The Common Descent Podcast

The island of Madagascar, isolated from all other landmasses on Earth, hosts one of the planet’s most unique ecosystems. But it’s not just an interesting place today – the geologic and fossil history ...

29 Jul 20181h 47min

We just talked last episode about Speculative Evolution, so now is a great time to tackle another request we received: to talk about mermaids! In this digression, we discuss these famous mythical mari...

22 Jul 201851min

This episode, we’re discussing the fun and fascinating “What If” thought experiments of evolution. From fantastical fictional stories to unusual scientific hypotheses to just-for-fun artistic creation...

15 Jul 20181h 50min

At long last, a plant episode! Our friend Aly Baumgartner joins the podcast to teach us all about grass - it's not just part of the background! From humble beginnings during the Age of Reptiles, grass...

1 Jul 20181h 52min

Part 5 of 5! This is it – the end of our series! We’ve now re-watched all the old movies and finally turned to the newest one for our “science reviews.” How do these movies handle such subjects as pre...

30 Jun 201846min

Surprise! We've gotten a lot of bird requests, so to follow up our Evolution of Birds discussion, we put together three mini-discussions based on other birds our listeners have asked to hear about: 1....

24 Jun 20181h 12min

Part 4 of 5! Our Jurassic Park review series is almost done! All month, we’ve been re-watching the movies and chatting about the science in a series of “science reviews.” How do these movies handle su...

23 Jun 201847min

Birds are such unique and fascinating animals; for many decades scientists have wondered at their evolutionary story – and so have many of our listeners! Well here it is: the Evolution of Birds, compl...

17 Jun 20181h 43min