The North American continent used to have deep roots extending far into the Earth's mantle. They melted. Here's how scientists think they disappeared.

There's one human innovation that's so critical to our lives that every modern human group seems to have it. And you probably have some in your craft drawer - it's glue! Turns out there's a long history of glue-making that cements it as...

Whether you saw a quantum computer featured in a tech news blog post, or that Black Mirror episode "Joan is Awful", the chandelier-like look may have inspired the thought "Why does it look like that?" Well, it's not for the sci-fi...

The real lever of a meaningful life isn’t intelligence or hustle — it’s personal agency, says Cate Hall, former Supreme Court attorney and once the world’s top-ranked female poker player. Sharing her journey from the throes of addiction...

What if ending food insecurity meant ditching charity models that haven’t been updated since the 1960s? Dion Dawson, TED Fellow and founder of Dion’s Chicago Dream, shares how he turned a spontaneous idea for giving back to his community...

In a moment that stunned the world in 2019, the famed Notre-Dame in Paris went up in flames, threatening the future of the centuries-old Gothic treasure. Philippe Villeneuve, the chief architect of the cathedral’s restoration, recounts...

When did practicing medicine - in its varied, complex forms (from sharing medicinal plants to the earliest surgeries) - become something that we actually started doing? While it’s a hard question to answer, it’s possible that our...

To get fire, which exists only on Earth, it took billions of years of photosynthesis – which means fire can’t exist without life. And fire and life have been shaping each other ever since.

We spend a lot of time here on Eons looking backwards into deep time, visiting ancient chapters of our planet’s history. But this time, we’re taking a look towards the deep future. After all, the story is far from over.

Have you ever wondered where giant beasties of folklore, like the chupacabra, came from? Not every mythological creature has a scientific explanation, but here are a few that might.<b<br/>r/>

Hosted by: Reid Reimers (he/him)

If you were really into gift shops as a kid, you probably loved to look at all the shiny geodes. But those little geodes are nothing compared to the mother of all geodes, found is in Put In Bay, Ohio. So let's talk about how this...

Sometimes, one animal ends up in an evolutionary arms race with another for millions of years. Here are four fascinating examples, including our own showdown with snakes. <b<br/>r/>

Hosted by: Jaida Elcock (she/her)

Does childbirth increase your chance of breast cancer? Yes. But it also decreases it in the longterm ...depending on how old you are your first time around. It has to do with your hormones like estrogen and the damaged DNA in your...

Of the 10 largest rough diamonds ever mined, 6 of them have come from the African nation of Botswana. Russia is the only country that produces more diamonds by volume, but the individual gems don't tend to be as large. So why is...

Batagay (aka Batagaika) Crater goes by many names. Scientists call it a retrogressive thaw megaslump; the internet may know it best as the Doorway to the Underworld. And since it opened up in the Siberian permafrost over half a century...

There's a tree species that used to be all over the world. And now, they can only be found in a secret valley in the mountains in Australia. This is the story of the rise and fall of the Wollemi Pine, including how some new tech might...

Two billion years ago, an igneous rock in northern South Africa formed. Not long after, some bacteria crawled into cracks in that rock, and got trapped inside when the cracks got plugged up by a bunch of clay. But that bacterial colony...

AI is transforming the way we work — could it also reshape what makes us human? In this quick and insightful talk, evolutionary anthropologist Sarah Blaffer Hrdy explores how the human brain was shaped by millions of years of shared...

Hope isn’t just a feeling, but a skill you can practice, explains climate activist Xiye Bastida. Taking cues from the resilience of nature, she shows why trusting Indigenous leaders who’ve protected the planet for generations can help...

Accused of leaking state secrets, journalist Lei Cheng was imprisoned in China for more than three years, where she was detained in tight quarters and kept under constant supervision. “Freedom is wasted on the free,” she says, recounting...

Palm oil is in nearly every commodity you use — food, shampoo, makeup and more — but harvesting this essential material has contributed to the destruction of millions of hectares of forests globally. Sustainability leader Andika...

What separates struggling artists from successful ones? Looking to creative geniuses like Mozart, Edison and Monet, video creator Jon Youshaei explains why aiming to be prolific — despite flops and failures along the way — is the key to...

Confidence doesn’t come before action — it comes from taking action, says business leader Kat Cole, who worked her way up from waitress to CEO of a global health company. She presents a simple yet powerful practice called the "hot shot...

The world is heading toward a massive copper shortage that could derail the clean energy transition, says mining expert Jeff More. He shows how advanced sensing technology could get us back on the right track, drastically cutting down on...