Podcast Episodes

43. American Megafauna Extinctions

Around 13,000 years ago, a wide range of large animal species started disappearing. The circumstances strongly implicate humans.

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Published on 8 hours ago

42. Fishtail Points and Early South America

13,000 to 12,000 years ago... From megafauna hunters in Tierra del Fuego to Amazonian rock painters, the formation of early South America hunter gatherer societies was a complex process, and a sudden…

Published on 2 months ago

41. Clovis and the Western Stemmed Tradition [Preview]

The first North American cultures appeared around 13,000 years ago, when megafauna roamed a continent still largely devoid of humans. 

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Published on 3 months, 1 week ago

40. Arrival in America

Homo sapiens, the only hominin to colonize every continent on the planet, finally reaches America. But who were the first Americans and when did they arrive? 

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Published on 4 months, 2 weeks ago

39. Terminal Pleistocene of Southeast Asia

19,000 to 11,700 years ago ... In the Himalayan foothills of Thailand and the southern islands of Wallacea, the adoption of new funerary rituals, ornaments, and tools by hunter gatherer societies coi…

Published on 7 months ago

38. Rock Art of Southeast Asia [Preview]

53,000 to 13,000 years ago ... Recent dating of rock paintings in Indonesia has redefined our understanding of the oldest art produced by humans and raised the possibility of an extremely old and wid…

Published on 7 months, 3 weeks ago

37. Rainforest Adaptations in Asia

The first Homo sapiens to reach Southeast Asia quickly learned how to survive in rainforests, overcoming the unique challenges of this rainy biome.

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Published on 8 months, 2 weeks ago

36. Hoabinhian and Indian Microlithic

Incredibly stable traditions of stone tool making remained in use for tens of thousands of years in South and Southeast Asia.

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Published on 9 months, 1 week ago

35. Cultural Variation of the Final Paleolithic [Preview]

19,000 to 11,700 years ago ... Stirring of future fundamental transformations in the human way of life begin in parts of northeast Asia at the end of the Paleolithic.

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Published on 1 year ago

34. Invention of Pottery

20,000 to 11,700 years ago ... As the planet thawed after the Last Glacial Maximum, human life continued to evolve. A range of technologies appeared among the groups living in East Asia, one of which…

Published on 1 year, 1 month ago