Goliath of the Seas: The Seawise Giant and the Quest for the Largest Ship Artwork

Intellectually Curious

Intellectually Curious is a podcast by Mike Breault featuring over 1,600 AI-powered explorations across science, mathematics, philosophy, and personal growth. Each short-form episode is generated, refined, and published with the help of large language models—turning curiosity into an ongoing audio encyclopedia. Designed for anyone who loves learning, it offers quick dives into everything from combinatorics and cryptography to systems thinking and psychology.

Inspiration for this podcast:

"Muad'Dib learned rapidly because his first training was in how to learn. And the first lesson of all was the basic trust that he could learn. It's shocking to find how many people do not believe they can learn, and how many more believe learning to be difficult. Muad'Dib knew that every experience carries its lesson."

― Frank Herbert, Dune

Note: These podcasts were made with NotebookLM. AI can make mistakes. Please double-check any critical information.

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Intellectually Curious

Goliath of the Seas: The Seawise Giant and the Quest for the Largest Ship

January 18, 2026 • Mike Breault

We dive into the Seawise Giant—the largest self-propelled ship ever built—and unpack how its unprecedented size challenged physics, engineering, and economics. From a doomed first life to a salvaged giant that spent years as a floating storage hub, this episode reveals how crews engineered around hogging, sagging, and global chokepoints like Suez and Panama. Along the way, we ask what the pursuit of ultimate size teaches us about design, risk, and the future of big systems.

Note: This podcast was AI-generated, and sometimes AI can make mistakes. Please double-check any critical information.