Winter is Coming

2025-11-06 · 52 min · 9 entities

episode page audio

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→ discusses Society & Culture concept

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Feed category: Society & Culture
→ discusses History website

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→ discusses Documentary concept

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→ hosted by NPR company

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Feed author/publisher: NPR

Entities found in this episode

concepts 4

mentioned Society & Culture concept

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evidence rules-v5
Feed category: Society & Culture
mentioned Documentary concept

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evidence rules-v5
Feed category: Documentary
discusses Society & Culture concept

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evidence rules-v5
Feed category: Society & Culture
discusses Documentary concept

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evidence rules-v5
Feed category: Documentary

companys 2

mentioned NPR company

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Feed author/publisher: NPR
hosted by NPR company

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Feed author/publisher: NPR

websites 2

mentioned History website

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Feed category: History
discusses History website

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Feed category: History

books 1

mentioned Catastrophic Thinking: Extinction and the Value of Diversity book

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author of Catastrophic Thinking: Extinction and the Value of Diversity

Episode description as stored

Late last month, President Trump announced that the United States would be restarting nuclear weapons tests after a break of over 30 years. We’ve since learned that they won’t be the explosive kind of tests, but this sent us down a rabbit hole — where we found a story about dinosaurs, Carl Sagan, and nuclear war. Because there was a moment in the not-so-distant past when we learned what drove the dinosaurs extinct... and that discovery, made during the Cold War, may have helped save humans from the same fate. This episode originally published in March 2025. Guests: David Sepkoski , Thomas M. Siebel Chair in History of Science at the University of Illinois and author of Catastrophic Thinking: Extinction and the Value of Diversity. Owen Brian Toon , professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder. Alec Nevala-Lee , novelist, critic, and biographer and author of the forthcoming book Collisions: A Physicist's Journey from Hiroshima to the Death of the Dinosaurs. Ann Druyan , co-writer and co-creator of the television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. Andrew Revkin , science and environmental journalist. To access bonus episodes and listen to Throughline sponsor-free, subscribe to Throughline+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/throughline . See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy