Podcasts about Pleistocene

In this soft-spoken bedtime story, I tell you about cats: their evolutionary history from the first Felidae to domestic cats, their species, their characteristics, and how they live. We will review extinct genera and species, such as Proailurus or the well-known saber-toothed cats from the Pleistocene, and many extant species: tigers, lions (and their hybrids: ligers and tigons), jaguars, leopards, cougars, cheetahs, lynxes, and the various representatives of the genus Felis, including the domestic cat. This podcast is entirely scripted and recorded by real people, it includes no AI, and mid-roll ad breaks are turned off so that you can relax without interruption. #sleep #documentary #bedtimestory #asmr #sleepstory #cats #history Welcome to Lights Out Library Join me for a sleepy adventure tonight. Sit back, relax, and fall asleep to documentary-style bedtime stories read in a calming ASMR voice. Learn something new while you enjoy a restful night of sleep. Listen ad free and get access to bonus content on our Patreon: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/LightsOutLibrary621⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Enjoy my audiobook on Ancient Egyptian History, Myths & Mysteries: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/6mCqX5FoO6uCilrWCS8mB9?si=e1ecb983d2534d69⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Listen on Youtube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@LightsOutLibraryov⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠   ¿Quieres escuchar en Español? Echa un vistazo a La Biblioteca de los Sueños! En Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/1t522alsv5RxFsAf9AmYfg⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ En Apple Podcasts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/la-biblioteca-de-los-sue%C3%B1os-documentarios-para-dormir/id1715193755⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ En Youtube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@LaBibliotecadelosSuenosov⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"The field recording and the satellite timelapse I chose speak of hydro-power, energy and discontinuity, they tell the story of a voice fragmented, amplified and impeded. There is magic and mystery in the life of these ancient water-beings. Is a river a portal? Is the myth still alive?"Artist and researcher Elizabeth Gallon Drosde introduces us to the submerged at the beginning of the composition. Rivers are story tellers, they are memory. If we deep listen, we might commune with ghosts and tune our bodies to their whispers, we might become a vibration."The sound of wind accompanying this first part and the end of the piece is played on violin by violinist Ida Di Vita (Quartetto Indaco). A long whistle, the primordial element of air swirling and hissing."Later on I join the flow and embody the river, its deep ancestral sound. My poem and my pitched voice in English are there to remind us of the history of this more-than-human being, its force and path, its hunger. "Mystery and magic, and the Lech rivers in reverse. I proceed in Italian overlapping my reversed voice. I get hungrier and hungrier and I go deeper and deeper, till pressure slows down, till noise recedes.Composition:original field recording by Riccardo Fumagalliwind sound by violinist Ida di Vita (Quartetto Indaco)intro poem 'In the interstices of river-portals' by Elizabeth Gallon DrosdeEnglish/Italian poem 'In the Arms of Weirs' by Ilaria BoffaSound effects, mixing and production by Ilaria BoffaPoem, In the Arms of Weirs'Deep-voiced white noiseprogression of pressure spinning of shhh, turmoil.It's all you can feel in the fall. It's good to be at serviceto move downwards and collectto come a long way acrossthe Pleistocene moraines the edge of Alps and gravel fieldsto accumulate in the arms of weirs.But I've seen algae disappearunder the law of no fish pass. I get hungrier and hungrierI go deeper and deeperas to search for the Styxas to swear by her water.Way less than a good mothermy spawning grounds in degradationmy current impeded, my voicebroken, a life to gauge.Flow continuity hiccups with drawn-out hisses and roarsit self-renders into a different languageit loosens and rivers in reverse.' Poem, Is a River a Portal?'Living between languages, between the here and therelearning to become fluvial,finding shores to breathe on,more than a beginning or an end.The portal, the waters, dams.To remember with water is to submerge in the threshold —this is how the river becomes a practice, a way of moving,a framework for transitionsin the interstices,Linking us to the collective,to the territories that lie beyond, deeper.Listening to the waters between the here and there,becomes a space for what resists being said,a gesture of attention,where meaning slips through,without words.Communing with the ghostsrivers always testify, are storytellersthis means tuning our bodies to their whispersa hum, a vibration, an interference.'Section of the river Lech reimagined by Ilaria Boffa. -------Flow is a creative exploration telling the story of a river through the power of sound. The project is a collaboration between the University of Padova and the University of Würzburg, with support from Cities and Memory. Explore the full project at https://citiesandmemory.com/flow.

I took this episode from an article I wrote for Flying Snake magazine, which was published in December 2020 (Vol. 6, #18). Show transcript: Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I'm your host, Kate Shaw. The Great Smoky Mountains is a subrange of the Appalachian Mountains, which stretches from the middle of Alabama in the United States north into southeastern Canada. The Appalachians formed when the world's continents crunched together to form the supercontinent Pangaea. The southern Appalachians formed separately and later than the northern Appalachians, around 270 million years ago. The Appalachians were once as high as the Rockies or Himalayas, but by the time the dinosaurs went extinct, they had eroded down to the mountain cores. Sediment weathered from the peaks and filled in valleys. But during the Pleistocene, when massive glaciers covered the northern parts of North America, the weight of the ice pushed the North American plate down, causing the southern part of the plate to rise. Eventually the ancient mountains' roots were a thousand feet (300 m) above sea level again. Rivers that once flowed east into the Atlantic Ocean or west into the remains of the shallow Western Interior Seaway shifted their courses to flow northward. Streams that once meandered across the land now plunged down steep slopes and dug gorges into the rock. And over thousands of years, animals and plants retreating from the ice migrated southward along the mountain range. When the climate warmed some 11,000 years ago and the ice age glaciers melted, many cold-adapted species were trapped in the peaks of the southern Appalachians. One of the highest peaks is Mount LeConte, with its highest point, High Top, measured at 6,593 ft, or 2,010 meters. I hiked Mount LeConte on 7 May, 2016 when the weather in nearby Knoxville, Tennessee was a warm 82 Fahrenheit, or 27.8 Celcius, but there was snow on the mountain that morning. I wrote my name in it. A spruce-fir forest grows on the upper slopes, a remnant of forest that grew throughout the mountains during the last ice age. The climate at the peak of Mount LeConte is more like that of southern Canada than the warm, humid southeastern United States. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park was established in 1934 to protect the mountains along the Tennessee/North Carolina border. No one lives in the park's 800 square miles (2,072 square km), which receives up to 90 inches [2.29 m] of rain a year, some of it from hurricanes that sweep up from the southern Atlantic or the Gulf of Mexico. Large tracts of old-growth forest still remain in the park too. So as you can see, the Smokies are a biodiversity hotspot. In 2018, the park announced its 1,000th species discovered that is new to science, which by July 2020 had grown to 1,025. Overall, 20,000 known species live in the park as of 2019 and scientists estimate that up to 100,000 more are yet to be discovered. The Smokies are heavily forested, of course, but some mountain summits and crests have no trees. Instead, native grasses and shrubs grow. They're called grassy balds and no one is sure why they exist. The prevailing theory is that Pleistocene megaherbivores opened the forests for grazing, and after their extinction, the balds remained open due to bison, elk (wapiti), and deer. When white settlers moved into the area, they used the balds to graze cattle and other livestock. Remains of mammoth and mastodon, musk ox, ground sloth, and other megaherbivores have been excavated from various balds throughout the park. Amphibian enthusiasts call the Smokies the Salamander Capital of the World, with 30 known species. Largest of these is the hellbender, which we talked about in episode 14, a giant salamander that can grow nearly 2 ½ feet long, or 74 cm, and which lives in swift-moving mountain streams. It's most closely related to the Chinese and Japanese giant salamanders, which can grow over twice as long as the hellbender. Twenty-seven of the salamanders found in the Smokies are lungless, in the family Plethodontidae. Instead of breathing with lungs or gills, the lungless salamanders absorb oxygen through their skin. Of these, the red-cheeked salamander is endemic to the Smokies—that is, it's found nowhere else in the world. The red-cheeked salamander lives in forests in high elevations. It can grow up to seven inches long, or 18 cm, and is gray or black with bright red patches on its face. It spends the day in a burrow, then comes out at night to find insects in the leaf litter. But it's hard to tell apart from the imitator salamander, although the imitator only grows a little over four inches long, or 11 cm. The imitator has red cheeks but its body is patterned black and brown instead of solid gray or black. Sometimes its cheeks are yellow, too, while the red-cheeked salamander only ever has red cheeks. Another animal found only in the Smoky Mountains, although it may also be present in mountains outside of the park, is a species of jeweled spider fly called Mary-Alice's emerald (Eulonchus marialiciae). Mary-Alice's emerald has a metallic-green body and yellow legs, and the adults eat nectar. But the larvae eat spiders. Specifically, they parasitize spiders. After hatching, the larva goes in search of a spider, especially trapdoor spiders that live in burrows. When it finds one, it works its way into the spider's body and eats it from the inside out, eventually killing it. Then it pupates in the burrow and emerges as an adult spider fly. It prefers high elevations that are cool and moist. A less horrific animal found in the Smokies is the Carolina northern flying squirrel. It was one of the species whose ancestors migrated south along the Appalachians during the Pleistocene. Then, after temperatures started to warm, the cold-adapted flying squirrel migrated north again. Some populations remained on mountaintops in the Smoky Mountains and have been isolated for thousands of years, evolving into a subspecies of flying squirrel found only in high elevations of the Smokies. It's much rarer than the southern flying squirrel that lives throughout the southeastern United States, and prefers spruce forests instead of the hardwood forests that southern flying squirrels like. But the spruce forests are threatened by climate change, the introduced woolly adelgid insect that kills fir trees, and pollution in the form of acid rain and pesticides that travel to the mountains from other states and even other countries. The Carolina northern flying squirrel has a patagium of furry skin that connects its front and back legs. When it jumps from a branch, it stretches its legs out and uses the patagia to glide to a new perch. It's clumsy on the ground, though, and spends most of its time in trees. It mostly eats fungi, mushrooms, and lichens, but will also eat nuts, insects, bird eggs and even baby birds, and other plant material like tree sap and buds. Bobcats still live in the Smokies, but the cougar, or mountain lion, was supposedly killed off in the area by the end of the 19th century. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removed the eastern cougar subspecies from the endangered species list in 2018, since it is supposed to be extinct. The last cougar in what is now the park was supposedly killed in 1920. But sightings continue in the Smokies, close to a dozen a year, and some sightings are compelling, like the 2002 report of a cougar crossing a road in the park, spotted by a veterinarian who treated captive cougars in his practice. Considering how seldom seen the bobcat is despite it being relatively abundant, it's possible that a small number of cougars still live in the park—either animals that have moved back into the mountains from elsewhere, or a relict population. The red wolf is native to the eastern United States and was once common in the Smoky Mountains, but was killed off by white settlers throughout most of its range. Where it remained in the wild, it interbred with closely related coyotes, until it was declared extinct in the wild in 1980. Fortunately, by then a captive breeding program was in place. Starting in 1991, 37 red wolves were released in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee, following the release of 63 red wolves into the Alligator River Natural Area in North Carolina a few years earlier. But the release didn't go well in the Smokies. Wolves are shy and need enormous territories with lots of game. Before long some wolves were leaving the park and attacking livestock. Others died of parvo virus, especially wolf pups. Worse, this was about the same time that coyotes moved into the area from the west. The wolves started interbreeding with the coyotes, and the coyotes also competed with the wolves for food. In 1998, the Fish and Wildlife Service ended the program and recaptured all but one of the wolves originally released into the park. The North Carolina release went better, with a population peak in 2006 estimated at nearly 130 wolves. But that program was suspended in 2015, and without management of the wild population, the number has dwindled. As of 2019, only 14 wolves remain in North Carolina—and that's the entire population of red wolves in the wild. But sightings of red wolves continue in the Smokies. The trouble is that the red wolf looks very similar to the coyote. It's taller and larger, with a more pronounced reddish shade to its coat, but even experts can have trouble telling the two species apart if they can't get a good look at the animal. Most likely people are seeing coyotes, possibly ones descended from red wolf/coyote hybrids born during the reintroduction program. The biggest mystery in the park is the occasional sighting of a Bigfoot-type creature. Most sightings are probably bears, though. An estimated 1,500 American black bears live in the Smokies, and while some bears get used to hikers and tourists, most are shy and seldom seen. A black bear keeping an eye on hikers or cars will sometimes stand on its hind legs for a better view, and would naturally look like a hulking humanoid if glimpsed. But other sightings aren't so easy to explain. In February of 2009, a photographer named Deb Campbell was hiking the Middle Prong Trail in the snow. The Middle Prong Trail passes three major waterfalls and many smaller ones as it follows along a tributary of the Little River. She had the trail almost completely to herself—she says she only saw one person the whole time. Later she reported, “[A]t some point I am photographing along the stream and I start to smell a gawd awful stench. Not really like anything I had ever smelled before. I look around, see nothing, listen intently…nothing. So I finish up at that spot and go further up the trail.” The smell receded behind her but the snow increased, so finally she turned around to hike out. Around the area where she smelled the stink earlier, she started feeling watched. She stopped long enough to secure her camera gear for much faster hiking in slick conditions, when she heard a deep growl that she described as “very low, not like a cat, almost guttural.” Needless to say, she got off the mountain as quickly as possible. The black bear doesn't truly hibernate since its body temperature remains normal instead of dropping, but it does find a den in cold weather and will sleep for long stretches. It may emerge from its den occasionally during the winter during warm spells, but for the most part it's asleep in its den from around November through March in the Smoky Mountains. But Campbell was hiking in February during a snowfall, with snow already on the ground. A bear would most likely not be out of its den in that weather unless it had been disturbed. And bears don't actually smell bad. During the winter hibernation most bears don't defecate at all. Any feces left in a bear's digestive tract harden to form a fecal plug. If it does feel the need to defecate near the end of the winter, it will do so just outside its den, but the fecal plug has very little odor. Even under ordinary conditions, unless a bear has been eating carrion, it will smell no worse than a dog that needs a bath. Not only that, black bears don't actually growl. They make grunty, huffing noises when warning people away or when males fight in the summer, and a frightened bear will moan, but they don't growl like a dog. It's possible that Campbell hiked past a bear that had emerged from its den early and had found and eaten carrion, possibly roadkill, and that she was so close to the bear without seeing it that she smelled its breath. That's almost more frightening than the thought of passing near a Bigfoot. The growl might have come from a different animal, a coyote or who knows, maybe even a red wolf. Or Campbell might have encountered a creature sometimes called a skunk ape due to its foul odor. The skunk ape is most commonly reported in Florida swamps, but sightings—or smellings—have come from many other states. The smell is sometimes described as that of rotting food and roadkill on a hot day. A bear or other animal that has been rooting around in garbage bins can pick up this odor, especially in hot weather, but it's hard to believe that a bear would be actively foraging so much in winter that it would smell like trash. January and February are the depths of winter in East Tennessee. The bears are hibernating, not foraging. Thanks for your support, and thanks for listening! This is what a couple of fighting bears sound like: [bear sounds]

In evolutionary terms, the last Ice Age was just yesterday. We narrowly missed witnessing creatures like woolly mammoths, short-faced bears, glyptodons, and dire wolves. The late Pleistocene, spanning roughly 50,000 to 12,000 years ago, is marked by the extinction of most large terrestrial animals outside of Africa, likely driven by a combination of climate change and the expansion of modern humans. In this conversation, I speak with paleontologist and Associate Professor of Anatomy at Des Moines University, Julie Meachen. She leads ongoing research at Natural Trap Cave, where she and her team excavate Ice Age mammals each summer. Their work aims to understand how climate change influenced both the morphology and genetics of these animals. By analyzing microfaunal remains and pollen records, they also reconstruct Pleistocene climate conditions in mid-latitude North America. Recently, colossal bioscience announced what it described as the “de-extinction” of the dire wolf. While that claim did not fully hold up, the underlying science is still remarkable. In our discussion, Julie explains what we know about the late Pleistocene ecosystem at the time of the dire wolf's extinction, and what fossil evidence reveals about these animals. We also examine Colossal's announcement, considering whether it was aimed less at the scientific community and more at the public and potential investors. Viewed in that light, the real value of reviving charismatic species like the woolly mammoth or dire wolf may not lie in the animals themselves. Instead, their greatest contribution could be as ambassadors, capturing public imagination and helping drive the development of technologies for genetic rescue and conservation. ►Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/c4lvsreJ-WU ►You can find out more about Julie's work here: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=-hdi3IUAAAAJ&hl=en https://www.dmu.edu/directory/profile/julie-meachen/

Climate refugia can provide unique opportunities for plants (and more) to persist for long periods of time in otherwise inhospitable areas. They have and will continue to shape biodiversity across the globe but understanding them isn't easy. Join me and Dr. Ashley Hillman as we look at how one of the greatest lakes of them all - Lake Superior - has shaped the distribution of Arctic plant species since the Pleistocene and what this can teach us about climate change and species distributions moving into the future. This episode was produced in part by Andy, S Heller, Drewsophila, Sascha, Kim, Tanya, Neil, Matthew, April, Dana, Lilith, Sanza, Eva, Yellowroot, Wisewren, Nadia, Heidi, Blake, Josh, Laure, R.J., Carly, Lucia, Dana, Sarah, Lauren, Strych Mind, Linda, Sylvan, Austin, Sarah, Ethan, Elle, Steve, Cassie, Chuck, Aaron, Gillian, Abi, Rich, Shad, Maddie, Owen, Linda, Alana, Sigma, Max, Richard, Maia, Rens, David, Robert, Thomas, Valerie, Joan, Mohsin Kazmi Photography, Cathy, Simon, Nick, Paul, Charis, EJ, Laura, Sung, NOK, Stephen, Heidi, Kristin, Luke, Sea, Shannon, Thomas, Will, Jamie, Waverly, Brent, Tanner, Rick, Kazys, Dorothy, Katherine, Emily, Theo, Nichole, Paul, Karen, Randi, Caelan, Tom, Don, Susan, Corbin, Keena, Robin, Peter, Whitney, Kenned, Margaret, Daniel, Karen, David, Earl, Jocelyn, Gary, Krysta, Elizabeth, Southern California Carnivorous Plant Enthusiasts, Pattypollinators, Peter, Judson, Ella, Alex, Dan, Pamela, Peter, Andrea, Nathan, Karyn, Michelle, Jillian, Chellie, Linda, Laura, Miz Holly, Christie, Carlos, Paleo Fern, Levi, Sylvia, Lanny, Ben, Lily, Craig, Sarah, Lor, Monika, Brandon, Jeremy, Suzanne, Kristina, Christine, Silas, Michael, Aristia, Felicidad, Lauren, Danielle, Allie, Jeffrey, Amanda, Tommy, Marcel, C Leigh, Karma, Shelby, Christopher, Alvin, Arek, Chellie, Dani, Paul, Dani, Tara, Elly, Colleen, Natalie, Nathan, Ario, Laura, Cari, Margaret, Mary, Connor, Nathan, Jan, Jerome, Brian, Azomonas, Ellie, University Greens, Joseph, Melody, Patricia, Matthew, Garrett, John, Ashley, Cathrine, Melvin, OrangeJulian, Porter, Jules, Griff, Joan, Megan, Marabeth, Les, Ali, Southside Plants, Keiko, Robert, Bryce, Wilma, Amanda, Helen, Mikey, Michelle, German, Joerg, Cathy, Tate, Steve, Kae, Carole, Mr. Keith Santner, Lynn, Aaron, Sara, Kenned, Brett, Jocelyn, Ethan, Sheryl, Runaway Goldfish, Ryan, Chris, Alana, Rachel, Joanna, Lori, Paul, Griff, Matthew, Bobby, Vaibhav, Steven, Joseph, Brandon, Liam, Hall, Jared, Brandon, Christina, Carly, Kazys, Stephen, Katherine, Manny, doeg, Daniel, Tim, Philip, Tim, Lisa, Brodie, Bendix, Irene, holly, Sara, and Margie.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Academic SummaryResearchers investigated whether birch tar—a well-known adhesive used by Neanderthals—possessed medicinal properties that could have supported prehistoric healthcare. By recreating Middle Palaeolithic production methods, the study demonstrated that birch tar has selective antibacterial effects against Staphylococcus aureus, a bacterium notorious for causing wound and skin infections. The antibacterial efficacy was found to be independent of the extraction method used, suggesting that medicinal benefits were an inherent affordance of the material's production for tool-making. These scientific results mirror the traditional ecological knowledge of Indigenous communities, such as the Mi'kmaq, who use birch bark oil (maskwio'mi) as a traditional skin remedy. Ultimately, this research provides explicit data supporting the existence of a "structure of care" in the Pleistocene, where complex pyrotechnology served both technological and life-saving medicinal needs#NeanderthalMedicine #BirchTar #PrehistoricScience #AncientAntibiotics #Archaeology #EvolutionaryBiology #STEM #IndigenousKnowledge #TheCatalyst #HistoryUncoveredFormal CitationSiemssen T, Oludare A, Schemmel M, Puschmann J, Bierenstiel M. Antibacterial properties of experimentally produced birch tar and its medicinal affordances in the Pleistocene. PLoS One. 2026;21(3):e0343618. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0343618.Medical & Legal DisclaimerThis content is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. This research involves experimental and historical recreations and should not be attempted at home. Alchepharma,Ralph Turchiano,citation,research,study,Neanderthal medicine,birch tar,birch bark oil,maskwio'mi,Staphylococcus aureus,Pleistocene healthcare,Middle Palaeolithic technology,ancient antibiotics,prehistoric adhesive,Betula pendula,Betula pubescens,wound care history,Indigenous medicine,antimicrobial properties,Kirby-Bauer assay,zone of inhibition,Gram-positive bacteria,prehistoric chemistry,pyrotechnology,ancient pharmacy,STEM educationNARRATOR: Ralph TurchianoANALYSIS: Gemini

fWotD Episode 3262: Ojos del Salado Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia's finest articles.The featured article for Friday, 10 April 2026, is Ojos del Salado.Nevado Ojos del Salado is a dormant complex volcano in the Andes on the Argentina–Chile border. It is the highest volcano on Earth and the highest peak in Chile. The upper reaches of Ojos del Salado consist of several overlapping lava domes, lava flows and volcanic craters, with sparse ice cover. The complex extends over an area of 70–160 square kilometres (27–62 mi2) and its highest summit reaches an altitude of 6,893 metres (22,615 ft) above sea level. Numerous other volcanoes rise around Ojos del Salado.Being close to the Arid Diagonal of South America, the mountain has extremely dry conditions, which prevent the formation of substantial glaciers and a permanent snow cover. Despite the arid climate, there is a permanent crater lake about 100 m (330 ft) in diameter at an elevation of 6,480–6,500 metres (21,260–21,330 ft) within the summit crater and east of the main summit. This is the highest lake of any kind in the world. Owing to its altitude and the desiccated climate, the mountain lacks vegetation.Ojos del Salado was volcanically active during the Pleistocene and Holocene, during which it mainly produced lava flows. Activity was in two phases and a depression or caldera formed in the course of its growth. The volcano was also impacted by eruptions of its neighbour to the west, Nevado Tres Cruces. The last eruption occurred around 750 CE; steam emissions observed in November 1993 may have constituted another eruptive event.An international highway between Argentina and Chile crosses north of the mountain. Ojos del Salado can be ascended from both countries; the first ascent was made in 1937 by Jan Alfred Szczepański and Justyn Wojsznis, members of a Polish expedition in the Andes. During the middle of the 20th century there was a debate on whether Ojos del Salado or Aconcagua was the highest mountain in South America, which was eventually resolved in favour of Aconcagua.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 02:10 UTC on Friday, 10 April 2026.For the full current version of the article, see Ojos del Salado on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm standard Russell.

25,000 to 12,000 years ago ... Human life was gradually changing across Africa at the end of the Pleistocene. One element of this transformation was a shift in what people ate.Support the show

We have some sad news to share....but also a great episode about the most recent slice of Earth's history; the Pleistocene Epoch a.k.a. The Ice Age.Fia's webinar series: https://sites.google.com/ufl.edu/nature-coast-currents/homeLink to cool graphic Gavin mentioned: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milankovitch_cycles#/media/File:Five_Myr_Climate_Change.svgDonate to Archive.org if you can: https://archive.org/donateFia just published a new paper! Check it out here: https://peerj.com/articles/19346/Palaeocast Gaming Network video Gavin made about the new some paleontology D&D stuff: https://youtu.be/0n7FfTmcaRU?si=CqeuBjO5x1ElXIXJ⁠YouTube Channel⁠: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbKAuMrj_7PUI0GqU9QQnhg

Is there life on Europa? We take a look at Greenland and Antarctica to find out more about life on Jupiter’s icy moon. Further reading: Life on Venus claim faces strongest challenge yet Stanford researchers’ explanation for formation of abundant features on Europa bodes well for search for extraterrestrial life  Show transcript: Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I'm your host, Kate Shaw. Today we're going to learn about the potential of life on Europa, a moon of Jupiter! To do that we'll need to look at some extreme life on Earth too. Back in September 2020, we talked about potential signs of life in the atmosphere of Venus, which excited me a whole lot. As a follow-up to that episode, further studies suggest that signs of phosphine detected in Venus's atmosphere, which might be produced by life, may actually just be sulfur dioxide (not a sign of life). But while it's not looking likely that phosphine is actually found in Venus's atmosphere, so far no studies can completely rule it out. So, maybe. Venus isn't the only part of our solar system where life might exist outside of Earth, though. Astronomers have been speculating about Europa for a long time. The planet Jupiter is a gas giant that has at least 80 moons, but Europa is the one that's closest to the planet. It's only a little bit smaller than our own moon. Europa has an atmosphere, mostly made up of oxygen but so thin that if you could magically appear on the moon, you wouldn't be able to breathe. Also, you would freeze to death almost immediately. It's a dense moon, so astronomers think it's probably mostly made up of silicate rock, which is what Earth is mostly made up of, along with Mars, Venus, Mercury, and a lot of moons. If you've ever looked at our moon through a telescope or binoculars, you know it has lots of impact craters on its surface caused by asteroid strikes in the past. Europa doesn't have very many craters—in fact, its surface is incredibly smooth except for what look like cracks all over it. It's mostly pale in color, but the cracks are reddish-orange or brown. The cause of the cracks has been a mystery ever since astronomers got the first good look at Europa. Many astronomers think these cracks are where warm material from below the surface erupted through the crust, sort of like what happens where lava oozes up on Earth and forms oceanic ridges. But on Europa, the material breaking through the crust isn't lava, it's ice—but ice that isn't as cold as the surface ice. You know you're on a cold, cold moon when ice that's close to freezing instead of way below freezing can act like lava. The surface of Europa is about 110 kelvin at the equator and even colder at the poles. That's -260 F or -160 C. The exciting thing is that researchers are pretty sure the surface of Europa is icy but that the crust lies over a deep saltwater ocean that covers the entire moon. Yes, an ocean! As Europa orbits Jupiter, the planet's gravity pulls at the moon, while the smaller gravity fields of the other nearest moons also pull on Europa in other directions. This push and pull causes tides that help warm the ocean and keep it from freezing solid. The brown coloration in the moon's cracks may be due to mineral salts from the water that get leached up through the cracks after warm ice breaks through, assuming that's what is actually happening to cause the cracks. Astronomers even have images of Europa taken by space probes that show what look like water plumes erupting through the surface and shooting up an estimated 120 miles high, or 200 km. But new studies suggest that the water plumes might not be from the ocean. They might be from pockets of water that form within the crust itself, which grow larger until they burst out through the crust. This is even more exciting when it comes to potential life on the moon, because it suggests that the crust isn't just a big block of ice. It's a dynamic system that might harbor life instead of all potential life on Europa being restricted to the ocean. But to learn more about Europa, we have to come back to Earth and examine the island of Greenland. Most of Greenland is covered with a permanent ice sheet like the ones found in Antarctica, but it's a lot easier to study than Antarctica. One feature seen in the ice sheet is something called a double ridge, shaped sort of like a capital letter M. It's caused when the ice fractures around pressurized water that forms inside the ice sheet and refreezes. This is caused when water from streams and lakes on the surface finds its way into the ice. The double ridge can look like a crack. New pictures of the cracks on Europa's surface look just like Greenland's double ridges, but much bigger. My explanation of all this is extremely clumsy, because this is a really complex mechanism. Researchers only figured it out because some of the team had been studying Greenland's double ridges for a completely different project, and noticed the similarities. There's a link in the show notes to an article about this phenomenon if you want to learn more. The Greenland ice sheet is over a mile thick. In 1966, the U.S. Army drilled into the ice to see what was under it, and the answer is dirt, as you might have expected. They took a 15-foot, or 4.5 meter, core sample and stuck it in a freezer, where everyone promptly forgot about it for 51 years. At some point it ended up in Denmark, where someone noticed it in 2017. In 2019, the frozen core sample was finally studied by scientists. They expected to find mostly sand and rock. Instead, it was full of beautifully fossilized leaves and other plant material. The main reason scientists were so surprised to find leaves and soil instead of just rock is that ice is really heavy, and it moves—slowly, but a mile-thick sheet of ice cannot be stopped. If you listened to the recent episode in the main feed about the rewilding of Scotland, you may remember that Scotland doesn't have a lot of fossils from the Pleistocene because it was covered in glaciers that scoured the soil and everything in it down to bedrock, destroying everything in its path. But this hasn't happened in Greenland, even though the sample was taken from an area only about 800 miles, or 1,290 km, from the North Pole. Where the ice sheet now is, there used to be a forest. Obviously, the ice sheet hasn't always covered Greenland. Research is ongoing, but a study of the sediment published in 2021 indicates that Greenland was ice free within the last million years, and possibly as recently as a few hundred thousand years. All this is interesting, but it's very different from Europa, whose ice sheets have probably been in place almost from the moon's formation. What kind of life can live on, in, or under ice sheets? On Earth, at least, a lot of organisms live on glaciers. Most are tiny or microscopic, including a type of algae that grows on top of ice, bacteria that live pretty much everywhere, including inside ice crystals, and microbes of various kinds. But there are some larger organisms, including glacial copepods, snow fleas, glacial midges, and the ice worms we talked about in episode 185 that live on glaciers in the Pacific Northwest. Most likely, life on Europa will be tiny too. Researchers hypothesize that there could be microbial life living deep within the ice or in the pockets of melted water that develop inside it. There might be microbial mats or algae-type organisms that live on the underside of the ice, anchored there but able to extract nutrients from the ocean water. But obviously, Europa's ocean is where most life will probably be found, assuming it's there. While there's no environment quite like Europa's to be found on Earth, since Earth is so close to the sun and nice and warm in comparison, parts of the deep sea are somewhat similar. Lots of animals live around hydrothermal vents, where volcanic activity breaks through the ocean floor and superheats water in small areas. Invertebrates of all kinds have adapted to live between boiling hot water and frigid deep-sea water, where absolutely no sunlight has ever reached. Animals like giant tube worms can grow nearly 10 feet long, or 3 meters, and don't actually eat anything. Instead, they have symbiotic bacteria that provide them with all the nutrients they need while in turn, the bacteria get a safe place to live. When the intensely heated, mineral-rich water of a hydrothermal vent comes in contact with cold water, it causes all sorts of chemical reactions. That's what fuels most of the life around the vents. There are even some fish that live around hydrothermal vents, including the cutthroat eel that can grow over 5 feet long, or 1.6 meters. They're bottom-dwelling deep-sea eels that live worldwide, but they spend time around hydrothermal vents to eat some of the other animals that live there exclusively. There's even a type of bacteria found at one vent off the coast of Mexico that uses the faint light emitted by lava deep within the vent for photosynthesis. All other known photosynthesizing organisms use the sun as a light source. Scientists think that Europa has hydrothermal vents similar to the ones on Earth. Since at least some researchers think life on Earth got its start around hydrothermal vents, it wouldn't be surprising if life forms also live around Europa's vents. But that doesn't mean that life could only live around the vents. In 2018, a team of scientists in Antarctica bored through the ice sheet and took a sample from the sea floor far below the ice to see if anything lived there. Since this was in the middle of the ice sheet with absolutely no sunlight or open ocean within a million square kilometers, they didn't expect to find much. When they gave the sample to marine biologist David Barnes to examine, and he got a first look at it, initially he actually thought they'd pulled a practical joke on him. There was no way this one small sample could contain evidence of so much life in such an extreme environment. He counted 77 different species of organism in the sample. There were worms, bryozoans, sponges, even fragments of jellyfish, and of course there were lots and lots of microorganisms. All the animals were small, which isn't surprising. That they were there at all was the truly surprising thing. We don't know yet if life exists anywhere outside of Earth. Odds are good that it does, just because there are so many planets and moons around so many stars throughout our galaxy and all the other galaxies in the universe. Whether we'll ever find it is another thing. Until we do, though, we will just have to appreciate all the amazing diversity of life on our own planet, and keep watching the night skies and wondering. Thanks for your support, and thanks for listening!

     3. Following the Pleistocene, bison filled vacant ecological niches while hunter-gatherers maintained biological diversity for millennia. These cultures viewed animals as spiritual kin, keeping human populations low to ensure environmental stability. (3)1908

Get access to more than 200 episodes of my premium podcast (The Aliquot) when you sign up as a FoundMyFitness Premium Member Most of us are pursuing happiness exactly the wrong way. Overuse of technology is creating a meaning deficit, rewiring our brains away from purpose. In this episode, Dr. Arthur Brooks explains why relentless device use prevents us from asking the critical questions that define our lives, why high achievers often feel profoundly empty, and how the "striver's curse" makes satisfaction fleeting. He also shares his five-step protocol for managing negative affect and explains why suffering, when approached correctly, is a potent catalyst for personal growth.  Timestamps: (00:00) Introduction (06:44) The three macronutrients of happiness (08:37) Why chasing pleasure alone won't make you happy (12:48) The role of struggle in achieving satisfaction (15:56) Why happiness requires unhappiness (18:18) The Pleistocene brain—why pleasure is meant to be shared (20:57) Does avoiding boredom rob you of meaning? (25:27) Why satisfaction doesn't last—the striver's curse (28:59) The four idols that won't make you happy (32:19) How to uncover what's secretly driving you (41:50) Why you need a reverse bucket list (43:59) Can you train gratitude like a muscle? (48:41) How can we teach gratitude to children? (51:09) Are you a mad scientist, cheerleader, judge, or poet? (57:41) Is your workout routine secretly mood therapy? (1:00:43) Arthur Brooks' daily five-step happiness protocol (1:04:59) The three questions that reveal the meaning of life (1:08:36) Is technology robbing us of meaning? (1:14:32) How a tech detox rewires your brain for meaning (1:19:30) Is your brain starved for beauty? (1:22:29) Finding your ikigai—aligning passion, skill, and service (1:27:19) Turning involuntary suffering into meaningful growth (1:35:42) Why observing emotions makes them manageable (1:38:17) How to reverse relationship drift (1:44:52) Why dating apps might be keeping you single (1:49:56) How to rebuild friendships you've neglected (1:58:44) Can a person learn to be happy? (2:01:54) When do pharmacological treatments help—and when do they fail? (2:05:02) Is exercise as powerful as antidepressants? (2:07:39) How getting a PhD rewires your brain for problem-solving (2:09:32) Is staying curious the secret to aging well? (2:14:05) Why constant stimulation makes life boring (2:16:31) How to optimize your social media feed for happiness (2:20:13) Does happiness depend on your coping skills? (2:21:01) Is love the ultimate predictor of happiness? (2:22:30) Why shared interests matter after kids (2:24:03) How to thrive after your peak years Show notes are available by clicking here Watch this episode on YouTube

The Larmor Drift | Full Audiobook Acoustics researcher discovers the limestone beneath his university has been generating a standing electromagnetic wave for eleven thousand years. His body has been learning its frequency. Things get complicated. A scattered journey through time follows — a 1915 dirt road, a medieval plague street, a hypersleep pod folding through a wormhole, a future music festival, a Pleistocene plain where mammoths speak in infrasound. Underneath every destination, three notes. Always the same three. The science is real. The story is stranger. Recorded and produced in Ableton Live. First attempt at audio fiction. Probably not the last. — Cas

What kind of fruit was designed to be swallowed whole by giant sloths? How did a sacred Mesoamerican tree become the green badge of millennial brunch culture? And how did a humble postman's backyard seedling end up conquering global agriculture?Join John and Patrick as they trace the astonishing history of the avocado - from the forests of ancient Mexico and the courts of the Maya and Aztec, to the chandeliers of the Alexandria Hotel, the rise of Calavo, and the accidental genius of Rudolph Hass. Along the way: plant explorers, freezes that nearly wiped out an industry, marketing masterstrokes, cartel violence in Michoacán, and the birth of the Super Bowl guacamole ritual.This is not just the story of a fruit. It's a tale of extinction and survival, empire and branding, crime and cultivation - a relic of the Pleistocene that somehow became the taste of modernity.----------In Sponsorship with Cornell University: Dyson Cornell SC Johnson College of Business-----------Join the History of Fresh Produce Club for ad-free listening, bonus episodes, book discounts and access to an exclusive chatroom community.Support us!Share this episode with your friendsGive a 5-star ratingWrite a review-----------Subscribe to our biweekly newsletter here for extra stories related to recent episodes, book recommendations, a sneak peek of upcoming episodes and more.-----------Instagram, TikTok, Threads:@historyoffreshproduceEmail: historyoffreshproduce@gmail.com

Send a textWe follow the 2,800-meter Antarctic ice core from Little Dome C to a -50°C lab in University of Bern, tracing how scientists extract ancient air to probe the Mid-Pleistocene transition and the limits of abrupt climate change. The story links field grit, laser sublimation, and CO2 records to the risks facing modern societies.If you would like to see the Antarctic ice in a video and read the collection on this topic, and more stories, please visit Swissinfo Science. Jounalist: Luigi Jorio and Michele AndinaHost: Jo FahyAudio editor/video journalist: Michele AndinaDistribution and Marketing: Xin Zhang SWI swissinfo.ch is a public service media company based in Bern, Switzerland.

Today we're exploring the world of the Boonie Bears, China's biggest animation brand. In the sixth feature film, the bears _Blast into the Past—_30 thousand years, to be exact, to a time when dinosaur skeletons dotted the landscape and humans were at war with wolves... and giants pandas took their name literally, and rainbow terror birds defied the physics of flight, and cavemen punched lava bombs out of the air with their bare hands!LinksWatch Boonie Bears: Blast into the Past on YouTubeEucladoceros (the bush-antlered deer)HomotheriumMegacerops... or Brontops, or BrontotheriumPhorusracids (terror birds)Kumar et al. (2017) The evolutionary history of bears is characterized by gene flow across speciesWu et al. (2022) High-precision U-series dating of the late Pleistocene – early Holocene rock paintings at Tiger Leaping Gorge, Jinsha River valley, southwestern ChinaFu et al. (2025) Denisovan mitochondrial DNA from dental calculus of the >146,000-year-old Harbin craniumCallaway (2021) Oldest DNA from a Homo sapiens reveals surprisingly recent Neanderthal ancestryContactWebsiteBlueskyFacebookLetterboxdEmailArchPodNetAPN Website: https://www.archpodnet.comAPN on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/archpodnetAPN on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/archpodnetAPN on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/archpodnetAPN StoreAffiliatesMotion Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

How do you juggle multiple book projects, a university teaching role, Kickstarter campaigns, and rock albums—all without burning out? What does it take to build a writing career that spans decades, through industry upheavals and personal setbacks? Kevin J. Anderson shares hard-won lessons from his 40+ year career writing over 190 books. In the intro, Draft2Digital partners with Bookshop.org for ebooks; Spotify announces PageMatch and print partnership with Bookshop.org; Eleven Audiobooks; Indie author non-fiction books Kickstarter; Bones of the Deep – J.F. Penn This podcast is sponsored by Kobo Writing Life, which helps authors self-publish and reach readers in global markets through the Kobo eco-system. You can also subscribe to the Kobo Writing Life podcast for interviews with successful indie authors. This show is also supported by my Patrons. Join my Community at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn Kevin J. Anderson is the multi-award-winning and internationally bestselling author of over 190 books across different genres, with over 24 million copies in print across 34 languages. He's also the director of publishing at Western Colorado University, as well as a publisher at WordFire Press, an editor and rock album lyricist, and he's co-written Dune books and worked on the recent Dune movies and TV show. You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights, and the full transcript is below. Show Notes Managing multiple projects at different stages to maximise productivity without burning out Building financial buffers and multiple income streams for a sustainable long-term career Adapting when life disrupts your creative process, from illness to injury Lessons learned from transitioning between traditional publishing, indie, and Kickstarter Why realistic expectations and continuously reinventing yourself are essential for longevity The hands-on publishing master's program at Western Colorado University You can find Kevin at WordFire.com and buy his books direct at WordFireShop.com. Transcript of Interview with Kevin J. Anderson Jo: Kevin J. Anderson is the multi award-winning and internationally bestselling author of over 190 books across different genres, with over 24 million copies in print across 34 languages. He's also the Director of Publishing at Western Colorado University, as well as a publisher at WordFire Press, an editor, a rock album lyricist, and he's co-written Dune books and worked on the recent Dune movies and TV show. Welcome back to the show, Kevin. Kevin: Well, thanks, Joanna. I always love being on the show. Jo: And we're probably on like 200 books and like 50 million copies in print. I mean, how hard is it to keep up with all that? Kevin: Well, it was one of those where we actually did have to do a list because my wife was like, we really should know the exact number. And I said, well, who can keep track because that one went out of print and that's an omnibus. So does it count as something else? Well, she counted them. But that was a while ago and I didn't keep track, so… Jo: Right. Kevin: I'm busy and I like to write. That's how I've had a long-term career. It's because I don't hate what I'm doing. I've got the best job in the world. I love it. Jo: So that is where I wanted to start. You've been on the show multiple times. People can go back and have a listen to some of the other things we've talked about. I did want to talk to you today about managing multiple priorities. You are a director of publishing at Western Colorado University. I am currently doing a full-time master's degree as well as writing a novel, doing this podcast, my Patreon, all the admin of running a business, and I feel like I'm busy. Then I look at what you do and I'm like, this is crazy. People listening are also busy. We're all busy, right. But I feel like it can't just be writing and one job—you do so much. So how do you manage your time, juggle priorities, your calendar, and all that? Kevin: I do it brilliantly. Is that the answer you want? I do it brilliantly. It is all different things. If I were just working on one project at a time, like, okay, I'm going to start a new novel today and I've got nothing else on my plate. Well, that would take me however long to do the research and the plot. I'm a full-on plotter outliner, so it would take me all the while to do—say it's a medieval fantasy set during the Crusades. Well, then I'd have to spend months reading about the Crusades and researching them and maybe doing some travel. Then get to the point where I know the characters enough that I can outline the book and then I start writing the book, and then I start editing the book, which is a part that I hate. I love doing the writing, I hate doing the editing. Then you edit a whole bunch. To me, there are parts of that that are like going to the dentist—I don't like it—and other parts of it are fun. So by having numerous different projects at different stages, all of which require different skill sets or different levels of intensity— I can be constantly switching from one thing to another and basically be working at a hundred percent capacity on everything all the time. And I love doing this. So I'll be maybe writing a presentation, which is what I was doing before we got on this call this morning, because I'm giving a new keynote presentation at Superstars, which is in a couple of weeks. That's another thing that was on our list—I helped run Superstars. I founded that 15 years ago and it's been going on. So I'll be giving that talk. Then we just started classes for my publishing grad students last week. So I'm running those classes, which meant I had to write all of the classes before they started, and I did that. I've got a Kickstarter that will launch in about a month. I'm getting the cover art for that new book and I've got to write up the Kickstarter campaign. And I have to write the book. I like to have the book at least drafted before I run a Kickstarter for it. So I'm working on that. A Kickstarter pre-launch page should be up a month before the Kickstarter launches, and the Kickstarter has to launch in early March, so that means early February I have to get the pre-launch page up. So there's all these dominoes. One thing has to go before the next thing can go. During the semester break between fall semester—we had about a month off—I had a book for Blackstone Publishing and Weird Tales Presents that I had to write, and I had plotted it and I thought if I don't get this written during the break, I'm going to get distracted and I won't finish it. So I just buckled down and I wrote the 80,000-word book during the month of break. This is like Little House on the Prairie with dinosaurs. It's an Amish community that wants to go to simpler times. So they go back to the Pleistocene era where they're setting up farms and the brontosaurus gets into the cornfield all the time. Jo: That sounds like a lot of fun. Kevin: That's fun. So with the grad students that I have every week, we do all kinds of lectures. Just to reassure people, I am not at all an academic. I could not stand my English classes where you had to write papers analysing this and that. My grad program is all hands-on, pragmatic. You actually learn how to be a publisher when you go through it. You learn how to design covers, you learn how to lay things out, you learn how to edit, you learn how to do fonts. One of the things that I do among the lectures every week or every other week, I just give them something that I call the real world updates. Like, okay, this is the stuff that I, Kevin, am working on in my real world career because the academic career isn't like the real world. So I just go listing about, oh, I designed these covers this week, and I wrote the draft of this dinosaur homestead book, and then I did two comic scripts, and then I had to edit two comic scripts. We just released my third rock album that's based on my fantasy trilogy. And I have to write a keynote speech for Superstars. And I was on Joanna Penn's podcast. And here's what I'm doing. Sometimes it's a little scary because I read it and I go, holy crap, I did a lot of stuff this week. Jo: So I manage everything on Google Calendar. Do you have systems for managing all this? Because you also have external publishers, you have actual dates when things actually have to happen. Do you manage that yourself or does Rebecca, your wife and business partner, do that? How do you manage your calendar? Kevin: Well, Rebecca does most of the business stuff, like right now we have to do a bunch of taxes stuff because it's the new year and things. She does that and I do the social interaction and the creating and the writing and stuff. My assistant Marie Whittaker, she's a big project management person and she's got all these apps on how to do project managing and all these sorts of things. She tried to teach me how to use these apps, but it takes so much time and organisation to fill the damn things out. So it's all in my head. I just sort of know what I have to do. I just put it together and work on it and just sort of know this thing happens next and this thing happens next. I guess one of the ways is when I was in college, I put myself through the university by being a waiter and a bartender. As a waiter and a bartender, you have to juggle a million different things at once. This guy wants a beer and that lady wants a martini, and that person needs to pay, and this person's dinner is up on the hot shelf so you've got to deliver it before it gets cold. It's like I learned how to do millions of things and keep them all organised, and that's the way it worked. And I've kept that as a skill all the way through and it has done me good, I think. Jo: I think that there is a difference between people's brains, right? So I'm pretty chaotic in terms of my creative process. I'm not a plotter like you. I'm pretty chaotic, basically. But I come across— Kevin: I've met you. Yes. Jo: I know. But I'm also extremely organised and I plan everything. That's part of, I think, being an introvert and part of dealing with the anxiety of the world is having a plan or a schedule. So I think the first thing to say to people listening is they don't have to be like you, and they don't have to be like me. It's kind of a personal thing. I guess one thing that goes beyond both of us is, earlier you said you basically work at a hundred percent capacity. So let's say there's somebody listening and they're like, well, I'm at a hundred percent capacity too, and it might be kids, it might be a day job, as well as writing and all that. And then something happens, right? You mentioned the real world. I seem to remember that you broke your leg or something. Kevin: Yes. Jo: And the world comes crashing down through all your plans, whether they're written or in your head. So how do you deal with a buffer of something happening, or you're sick, or Rebecca's sick, or the cat needs to go to the vet? Real life—how do you deal with that? Kevin: Well, that really does cause problems. We had, in fact, just recently—so I'm always working at, well, let's be realistic, like 95% of Kevin capacity. Well, my wife, who does some of the stuff here around the house and she does the business things, she just went through 15 days of the worst crippling migraine string that she's had in 30 years. So she was curled up in a foetal position on the bed for 15 days and she couldn't do any of her normal things. I mean, even unloading the dishwasher and stuff like that. So if I'm at 95% capacity and suddenly I have to pick up an extra 50%, that causes real problems. So I drink lots of coffee, and I get less sleep, and you try to bring in some help. I mean, we have Rebecca's assistant and the assistant has a 20-year-old daughter who came in to help us do some of the dishes and laundry and housework stuff. You mentioned before, it was a year ago. I always go out hiking and mountain climbing and that's where I write. I dictate. I have a digital recorder that I go off of, and that's how I'm so productive. I go out, I walk in the forest and I come home with 5,000 words done in a couple of hours, and I always do that. That's how I write. Well, I was out on a mountain and I fell off the mountain and I broke my ankle and had to limp a mile back to my car. So that sort of put a damper on me hiking. I had a book that I had to write and I couldn't go walking while I was dictating it. It has been a very long time since I had to sit at a keyboard and create chapters that way. Jo: Mm-hmm. Kevin: And my brain doesn't really work like that. It works in an audio—I speak this stuff instead. So I ended up training myself because I had a big boot on my foot. I would sit on the back porch and I would look out at the mountains here in Colorado and I would put my foot up on another chair and I'd sit in the lawn chair and I'd kind of close my eyes and I would dictate my chapters that way. It was not as effective, but it was plan B. So that's how I got it done. I did want to mention something. When I'm telling the students this every week—this is what I did and here's the million different things—one of the students just yesterday made a comment that she summarised what I'm doing and it kind of crystallised things for me. She said that to get so much done requires, and I'm quoting now, “a balance of planning, sprinting, and being flexible, while also making incremental forward progress to keep everything moving together.” So there's short-term projects like fires and emergencies that have to be done. You've got to keep moving forward on the novel, which is a long-term project, but that short story is due in a week. So I've got to spend some time doing that one. Like I said, this Kickstarter's coming up, so I have to put in the order for the cover art, because the cover art needs to be done so I can put it on the pre-launch page for the Kickstarter. It is a balance of the long-term projects and the short-term projects. And I'm a workaholic, I guess, and you are too. Jo: Yes. Kevin: You totally are. Yes. Jo: I get that you're a workaholic, but as you said before, you enjoy it too. So you enjoy doing all these things. It's just sometimes life just gets in the way, as you said. One of the other things that I think is interesting—so sometimes physical stuff gets in the way, but in your many decades now of the successful author business, there's also the business side. You've had massive success with some of your books, and I'm sure that some of them have just kind of shrivelled into nothing. There have been good years and bad years. So how do we, as people who want a long-term career, think about making sure we have a buffer in the business for bad years and then making the most of good years? Kevin: Well, that's one thing—to realise that if you're having a great year, you might not always have a great year. That's kind of like the rockstar mentality—I've got a big hit now, so I'm always going to have a big hit. So I buy mansions and jets, and then of course the next album flops. So when you do have a good year, you plan for the long term. You set money aside. You build up plan B and you do other things. I have long been a big advocate for making sure that you have multiple income streams. You don't just write romantic epic fantasies and that's all you do. That might be what makes your money now, but the reading taste could change next year. They might want something entirely different. So while one thing is really riding high, make sure that you're planting a bunch of other stuff, because that might be the thing that goes really, really well the next year. I made my big stuff back in the early nineties—that was when I started writing for Star Wars and X-Files, and that's when I had my New York Times bestselling run. I had 11 New York Times bestsellers in one year, and I was selling like millions of copies. Now, to be honest, when you have a Star Wars bestseller, George Lucas keeps almost all of that. You don't keep that much of it. But little bits add up when you're selling millions of copies. So it opened a lot of doors for me. So I kept writing my own books and I built up my own fans who liked the Star Wars books and they read some of my other things. If you were a bestselling trad author, you could keep writing the same kind of book and they would keep throwing big advances at you. It was great. And then that whole world changed and they stopped paying those big advances, and paperback, mass market paperback books just kind of went away. A lot of people probably remember that there was a time for almost every movie that came out, every big movie that came out, you could go into the store and buy a paperback book of it—whether it was an Avengers movie or a Star Trek movie or whatever, there was a paperback book. I did a bunch of those and that was really good work. They would pay me like $15,000 to take the script and turn it into a book, and it was done in three weeks. They don't do that anymore. I remember I was on a panel at some point, like, what would you tell your younger self? What advice would you give your younger self? I remember when I was in the nineties, I was turning down all kinds of stuff because I had too many book projects and I was never going to quit writing. I was a bestselling author, so I had it made. Well, never, ever assume you have it made because the world changes under you. They might not like what you're doing or publishing goes in a completely different direction. So I always try to keep my radar up and look at new things coming up. I still write some novels for trad publishers. This dinosaur homestead one is for Blackstone and Weird Tales. They're a trad publisher. I still publish all kinds of stuff as an indie for WordFire Press. I'm reissuing a bunch of my trad books that I got the rights back and now they're getting brand new life as I run Kickstarters. One of my favourite series is “Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I.” It's like the Addams Family meets The Naked Gun. It's very funny. It's a private detective who solves crimes with monsters and mummies and werewolves and things. I sold the first one to a trad publisher, and actually, they bought three. I said, okay, these are fast, they're fun, they're like 65,000 words. You laugh all the way through it, and you want the next one right away. So let's get these out like every six months, which is like lightning speed for trad publishing. They just didn't think that was a good idea. They brought them out a year and a half apart. It was impossible to build up momentum that way. They wanted to drop the series after the third book, and I just begged them—please give it one more chance. So they bought one more book for half as much money and they brought it out again a year and a half later. And also, it was a trad paperback at $15. And the ebook was—Joanna, can you guess what their ebook was priced at? Jo: $15. Kevin: $15. And they said, gee, your ebook sales are disappointing. I said, well, no, duh. I mean, I am jumping around—I'm going like, but you should have brought these out six months apart. You should have had the ebook, like the first one at $4. Jo: But you're still working with traditional publishers, Kevin? Kevin: I'm still working with them on some, and I'm a hybrid. There are some projects that I feel are better served as trad books, like the big Dune books and stuff. I want those all over the place and they can cash in on the movie momentum and stuff. But I got the rights back to the Dan Shamble stuff. The fans kept wanting me to do more, and so I published a couple of story collections and they did fine. But I was making way more money writing Dune books and things. Then they wanted a new novel. So I went, oh, okay. I did a new novel, which I just published at WordFire. But again, it did okay, but it wasn't great. I thought, well, I better just focus on writing these big ticket things. But I really liked writing Dan Shamble. Somebody suggested, well, if the fans want it so much, why don't you run a Kickstarter? I had never run a Kickstarter before, and I kind of had this wrong attitude. I thought Kickstarters were for, “I'm a starving author, please give me money.” And that's not it at all. It's like, hey, if you're a fan, why don't you join the VIP club and you get the books faster than anybody else? So I ran a Kickstarter for my first Dan Shamble book, and it made three times what the trad publisher was paying me. And I went, oh, I kind of like this model. So I have since done like four other Dan Shamble novels through Kickstarters, made way more money that way. And we just sold—we can't give any details yet—but we have just sold it. It will be a TV show. There's a European studio that is developing it as a TV show, and I'm writing the pilot and I will be the executive producer. Jo: Fantastic. Kevin: So I kept that zombie detective alive because I loved it so much. Jo: And it's going to be all over the place years later, I guess. Just in terms of—given I've been in this now, I guess 2008 really was when I got into indie—and over the time I've been doing this, I've seen people rise and then disappear. A lot of people have disappeared. There are reasons, burnout or maybe they were just done. Kevin: Yes. Jo: But in terms of the people that you've seen, the characteristics, I guess, of people who don't make it versus people who do make it for years. And we are not saying that everyone should be a writer for decades at all. Some people do just have maybe one or two books. What do you think are the characteristics of those people who do make it long-term? Kevin: Well, I think it's realistic expectations. Like, again, this was trad, but my first book I sold for $4,000, and I thought, well, that's just $4,000, but we're going to sell book club rights, and we're goingn to sell foreign rights, and it's going to be optioned for movies. And the $4,000 will be like, that's just the start. I was planning out all this extra money coming from it, and it didn't even earn its $4,000 advance back and nothing else happened with it. Well, it has since, because I've since reissued it myself, pushed it and I made more money that way. But it's a slow burn. You build your career. You start building your fan base and then your next one will sell maybe better than the first one did. Then you keep writing it, and then you make connections, and then you get more readers and you learn how to expand your stuff better. You've got to prepare for the long haul. I would suggest that if you publish your very first book on KU, don't quit your day job the next day. Not everybody can or should be a full-time writer. We here in America need to have something that pays our health insurance. That is one of the big reasons why I am running this graduate program at Western Colorado University—because as a university professor, I get wonderful healthcare. I'm teaching something that I love, and I'm frankly doing a very good job at it because our graduates—something like 60% of them are now working as writers or publishers or working in the publishing world. So that's another thing. I guess what I do when I'm working on it is I kind of always say yes to the stuff that's coming in. If an opportunity comes—hey, would you like a graphic novel on this?—and I go, yes, I'd love to do that. Could you write a short story for this anthology? Sure, I'd love to do that. I always say yes, and I get overloaded sometimes. But I learned my lesson. It was quite a few years ago where I was really busy. I had all kinds of book deadlines and I was turning down books that they were offering me. Again, this was trad—book contracts that had big advances on them. And anthology editors were asking me. I was really busy and everybody was nagging me—Kevin, you work too hard. And my wife Rebecca was saying, Kevin, you work too hard. So I thought, I had it made. I had all these bestsellers, everything was going on. So I thought, alright, I've got a lot of books under contract. I'll just take a sabbatical. I'll say no for a year. I'll just catch up. I'll finish all these things that I've got. I'll just take a breather and finish things. So for that year, anybody who asked me—hey, do you want to do this book project?—well, I'd love to, but I'm just saying no. And would you do this short story for an anthology? Well, I'd love to, but not right now. Thanks. And I just kind of put them off. So I had a year where I could catch up and catch my breath and finish the stuff. And after that, I went, okay, I am back in the game again. Let's start taking these book offers. And nothing. Just crickets. And I went, well, okay. Well, you were always asking before—where are all these book deals that you kept offering me? Oh, we gave them to somebody else. Jo: This is really difficult though, because on the one hand—well, first of all, it's difficult because I wanted to take a bit of a break. So I'm doing this full-time master's and you are also teaching people in a master's program, right. So I have had to say no to a lot of things in order to do this course. And I imagine the people on your course would have to do the same thing. There's a lot of rewards, but they're different rewards and it kind of represents almost a midlife pivot for many of us. So how do we balance that then—the stepping away with what might lead us into something new? I mean, obviously this is a big deal. I presume most of the people on your course, they're older like me. People have to give stuff up to do this kind of thing. So how do we manage saying yes and saying no? Kevin: Well, I hate to say this, but you just have to drink more coffee and work harder for that time. Yes, you can say no to some things. My thing was I kind of shut the door and I just said, I'm just going to take a break and I'm going to relax. I could have pushed my capacity and taken some things so that I wasn't completely off the game board. One of the things I talk about is to avoid burnout. If you want a long-term career, and if you're working at 120% of your capacity, then you're going to burn out. I actually want to mention something. Johnny B. Truant just has a new book out called The Artisan Author. I think you've had him on the show, have you? Jo: Yes, absolutely. Kevin: He says a whole bunch of the stuff in there that I've been saying for a long time. He's analysing these rapid release authors that are a book every three weeks. And they're writing every three weeks, every four weeks, and that's their business model. I'm just like, you can't do that for any length of time. I mean, I'm a prolific writer. I can't write that fast. That's a recipe for burnout, I think. I love everything that I'm doing, and even with this graduate program that I'm teaching, I love teaching it. I mean, I'm talking about subjects that I love, because I love publishing. I love writing. I love cover design. I love marketing. I love setting up your newsletters. I mean, this isn't like taking an engineering course for me. This is something that I really, really love doing. And quite honestly, it comes across with the students. They're all fired up too because they see how much I love doing it and they love doing it. One of the projects that they do—we get a grant from Draft2Digital every year for $5,000 so that we do an anthology, an original anthology that we pay professional rates for. So they put out their call for submissions. This year it was Into the Deep Dark Woods. And we commissioned a couple stories for it, but otherwise it was open to submissions. And because we're paying professional rates, they get a lot of submissions. I have 12 students in the program right now. They got 998 stories in that they had to read. Jo: Wow. Kevin: They were broken up into teams so they could go through it, but that's just overwhelming. They had to read, whatever that turns out to be, 50 stories a week that come in. Then they write the rejections, and then they argue over which ones they're going to accept, and then they send the contracts, and then they edit them. And they really love it. I guess that's the most important thing about a career—you've got to have an attitude that you love what you're doing. If you don't love this, please find a more stable career, because this is not something you would recommend for the faint of heart. Jo: Yes, indeed. I guess one of the other considerations, even if we love it, the industry can shift. Obviously you mentioned the nineties there—things were very different in the nineties in many, many ways. Especially, let's say, pre-internet times, and when trad pub was really the only way forward. But you mentioned the rapid release, the sort of book every month. Let's say we are now entering a time where AI is bringing positives and negatives in the same way that the internet brought positives and negatives. We're not going to talk about using it, but what is definitely happening is a change. Industry-wise—for example, people can do a book a day if they want to generate books. That is now possible. There are translations, you know. Our KDP dashboard in America, you have a button now to translate everything into Spanish if you want. You can do another button that makes it an audiobook. So we are definitely entering a time of challenge, but if you look back over your career, there have been many times of challenge. So is this time different? Or do you face the same challenges every time things shift? Kevin: It's always different. I've always had to take a breath and step back and then reinvent myself and come back as something else. One of the things with a long-term career is you can't have a long-term career being the hot new thing. You can start out that way—like, this is the brand new author and he gets a big boost as the best first novel or something like that—but that doesn't work for 20 years. I mean, you've got to do something else. If you're the sexy young actress, well, you don't have a 50-year career as the sexy young actress. One of the ones I'm loving right now is Linda Hamilton, who was the sexy young actress in Terminator, and then a little more mature in the TV show Beauty and the Beast, where she was this huge star. Then she's just come back now. I think she's in her mid-fifties. She's in Stranger Things and she was in Resident Alien and she's now this tough military lady who's getting parts all over the place. She's reinvented herself. So I like to say that for my career, I've crashed and burned and resurrected myself. You might as well call me the Doctor because I've just come back in so many different ways. You can't teach an old dog new tricks, but— If you want to stay around, no matter how old of a dog you are, you've got to learn new tricks. And you've got to keep learning, and you've got to keep trying new things. I started doing indie publishing probably around the time you did—2009, something like that. I was in one of these great positions where I was a trad author and I had a dozen books that I wrote that were all out of print. I got the rights back to them because back then they let books go out of print and they gave the rights back without a fight. So I suddenly found myself with like 12 titles that I could just put up. I went, oh, okay, let's try this. I was kind of blown away that that first novel that they paid me $4,000 for that never even earned it back—well, I just put it up on Kindle and within one year I made more than $4,000. I went, I like this, I've got to figure this out. That's how I launched WordFire Press. Then I learned how to do everything. I mean, back in those days, you could do a pretty clunky job and people would still buy it. Then I learned how to do it better. Jo: That time is gone. Kevin: Yes. I learned how to do it better, and then I learned how to market it. Then I learned how to do print on demand books. Then I learned how to do box sets and different kinds of marketing. I dove headfirst into my newsletter to build my fan base because I had all the Star Wars stuff and X-Files stuff and later it was the Dune stuff. I had this huge fan base, but I wanted that fan base to read the Kevin Anderson books, the Dan Shamble books and everything. The only way to get that is if you give them a personal touch to say, hey buddy, if you liked that one, try this one. And the way to do that is you have to have access to them. So I started doing social media stuff before most people were doing social media stuff. I killed it on MySpace. I can tell you that. I had a newsletter that we literally printed on paper and we stuck mailing labels on. It went out to 1,200 people that we put in the mailbox. Jo: Now you're doing that again with Kickstarter, I guess. But I guess for people listening, what are you learning now? How are you reinventing yourself now in this new phase we are entering? Kevin: Well, I guess the new thing that I'm doing now is expanding my Kickstarters into more. So last year, the biggest Kickstarter that I've ever had, I ran last year. It was this epic fantasy trilogy that I had trad published and I got the rights back. They had only published it in trade paperback. So, yes, I reissued the books in nice new hardcovers, but I also upped the game to do these fancy bespoke editions with leather embossed covers and end papers and tipped in ribbons and slip cases and all kinds of stuff and building that. I did three rock albums as companions to it, and just building that kind of fan base that will support that. Then I started a Patreon last year, which isn't as big as yours. I wish my Patreon would get bigger, but I'm pushing it and I'm still working on that. So it's trying new things. Because if I had really devoted myself and continued to keep my MySpace page up to date, I would be wasting my time. You have to figure out new things. Part of me is disappointed because I really liked in the nineties where they just kept throwing book contracts at me with big advances. And I wrote the book and sent it in and they did all the work. But that went away and I didn't want to go away. So I had to learn how to do it different. After a good extended career, one of the things you do is you pay it forward. I mentor a lot of writers and that evolved into me creating this master's program in publishing. I can gush about it because to my knowledge, it is the only master's degree that really focuses on indie publishing and new model publishing instead of just teaching you how to get a job as an assistant editor in Manhattan for one of the Big Five publishers. Jo: It's certainly a lot more practical than my master's in death. Kevin: Well, that's an acquired taste, I think. When they hired me to do this—and as I said earlier, I'm not an academic—and I said if I'm going to teach this, it's a one year program. They get done with it in one year. It's all online except for one week in person in the summer. They're going to learn how to do things. They're not going to get esoteric, analysing this poem for something. When they graduate from this program, they walk out with this anthology that they edited, that their name is on. The other project that they do is they reissue a really fancy, fine edition of some classic work, whether it's H.G. Wells or Jules Verne or something. They choose a book that they want to bring back and they do it all from start to finish. They come out of it—rather than just theoretical learning—they know how to do things. Surprise, I've been around in the business a long time, so I know everybody who works in the business. So the heads of publishing houses and the head of Draft2Digital or Audible—and we've got Blackstone Audio coming on in a couple weeks. We've got the head of Kickstarter coming on as guest speakers. I have all kinds of guest speakers. Joanna, I think you're coming on— Jo: I'm coming on as well, I think. Kevin: You're coming on as a guest speaker. It's just like they really get plugged in. I'm in my seventh cohort now and I just love doing it. The students love it and we've got a pretty high success rate. So there's your plug. We are open for applications now. It starts in July. And my own website is WordFire.com, and there's a section on there on the graduate program if anybody wants to take a look at it. Again, not everybody needs to have a master's degree to be an indie publisher, but there is something to be said for having all of this stuff put into an organised fashion so that you learn how to do all the things. It also gives you a resource and a support system so that they come out of it knowing a whole lot of people. Jo: Brilliant. Well, thanks so much for your time, Kevin. That was great. Kevin: Thanks. It's a great show. The post Managing Multiple Projects And The Art of the Long-Term Author Career with Kevin J. Anderson first appeared on The Creative Penn.

Thomas Halliday describes the Pleistocene Mammoth Steppe, a vast grassland ecosystem stretching from Europe to Alaska inhabited by megafauna like Arctodus, then explores the Pliocene in East Africa where mosaic environments supported early human ancestors like Australopithecus.

In this SETI Live episode, host Simon Steel (Deputy Director of the Carl Sagan Center) chats with evolutionary biologist Philipp Schiffer (Worm Lab) about one of the most astonishing discoveries in modern biology: scientists have revived a microscopic worm that had been frozen in Siberian permafrost for roughly 46,000 years. These nematodes entered a state of cryptobiosis — a kind of biological "pause" — and came back to life when gently thawed in the lab. They didn't just wiggle; they fed, reproduced, and gave us a window into life's extreme resilience. Simon and Philipp dive into the role of cryptobiosis, how radiocarbon dating places these organisms back in the late Pleistocene when woolly mammoths roamed, and what it means for the limits of suspended animation. This is biology meeting deep time — and you're invited to stretch your imagination along with the science. (Recorded live 29 January 2026.)

In this episode, Alan is joined by Dr. Maria Guagnin (Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology) and Dr. Ceri Shipton (Australian National University) to explore how human societies adapted to environmental change during the Pleistocene–Holocene transition. Maria and Ceri examine prehistoric settlement, mobility, and monumental rock art in northern Arabia, showing how symbolic expression and landscape use offer insight into survival, innovation, and cultural continuity. Their research demonstrates the resilience and creativity of early human societies.TranscriptsFor a rough transcript head over to: https://www.archaeologypodcastnetwork.com/rockart/157LinksDr. Maria GuagninDr Ceri ShiptonMonumental rock art illustrates that humans thrived in the Arabian Desert during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition12,000-year-old rock art marked ancient water sources in Arabia's desertContactDr. Alan Garfinkelavram1952@yahoo.comDr. Alan Garfinkel's WebsiteSupport Dr. Garfinkel on PatreonArchPodNetAPN Website: https://www.archpodnet.comAPN on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/archpodnetAPN on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/archpodnetAPN on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/archpodnetAPN ShopAffiliates and SponsorsMotion Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode, Alan is joined by Dr. Maria Guagnin (Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology) and Dr. Ceri Shipton (Australian National University) to explore how human societies adapted to environmental change during the Pleistocene–Holocene transition. Maria and Ceri examine prehistoric settlement, mobility, and monumental rock art in northern Arabia, showing how symbolic expression and landscape use offer insight into survival, innovation, and cultural continuity. Their research demonstrates the resilience and creativity of early human societies.TranscriptsFor a rough transcript head over to: https://www.archaeologypodcastnetwork.com/rockart/157LinksDr. Maria GuagninDr Ceri ShiptonMonumental rock art illustrates that humans thrived in the Arabian Desert during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition12,000-year-old rock art marked ancient water sources in Arabia's desertContactDr. Alan Garfinkelavram1952@yahoo.comDr. Alan Garfinkel's WebsiteSupport Dr. Garfinkel on PatreonArchPodNetAPN Website: https://www.archpodnet.comAPN on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/archpodnetAPN on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/archpodnetAPN on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/archpodnetAPN ShopAffiliates and SponsorsMotion Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Episodio 596 con Francesca e Luca ai microfoni per una scorpacciata di notizie scientifiche dal defunto 2025. Iniziamo con gennaio 2025, quando è stato eseguito il secondo trapianto di un rene geneticamente modificato negli Stati Uniti.Ad aprile la Colossal Biosciences ha riportato in vita tre esemplari di enocione (o lupo terribile), un canide vissuto durante il Pleistocene. Per farlo, ha sequenziato il suo genoma da un dente di enocione di 13.000 anni fa e da un cranio di enocione di 72.000 anni fa, apportato 20 modifiche al DNA di lupo grigio per creare alcuni tratti fisici dell'enocione. A maggio è uscito sul New England Journal of Medicine probabilmente uno studio sul (https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2504747) primo trattamento personalizzato di editing genetico CRISPR eseguito su un bimbo di neanche un anno affetto da una patologia genetica molto rara. Il bimbo si chiama K.J. Muldoon ed è affetto dal deficit di CPS1, dove CPS sta per carbamoil-fosfato sintetasi 1, un enzima che trasforma l'ammoniaca in carbamoil-fosfato.Nell'esterna di oggi, Leonardo intervista Stefano Della Torre, ricercatore INFN che ci parla di come usando delle GPU (delle schede grafiche) siano riusciti a ridurre moltissimo il tempo necessario per risolvere i modelli che descrivono il comportamento dei raggi cosmici. Dopo una barza terribile, ritorniamo in studio. A giugno 2025 sono usciti due studi (https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adu9677 e https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2025.05.040) in cui si analizzava un cranio quasi completo, risalente al 146000 anni fa, trovato in Cina nord-orientale e soprannominato cranio dell'“Uomo Drago”. (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8454562/).Un altro bel risultato per quanto riguarda le malattie genetiche l'ha ottenuto Sarah Tabrizi che, a settembre 2025, ha dichiarato il successo della sua gene-targeting therapy che potrebbe rallentare la progressione dalla malattia di Huntington (https://uniqure.gcs-web.com/news-releases/news-release-details/uniqure-announces-positive-topline-results-pivotal-phase-iii).Ad ottobre, invece, il giornale Psychiatric News ha pubblicato un report in cui veniva segnalata una nuova psicosi, chiamata “Psicosi indotta da IA” (https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.pn.2025.10.10.5). Si tratta di un nuovo disturbo neurologico per cui le persone iniziano a scambiare una chatbot per un essere cosciente, sviluppando allucinazioni, deliri e una vera e propria confusione della realtà.Da novembre 2025 il Canada non è più considerato un Paese libero dal morbillo. Molto probabilmente seguiranno a ruota gli Stati Uniti, per i quali il numero di casi è in largo aumento, con circa 2000 casi confermati in 43 paesi nel solo 2025. Purtroppo questa tendenza ad eludere l'obbligo vaccinale è in aumento, specialmente dopo il Covid-19 e le dichiarazioni di alcuni consulenti sanitari del governo americano di evitare la vaccinazione infantile contro l'epatite B. Tornando alla notizia del morbillo, ricordiamo che il vaccino contro morbillo, parotite e rosolia è estremamente efficace e protegge dal morbillo per tutta la vita, quindi mi raccomando: VACCINATEVI!Concludiamo l'episodio con due belle notizie leggere.Nello specifico di larve di mosconi che confondono le termiti con la loro culo-faccia (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2025.01.007), esponendo un posteriore mimetico che le confonde tra le termiti per "scroccare" vitto e alloggio.Se non lo sapevate, gli axolotl – che sono delle salamandre con caratteristiche neoteniche, ovvero è una specie che conserva caratteristiche morfologiche e fisiologiche tipiche dei giovani per tutta la vita, e con straordinarie capacità rigenerative – sono una specie a rischio di estinzione. Fortunatamente, però, alcuni ricercatori dell'Università Nazionale Autonoma del Messico sono riusciti ad introdurre axolotl allevati in cattività nel loro habitat naturale, i quali sono sopravvissuti, il che consentirebbe di ripopolare la popolazione selvatica (https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0314257).Diventa un supporter di questo podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/scientificast-la-scienza-come-non-l-hai-mai-sentita--1762253/support.

First up on the podcast, scholars are on a quest to find Leonardo da Vinci's DNA. With no direct descendants, the hunt involves sampling the famous polymath's papers, paintings, and distant cousins. Contributing Correspondent Richard Stone talks with host Sarah Crespi about what researchers hope to learn from Leonardo's genes and the new field of “arteomics.” Next on the show, new evidence for poisoned arrows from 60,000 years ago complicates our picture of hunting during the Pleistocene. Sven Isaksson, a professor of archaeological science at Stockholm University, joins the podcast to discuss the discovery of poisonous residues on microliths—the tiny, worked stone points used on arrows and spearheads. These findings could push back the origins of this toxic technology by 50,000 years. This week's episode was produced with help from Podigy. About the Science Podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

First up on the podcast, scholars are on a quest to find Leonardo da Vinci's DNA. With no direct descendants, the hunt involves sampling the famous polymath's papers, paintings, and distant cousins. Contributing Correspondent Richard Stone talks with host Sarah Crespi about what researchers hope to learn from Leonardo's genes and the new field of “arteomics.” Next on the show, new evidence for poisoned arrows from 60,000 years ago complicates our picture of hunting during the Pleistocene. Sven Isaksson, a professor of archaeological science at Stockholm University, joins the podcast to discuss the discovery of poisonous residues on microliths—the tiny, worked stone points used on arrows and spearheads. These findings could push back the origins of this toxic technology by 50,000 years. This week's episode was produced with help from Podigy. About the Science Podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ο Δημήτρης και η Μαριλένα μιλάνε για τους καλικάντζαρους, τα σκανταλιάρικα πλάσματα της ελληνικής λαογραφίας που εμφανίζονται την περίοδο των Χριστουγέννων. 30-Day Challenge 2026 Λάβετε μέρος στο μεγαλύτερο ετήσιο γεγονός στην κοινότητα του Easy Greek (https://www.patreon.com/posts/30-day-challenge-146664864)! Ξεκινάμε 5 Ιανουαρίου. Σημειώσεις εκπομπής Επεισόδιο 255: Πώς μιλάει ελληνικά ένα παιδί τεσσάρων χρονών (https://www.easygreek.fm/255) Μια λέξη μια περιπλάνηση καινός = new κενός = empty κενοτάφιο = cenotaph Πλειστόκαινο, Ολόκαινο, Ανθρωπόκαινο = Pleistocene, Holocene, Anthropocene Το θέμα της εβδομάδας Νικόλαος Πολίτης (https://www.politeianet.gr/el/contributor/poliths-g-nikolaos-524340238) Άπαντα Καλικαντζάρων (https://www.willowisps.gr/main/-/8/12/2017) greek-language.gr (https://www.greek-language.gr/greekLang/index.html) Erebus Mythos (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/storymodeprod/erebus-mythos-vrykolakas-an-adventure-of-greek-folk-horror) (Greek Folklore-inspired Horror RPG) - it got funded! Απομαγνητοφώνηση Δημήτρης: [0:00] Ένα σύντομο μήνυμα πριν το podcast μας. Όπως και τις προηγούμενες χρονιές, και αυτόν τον Ιανουάριο που μας έρχεται, προετοιμάζουμε το 30-day challenge για τα μέλη μας για να ξεκινήσει η χρονιά με λίγα ελληνικά κάθε μέρα. Φήμες λένε ότι είναι ένας από τους καλύτερους τρόπους για να συντονιστείτε με την κοινότητα των Easy Greekers και με εμάς τους ίδιους φυσικά, ούτως ώστε να δώσετε μια ωραία, διασκεδαστική και καθόλου ακριβή ώθηση στην εμπειρία σας στη γλώσσα. Όλες οι βαθμίδες μπορούν να συμμετάσχουν, οπότε μπορείτε με τη βασική συνδρομή των 6 ευρώ τον μήνα και εσείς να μπείτε στην παρέα μας. Αν δέχεστε την πρόσκληση, γίνετε μέλη μας αν δεν είστε ήδη και θα σας πούμε περισσότερα για την αποστολή σας στο Patreon και στο Discord. Ανυπομονούμε! Για την υπόλοιπη απομαγνητοφώνηση, γίνετε μέλη μας! (https://bit.ly/EaGrPodcast)

"I don't want to make a zoo. I don't to take care of those animals for eternity, I want them to live on their own and in order to have a sustainable ecosystem it's extremely important to have all niches filled in this ecosystem." In the place of the vast Siberian tundras were once great grasslands teeming with wildlife, until early humans hunted them out. In the latest episode of Rewilding the World Nikita Zimov explains how his Pleistocene rewilding project in remotest Siberia is using wild horses, muskox, yaks and even camels to restore these grasslands, which - he suggests - can go a long way towards solving the climate crisis.Ben Goldsmith is a British financier and rewilding enthusiast. Join him as he speaks to people from all over the world who champion nature and are helping to restore habitats and wildlife to some of the most nature depleted parts of our planet.This podcast is produced by The Podcast Coach.Text Rewilding the World here. Let us know what you think of the podcast and if there are any rewilding projects you would love Ben to feature in future episodes. Rewilding the World is brought to you by UNI, the world's first coral reef and river safe line of bodycare. These exceptional products are made with sustainably sourced natural ingredients. UNI are leading the way in guilt-free sustainable Body Care, from hand wash to shampoo, body serum and natural deodorants. Learn more at WeareUNI.com. Available in the UK at Space NK.

Purebred Dogs: Living History on Our Couch | A Year-End Reflection As we come to the close of another year — one that has been long, challenging, and filled with upheaval both globally and within the purebred dog fancy — it felt right to pause, reflect and remember why we do what we do. One of the great comforts of purebred dogs is their reliability. No matter what else is happening in the world, somewhere nearby there is a dog event — a show, a trial, a hunt test, a training day. These gatherings give us a chosen family: people who console us when times are hard, celebrate with us when times are good, and understand the passion that binds us together. On the Shoulders of Giants In dog breeding, one of my favorite phrases is “on the shoulders of giants.” While famous handlers may get the television time, the true unsung heroes of purebred dogs are the breeders. Breeders are the devoted advocates and curators of living history. Their imagination, vision, commitment, and endurance preserve breeds that represent centuries — sometimes millennia — of human partnership with dogs. And yet, too often, when master breeders pass, their hard-earned knowledge disappears with them. Pure Dog Talk was created, in part, to save and share that irreplaceable wisdom. Through our podcast archives, albums, and seminars, we aim to preserve the voices, stories, and experience of the best and brightest breeders worldwide — so that future generations don't have to reinvent what has already been learned. Purebred Dogs as Living History Every one of the 200+ breeds recognized by the American Kennel Club — and many more worldwide — represents a specific time, place, and human culture. Purebred dogs are a living, breathing continuum of history. Pedigrees bring that history directly into our homes. Some breeding records trace back thousands of years. Long before formal breed standards existed, early humans were selectively breeding dogs for climate adaptation, specialized diets, hunting ability, and companionship. Recent research has even reshaped our understanding of ancient breeds: TheGreenland Dogis now considered the oldest known dog breed, tracing back to the Pleistocene era.Basenjis, depicted in cave art dating to 6,000 BC, possess uniquely distinct DNA.Greyhoundsdescribed in a 15th-century poem still match the breed standard today — and every modern Greyhound traces back to a single dog whelped in England in 1839.Bedlington Terriersboast the oldest unbroken terrier pedigree, dating to 1782.Ancient breeds like theChow...

For as long as cats have coexisted with humans, they have been feared, revered and respected. They appear as dynamic hunters in Palaeolithic carvings and cave paintings; were venerated as gods in ancient Egypt; and still have the power to fascinate and frighten us, as the popularity of Joe Exotic, the self-styled Tiger King, shows. How did we go from hunting, and being hunted by, cats to keeping them as pets in our homes? In Cat Tales: A History (Thames & Hudson, 2025), Dr. Jerry Moore presents a wide-ranging and captivating history, charting cats' journey from the African plains of the Pleistocene through the first human settlements in the Near East and on to ships setting sail for the Americas. What emerges is a complex picture of mutual domestication: cats chose to live with us as much as we chose to live with them, and as our growing cities bring the world's wild cats into closer contact with humans, we must learn new ways to live together. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

For as long as cats have coexisted with humans, they have been feared, revered and respected. They appear as dynamic hunters in Palaeolithic carvings and cave paintings; were venerated as gods in ancient Egypt; and still have the power to fascinate and frighten us, as the popularity of Joe Exotic, the self-styled Tiger King, shows. How did we go from hunting, and being hunted by, cats to keeping them as pets in our homes? In Cat Tales: A History (Thames & Hudson, 2025), Dr. Jerry Moore presents a wide-ranging and captivating history, charting cats' journey from the African plains of the Pleistocene through the first human settlements in the Near East and on to ships setting sail for the Americas. What emerges is a complex picture of mutual domestication: cats chose to live with us as much as we chose to live with them, and as our growing cities bring the world's wild cats into closer contact with humans, we must learn new ways to live together. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

For as long as cats have coexisted with humans, they have been feared, revered and respected. They appear as dynamic hunters in Palaeolithic carvings and cave paintings; were venerated as gods in ancient Egypt; and still have the power to fascinate and frighten us, as the popularity of Joe Exotic, the self-styled Tiger King, shows. How did we go from hunting, and being hunted by, cats to keeping them as pets in our homes? In Cat Tales: A History (Thames & Hudson, 2025), Dr. Jerry Moore presents a wide-ranging and captivating history, charting cats' journey from the African plains of the Pleistocene through the first human settlements in the Near East and on to ships setting sail for the Americas. What emerges is a complex picture of mutual domestication: cats chose to live with us as much as we chose to live with them, and as our growing cities bring the world's wild cats into closer contact with humans, we must learn new ways to live together. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/anthropology

For as long as cats have coexisted with humans, they have been feared, revered and respected. They appear as dynamic hunters in Palaeolithic carvings and cave paintings; were venerated as gods in ancient Egypt; and still have the power to fascinate and frighten us, as the popularity of Joe Exotic, the self-styled Tiger King, shows. How did we go from hunting, and being hunted by, cats to keeping them as pets in our homes? In Cat Tales: A History (Thames & Hudson, 2025), Dr. Jerry Moore presents a wide-ranging and captivating history, charting cats' journey from the African plains of the Pleistocene through the first human settlements in the Near East and on to ships setting sail for the Americas. What emerges is a complex picture of mutual domestication: cats chose to live with us as much as we chose to live with them, and as our growing cities bring the world's wild cats into closer contact with humans, we must learn new ways to live together. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/archaeology

For as long as cats have coexisted with humans, they have been feared, revered and respected. They appear as dynamic hunters in Palaeolithic carvings and cave paintings; were venerated as gods in ancient Egypt; and still have the power to fascinate and frighten us, as the popularity of Joe Exotic, the self-styled Tiger King, shows. How did we go from hunting, and being hunted by, cats to keeping them as pets in our homes? In Cat Tales: A History (Thames & Hudson, 2025), Dr. Jerry Moore presents a wide-ranging and captivating history, charting cats' journey from the African plains of the Pleistocene through the first human settlements in the Near East and on to ships setting sail for the Americas. What emerges is a complex picture of mutual domestication: cats chose to live with us as much as we chose to live with them, and as our growing cities bring the world's wild cats into closer contact with humans, we must learn new ways to live together. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/popular-culture

Thanks to William who suggested we talk about the Loch Ness Monster for our big Halloween episode! Further reading: 1888 (ca.): Alexander Macdonald's Sightings 1933, July 22: Mr. and Mrs. George Spicer's Loch Ness Encounter The 1972 Loch Ness Monster Flipper Photos White Mice, Bumblebees, and Alien Worms? Unexpected Mini-Monsterlings in Loch Ness Further watching: 1933 King Kong clip: Brontosaurus attack! The following stills are from the above King Kong clip: The drawing by Rupert T. Gould for his 1934 book about the Loch Ness Monster. He drew it after interviewing Mr. Spicer about his 1933 sighting: Show transcript: Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I'm your host, Kate Shaw. This week is our big Halloween episode to finish off monster month! I hope your October has been amazing and you have fun plans for Halloween. William suggested we learn about the Loch Ness Monster, so let's go! We talked about the Loch Ness Monster, AKA Nessie, a really long time ago, back in episode 29. Those old episodes aren't even available in the feed anymore—you have to go to the website to find them, and the audio isn't very good. So here's a revised and updated Nessie episode! There are some spooky stories associated with this one, but not too scary. Let's call it one and a half out of five monsters on the spooky scale. First, a little background about what Loch Ness is. It's the biggest of a chain of long, narrow, steep-sided lakes and shallow rivers that cut the Scottish Highlands right in two along a fault line. Loch Ness is 22 miles long, or 35 km, with a maximum depth of 754 feet, or 230 meters, the biggest lake in all of the UK, not just Scotland. During the Pleistocene, or ice age, Scotland was repeatedly covered with glaciers and ice sheets that were almost a kilometer thick. The ice only completely melted about 8,000 years ago. The massive weight of the glaciers over the fault line, where the rocks are already weaker, started the process of carving out the lake, and when the ice started melting in earnest around 10,000 years ago, the massive amounts of meltwater washed the weakened rocks out and left the deep valley that is now Loch Ness. The land slowly rose from where the ice had pressed it down, so that Loch Ness is now about 50 feet above sea level, or 15 meters. In other words, Loch Ness is only about 10,000 years old. All the lochs and their rivers have made up a busy shipping channel since the Caledonian Canal made them more navigable with a series of locks and canals in 1822, but the area around Loch Ness was well populated and busy for centuries before that. It's a beautiful area, so Loch Ness has also long been a popular tourist destination, well before the Nessie sightings started. There have been stories of strange creatures in Loch Ness and all the lochs, but nothing that resembles the popular idea of Nessie. The stories were mostly of water monsters of Scottish folklore, like the kelpie we talked about in episode 351, or of out-of-place known animals like a bottle-nosed dolphin that was captured at sea and released in the loch as a prank in 1868. The oldest monster report in the area actually comes from the 7th century, but it's supposed to have happened in the River Ness, which drains from the lake. When local people told St. Columba about a monster that had grabbed a man swimming in the River Ness, and presumably ate him, the saint went there to take care of the monster. He told one of his followers to swim across the river, which sounds pretty rough, but the saint said, “Don't worry, fam, I gotchu,” but in old-timey language. The man started swimming and sure enough, a water beast approached. The saint made the sign of the Christian cross and said, “Stop right there, don't touch him. Get back, monster!” The monster swam away immediately and was never seen again. The next sighting important enough for people to write down happened more than 1,400 years later,

HEADLINE: The Pleistocene Mammoth Steppe and the Mosaic Environment of Early Human Evolution BOOK TITLE: Other Lands, a journey through Earth's Extinct Worlds GUEST AUTHOR NAME: Thomas Halliday 200-WORD SUMMARY: This excerpt introduces the work of paleontologist and evolutionary biologist Thomas Halliday, beginning in the Pleistocene era, 20,000 years ago. The focus is the Mammoth Steppe, described as the largest ecosystem on the planet. This cold, arid, grass-dominated environment stretched from Western Europe across Beringia into Alaska and the Yukon, managed by large herbivores like mammoths, woolly rhinos, and bison. Today, this entire community is essentially non-existent. The apex predator discussed is Arctodus Simus, the fearsomely large short-faced bear. The narrative then moves backward to the Pliocene, 4 million years ago, in the East African Rift Valley(Kenya/Ethiopia). This region, marked by sequences of ancient lakes, features a crucial mosaic environment of forests and grasslands. This mixed habitat was extremely important for the evolution of versatile, problem-solving organisms, including early human ancestors. The earliest species definitively known to be more closely related to humans than chimpanzees, Orrorin tugenensis, occupied this land. Halliday emphasizes exploring ecosystems that, while humans were present globally, were not yet heavily modified by human activity.

Send us a textFrozen Hyperborea beckons for the creeping doom that is The Ice Demon. We talk D&D, the Pleistocene era, Ithaqua, £50 notes, nematodes, potholes and inclement weather.Reader: Scott DorwardFavourite words: glabrous, commiseratively, parhelia, buskins, cleavage, bouleversement  Download MP3Innsmouth Literary Festival      The Smith Circle Convention    Support the showContact us at innsmouthbookclub@outlook.comNight Shade Books PatreonInnsmouth Literary FestivalInnsmouth Book Club Facebook YoutubeBlueSky Tim Mendees Innsmouth GoldDragon's Teeth Gaming Channel Graveheart DesignsMonster in my Bed podcast

In this episode, the Seven Ages team begins the conversation with news concerning the discovery of the Petralona skull in a cave complex in Greece. The team is then joined by returning guest James Chatters to discuss the Hoyo Negro site in Quintana Roo, Mexico. This enigmatic submerged site not only holds the remains of several new species of ground sloth but also the remains of a young girl named "Naia", the oldest (13,000 BP) complete human remains in the western hemisphere.  Dr. James Chatters earned his PhD in Anthropology from the University of Washington in 1982. He is an archaeologist and paleontologist who has discovered and investigated many of North America's earliest human skeletons. Best known for the 1996 discovery of Kennewick Man and ongoing work at the Hoyo Negro Site in the Yucatan of Mexico, he has also done extensive work in hunter-gatherer prehistory in the western US, macroevolutionary theory, palynology, and late Pleistocene mammals, most notably ground sloths. Image Credit: Paul Nicklen / Hoyo Negro Project News Link: Petralona Skull  Music in this Episode: Scott Buckley - Sanctum Seven Ages Official Merchandise  Instagram  Facebook  Seven Ages Official Site  Patreon  Seven Ages YouTube  Guest Links Hoyo Negro Official Site 

Today we are all over the map. First: Elon, AI, and humanoid robots, with discussion of sex, the industrial revolution, specialization, the Pleistocene, feminism, men's work, porn, clankers, and vaping. Obviously. Then: are there differences between moral panics and social contagions, and is the current focus on pedophilia one or both? Finally: how widespread is fraud in science? It's not rare, and not merely the result of bad actors. Taking a game theoretic approach, authors of new research suggest that many scientists are defecting from honest scientific work for rational reasons.*****Our sponsors:Caraway: Non-toxic, beautiful, light ceramic cookware. Save $150 on a cookware set over buying individual pieces, and get 10% off your order at http://carawayhome.com/darkhorse10.Masa Chips: Delicious chips made with corn, salt, and beef tallow—nothing else—in loads of great flavors. Go to http://masachips.com/DarkHorse, use code DarkHorse, for 25% off.ARMRA Colostrum is an ancient bioactive whole food that can strengthen your immune system. Go to http://www.tryarmra.com/DARKHORSE to get 15% off your first order.*****Join us on Locals! Get access to our Discord server, exclusive live streams, live chats for all streams, and early access to many podcasts: https://darkhorse.locals.comHeather's newsletter, Natural Selections (subscribe to get free weekly essays in your inbox): https://naturalselections.substack.comOur book, A Hunter-Gatherer's Guide to the 21st Century, is available everywhere books are sold, including from Amazon: https://amzn.to/3AGANGg (commission earned)Check out our store! Epic tabby, digital book burning, saddle up the dire wolves, and more: https://darkhorsestore.org*****Mentioned in this episode:Elon Musk and the AI fashion show: https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1958254084806578534Michael Tracey on moral panics: https://x.com/mtracey/status/1958299632703795348Richardson et al 2025. The entities enabling scientific fraud at scale are large, resilient, and growing rapidly. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122(32), p.e2420092122: https://www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10.1073/pnas.2420092122Support the show

Don't you just love an insane scheme by the Master? Especially when it involves disguising himself as a horrendous racial stereotype when he has no reason to be in disguise at all? Oh, and we have some wonderful product placement for Heathrow Airport and Concorde. And this story is *somehow* the Season 19 finale. That's right -we're talking about Time-Flight!   Join us as we discuss the brown-ness of the 1980s, whether the episode takes place in the Jurassic or Pleistocene era (it's the former – Reilly's right, Anthony's wrong), why the Master feels the need to disguise himself, the TARDIS repair hour, and the rather questionable behaviour and motives of the Professor. Anthony finds a way to sneak in some Tinie Tempah lyrics without a single other member of the cast noticing. Typical.   If you would like to watch along with us, you can find the this oddity available for streaming on Britbox in the USA (http://www.britbox.com) and BBC iPlayer in the UK (https://bbc.in/48GSaCB). If you're a little old fashioned and prefer physical media (like our very own Anthony), you can also find on the Doctor Who Season 19 Blu Ray box set from Amazon US (https://amzn.to/3RA2Bkl) and Amazon UK (https://amzn.to/43GFZGe)   Other media mentioned in this episode*: What We Do in the Shadows – Season 1 (Amazon US: https://amzn.to/3IJaE7N | Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/3LhR8AV) On the Buses: The Complete Series (Amazon US: https://amzn.to/4mwdam3 | Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/40Yg22R) Juliet Bravo: Series 1 (Amazon US: https://amzn.to/3GOLfyc | Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/4iZgvb9) The Best of EastEnders (Amazon US: https://amzn.to/4lm8miT | Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/3IjteJf) The Twilight Zone: The Complete Series (Amazon US: https://amzn.to/2Z2QG6G | Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/3B0nSJk) Stephen King's The Langoliers (Amazon US: https://amzn.to/3H21rwD | Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/4leGPPt) The Box of Delights (Amazon US: https://amzn.to/3Bel7Wj | Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/3koLaUv) Ray Harryhausen: The Ultimate 7 Film Collection (Amazon US: https://amzn.to/3E0Fgj8 | Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/3Gfn0Ep) Monty Python's Flying Circus: The Complete Series (Amazon US: https://amzn.to/2VNSNKA | Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/37JfHoE) The Arabian Nights (Amazon US: https://amzn.to/3HmaF6V | Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/45BJ2Qx) Tinie Tempah – Pass Out (YouTube: https://youtu.be/QzvGKas5RsU) DJ Khaled – I'm the One (YouTube: https://youtu.be/weeI1G46q0o) The Chairs of British Telefantasy (https://bit.ly/4lUNlvZ)    Finally, you can also follow us and interact with us on Facebook and Instagram. You can also e-mail us at watchers4d@gmail.com, and you can join us on our Discord server. If you're enjoying this podcast, please subscribe to the show, and leave us a rating or review.   *Support Watchers in the Fourth Dimension! We are an Amazon affiliate and earn a small commission from purchases through Amazon links. This goes towards the running costs of the podcast.

Rhyss Taylor Lemoine is a postdoctoral researcher in extinction, megafauna, rewilding, and novel ecosystems. Today he speaks to us about the late quaternary extinction. We discuss what megafauna are, their key roles in ecosystems, and the worldwide number and types that died off during the extinction of the late quaternary period (including the present).  Rhyss discusses the two main theories about what drove -- and still drives -- these extinctions, overKILL and overCHILL. He then tells us why he and his research team posit that climate change was a lesser factor driving these extinctions. For Rhyss, the extinctions are best explained by the introduction of a novel, insatiable, armed predator. One that could attack the largest and most dangerous animals from a distance with relatively little risk to itself. In other words, humans did it.One of the evidences he considers is that the extinctions of the late quaternary continue to this day, and the current culprit in large animal extinction is not in dispute.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-history-of-being-human--5806452/support.

This week on Mel & Floyd: The etymology of “Verklempt”; Pleistocene rewilding; And other random topics. The post It's Sad When Celebrity Couples Break Up appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

This amazing place has seen it all, from a giant sea to volcanoes and glaciers to today's semi-arid desert.

Pleistocene Megafauna To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Watch every episode ad-free & uncensored on Patreon: https://patreon.com/dannyjones Chris Cottrell is a geoscience researcher and creator of the Dabbler's Den YouTube channel. Chris has spent over two decades exploring the geological mysteries of these elliptical depressions along the U.S. Atlantic Coastal Plain. SPONSORS https://stopboxusa.com/danny - Get firearm security redesigned & save 10% with code DANNY. https://whiterabbitenergy.com/?ref=DJP - Use code DJP for 20% off EPISODE LINKS https://x.com/dabblersden Chris' YouTube channel: @DabblersDen FOLLOW DANNY JONES https://www.instagram.com/dannyjones https://twitter.com/jonesdanny OUTLINE 00:00 - Malcolm Bendall's thunderstorm generator 03:37 - Carolina Bay craters 16:27 - LIDAR topography 23:10 - Evidence for cosmic impacts across America 32:23 - Younger dryas impact hypothesis 36:59 - 2012 Chelyabinsk meteor airburst 45:41 - When were the Carolina bays formed? 52:21 - Pleistocene transition tektites 57:41 - Hal Povenmire & tektites 01:02:37 - Underwater craters 01:20:20 - Academic response to Carolina Bays 01:36:06 - Using AI to analyze the past Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Christopher Bae is taking us on a journey to meet the hominids of Asia's past. Dr. Bae is a distinguished paleoanthropologist from the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa whose research focuses on human evolution in East Asia. Born in Korea and adopted by an American family, his unique personal journey sparked an early interest in race, human variation, and the deep history of our species. What began as a search for his own roots led him to a career dedicated to reconstructing the past—much like paleoanthropologists do when piecing together humanity's evolutionary story. Dr. Bae has conducted extensive field and laboratory research across Korea, Japan, and China, collaborating on projects that span hominin fossils, vertebrate taphonomy, and lithic analysis. His work bridges disciplines in the social and natural sciences, providing a comprehensive perspective on Pleistocene hominin morphological and behavioral variation, particularly in Homo erectus and both archaic and modern Homo sapiens. With approximately 150 publications and over $1.5 million in extramural funding, Dr. Bae is a leading voice in understanding human evolution in East Asia. ------------------------------ Find the papers discussed in this episode: Bae, C. J., Liu, W., Wu, X., Zhang, Y., Ni, X. (2023). "Dragon man" prompts rethinking of Middle Pleistocene hominin systematics in Asia. Innovation (Camb), 4(6):100527. doi: 10.1016/j.xinn.2023.100527. Bae, C.J., Wu, X. Making sense of eastern Asian Late Quaternary hominin variability. Nat Commun 15, 9479 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-53918-7 Contact Dr. Bae: cjbae@hawaii.edu ------------------------------ Contact the Sausage of Science Podcast and Human Biology Association: Facebook: facebook.com/groups/humanbiologyassociation/, Website: humbio.org, Twitter: @HumBioAssoc Chris Lynn, Co-Host Website: cdlynn.people.ua.edu/, E-mail: cdlynn@ua.edu, Twitter:@Chris_Ly Courtney Manthey, Guest Co-Host, Website: holylaetoli.com/ E-mail: cpierce4@uccs.edu, Twitter: @HolyLaetoli Anahi Ruderman, Guest Co-Host , SoS Co-Producer, HBA Junior Fellow, E-mail: aniruderman@gmail.com, Twitter: @ani_ruderman

Pett in Sussex. A 'small peaceful seaside village'. Here you can visit a little timber chapel on the beach with an open door to a kitchen. You can take a seat, absorb the atmosphere, then make yourself a cup of tea if you like, choose a book from the shelves and drop your donation into the honesty box. Before heading out to explore the wild pebble beach, crashing waves and sea defences. All perfect for blowing away the cobwebs.   But this is one of those places that makes you think too. Yes there's the village, the chapel, the wonderfully exposed coast path and beach, but there are other significant things too. Things that make the past resonate.  The end of the Royal Military Canal culminates here. A 28 mile inland channel linking Pett Level to Hythe. It was built as a defence against the possible invasion by Napoleon. Above on the hill a pillbox, a relic from WWII, looking out to sea. Back more. Back and back. Far into the mists of time. Not old history, not human history. Ancient history. The Pleistocene. Before the last ice age when there were no humans about to even know this coastal place exists. Or to witness its wild crashing waves. Dinosaur footprints left in the rock. At low tide the stumps of ancient trees can be seen. One day we'll travel back at low tide, and hopefully capture the sound of the waves as they break over these ancient stumps of oak, birch and hazel. And as we set up the microphones, we'll imagine ourselves deep in a forest, immersed between hushing trees and echoing birdsong. -------------- Come with us on a walk on this February day. See the sites around Pett. 

  On this episode of Unsupervised Learning Razib comments on a new paper in Nature, Ancient DNA from the Green Sahara reveals ancestral North African lineage. Here is the abstract: Although it is one of the most arid regions today, the Sahara Desert was a green savannah during the African Humid Period (AHP) between 14,500 and 5,000 years before present, with water bodies promoting human occupation and the spread of pastoralism in the middle Holocene epoch1. DNA rarely preserves well in this region, limiting knowledge of the Sahara's genetic history and demographic past. Here we report ancient genomic data from the Central Sahara, obtained from two approximately 7,000-year-old Pastoral Neolithic female individuals buried in the Takarkori rock shelter in southwestern Libya. The majority of Takarkori individuals' ancestry stems from a previously unknown North African genetic lineage that diverged from sub-Saharan African lineages around the same time as present-day humans outside Africa and remained isolated throughout most of its existence. Both Takarkori individuals are closely related to ancestry first documented in 15,000-year-old foragers from Taforalt Cave, Morocco2, associated with the Iberomaurusian lithic industry and predating the AHP. Takarkori and Iberomaurusian-associated individuals are equally distantly related to sub-Saharan lineages, suggesting limited gene flow from sub-Saharan to Northern Africa during the AHP. In contrast to Taforalt individuals, who have half the Neanderthal admixture of non-Africans, Takarkori shows ten times less Neanderthal ancestry than Levantine farmers, yet significantly more than contemporary sub-Saharan genomes. Our findings suggest that pastoralism spread through cultural diffusion into a deeply divergent, isolated North African lineage that had probably been widespread in Northern Africa during the late Pleistocene epoch.

In this week's episode, Dr Alan chats to Dr Angharad Jones and Hannah Andrews from the archaeological museum Creswell Crags, one of the most important prehistoric sites in the UK. Located within a limestone gorge and winding Pleistocene caves, the site has some of the earliest examples of Palaeolithic rock art!LinksCreswell CragsIntroducing… Dr Angharad Jones, Collections Officer at Creswell CragsVerification of the age of Palaeolithic rock art at CreswellContactDr. Alan Garfinkeavram1952@yahoo.comDr. Alan Garfinkel's WebsiteSupport Dr. Garfinkel on PatreonArchPodNetAPN Website: https://www.archpodnet.comAPN on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/archpodnetAPN on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/archpodnetAPN on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/archpodnetAPN ShopAffiliates and SponsorsMotion

Unravel the secrets of the ancient persimmon as we embark on a journey through time, from the Pleistocene era to modern-day culinary adventures. This episode of the Poor Persimmons Almanac is your ticket to understanding these fascinating "tomatoes of the trees," with their rich history and quirky characteristics. We delve into the archaeological significance of persimmons, their role in the diets of indigenous communities, and their unexpected renaissance thanks to agricultural pioneers like James Troop and Liberty Hyde Bailey. Enjoy our playful exploration of persimmons' versatile uses, from being a cherished sugar source to starring in a delicious stew with sunchokes, rabbit, and wild rice. We'll introduce you to the legends of persimmon breeding like Dr. Troop and Professor JC McDaniel, whose work has shaped the fruit's legacy. Take a light-hearted detour into the world of persimmon competitions and the curious controversy surrounding seedless varieties, all while learning about the nutritional benefits that could make persimmons a staple in your diet. Discover the science behind persimmon astringency and a variety of methods to reduce it, ensuring you enjoy the fruit to its fullest potential. This episode promises to entertain and enlighten as we celebrate the enduring presence of persimmons in our ecosystem.   For sources, transcripts, and to read more about this subject, visit: www.agroecologies.org To support this podcast, join our patreon for early, commercial-free episode access at https://www.patreon.com/poorprolesalmanac For PPA Restoration Content, visit: www.restorationagroecology.com For PPA Merch, visit: www.poorproles.com For PPA Native Plants, visit: www.nativenurseries.org To hear Tomorrow, Today, our sister podcast, visit: www.tomorrowtodaypodcast.org/   Key Words: Persimmons, Culinary Adventures, Pleistocene Era, Indigenous Communities, Agricultural Pioneers, James Troop, Liberty Hyde Bailey, American Persimmon, Breeding Legacy, Nutritional Benefits, American Diet, Disney Lore, Seedless Persimmons, Government Conspiracies, Astringency, Tannins, Podcast Production, Unscripted, Playful Nature

What if the honey locust tree holds the key to transforming American agriculture yet remains an untapped treasure? Join us as we explore this remarkable tree's profound historical significance and unique attributes. We guide you through its pre-human landscapes and symbiotic relationship with Pleistocene megafauna, shedding light on how its fearsome thorns might have served as tattoo tools for indigenous peoples. With insights from Dr. Robert Warren, we unravel the intriguing journey of the honey locust, drawing comparisons to the Kentucky coffee tree and pondering its adaptation to wet regions through human intervention. In a lighthearted and anecdotal manner, we delve into the quirky connections between anachronistic trees like the honey locust and Kentucky coffee tree, alongside their relationships with now-extinct species. Discover the indigenous significance of the honey locust's sweet pulp, a sugar alternative in warmer regions, and laugh with us as we draw amusing parallels with modern-day treats like candy corn. While we acknowledge the mysteries surrounding ancient methods of processing honey locust pulp, our light-hearted exploration invites you to imagine historical storage practices and potential uses. The honey locust is more than just a historical icon; it is a beacon of agricultural potential. Uncover its promising varieties, like Millwood, identified in the 1930s, and their potential for livestock feed and ethanol production. We recount the efforts of researchers like Dr. James Hanover to unlock the tree's capabilities for sustainable farming systems. Whether it's silvopasture or energy farming, the honey locust fits seamlessly into modern agriculture, offering ecological benefits and versatility. We invite you to join us in supporting ongoing research into this fascinating crop and perhaps even become a part of our knowledge-sharing community.   For sources, transcripts, and to read more about this subject, visit: www.agroecologies.org To support this podcast, join our patreon for early, commercial-free episode access at https://www.patreon.com/poorprolesalmanac For PPA Restoration Content, visit: www.restorationagroecology.com For PPA Merch, visit: www.poorproles.com For PPA Native Plants, visit: www.nativenurseries.org To hear Tomorrow, Today, our sister podcast, visit: www.tomorrowtodaypodcast.org/   Key words: Urban Forestry, Ecological Restoration, Native Flora, Cityscapes, Urban Stressors, Soil Compaction, Pollution, Climate Adaptation, Invasive Species, Native Tree Planting, Community-Based Environmental Stewardship, Grassroots Initiative, Honey Locust, Urban Foraging, Digital Content, Environmental Education, Community Connections, Micro-volunteering, Invasive Weed Management, Environmental Change

PREVIEW: PLEISTOCENE: Author Dan Flores discusses "Wild New World: The Epic Story of Animals and People in America," examining how American wildlife adapted—or failed to adapt—to human arrival from Siberia. More tonight. 1916 North America