Evolution Talk
162 episodes - English - Latest episode: 13 days ago - ★★★★★ - 186 ratingsEverything you wanted to know about evolution by natural selection in short, easy to digest, episodes. Hosted, and produced by writer Rick Coste.
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Episodes
The Beginning: Multicellularity Rules
November 10, 2014 09:49 - 12 minutes - 16.6 MBThe reason natural selection had such a grand old-time with multicellular organisms is because it gave it something to select for. These organisms increased in size, moved into new areas for food, and protected themselves against the environment. It is during this period that some peculiar forms began to emerge.
The Beginning: Sexual Reproduction
November 03, 2014 10:43 - 15 minutes - 21.9 MBOne day, millions of years ago, something occurred between two unsuspecting eukaryotes. When they bumped into one another something magical happened. They both left that encounter slightly different than they had been before. What passed from one to the other was a few microscopic bits of genetic material. Natural selection had new toys to play with.
The Beginning: Cyanobacteria
October 27, 2014 10:09 - 13 minutes - 18.6 MB3.5 billion years ago microbial organisms appeared on the earth. These organisms combined, split, and combined some more, until the formation of microbes and single-celled algae. One of these single-celled algae-like organisms were cyanobacteria.
The Beginning: Life
October 20, 2014 10:06 - 12 minutes - 16.8 MBIn the beginning the Earth wasn’t exactly a hospitable place. It was hot, volcanic, and oxygen was a rare commodity. So the question now is how did life emerge from these conditions? We are still asking this 4.6 billion years later. Darwin proposed a primordial pond that was teeming with the just the right materials for life to form. If so, what happened in this little pond 3.9 billion years ago set the stage for everything the followed.
Only A Theory
October 13, 2014 10:00 - 15 minutes - 20.7 MBCharles Darwin had a hypothesis was that animals evolved due to a process he called natural selection. He strengthened his hypothesis with tests and observation. Evolution by natural selection has held up to every test. It is because of this that it long ago graduated from being a hypothesis to being a theory. It is a valid explanation for the fact of evolution.
Alfred Russel Wallace
October 06, 2014 10:08 - 15 minutes - 21.1 MBIn 1858, Charles Darwin received a paper authored by a young naturalist named Alfred Russel Wallace. In it, Darwin found that the young man had reached the same conclusions about evolution that he had been working to prove for the previous two decades.
Why Darwin Matters
September 29, 2014 09:05 - 14 minutes - 20.2 MBOver the last 150 plus years there is one subject which has caused its advocates and detractors to butt heads, often with incredulity at their opponents stance, and sometimes with animosity. That subject of course is evolution by natural selection. But what does it mean?
On the Origin of Species
September 22, 2014 09:00 - 17 minutes - 24.5 MBOn November 24, 1859, "On the Origin of Species" was published. To say that it made a splash would be an understatement. It changed the world.
Darwin: The Calm Before the Storm
September 15, 2014 09:00 - 12 minutes - 16.9 MBIn the years following his return from his voyage on the Beagle, Charles settled into a life as a naturalist. On all fronts, both personal and professional, things were looking up for Charles. His days were spent pouring over his notes and the specimens he had collected from his five year voyage. He would take long walks to gather his thoughts and rarely left Down House unless he had to attend a meeting. He wasn't in any rush to publish his book however. He knew that a possible backlash was ...
Darwin On The HMS Beagle
September 08, 2014 09:52 - 13 minutes - 18.7 MBCharles Darwin, at 22, had never sailed before. With his notebooks, gear, rifles, and trunks loaded, he stood on the deck of the HMS Beagle to bid England farewell. The date was 12/27/1831.
Darwin Before the Beagle
September 03, 2014 17:42 - 15 minutes - 21.6 MBCharles Darwin will be forever known as the man who came up with the brilliant, and magnificent, idea that life evolved on this planet from a common ancestor and that the driver, or the mechanism behind this, is natural selection.
Introducing Evolution Talk!
August 31, 2014 12:04 - 5 minutes - 5.32 MBIf you've ever wondered what all of the fuss was about, or how evolution works, then you've come to the right place. Over the next few weeks, months, and years, we will look at Darwin's revolutionary theory and what it means to the life we see around us.