Why Eastbound Flights Are Faster, and Other Strange Things About Wind (Simon Winchester)
The Michael Shermer Show
Michael Shermer
4.3 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 22 November 2025
⏱️ 81 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Have you ever thought about the science and history of … wind?
In this episode, Simon Winchester explains why eastbound flights are usually faster than flying west, and how the discovery of the jet stream was almost missed because the original research was published in Esperanto. He also talks about the debate over the Great Terrestrial Stilling—the idea that global wind speeds may be decreasing—and why newer measurements suggest the trend may be reversing.
Winchester describes how and where the highest wind speed ever recorded was measured, the increasing frequency of clear-air turbulence (the kind that causes sudden drops during flights), why only one flag placed on the Moon fell, the techniques used by Polynesian navigators to cross vast stretches of ocean without instruments, and the challenges faced by early wartime pilots who unintentionally flew into the jet stream.
Simon Winchester is the acclaimed author of many books, including The Professor and the Madman, which was adapted into a film starring Mel Gibson and Sean Penn, as well as The Men Who United the United States, The Map That Changed the World, The Man Who Loved China, A Crack in the Edge of the World, and Krakatoa. His books have been New York Times bestsellers and have appeared on numerous best-of-the-year lists. In 2006 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Her Majesty the Queen.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Man hoisted a sail long before he invented a wheel. |
| 0:04.3 | Polynesians, who must rank as the greatest navigators on the planet, |
| 0:08.2 | they invented the Outrigger, which is an extra hull attached to the main hull by horizontal struts. |
| 0:15.0 | It won't, or literally very, very difficult to make it capsize. |
| 0:18.8 | So they could sail very fast, very close to the wind. |
| 0:22.6 | And they, using Houtriggers, went thousands of miles. |
| 0:26.6 | And if you've been to the Pacific, it's, there are very few islands, huge distances to cover between them. |
| 0:33.8 | How did these people do this? |
| 0:35.3 | It's just astonishing. |
| 0:42.3 | Oh. between them. How did these people do this? It's just astonishing. All right, everybody, it's time for another episode of the Michael Shermer show. My guest today is the legendary author |
| 0:47.5 | Simon Winchester, the author of many acclaimed New York Times bestselling books that you'll be familiar with, |
| 0:55.5 | including The Professor and the Madman, which was made into a motion picture. |
| 1:01.0 | The men who united the states, the map that changed the world, the man who loved China, a crack in the edge of the world, |
| 1:09.9 | the perfectionists, how the precision engineers |
| 1:13.6 | created the modern world, knowing what we know, the transmission of knowledge from ancient |
| 1:19.1 | wisdom to modern magic, which he was on the show before. |
| 1:22.8 | So he's our returning champion. |
| 1:25.3 | Crackatoa, I think that was the first book I read of your, Simon. |
| 1:28.4 | Crackatoa, another great one. |
| 1:31.7 | But here's the new book, The Breath of the Gods, |
| 1:35.3 | the History and Future of the Wind. |
| 1:38.4 | Simon, you're the only person I know that could take a subject like the wind, |
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