Episode 30
Ultima Thule (Episode 15) - Climate Shaping Human Evolution
Over the last couple of episodes we explored how humans pushed out of Africa into the rest of the world including the Americas. In this episode I recap how the climate changed over the last 100,000 years and shaped human survival. Overall, the Earth continued to descend into a much colder and drier climate than humans had ever experienced creating ice sheets five times thicker than the world's tallest building. But as the Milankovitch Cycles shifted and began warming the Earth again a strange re-cooling period called the Younger Dryas occurred, but what was the cause? We also explore when the last time humans lived in a climate as warm as today - The Eemian interglacial period. How was the world similar or different than it is today? In the final part of this episode I go all the way back to the origin of hominins and their tools over 3 million years ago and glimpse on how the climate played a role in the origins of what makes us human. (15/29)
