logo
episode-header-image
Nov 2024
49m 32s

Ice Age America

History Hit
About this episode

A group of hunter-gatherers encounter diverse habitats full of creatures they’ve never seen before. A land of opportunity, but also danger.


Join host Tristan Hughes and expert Dr David Meltzer as they delve into the Ice Age in North America, over 10,000 years ago, a land of saber toothed tigers, direwolves, woolly mammoths, mastodons. They discuss how ancient DNA is revolutionising our understanding of human displacement and extinction events and how these explorers adapted to their new world.


Presented by Tristan Hughes. The producer is Joseph Knight, audio editor is Aidan Lonergan. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.


The Ancients is a History Hit podcast.


Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe. 


You can take part in our listener survey at https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/6FFT7MK.


All music courtesy of Epidemic Sound.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Up next
Oct 8
Ancient Antarctica
The frozen continent of Antarctica was once a land of forests, rivers and thriving ecosystems. And millions of years before humans ever existed it was home to a whole host of ancient creatures, from the first sharks to the earliest marsupials.Tristan Hughes is joined by paleontol ... Show More
57m 4s
Oct 4
Prehistoric Penguins
When the asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs, one remarkable avian survivor traded the skies for the sea. Tristan Hughes and paleontologist Dr Steve Brusatte explore how prehistoric penguins emerged on ancient Zealandia, lost their flight and grew into colossal apex predators. But h ... Show More
40m 51s
Oct 1
Life and Death in Ancient Babylon
Babylon was one of the greatest cities of the ancient world. But what was life really like for the people who lived there? Behind its magnificent temples and royal palaces lay a city of crowded streets, disease, danger and everyday struggles.Tristan Hughes is joined by friend of ... Show More
54m 31s
Recommended Episodes
Jun 2017
Comets, Ice Age, And Human Civilization
Why was North America once covered in ice? How could a comet strike have helped to shape our planet as we know it? And What did stone carvings teach us about our early human ancestors? Join Guy Raz & Mindy Thomas as they take you on a time traveling adventure through the latest W ... Show More
20m 59s
Nov 2022
What is the Ice Age?
Learn about the Ice Age, what happens during an ice age and how long it lasts in this very short introduction from Do You Know Podcast, a podcast from English Plus Podcast Network. Find the interactive transcript and the PDF practice worksheet on https://englishpluspodcast.com/do ... Show More
4m 33s
May 2021
S3: Crash Course on animals — only in Canada
How did an ice age determine what animals and insects are only now found on the land we now call Canada? Leah and Falen go way, way back to find the answers. See also: "Ours To Save," a special report from the Nature Conservancy of Canada and NatureServe Canada. Link: https://bit ... Show More
7m 22s
Jun 2019
Doggerland
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the people, plants and animals once living on land now under the North Sea, now called Doggerland after Dogger Bank, inhabited up to c7000BC or roughly 3000 years before the beginnings of Stonehenge. There are traces of this landscape at low tide, ... Show More
54m 2s
May 2024
Journey to the Ice Age
Josh treks deep into Siberia for a site where priceless mammoth bones are mined out of the permafrost. Once he gets back to the lab, Josh views the DNA results to find out if the woolly mammoth will walk the earth again.<hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acas ... Show More
39m 4s
Aug 2023
Old Things Considered: La Brea, Megalodon, Dino Footprints, Surviving History. Aug 25, 2023, Part 2
<h2>How Early Humans May Have Transformed L.A.’s Landscape Forever</h2><p>Join us on a time traveling adventure, as we go back 15,000 years to visit what’s now southern California. During the last Ice Age, saber-toothed cats, wooly mammoths, and dire wolves prowled the landscape, ... Show More
47m 16s
Mar 2024
أصول الإنسان
tail spinning
10m 10s
Apr 2016
2 - Of Reindeer And (Fisher) Men
This is the first episode in a series about the history of Scandinavia before the Viking Age. We are starting today with the arrival of the first Reindeer Hunters in Southern Scandinavia around 13,000 BCE and culminating in a few weeks with the Germanic Iron Age ending around 700 ... Show More
22m 39s