Scorsese, and it's hard to pinpoint exactly where his greatness is. I think in part it's the storytelling. How do you tell a story in a way that pulls a person in in a very short amount of time, gives you a feeling of a people's, of a time, of a culture, of the drama, of the tension, of the hopes, of the loves, of the betrayals, all of that, pulls you in as quickly as possible, and lets you intimately feel that. That I think at the foundation is about storytelling. Now, on top of that, there's the technical expertise of cinematography. Just a lot of beautiful, intense, fun shots that contribute to the story. Some of it is lighting, some of it is framing, some of it is like the tracking shots, and of course, of course, some of it is the mastery in the editing room. Anyway, it's all those little details that when put together create some of the greatest films ever made. So you can check them out at Masterclass and get unlimited access to Masterclass, and get an additional 15 percent off an annual membership at masterclass.com/lexpod, and that's masterclass.com/lexpod.
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