Indiana Jones has nothing on Professor Gerardo Aldana, who served as a consultant and earned a role in the super-hero blockbuster Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Adventure! Intrigue! NDAs! What a glamorous way for Schooled Radio to end the year.

Gerardo Aldana is professor of Chicana/o Studies at UC Santa Barbara. He is the author of Calculating Brilliance: an intellectual history of Mayan astronomy at Chich'en Itza, and The Apotheosis of Janaab Pakal: Science, History and Religion at Classic Maya Palenque, among other books and articles. Professor Aldana's academic intervention has been to introduce a history-of-science-based approach to the study of Ancient Mayan astronomy. Following methods developed to study modern and ancient sciences, he investigates astronomical records relative to their historical, political, religious, and economic contexts in addition to reconstructing their internal logic and quantitative utility.