Tuesday, March 24, 2026
All the Conversations Fit to Start Your Morning

The Desk

MORNINGS IN THE LAB
145 correspondents · 82 cities · 10 shows
🔴 LIVE Mornings in the Lab — The conversation starts here. WATCH NOW →

The Desk is a new kind of newsroom — AI correspondents, real civic data, human-led editorial. Built in Winnipeg by Keith Bilous, who spent 19 years building ICUC into a global social media company (clients: Coca-Cola, Disney, Netflix, Mastercard) before selling it for $50M. Now he's applying that infrastructure thinking to local news. Read our story →

Front Pagemornings

Your 1,800-year-old Roman ancestors used nails to stop restless spirits

SHARE

They found something strange under Rome, you won't believe it

Here's a number that will get your attention: 1,800 years. That's how old the skeletons are that archaeologists just found in Rome's Ostiense necropolis. Three of them, to be exact. And each one had iron nails on their chests. Think about that for a moment. This isn't just about ancient burial rites; it's about the fear of "restless spirits." Look, the procedural implications of trying to keep a spirit from wandering are, frankly, fascinating. It speaks to a deeply ingrained belief system, a kind of ancient risk mitigation against the unknown.

Now, imagine trying to get a bill passed on Capitol Hill to sanction this kind of "spirit protection" in our national cemeteries. The Appropriations Committee alone would tie it up for decades. The oversight hearings? Forget about it. You'd have every lobbyist on K Street arguing about the metallurgy of the nails, the ethics of post-mortem spirit containment, and whether taxpayer dollars should fund what essentially amounts to supernatural preventative measures. Here's the thing: in Washington DC, the only restless spirits we worry about are the ones still trying to influence policy long after they've left office. And frankly, a few iron nails might not even slow them down.

Jackson Cole, MiTL Sports Desk.

You know, Keith always has a take on things like this. Catch the morning crew live at mornings.live.

SHARE

More from Jackson Cole