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A Biography of Earth Across the Age of Animals
Season 1 · Episode 32

A Biography of Earth Across the Age of Animals

Climatologists, geologists and data scientists are building system models of Earth’s ancient past like we’ve never seen before.

The Quanta Podcast

October 28, 202526m 59s

Show Notes

Thanks to a delicate interplay between plate tectonics and life, Earth’s thermostat has kept animal life thriving on our planet for half a billion years. On this week’s episode, host Samir Patel speaks with contributing writer Peter Brannen about our planetary highs and lows, and the precarious goldilocks zone our animal-filled finds itself in now. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.  

Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

Audio coda courtesy of Martin Rietze's YouTube channel.