Loading summary
Transcript75 lines
- [00:00]
Tristan
Ever wondered why the Romans were defeated in the Teutoburg Forest? What secrets lie buried in prehistoric Ireland? Or what made Alexander truly great? With a subscription to History Hit, you can explore our ancient past alongside the world's leading historians and archaeologists. You'll also unlock hundreds of hours of original documentaries with a brand new release every single week covering everything from the ancient world to World War II. Just visit historyhit.com subscribe.
- [00:33]
T-Mobile/US Cellular Advertiser
Everyone deserves to be connected. That's why T Mobile and US Cellular are joining forces. Switch to T Mobile and save up to 20% versus Verizon by getting built in benefits they leave out. Check the math@t mobile.com switch and now T mobile is in US cellular stores. Savings versus Comparable Verizon plans plus the cost of optional benefits plan features and taxes and fees vary. Savings with three plus lines include third line free via monthly bill credit Stop if you cancel any lines. Qualifying credit required.
- [01:03]
Blue Apron Advertiser
Mom, dad, I'm not throwing shade, but the whole New Year's resolution thing? Kinda slippin. No offense. Anyway, my best friend Jenny's dad crushing it. He uses Blue Apron. He says he ordered one pan assemble and bake meals and these things called meal kits. They're all super easy to make. He keeps yelling protein and fiber baby. Also the food. We tried it so good so maybe check it out or whatever. Blue Apron get 50% off your first two orders plus free shipping with code. Listen 50 terms and conditions apply. Visit Visit blueapron.com terms for more.
- [01:33]
T-Mobile/US Cellular Advertiser
This is Jacob Goldstein from what's yous Problem?
- [01:36]
Cody Cassidy
When you buy business software from lots of vendors, the costs add up and it gets complicated and confusing.
- [01:41]
T-Mobile/US Cellular Advertiser
Odoo solves this.
- [01:43]
Cody Cassidy
It's a single company that sells a.
- [01:45]
T-Mobile/US Cellular Advertiser
Suite of enterprise apps that handles everything.
- [01:47]
Cody Cassidy
From accounting to inventory to sales. Odoo is all connected on a single platform in a simple and affordable way. You can save money without missing out on the features you need.
- [01:58]
T-Mobile/US Cellular Advertiser
Check out Odoo at o d o.
- [02:00]
Cody Cassidy
O.Com that's o d o o.com.
- [02:08]
Tristan
Hello. I hope you're doing well and are enjoying the festive period. Wishing you once again. Wishing you a very Merry Christmas as we get nearer also now to New Year and 2026 where we have got some very exciting episodes lined up for you. Cannot wait to share them, but you're gonna have to wait a little longer because the Ancients team are still enjoying their holidays. I've tried to re they're on strike. They're saying no. They're saying, Tristan, we deserve our holiday. Stop being so cruel. Stop Making us listen to your voice all the time, again and again and again. And I've had to give in. So we are doing another episode from the archive today. This is one which we released over two years ago now. It was incredibly popular at the time and I can understand why. This was from our how to Survive series. Once in a while we do do an episode in the format of how to Survive in Ancient Rome or Babylonia. This one we went a bit bigger. We did how to Survive the Ice Age, which is a pretty massive topic to try and cover. But within that, we then focused in on what do we know about early humans surviving in a very difficult geographical region of the Ice age more than 20,000 years ago. And in particular we look to this culture known as the. Wait for it, the Pavlovian culture in Central Europe more than 20,000 years ago. They hunted mammoths and had fascinating culture. And to talk through it all, we have the author Cody Cassidy on the show. Cody, he dialed in from the United States. This was a really fun chat and it was. I had a very popular reception when we released it first time around. So popular in fact, that we're re releasing it today. I really hope you guys enjoy. It's cold, it's December, unless you're in Australia or New Zealand where it's really hot. You got Christmas on the barbecue and all that kind of stuff. But if you're not in the Southern hemisphere, it's cold. Bit ice Agey feels. Why not do an episode? Why not re release this episode at this time? I'm rambling on for too long now. Let's go. Cody, it is a pleasure to have you on the podcast today, buddy.
- [04:18]
Cody Cassidy
Thank you so much for having me.
- [04:20]
Tristan
You've written this guide to surviving through these various terrifying events in history. It must have been quite a fun experience writing this, going from, well, the Ice Age that we're talking about today all the way to more recent deadly events too.
- [04:32]
Cody Cassidy
Yeah, you know, the idea started I read a study that funnily enough suggested that you could outrun or a person could outrun the Tyrannosaurus rex. And they sort of delved deep into that science. And I found it kind of a fascinating way to learn about ancient history. And I sort of wanted to expand that on to other times and disasters and cultures because I sort of felt like it gave you a grounded perspective rather than a sort of 40,000 foot view that we often get from history. I sort of liked more like turn left or turn right or the sort of gruesome details about these different events that sort of gave you a little bit of entertainment and also a lot. You could pack a lot of information.
- [05:14]
Tristan
To the these much more than a little bit of entertainment. As you say. It's gruesome, but it also incredibly entertaining too. And the right answer there that you started off with ancient history and then you went from there, because that is the place to start. And with our talk today on the Ice Age, I mean, first off, when you're looking at these topics, you say you start with the Tyrannosaurus rex. So down in dinosaur times, I mean, why did you decide the Ice Age is another one of these topics to cover?
- [05:36]
Cody Cassidy
You know, I think in looking at the topics, I wanted to focus on a lot of events that I feel like I had heard about or people had heard about, but didn't know that well. And another factor I wanted was to. I like to talk about. I'm sort of a background as a science writer. And so I wanted there to be a science component to most of these as well. And I found that in sort of trying to understand exactly why the Ice Age even happened, why the planet cools and warms so dramatically over different time periods. And it was something, as I thought about, I realized I understood very poorly. So I wanted to dive into that. And then I also wanted to just understand how people with sticks and stones as weapons could bring down a mammoth, which seems impossible and impossibly dangerous.
- [06:26]
Tristan
I mean, absolutely. And we're going to definitely get into that. But I really like what you highlighted there about these names from history, which we think we know a lot about, like a name like the Ice Age. But when you delve into it, I mean, what actually the Ice Age. So that seems like a nice way to start it off, Cody. I mean, how far back can we go with the Ice Age? What do we mean by the Ice Age?
- [06:48]
Cody Cassidy
So to begin with, the Ice Age is a bit of a misnomer, at least if you're talking to a climate scientist, because technically they define an Ice Age as anytime ice permanently covers the Northern Hemisphere, which if you look at our Northern hemisphere now, it does. So this, we actually are living in a Ice Age. And we have been for the last 3 million years. So when you're talking about sort of what popular culture defines as the Ice Age is actually sort of the last glacial maximum. And of course, the climate changes dramatically over millions of years. This was before this. I mean, if we go back to the Triassic and the dinosaur period, you could have swum in the Arctic Ocean as Sort of fern forested beaches. But I became interested in why 3 million years ago this sort of dramatic climate change occurred. And it, it turns out that that is of course, our climate is dictated by carbon in the atmosphere, carbon dioxide, it sort of serves as our planet's insulation, it captures heat. And so the more carbon is in the atmosphere, the warmer the climate is. And if we want to get into the weeds, it's, it's kind of interesting.
- [07:58]
Tristan
Let's go into the weeds. Absolutely. Let's delve right into it.
- [08:01]
Cody Cassidy
Okay. So the vast majority of carbon dioxide on Earth exists in rocks, right? So the primary method in which it's released from rocks is of course, volcanic activity. There have been enormous volcanic eruptions that have released vast amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. And that's what, prior to the Industrial Revolution, can heat up the Earth. But the opposite of that is, of course, rock creation that occurs much less spectacularly and on a longer scale, but it nevertheless decreases the earth. So 200 million years ago, at the end of the Triassic, to give an example, a massive 500 year volcanic eruption released about a million cubic miles of lava and warmed up the planet about 5 degrees. This is actually about the same amount of carbon dioxide that humans have released. All of humans have released in that one, 75% of species died. So we are in the process of something similar to that.
- [08:54]
Tristan
And so if we go from 200 million years ago to that other day, which you hinted at, which you highlighted earlier, which was 3 million years ago, which seems to be like the beginning of the Ice age, what is this massive event that seems to occur around there, which really almost triggers this great shift, right?
- [09:10]
Cody Cassidy
So 3 million years ago, there's a massive tectonic collision, the collision between Northern Australia and the Indonesian plate, which is still ongoing. This of course, raises up a ton of fresh, what they call mafic rock, a type of magma. And this new rock is loaded with minerals, calcium and magnesium. And when it hits it, particularly in the equator where there's lots of rain, this fresh maffic rock erodes. It combines with dissolved carbon dioxide in the ocean and it sort of sequesters this carbon dioxide, which was otherwise going back and forth between the ocean and the atmosphere into vast beds of limestone rock primarily. So this, over a long period of time, what's happening is a lot of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and in the water is being locked away in rocks. And this is sort of removing oceans or removing the Earth's blanket, so to speak. And Earth begins to cool. And this is sort of A pattern that we see going way back, hundreds of million years. Primarily when there are ice ages. There are. The cause is a massive tectonic collision, but only in the tropics, where there's lots of rain and lots of erosion and lots of carbon dioxide is being sequestered.
- [10:29]
Tristan
But it's so interesting, isn't it, how an event there in that part of the world, you know, and you can have parallels with, let's say the asteroid strike or anything like that, an event that occurs in one part of the world, you say in the tropics, but it has consequences for the entirety of the world for millions of years to follow. I mean, as a scientist, scientists not by background, but facts like that just absolutely astonish me.
- [10:52]
Cody Cassidy
Yeah, it's hard for us to comprehend because this is happening on such a. The geologic time frame is so much longer than anything, any sort of time frame that humans are familiar with. So it's difficult to comprehend how slow, but how impactful these processes are.
- [11:09]
Tristan
What's also interesting about this is that when you think of the Ice age, it's not one continuous line of just always ice over certain parts of the world. These intercalacial periods, you get to. You also get these warm periods also mentioned. Well, that also occur. Yeah.
- [11:24]
Cody Cassidy
So we are in an ice age now, but we are in a sort of glacial minimum. And of course, 25,000 years ago there was what they call the last glacial maximum, which is sort of in what popular culture we refer to as the Ice age. And these are dictated by smaller amounts of changes of carbon in the atmosphere, but carbon changes nonetheless. And these are caused by, as Earth rotates, it sort of wobbles a bit like a. Like a spinning top. And these wobbles occur on 40,000 year cycles. So we sort of. The Earth sort of slowly tilts toward the sun and slowly tilts away. And this tilting isn't actually enough. It's not as if we are dramatically closer to the sun and therefore receiving a lot more heat. It's far less significant than that. But what it does do is change ocean currents and these ocean currents because carbon can be sequestered in the sort of carbon dioxide passes between the air and the ocean. As these ocean currents change. It turns out when we sort of tilt away a lot more carbon is. Carbon dioxide is sequestered within the water, within the oceans. And so this. About 25,000 years ago, the amount of carbon dioxide was about 65% of current, or I should say pre industrial human levels. So this caused dramatic cooling. Temperature was about 15 degrees on average, cooler back then than it is now. And of course, massive glaciation.
- [12:49]
Tristan
So let's go back there for 25,000 years to the glacial maximum that you mentioned earlier. And if we focus in on, let's say, the European step, which I know you've focused in on, on your book, Eastern Europe Today. Now, what did this area of the world look like 25,000 years ago?
- [13:07]
Cody Cassidy
Yes, it's quite difficult to imagine. So glaciers or ice sheets basically were covering all of northern Europe, Scandinavia. These are as high as skyscrapers, sometimes even higher, almost as much as a mile. And people are living sort of at the base of these, almost right where they stop on tundra. But the ice had different effects to it because the massive ice sheet sort of blocked moisture from, from the Atlantic. So rainfall was. It was very little. These were very dry areas, but the soil was really rich because of all the glacial deposits. So you had sort of an interesting dichotomy where in the highlands it was basically Arctic desert, but in the lowlands where there were river flowing, it was very lush. And so you had a lot of fauna. And the fauna was a kind of interesting fauna because it's animals that we're familiar with, but they're sort of living in odd juxtaposition. You sort of had packs of lions chasing reindeer, or you had, you know, bears, wolves and woolly rhinoceroses, but you also had cheetah and other animals that we would think of as living in hot African deserts or savannah. So it was a kind of familiar but unfamiliar landscape.
- [14:22]
Tristan
And you also have some very well known extinct fauna, or should I say megafauna living in that area of the world too, don't you?
- [14:29]
Cody Cassidy
Yes. Cave bears and woolly rhinoceroses and of course the big woolly mammoth, which I really became interested in just because it was such an unbelievably powerful creature that humans somehow hunted.
- [14:42]
Tristan
And who can blame you? Apart from maybe some of the dinosaur species, I think of all extinct species in the world. I mean, the woolly mammoth is the one that gauges so much attention because we find them absolutely incredible and fascinating and we will get back to them very soon. So we've got all of these fauna living alongside this rich area, this rich landscape. If we're not thinking of the highland Arctic deserts. But who were the people, the Homo sapiens, the communities that were coexisting in this part of the world?
- [15:11]
Cody Cassidy
Well, we call them the Gravitaton culture. This is the culture that spanned across Europe at the time. Well, they varied, but they were in general, quite tall, surprisingly more like. The men averaged almost six feet in height, and women were a little bit smaller, averaged about 5 foot 2. They were slender. They were mobile cultures that moved with herds, at least in Eastern Europe. Interestingly, they had high cheekbones, so it would have been a sort of a Runway look, almost a model. The tall, slender, high cheekbones sort of model on the Runway, almost. And then, of course, they were. Materially, they're sort of famous for having these carvings, the Venus figurines that are sort of voluptuous women. How they use them or what they represented is a matter sort of of speculation. It's hard to define why someone uses or looks at art. Whether they were for religious purposes or not is difficult to say. But certainly very sophisticated culture, sophisticated burials, carved tools, even textiles, and sort of wore these thick parka like clothing out of small animals that they probably trapped, like wolverine and fox.
- [16:20]
Tristan
I mean, that's fascinating. I love how you know more. You also know about the clothing as well, because I'm guessing to try and piece together more about this culture, these people, it's looking at those archaeological remains that I guess can be sometimes really few and far between, but trying to piece. Piece together what life must have been like for these people during this incredibly difficult time. You know, the glacial maximum, some 25,000 years ago.
- [16:43]
Cody Cassidy
Yeah. Of course, the clothing doesn't survive this long. And so they sort of. You can look at the bones of the animals that they hunted, and you can find animals like wolverine, which are small, fox, which wouldn't have made much sense to catch for their meat. So presume that they would have used for clothing. And there's also a couple of figurines that have hoods that look like they have hoods on them. So sort of presume that this was like a parka, like clothing. And then of course, there's bone needles too, that signify perhaps sewing.
- [17:16]
Tristan
Now, you mentioned gravettian culture, but what about the Pavlovian culture? What is this in regards to it?
- [17:22]
Cody Cassidy
This is. Yeah, a subset of the graviton that I became pretty interested in because they're sort of these odd mammoth hunting specialists that were living in the. In Eastern Europe and in what is now Poland. And in some of their camps, they have. They're sort of 98% of the bones are mammoth bones and they're sort of roving. They move with mammoth herds, it looks like. And they specialized in hunting this awesome creature, which I found fascinating.
- [17:49]
Tristan
I mean, absolutely. Of all the creatures living there, of all of the fauna in these rich, nutrient rich areas of the Ice Age, they choose what is arguably the most difficult prey animal at all. I mean it is absolutely fascinating. And that is from the archaeological remains. Is it from bones found in these camps as you highlighted?
- [18:09]
Cody Cassidy
Yeah, they just look at the camps around these, these were temporary camps so they were probably, you know, they had to move with the herds as the herds moved. But in some of them, yes, they'll just be massive, a massive amounts of bones and nearly all of them, in some cases virtually all of them are mammoth. So it looks like they were just like, as I said, mammoth hunting specialists.
- [18:28]
Tristan
Do we have any idea why hunting a mammoth was so appealing to these people? I mean, was there something in the meat of the mammoth that was really appealing?
- [18:36]
Cody Cassidy
Well, their size, I mean, if you can catch one, it would have certainly made an absolute bonanza. The amount of meat, and not just the meat, but their bones for tools. And there weren't trees or very many trees at this latitude. So they must have had to use probably their bones for even their fires. You certainly would have had to cook the meat. And without much wood they could have used their bones to cook their food. And small animals of course wouldn't have provided nearly as much as that. So it was certainly a great risk. But the reward was also great as well.
- [19:12]
Tristan
Foreign.
- [19:17]
T-Mobile/US Cellular Advertiser
Deserves to be connected. That's why T Mobile and US Cellular are joining forces. Switch to T Mobile and save up to 20% versus Verizon by getting built in benefits they leave out. Check the math@t mobile.com switch and now T mobile is in US cellular stores. Savings versus Comparable Verizon plans plus the cost of optional benefits. Plan features and taxes and fees vary. Savings with three plus lines include third line free via monthly bill credits. Credit stop if you cancel any lines. Qualifying credit required.
- [19:46]
Cody Cassidy
Now is your time to get into a new Dr. Horton home by taking advantage of its national red tag sales event going on right now through January 25th. Stop by any of its participating communities and find select red tag homes at Incredible Pricing. So whether you're buying your first home or looking for an upgrade, you don't want to miss the red tag sales event going on right now. Discover the Dr. Horton Difference. Tap your screen now or visit Dr. Horton.com Dr. Horton America's Builder and equal housing opportunity builder.
- [20:30]
Tristan
So let's go on to hunting one of these mammoths. What sorts of weapons therefore of sticks and stones, what weapons are we talking about?
- [20:39]
Cody Cassidy
There's a few misconceptions a lot of at least in popular Culture, we think they sort of push them off cliffs or trapped them in that way. And that doesn't appear to be the case actually at all. They found some of these ancient hunting sites and they used primarily spears, but not spears that we would commonly think of. This is not. They're not throwing spears at mammoths. If mammoth skin was as thick as an elephant's, that, as you can imagine, would have been highly ineffective. It would have been turned a dangerous activity into absolute suicide. So what they used are these, what they call atlatls or spear throwers. And these are simple tools, basically just a stick. Actually, they've sort of become popular. A version of them has become popular around dog parks lately, is if you've seen those tennis ball throwers, which, if you pick up a tennis ball and can throw it and it can add a huge amount of distance to your throw, and that's adding another piece of leverage to your throwing arm, is sort of like having a second elbow. And just by doing that, you can take what would be sort of a mammoth tickler, a thrown spear, and hurl. It speeds above 60 miles an hour. And you don't make quite the same spears as you would a sort of handheld spear. It's a little bit longer, it looks more like a dart, but in the hands of an experienced thrower, it can be quite the lethal weapon.
- [21:53]
Tristan
And do we have any evidence from archaeology regards to the effectiveness of a weapon like that? You've got your atlatl, you've got your spear, you've got them combined together and you're about to throw it, let's say, at a mammoth. Do we have any idea how much it would potentially do any damage to a mammoth?
- [22:11]
Cody Cassidy
There isn't a lot of archaeological evidence, but I found one really fascinating discovery in a Pavlovian site in Poland where they found a obsidian spearhead stuck into the bone of a mammoth, which just to make it past the skin, can signify how deep this thing and how fast it would have had to been going to impact that deeply into the mammoth. And certainly it wouldn't have been an individual sport. It would have been the whole groups of people throwing lots of atlatls at a mammoth. One wouldn't have done it at all. So definitely lots of people. And in this particular site, it was kind of a cul de sac, so that it looks like they probably drove one mammoth into a dead end and then hurled their darts at it.
- [22:56]
Tristan
You mentioned a good point there, Cody, of course, of the fact of the prehistoric hunter gatherer communities. How Everyone will have a role. How it's so necessary for people to learn to hunt from a young age and then how, of course, if they're out hunting, they'll be hunting in large groups. So not to imagine one person with an assettle, but them to be in a massive group. In regards therefore, to hunting mammoths, and you mentioned that cul de sac, I mean, do we have any ideas how they would go about hunting a mammoth? As you also highlighted, this is an animal that's in herds. Do we have any idea how, therefore they would be able to maybe isolate one of these massive beasts?
- [23:33]
Cody Cassidy
Yeah, it looks like their camps were up on hills often and they'd be up above where the mammoths would come into these river valleys and so they could watch them coming and then they would probably identify certainly female mammoths, not necessarily, surprisingly small mammoths. The bones don't look like they were hunting sick or even old mammoths primarily, but certainly female mammoths, male mammoths, bull mammoths can be dangerous, particularly when they're in a period called must, quite similar to elephants. They'll attack anything. They'll attack birds, even trees sometimes. So they probably wouldn't have allow themselves to be herded, whereas a female mammoth might be, because you need to, of course, trap it so that it can no longer run away. So they would probably identify a large female mammoth, try to herd it away, get it away from the herd, drive it away from the herd into their sort of designated kill zone, which was in this Polish site, is sort of. They're not cliffs, it's just, it's just a sort of. On three sides there are sort of rock walls to prevent it from, from escaping. So then once they had it in there, we can. And then as far as how they, they attacked it, we can sort of take a lot of lessons from elephant hunters because their activities, their sort of means would have been the same, although their tools would have been quite different, which is that the rear of a, of an elephant and probably of a mammoth was, is basically impenetrable, unfortunately for the hunters. So you would have had to, to face it and to face the massive tusks and the throw your spear at a very angry, very heavy animal.
- [25:13]
Tristan
Because as soon as you throw in your spear, that animal, that massive beast, is going to be absolutely pissed off with you and is going to be charging right down at you. It's really difficult just to imagine, I mean, hunting in that world, in that environment, you know, the glacial maximum that we highlighted, so cold and you, you need this meat for your survival. And if you miss your shot or you miss, throw your ass later and you've got a mammoth coming down towards you with tusks and bearing down at you, you're as good as gone. It's a fascinating, well, horrific lifestyle to kind of envisage.
- [25:45]
Cody Cassidy
Yeah, I don't. I mean, we can see how they did it, but even when you know how they did it, it's sort of astonishing that they did. I mean, to do the research for this. I sort of read some accounts of African elephant hunters and they describe the charge of an elephant as the scariest event of hunting any animal in Africa, including lions. It's simply terrifying and dangerous even now with modern guns and high powered elephant guns. So you can only imagine what it would have been like. And it's sort of funny that before they started finding these dart heads and spearheads in the bones of mammoth, there was a lot of archaeologists who sort of wondered if these bones that they found in these mammoths in these human camps were simply scavenged. Even though they found massive amounts of these bones, they sort of still couldn't believe that they could hunt these creatures. You needed this sort of smoking gun that is clearly hunted creatures with these dart heads in their vertebrae and stuff before they could believe that this actually occurred.
- [26:45]
Tristan
And it is such an extreme, and it's an extraordinary example from the Ice Age that you focused on in your book, that we focused on in today's episode, isn't it? Because it's the combining of this very difficult time in the ice age, so 25,000 years ago, alongside trying to live this lifestyle against one of the biggest land animals in the region. It's almost like you are combining two incredibly different difficult scenarios, merging them together, putting these people into that environment and saying, right, go for it, try and survive. It must have been a fascinating study to research when looking at life in the Ice Age.
- [27:31]
Cody Cassidy
Yeah, it's. You wouldn't believe it except for it happened. Clearly, you know, just. You wouldn't believe they survived. You wouldn't believe that not only these cultures that survived on a range of large animals, but then this subculture, the Pavlovian that survived on specifically mammoths, these mammoth hunting specialists. You sort of like these archaeologists that first found these cultures. It's. You only believe what they actually did as a sort of last resort. When all else has been proven otherwise, it's otherwise just sort of impossible to imagine how they did it.
- [28:04]
Tristan
Has it been interesting when you were doing this research, comparing, let's say the Pavlovian culture compared to other gravitaton cultures in, say, surviving in that part of the world or maybe in Western Europe and looking for maybe similarities, but also differences in their hunting, in their lifestyles.
- [28:20]
Cody Cassidy
Yeah, the gravitatson, this was across Europe culture. So the ones living on the seashore hunted more sea life and others hunted more reindeer. It is kind of remarkable how static these cultures were, though, over such long periods of time. I mean, the gravitats on this is from basically 33,000 years ago to 21,000 years ago. This is more than 10,000 years of a culture that used similar types of art. I mean, if we can think about our cultures, it's sort of thinking about 10,000 years. And the differences that occur over this stretch of time, it's staggering. I mean, that spans before writing. So it's sort of a remarkable stasis. These cultures existed in art and lifestyles for massive amounts of periods of time and large distances as well.
- [29:10]
Tristan
Now, before we completely wrap up, are there any key messages that you'd like listeners to take away about surviving in the Ice Age? Let's say if we were thrown into Eastern Europe at this time, into the Pavlovian culture. Any tips or any important words?
- [29:27]
Cody Cassidy
Well, all I can say is that you're gonna have to hunt these mammoth if you're going to want to eat. Clearly. And I would say craft an atlatl, which is not too difficult, fortunately. Just a simple stick with a bone at the end to latch your dart onto. Get that obsidian sharpened and attached to the end of your dart. And then you're going to have to make sure to not go alone. You're going to have to be a team player and go with lots of other people. Not just that help you throw the dart, but that the mammoth might chase instead of you. Sort of lowers your odds of being trampled. And then, unfortunately, when you trap the mammoth, don't trap more than one. And when you trap it, you're gonna have to wait till it faces you to throw your dart. Otherwise it will simply be useless. So throw your dart and hopefully it doesn't. When it angers and charges, which it will, hopefully it doesn't charge after you.
- [30:21]
Tristan
Well, Cody, this has been great. Of course, this is just one chapter of your how to Survive book. We focused in on the Ice Age. But you cover several other massive events from ancient history too, don't you?
- [30:33]
Cody Cassidy
Yeah, I surprise spans quite a lot of not just human history, but even a few before that. As I said, this sort of. I like to focus on the sort of spectacular disasters that exemplify a period in history and that there's something sort of deeper to say about them, either scientifically or historically that I think so we not just learn about how to escape these different disasters and what happened at that moment, but sort of the events leading up to them and sort of what the results of what changed in human culture after them.
- [31:04]
Tristan
Could we really survive the asteroid strike that wiped out the dinosaurs?
- [31:08]
Cody Cassidy
This one, I have to admit the experts I spoke with needed quite a bit of cajoling to even suggest that there was a chance. I mean, our ancestors, which this was 65, 66 million years ago, they survived. And they were quite a bit different looking than us. Of course, they sort of resembled a shrew like creature. In fact, no mammal larger than basically a raccoon survived the impact of this asteroid. So the chances of you surviving are limited. But I would suggest if you were on the Eastern hemisphere, the asteroid, which was about six miles wide and traveling at about 10 miles per second, impacted what is now Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. And the force with which it impacted is almost unimaginable, is sort of probably about 100 million times the largest nuclear weapon ever detonated. So if you were in Texas, it would have. Would have killed you. If you were in even as far as New York, it would have deafened you. And it would have, if there had been any glass, it would have shattered it basically across the entire Western hemisphere. And then of course, there were tsunamis that were more than a thousand feet high and across the Gulf coast and even 600ft high in Europe. And then after that, it got worse. There's sort of all of this material that had ejected from the impact site. If you can imagine the. It actually at this pressure, sort of rock behaves a bit like a fluid. So it's sort of very similar actually to sort of a cannonball, cannonballer hitting a pool. And this sort of sploosh of Earth that lifted up was about 25 trillion tons of rock and Earth sort of at speeds that some of which exited our orbit, but most of which fell back down to Earth. And as it did, it sort of incinerated in the atmosphere and sort of fell as fiery chunks and sort of basically ignited forest fires throughout the world. Which is the only dinosaurs that did survive were probably the ground nesting birds, because even birds that there was almost no forest left after the global firestorm. And then even beyond that, the most difficult part to survive would have been there's quite a bit of oil in The Yucatan. And so this was vaporized and then spread about the stratosphere as a kind of black paint which took almost 10 years to come down. Because this was above the rain clouds. This black paint dropped sunlight by 90%. Global temperatures fell by an average of 50 degrees. So if you can imagine the ice age, they fell about 15, this was 50, and basically stopped all evaporation. So there was almost no rainfall. And so the only area in which I think it would have been possible for someone like us to survive would have been somewhere in. In maybe Indonesia inside a deep, deep cave where it was near the equator. It was still a livable temperature.
- [33:47]
Tristan
Well, there we go. Slight tangent on the end, but thank you for answering my question. All about that, as mentioned, we focus more on the Ice age today. Cody, this has been great. Last but certainly not least, the book you have written which covers all of these how to survive scenarios is called.
- [34:00]
Cody Cassidy
It's called how to Survive History.
- [34:02]
Tristan
How to Survive History. And of course you've got a popular TikTok account too, I believe. Oh yeah.
- [34:07]
Cody Cassidy
The last few months I've been sort of trying to make videos, little explainers, little quick one minute explainers for different disasters, sort of that I cover in the book all the way up to the Titanic and other. I talk about Pompeii, surprisingly survivable, how to survive ancient Egypt and darkest year of the dark ages. So I try to make little one minute explainers on in case anybody's curious how you could have survived events like that.
- [34:34]
Tristan
Absolutely right. You know, Pompeii, if they got out early enough, they could easily get clear of the volcano. But that is another story entirely. Cody, it just goes to me to say thank you so much for taking the time to come on the podcast today.
- [34:44]
Cody Cassidy
Thank you for having me.
- [34:49]
Tristan
Well, there you go. There was Cody Cassidy for that fun chat about how to survive in the ice age, especially if you were part of the Pavlovian culture. I hope you enjoy enjoyed the episode. Thank you for listening. Please follow the show on Spotify wherever you get your podcasts. That really helps us and you'll be doing us a big favor if you'd also be kind enough to leave us a rating as well. Well, we'd really appreciate that. Now don't forget, you can also sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries with a new release every week. Sign up@historyhit.com subscribe. That's all from me. I'll see you. See you in the next episode.
- [35:40]
T-Mobile/US Cellular Advertiser
Everyone deserves to be connected. That's why T Mobile and US Cellular are joining forces. Switch to T Mobile and save up to 20% versus Verizon by getting built in benefits they leave out. Check the math@t mobile.com Switch and now t Mobile is in U S Cellular stores. Savings versus comparable Verizon plans plus the cost of optional benefits, plan features and taxes and fees vary. Savings with three plus lines include third line free via monthly bill credits. Credit stop if you cancel any lines. Qualifying credit required.
- [36:09]
Cody Cassidy
A rich life isn't a straight line to a destination on the horizon. Sometimes it takes an unexpected turn with detours, new possibilities and even another passenger or three. And with 100 years of navigating ups and downs, you can count on Edward.
- [36:28]
Tristan
Jones to help guide you through it all.
- [36:30]
Cody Cassidy
Because life is a winding path made.
- [36:33]
Tristan
Rich by the people you walk it with.
- [36:35]
Cody Cassidy
Let's find your rich together. Edward Jones Member SIPC.