EarthDate is a short-format weekly audio program delivering concise, science-based stories about the Earth: its geology, environments, and the processes that shape our planet over deep time and today. Beginning in 2026, EarthDate is managed by Switch Energy Alliance and hosted by SEA's founder Dr. Scott W. Tinker. Together, we explore earth systems, natural resources, and their relevance to everyday life, with a focus on clear, accessible science education for broad audiences. EarthDate is written and directed by Emmy-winning filmmaker Harry Lynch, and researched by Lynn Kistler. We search for captivating stories to remind listeners that science can enlighten, educate and entertain.
EarthDate
Claim This Podcastby Switch Energy Alliance
326 episodes
Updated Daily
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Podcast Overview
EarthDate is a short-format weekly audio program delivering concise, science-based stories about the Earth: its geology, environments, and the processes that shape our planet over deep time and today. Beginning in 2026, EarthDate is managed by Switch Energy Alliance and hosted by SEA's founder Dr. Scott W. Tinker. Together, we explore earth systems, natural resources, and their relevance to everyday life, with a focus on clear, accessible science education for broad audiences. EarthDate is written and directed by Emmy-winning filmmaker Harry Lynch, and researched by Lynn Kistler. We search for captivating stories to remind listeners that science can enlighten, educate and entertain.
Language
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Publishing Since
2/26/2026
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Recent Episodes
June 16, 2026
Antarctic Dry Valleys
<p>The most extreme, most inhospitable lands on Earth are the McMurdo Dry Valleys, near the coast of Antarctica, just inland from the McMurdo science base.</p><p></p><p>We normally think of Antarctica as covered in ice. But the dry valleys are surrounded by mountains, which block precipitation. What little water does accumulate is blown away by the constant winds.</p><p></p><p>And yet, there is life.</p><p></p><p>From December to March, the Antarctic summer, 24-hour sunshine melts ice in the mountains, producing meltwater streams that trickle into the valleys. They fill shallow, ice-covered lakes, in which microorganisms thrive.</p><p></p><p>When the water evaporates, some of those micro-critters continue to live in brine pools. Others persist in the soil.</p><p></p><p>Others live inside the glaciers that surround the valleys. That’s because trapped within them are the remnants of an ancient ocean. The water is too salty to freeze, and devoid of oxygen.</p><p></p><p>But the microbes metabolize sulfur and iron, which may come from the glaciers scraping over iron-rich rocks as they move.</p><p></p><p>One of the glaciers terminates in the dry valleys, where it secretes its red brine at Blood Falls.</p><p></p><p>Scientists believe this frigid hellscape, blasted by wind and blistering UV rays, is the closest environment on Earth to Mars.</p><p></p><p>So they’re studying it, to learn how life can survive here -- and how it might survive on the Red Planet itself.</p>
June 16, 2026
Frozen in Time
<p>Amber is a “gem” that’s often a window into the ancient past.</p><p></p><p>For thousands of years it’s been valued for its beauty, collected by humans and formed into jewelry and other treasures.</p><p></p><p>But amber is actually not a gemstone, or a mineral at all. It’s fossilized tree resin.</p><p></p><p>Trees secrete resin in reaction to damage. The resin hardens like a scab to seal the injury and protect the tree from disease. But while </p><p>it’s hardening, it’s extremely sticky and can trap pieces of plants, even small creatures within it.</p><p></p><p>Many of these are too delicate to be preserved in the fossil record, and are only available to scientists in amber.</p><p></p><p>Specimens have been found around the world. Amber erodes out of the Baltic seashore, and can be mined in Myanmar, Canada, the Dominican </p><p>Republic and many other places.</p><p></p><p>Collectors and researchers have found flies, spiders eating those flies, and mites clinging to the legs of those spiders. Lizards and </p><p>salamanders. Feathers from birds, and from dinosaurs.</p><p></p><p>Even a nearly entire baby bird, complete enough that researchers could study the structure and color of its skin and feathers -- even the lice that lived on them.</p><p></p><p>In fact, amber preserves tiny insects and arachnids almost like they’re modern specimens, allowing scientists to examine bugs that went extinct 100 million years ago as if they were alive today.</p><p></p><p>This makes amber not just a beautiful gem, but a valuable scientific tool.</p>
June 16, 2026
Lost Underground City
<p>Sixty years ago in central Turkey, a homeowner made a remarkable discovery.</p><p></p><p>When remodeling his basement, he knocked down a wall and found a tunnel. He followed the tunnel to find one of the largest underground cities in the world, abandoned long ago.</p><p></p><p>When scientists explored it, they discovered it went down 18 levels, 280 feet into the ground, and was once home to some 20,000 underground dwellers.</p><p></p><p>This was in the region known as Cappadocia, where ancient volcanoes formed soft, porous rock called tuff. On the surface it eroded into tall spires called fairy chimneys. Underground, water seeped in to form caves, which early cultures excavated further.</p><p></p><p>Around 3,000 years ago, the Hittites began to carve the underground city of Derinkuyu. It was expanded by Christians throughout the Middle Ages.</p><p></p><p>In the cool, lowest levels they stored grain and wine. In the middle levels they kept livestock. The highest levels were residences. A network of ventilation shafts brought fresh air to all.</p><p></p><p>The underground city provided shelter from the weather, and from invaders.</p><p></p><p>Central Turkey, at the crossroads of the Silk Road, was a frequent stop for marauding armies. Derinkuyu residents rolled massive stone doors across entrance tunnels to protect inhabitants.</p><p></p><p>From 1500 AD until today the city was forgotten. But it’s now a UNESCO protected site, and a remarkable window into the past.</p><p></p>
326 total episodes available
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This podcast updates daily.
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No, this podcast does not typically feature guests.
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