When I think about curiosity, one of the people I think of most is John Quincy Adams.

The son of John Adams, he grew up with every advantage. An intellectual giant, he founded the national observatory, championed the Smithsonian, and loved science. Adams became the sixth U.S. president in 1824. By every measure of his time, he was a scholar-statesman who believed in the power of knowledge.

Strangely, Adams also approved an expedition to explore the inside of the Earth. The project was the brainchild of John Cleves Symmes, Jr., an Army officer who spent years repopularizing the Hollow Earth theory. Symmes lectured, published and lobbied Congress for funding to prove his theory. Legislators balked, but Adams signed off.

The mission never launched. By the time the planning began, Andrew Jackson had taken office and swiftly killed the idea. The Hollow Earth premise soon faded into obscurity.

Historians say there’s no evidence Adams believed the Earth was hollow. More likely, he was willing to push past conventional thinking, even at the risk of being wrong. Pushing past conventional thinking inspires this episode, one song at a time.

Playlist

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Autechre
NTS Session 4
Warp Records