We tend to think of the world in terms of our relationship with it: as individuals, communities, civilizations. It’s harder to think about the Earth before a textual record, before human history. This week, we dive into deep time with paleoclimatologist Page Chamberlain. What did the Western United States look like in the Cenozoic Era? How do the Rocky Mountains affect Europe’s climate? How can the climate 3 million years ago tell us about the climate today? In this conversation, Page and produc...
Aug 02, 2016•31 min
The solenodon: a venomous, shrew-like mammal, found only in the Caribbean, that has survived for millions of years by hiding underground. Even the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago couldn’t kill this hardy little creature. But after surviving for so long, after outliving the freakin’ DINOSAURS, the solenodon is now threatened by human encroachment into their habitat. Guest producer Laura Cussen brings us this story, originally published in 2014 with support from the Stanfo...
Jul 26, 2016•16 min
We all need food to stay alive, but when we’re filling up our grocery carts, it’s not like survival is the primary motivator. If you’re listening to this podcast, chances are you live somewhere with food options galore. And if you’re environmentally inclined, you probably take a little more time in deciding what to put in your mouth. Is it healthy? Is it organic? Is it tasty?! So much to think about everytime we eat! Today we have two stories that dive a little deeper into our decision-making pr...
Jul 19, 2016•17 min
This week we revisit our interview with Paul Ehrlich. Ehrlich rose to notoriety in the 1960s following the publication of his bestselling book “The Population Bomb.” In the book, he foresaw a world characterized by widespread famine and societal collapse driven by overpopulation. In the years since, Ehrlich has received considerable criticism for his predictions. In this quintessential Gen Anthro conversation, our former student Jenny Rempel challenges Ehrlich about his past predictions and how ...
Jul 12, 2016•25 min
Think of the Anthropocene as a science fiction thought experiment. We imagine future geologists looking back into the rock record, and trying to pinpoint when humans became the dominant geologic force. In many ways, science fiction is the perfect genre for exploring environmental issues – running out scenarios and “what ifs” to their extremes, and imagining how that world would look and feel. Award-winning science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson does exactly that in many of his works. In thi...
Jul 05, 2016•36 min
As cities around the world absorb more and more people, many urbanites want to reconnect with local food. This has led to the rise and spread of urban agriculture, and at the center of this movement is Will Allen, the founder and CEO of the nonprofit Growing Power. In today’s episode, Allen shares his life story, and discusses his passion for urban agriculture and food security, as well as how urban farming can strengthen community ties. We also have a short bonus segment this week, brought to u...
Jun 28, 2016•34 min
When we think of space, we typically think of beautiful images taken by powerful telescopes and interplanetary rovers. We think of the rings around Saturn; the giant red spot on Jupiter; or Martian rover selfies. But what does the surface of Mars sound like? What haunting melody should we expect from our Sun? And what do these sounds teach us about our cosmic neighborhood? On today’s episode, producer Miles Traer takes us on an audio tour of the solar system, with a rich library of sounds record...
Jun 21, 2016•31 min
Five things you may not know about phosphorus (but probably should): 1) It's an essential element to all life on Earth – so it's a critical ingredient for industrial fertilizers. 2) The vast majority of our phosphorus supply comes from phosphate rock, mined from geologic deposits. 3) Those geologic deposits are concentrated in just 5 countries, and Morocco alone controls 75% of known reserves. 4) The rate at which we’re consuming phosphorus is flat out unsustainable, to say the least. Experts wa...
Jun 15, 2016•12 min
The Anthropocene is characterized by exponential global change driven by human activity. But humans have been impacting the planet since the very earliest days when we first appeared on the evolutionary tree. In fact, one of the longest running debates in paleontology centers on homo sapiens’ role in wiping out North America's enormous land animals, known as megafauna. In this interview with paleontologist Liz Hadly, we talk about what life looked like in the Pleistocene, the pattern of human di...
Jun 08, 2016•27 min
Trash. Garbage. Refuse. Waste. Call it whatever you like, this is the stuff we deal with everyday that we no longer want in our lives. It’s not that it has no value; it actually has negative value. That’s why we’re getting rid of it! And apart from remembering when to drag out the bins to the curb, our trash mostly stays out of sight and out of mind. But on today’s show, we explore what happens when we don’t look away and follow our trash around. Where does it go? What happens to it? And what do...
May 31, 2016•29 min
Perhaps you've noticed recently that there's been a shift in way experts are approaching climate change. While much of the focus (rightly) continues to be on "bending the CO2 curve downward," there's also been a growing literature on climate adaptation. The sobering reality is that climate change is already upon us – so given that we cannot escape some of the consequences, we're now faced with a whole new series of questions. Who is most at risk? What are the social, cultural, and political forc...
May 24, 2016•35 min
"Oil is the blood; steel is the body; but rare earth elements are the vitamins of a modern society." While many of us can't even pronounce elements such as praseodymium, yttrium, or gadolinium, these minerals drive our technology and our modern lifestyles. These aren't your run-of-the-mill "common" Earth elements, these are the "rare" earth elements. But... they aren't actually that rare. And their importance to modern life goes well beyond their unusual geology. On this episode, professor Julie...
May 17, 2016•30 min
Disney movies have captured the imaginations of children and adults for decades. The endearing characters, the colorful landscapes, and the epic tales of heroism carry a sense of wonder and playfulness. But what we rarely notice is that woven into many of these films is a deeper story about the natural world. In Disney movies we learn the rules of the forest, the hierarchy of the jungle, and humankind's relationship to nature. Underlying every film is an implicit morality, one that seems so logi...
May 13, 2016•30 min
A core tension at the center of many environmental debates has to do with our relationship to technology. After all, the environmental movement that arose in the 1960s was propelled by a desire to "get back to nature," but these days we have an increasingly hard time escaping technology. It's somewhat ironic, therefore, that we use the language of nature to describe so many aspects of the digital universe. Probably the best current example is the mysterious "cloud," which has become so critical ...
May 11, 2016•12 min
The microbiome is the term doctors use to describe the countless organisms each one of us carries in and on our bodies. In the last few years there's been an explosion of research around how the gut microbiome is linked with our health. As Microbiologist Justin Sonnenburg tells producer Anna Lee, our microbiomes are like the control center of our bodies, affecting cognition, digestion, mood, and overall wellbeing. It turns out that that much of the current research into our gut microbiomes is be...
May 02, 2016•10 min
In 2011, author and editor Oliver Morton wrote a cover article for "The Economist" titled: Welcome to the Anthropocene. Many credit this article with jumpstarting popular interest in the term. On today's show, producer Miles Traer sits down with Morton to discuss the anthropocene in the context of his new book titled "The Planet Remade: How Geoengineering Could Change The World." The conversation touches on everything from pitching stories at the Economist to U2 spy planes to why geoengineering ...
Mar 03, 2016•23 min
Beneath Cambodia's troubled history with the Khmer Rouge lies a complex agricultural legacy that reaches back centuries. Once the symbol of a thriving region, we see how a prolonged El Nino brought drought and increased human conflict, and how the ruthless Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge looked back to the temples at Angkor Wat and their proud agricultural heritage to motivate the atrocities of the Cambodian genocide. Producer Miles Traer speaks with mental health and water science experts to see ho...
Feb 10, 2016•26 min
Student reporter Reade Levinson travels to Mongolia in hopes of witnessing a practice known as sky burial, in which bodies of the dead are prepared for the afterlife. But as Reade learns in her journey, in Mongolia the forces of urbanization, modernization, and environmental change may be threatening this sacred ritual. This piece is a collaboration between Generation Anthropocene and the Stanford Storytelling project. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: ht...
Feb 01, 2016•19 min
As we hear over and over again, environmental issues are mounting, and the stakes are huge. So how might big data be used to tackle the issues of sustainability, climate change, habitat loss, and species extinction? And even more than that, can it offer us new ways of engaging in a relationship with nature? This episode comes from the Raw Data podcast, produced by our own Mike Osborne and Leslie Chang. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.c...
Jan 28, 2016•36 min
When the Conference of the Parties meets in Paris in the coming weeks, it will mark the 21st time the nations of the world have met to try to strike a deal to combat climate change. Given existing tensions between nations, and given that each country has a unique capacity to contribute to a comprehensive deal, we ask the question, "how can we measure success at the Paris negotiations?" Stanford researcher Aaron Strong and New York Time reporter Andy Revkin walk us through the history of previous...
Nov 25, 2015•14 min
Does climate change mean the end of civilization? Maybe that sounds crazy, but, then again, all the forecasts are deeply sobering. There are reasons for hope, sure, but there are also reasons to believe that humans are unleashing forces beyond anyone's control. If we assume for the sake of argument that we are on a collision course headed for global catastrophe, how do we make peace with that reality? How do we comport ourselves as ethical human beings, and what does it mean to be living through...
Nov 11, 2015•27 min
Gordon Hempton has traveled the world for decades, recording the sounds of the Earth. Produced, edited, and mixed by Leslie Chang. Story idea by Jackie Mogensen. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Sep 15, 2015•49 min
Fire is evolving. The three necessary ingredients for fire - heat, fuel, and oxygen - each appeared at different times in geological history, meaning that fire wasn't always around on Earth's surface. Fire historian Steve Pyne describes the origin and evolution of fire over the past 420 millions years on Earth, including history's true Promethean moment. In a bonus segment, producer Mike Osborne chats with paleoclimate scientist Jud Partin about his new publication exploring the Younger Dryas, t...
Sep 02, 2015•26 min
Rondonia by Generation Anthropocene Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Aug 18, 2015•20 min
There's no way around it – climate change is a critical part of the Anthropocene. This week, we explore what's at stake with climate change. We talk to Professor Marshall Burke about the connection between climate and conflict, and to Professor Ken Caldeira about a radical solution to global warming: geoengineering. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy...
Aug 04, 2015•18 min
Seeds of Change by Generation Anthropocene Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Jul 21, 2015•17 min
Most of the changes scientists see on our planet are either visible to the naked eye or directly measurable. But changes to our water systems are among the most difficult to see. In this episode, we travel from the Antarctic ice sheet capturing over 60 percent of all freshwater on Earth, to massive groundwater aquifers that remain particularly elusive, to a freshwater system that acts as the primary economic, cultural, and environmental driver of southern Asia. In short, we go in search of hidde...
Jul 07, 2015•23 min
In this compilation, we draw from our 80+ episodes to explore the anthropocene: what it is, how it's defined, and what it means for you. This piece was released in cooperation with SmithsonianMag's Anthropocene hub. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Jul 06, 2015•6 min
How does geography affect the outcomes of history? We seek an answer from archaeologist Ian Morris, and explore a case study of the Navajo. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Jun 23, 2015•33 min
Invertebrates. Gutless, spineless– but perhaps under-appreciated invertebrates. We probably don’t spend enough time thinking about that other category of organisms on earth, so on this episode we’re going to spend some time with maybe the most overlooked group of Eukaryotes: Fungi. As it turns out, there are (at least) five MIND BLOWING facts about fungi that we all need to know. We’ll then travel to Southeastern Alaska to study the changing forest community. A wave of climate-driven ecological ...
Jun 16, 2015•28 min
