Communiqué
Travel back into the past with the hit YouTube series “PBS Eons” to see if you could survive deep time!
< < Back toPBS EONS Podcast Returns for Season 2 of: EONS: SURVIVING DEEP TIME
Travel back into the past with the team behind the hit YouTube series PBS Eons to see if they — and you — could survive deep time.
Watch the trailer here. Listen to Episode 1
If you were suddenly dropped back in time half a billion years ago into the Cambrian period, could you survive? Or 66 million years ago in the aftermath of a giant space rock hitting the Earth? The question of “How long could a human survive if they were dropped into a particular period of time” is one of the most frequently asked by fans of PBS Eons, the popular YouTube series. And it’s exactly the question that their newest podcast seeks to answer. EONS: SURVIVING DEEP TIME premieres in October 2024, and takes listeners on a journey of prehistoric discovery – one that looks to answer overarching questions about the past and ourselves.
EONS: SURVIVING DEEP TIME is hosted by PBS Digital Studios science communicators Kallie Moore, Blake de Pastino, Michelle Barboza-Ramirez, and Gabriel-Philip Santos and will feature special guests.
“We’re so excited for our second season of the Eons Podcast,” said Kallie Moore, co-host of EONS: SURVIVING DEEP TIME and PBS EONS on YouTube. “Together, we’ll explore the challenges of survival over the eons and examine whether or not humans could have made it through specific points in geological time. We’re on a hunt for answers about the unknown past as well as our collective future.”
“The Eons Podcast is an important part of PBS’ multi-platform approach in reaching audiences with engaging content wherever they are,” said Maribel Lopez, Head of PBS Digital Studios. “The Eons teams put a tremendous amount of research and creativity into everything they do, resulting in episodes that are not only educational but fun.”
EONS: SURVIVING DEEP TIME builds off the momentum of EONS: MYSTERIES OF DEEP TIMEwhich premiered in March 2022, and explored some of natural history’s greatest mysteries. While the first season’s episodes relied on a single host telling a scripted story, the new season is structured as a conversation between multiple hosts, which allows for moments of spontaneity and levity as they explore hypothetical situations.
EONS: SURVIVING DEEP TIME is distributed by PRX, and will release 12 episodes bi-weekly. It is available to stream free on all major podcast platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever else users get their podcasts. New this season is a video version, and the podcast will be available to watch on the Eons YouTube channel.
Episodes Overview:
Episode 1 – Could You Survive The End-Devonian? (with Hank Green)
By the end of the Devonian Period, the land had exploded with plant life and ancient invertebrates. There was also Tiktaalik – one of the first known vertebrates able and willing to move from the water to land. Our distant relative figured out how to survive in this dramatically different environment, can you?
Episode 2 – Could You Survive The Cambrian Explosion?
In the ocean, the Cambrian Period was one of startling evolutionary innovations, but on land, it was barren, with no vegetation of any kind. In this strange world before plants made their way onto land…could you survive?
Episode 3 – Could You Survive The End-Ordovician Extinction?
The End-Ordovician Extinction was the first of the so-called ‘Big Five’ mass extinctions in the history of life on Earth – more than 80% of species in the oceans died out. But could you survive its aftermath?
Episode 4 – Could You Survive The Carboniferous?
The swamps of the Late Carboniferous Period teemed with giant insects, but it’s time for the amniotes – the ancestors of all reptiles, birds, and mammals to come – to earn the title of Fully Terrestrial Vertebrates. It’s getting more crowded on land – could you survive?
Episode 5 – Could You Survive The Great Dying?
A catastrophic volcanic event in the Late Permian Period caused the biggest mass extinction of all time – known to us as the Great Dying. As a result, a large majority of terrestrial life would disappear, but our ancestors had the adaptations (and the healthy dose of luck) needed to survive – but would you?
Episode 6 – Could You Survive The End-Triassic
In the aftermath of the Great Dying, rapid evolutionary radiation resulted in the rise of a bunch of weird creatures in the Triassic Period. But life at the end of the period, including the earliest dinosaurs, faced yet another catastrophic extinction event. Could you survive in this strange time period?
Episode 7 – Could You Survive On Hateg Island?
There was an island in the Late Cretaceous Period in the fragmented European archipelago that turned out to be the hunting ground of a terrifying apex predator unlike any other: a giant pterosaur. Could you manage to survive on this island?
Episode 8 – Could You Survive The K-pg Extinction?
66 million years ago, an asteroid hit our planet triggering global wildfires, an impact winter, and the end of the Age of Dinosaurs. Could you make it through the darkest days of planet Earth?
Episode 9 – Could You Survive The Messinian Salinity Crisis
In the Late Miocene Epoch, tectonic forces uplifted the Earth’s crust, blocking off the Mediterranean Sea from the Atlantic Ocean. A once-thriving marine ecosystem was replaced by an endless salty, desolate landscape. Is it possible for you to survive here?
Episode 10 – Could You Survive Living With Other Hominin Species?
Today, we Homo sapiens are used to being the only hominin on the planet, but in the Early Pleistocene Epoch, other upright-walking, tool-wielding, large-brained hominins roamed the Earth. In a time when behavior might be the key tool to survival, could you?
Episode 11 – Mailbag Episode
We’ve reached the present! Before we take one look into the future in our final episode, all four Eons hosts have gathered to reflect on their survival experiences – and answer some of your questions.
Episode 12 – Will We Survive The Future?
Just because our ancestors have made it through every major period of upheaval in the Earth’s history so far doesn’t mean that our survival through future changes is guaranteed. Humans have become a force of nature, but will we survive ourselves?
Listeners of EONS: SURVIVING DEEP TIME are encouraged to engage in online conversation by using #EonsPodcast, and can also follow Eons accounts on YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. PBS Digital Studios is on Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.
EONS: SURVIVING DEEP TIME is produced for PBS Digital Studios by Complexly and is distributed by PRX. For Complexly, Hank Green and Seth Radley serve as executive producers; Kallie Moore, Michelle Barboza-Ramirez, Blake de Pastino, and Gabriel-Philip Santos as hosts, Sarah Suta as producer; Paige Madison as script editor, Darcy Shapiro as editorial director, Farhan Mitha as senior staff writer, Callie Dishman as sound designer, Chris Angkico as video editor and Brooke Shotwell as communications coordinator. For PBS, Maribel Lopez is executive in charge and John Campbell is assistant director of programming.