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Eons: Surviving Deep Time

PBS 25 episodes Latest Mar 18, 2025

Season 2 of the Eons podcast is a longform exploration of a question often asked in the comments section of their YouTube videos: how long could a human survive if they were dropped into a particular period of the geologic past?

Episodes

Will We Survive The Future? (with John Green!) Mar 18, 2025 01:12:30 Just because our ancestors have made it through every major period of upheaval in the Earth’s history so far doesn't mean that our survival through future changes is guaranteed. Humans have become a force of nature, but will we survive ourselves?--Eons is a production of Complexly for PBS Digital Studios.If you'd like to support the show, head over to Patreon and pledge for some cool rewa

Which Evolutionary Niche Does Humankind Occupy? (Mailbag Episode!) Mar 4, 2025 52:56 We’ve reached the present! Before we take one look into the future in our final episode, all four Eons hosts have gathered to reflect on their survival experiences - and answer some of your questions.--Eons is a production of Complexly for PBS Digital Studios.If you'd like to support the show, head over to Patreon and pledge for some cool rewards!Want to follow Eons elsewhere on the inter

Could You Survive Living With Other Hominin Species? Feb 18, 2025 01:11:58 Today, we Homo sapiens are used to being the only hominin on the planet, but in the Early Pleistocene Epoch, other upright-walking, tool-wielding, large-brained hominins roamed the Earth. In a time when behavior might be the key tool to survival, could you?--Eons is a production of Complexly for PBS Digital Studios.If you'd like to support the show, head over to Patreon and pledge for som

Could You Survive The Messinian Salinity Crisis? Feb 4, 2025 01:03:48 In the Late Miocene Epoch, tectonic forces uplifted the Earth's crust, blocking off the Mediterranean Sea from the Atlantic Ocean. A once-thriving marine ecosystem was replaced by an endless salty, desolate landscape. Is it possible for you to survive here?--Eons is a production of Complexly for PBS Digital Studios.If you'd like to support the show, head over to Patreon and pledge for som

Could You Survive The K-Pg Extinction? Jan 21, 2025 59:03 66 million years ago, an asteroid hit our planet triggering global wildfires, an impact winter, and the end of the Age of Dinosaurs. Could you make it through the darkest days of planet Earth?--Eons is a production of Complexly for PBS Digital Studios.If you'd like to support the show, head over to Patreon and pledge for some cool rewards!Want to follow Eons elsewhere on the internet?Face

Could You Survive On Hateg Island? Jan 7, 2025 54:18 There was an island in the Late Cretaceous Period in the fragmented European archipelago that turned out to be the hunting ground of a terrifying apex predator unlike any other: a giant pterosaur. Could you manage to survive on this island?--Eons is a production of Complexly for PBS Digital Studios.If you'd like to support the show, head over to Patreon and pledge for some cool rewards!Wa

Could You Survive The End-Triassic? Dec 10, 2024 55:03 In the aftermath of the Great Dying, rapid evolutionary radiation resulted in the rise of a bunch of weird creatures in the Triassic Period. But life at the end of the period, including the earliest dinosaurs, faced yet another catastrophic extinction event. Could you survive in this strange time period?--Eons is a production of Complexly for PBS Digital Studios.If you'd like to support t

Could You Survive The Great Dying? Nov 26, 2024 55:41 A catastrophic volcanic event in the Late Permian Period caused the biggest mass extinction of all time - known to us as the Great Dying. As a result, a large majority of terrestrial life would disappear, but our ancestors had the adaptations (and the healthy dose of luck) needed to survive – but would you? --Eons is a production of Complexly for PBS Digital Studios.If you'd like to suppo

Could You Survive The Carboniferous? Nov 12, 2024 54:23 The swamps of the Late Carboniferous Period teemed with giant insects, but it’s time for the amniotes - the ancestors of all reptiles, birds, and mammals to come - to earn the title of Fully Terrestrial Vertebrates. It’s getting more crowded on land - could you survive?--Eons is a production of Complexly for PBS Digital Studios.If you'd like to support the show, head over to Patreon and p

Could You Survive The End-Ordovician Extinction? Oct 29, 2024 50:45 The End-Ordovician Extinction was the first of the so-called ‘Big Five’ mass extinctions in the history of life on Earth - more than 80% of species in the oceans died out. But could you survive its aftermath?--Eons is a production of Complexly for PBS Digital Studios.If you'd like to support the show, head over to Patreon and pledge for some cool rewards!Want to follow Eons elsewhere on t

Could You Survive The Cambrian Explosion? Oct 15, 2024 43:50 In the ocean, the Cambrian Period was one of startling evolutionary innovations, but on land, it was barren, with no vegetation of any kind. In this strange world before plants made their way onto land… could you survive?--Eons is a production of Complexly for PBS Digital Studios.If you'd like to support the show, head over to Patreon and pledge for some cool rewards!Want to follow Eons e

Could You Survive The Devonian Period? (with Hank Green!) Oct 1, 2024 55:10 By the end of the Devonian Period, the land had exploded with plant life and ancient invertebrates. There was also Tiktaalik - one of the first known vertebrates able and willing to move from the water to land. Our distant relative figured out how to survive in this dramatically different environment, can you? --Eons is a production of Complexly for PBS Digital Studios.If you'd like to su

Introducing Eons: Surviving Deep Time Sep 26, 2024 01:30 Introducing Eons: Surviving Deep Time! Season 2 of the Eons podcast is a longform exploration of a question we’re often asked: how long could a human survive if they were dropped into a particular period of the geologic past? --Eons is a production of Complexly for PBS Digital Studios.If you'd like to support the show, head over to Patreon and pledge for some cool rewards!Want to follow E

The Eons Podcast is returning! Sep 21, 2024 0:22 Season 2 of the Eons podcast is coming soon! This season will be a longform exploration of a question we’re often asked: how long could a human survive if they were dropped into a particular period of the geologic past?

What Happened To The Neandertals? Jul 25, 2022 17:16 Studies have found Neandertal DNA in people living in - and descended from - populations in Europe, Asia, and, most recently, Africa. So, in a way, these ancient relatives of ours are somehow both here and gone. We know we shared the planet with them in the not-so-distant past… But what happened to them? Eons: Mysteries of Deep Time is produced by Complexly for PBS. © 2022 PBS. All righ

Who Were The Denisovans? Jul 11, 2022 20:44 The Denisovans are a human relative discovered just over a decade ago. The DNA from the very small number of fossils found suggest they were around as long as the Neanderthals. Yet anthropologists have gathered way more evidence for Neanderthals. Where are the Denisovans hiding? Eons: Mysteries of Deep Time is produced by Complexly for PBS. © 2022 PBS. All rights reserved.

What Did The Past Sound Like? Jun 27, 2022 17:13 How do we start to reconstruct the soundscapes of the past? Using modern environments, living representatives of ancient groups, and fossil anatomy, paleontologists have attempted to figure out what the past sounded like. And so far we’ve found the lead singers change, but the backup singers remain familiar. Eons: Mysteries of Deep Time is produced by Complexly for PBS. © 2022 PBS. All r

The Lost Human Fossils of World War II Jun 13, 2022 18:11 Between 1927 and 1937, paleontologists excavated fossils from about 40 members of the species that today we call Homo erectus from a site in China known as Dragon Bone Hill. And then World War II broke out and the fossils were lost. In this episode, we trace their path as far as the historical record will take us and explore what might’ve happened to them after their last sighting in earl

Why Do We Care About What Happened Millions Of Years Ago? (Mailbag Episode with Hank Green) May 31, 2022 40:03 Former host of Eons and our current boss Hank Green joins Kallie, Michelle, and Blake for a Q&A episode where we discuss everything from why all this matters to what specifically did sauropods taste like? Eons: Mysteries of Deep Time is produced by Complexly for PBS. © 2022 PBS. All rights reserved.

The Strange Graveyard At The Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry May 16, 2022 19:05 There's something strange about the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry. The fossils found there date back to the Late Jurassic Period and one species accounts for roughly two-thirds of all the bones: Allosaurus fragilis. But what killed all these big predators? Was the site itself a deadly trap, like the La Brea Tar Pits? Or was it a poisoned spring? Or was it simply a watering hole? This ep

The Extinct Human Species Discovered Deep Within A Cave System Apr 25, 2022 22:21 Deep in the Rising Star Cave system lies a mystery of paleoanthropology: a chamber filled with the bones of Homo naledi. How this species evolved, how it’s related to us and other human relatives, and how it got so deep in the caves are among the many open questions researchers are trying to answer, and what they’re starting to uncover might mean changing our minds about what behaviors we

What Was The First Dinosaur? Apr 11, 2022 18:57 Exactly where and when dinosaurs first evolved are still open questions in paleontology; it’s hard to even say what the first dinosaur was. In this episode, we dig into the evidence for dinosaur origins in the Triassic Period (between 252 and 201 million years ago) and try to understand the world they lived in. Being able to point to the first dinosaur might tell us something about how th

The Case of the Most Famous Fake Human Fossil Mar 28, 2022 19:22 This episode is a mystery in the most classic literary sense of the word. It’s a whodunit detective story that spans more than a century - the saga of the Piltdown Man Hoax. From a gravel pit in Sussex, we follow the faked fossils through history, to what’s now the Natural History Museum in London, where scientists are using new technologies to try to unravel the identity of the fraudster

The Only Human In The La Brea Tar Pits Mar 14, 2022 16:52 While the famous La Brea Tar Pits are well-known for charismatic Ice Age megafauna, like sabertooth cats and dire wolves, a lesser-known discovery from the Pits is the partial skeleton of a human woman. In this episode, we walk through what the Tar Pits can tell us about the ecosystem of Los Angeles over the last 50,000 years and why La Brea Woman remains such a mystery. Eons: Mysteries

Introducing Eons: Mysteries of Deep Time Mar 8, 2022 0:47 Dig into the past and explore the greatest mysteries of natural history with the team behind the hit YouTube series PBS Eons. From the dawn of the dinosaurs to downtown Los Angeles, we’re covering what we know — and what we still don’t know — about the history of life on Earth. Eons: Mysteries of Deep Time is produced by Complexly for PBS. © 2022 PBS. All rights reserved.

Eons: Surviving Deep Time

Episodes

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