Richard Vaughan Live 15/06/2026

Damian Moya, the beloved Spanish comedian known as Barrancas from El Hormiguero, reveals the surprising origins of his first novel, *Jano y el Talisman del Trueno*, in a candid conversation with Richard Vaughan. What began as a personal quest to understand why September isn’t the seventh month led Moya down a labyrinth of ancient history, mythology, and secret societies—culminating in a high-stakes thriller that blends the Punic Wars, Greek gods, and real-world mysteries like the magic square in Sagrada Familia. The book, he admits, was born during his wife’s pregnancy, with the protagonist’s name evolving from 'Hugo' to 'Jano' as the story demanded it. Moya argues that truth is dangerous—not because it’s shocking, but because it disrupts comfortable narratives. He believes in a single, objective truth and sees mythology not as fiction but as encoded wisdom, with gods like Zeus, Jupiter, and Thor representing the same universal forces. His next book will explore the radical theory that the Iliad and Odyssey were not set in the Mediterranean but in the Baltic, supported by archaeological evidence like amber in Mycenaean tombs and weather patterns described in the epics that match northern Europe. The novel is both a page-turner and a deep dive into history, with Moya admitting he initially overwrote it with too much information—so much so that his wife and publisher forced him to lighten it.