#631 La Brea Tar Pits: Peril and Promise - Dr. Emily Lindsey
Release Date: 06/03/2022
Would You Have Followed Joseph Smith? Faith, Power, and the Price of Trust
The Not Old - Better Show
Joseph Smith Jr. (1805–1844) was one of the most successful and controversial religious leaders of 19th-century America, publishing the Book of Mormon and starting what would become the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He built temples, founded a city-state in Illinois, ran for president, and married more than 30 women. This self-made prophet thrilled his followers with his grand vision of peace and unity, but his increasingly grandiose plans tested and sometimes shattered their faith. John G. Turner, professor of religious studies and history at George Mason University, presents...
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Snack Smarter, Spend Less (healthy bites that won't bust your grocery budget)
The Not Old - Better Show
You know the moment. You’re standing in the grocery aisle with a small bag of snacks in your hand. The front says “high protein.” The price says seven dollars. And you’re wondering whether it will actually taste good, fill you up, or be worth buying again. I’m Paul Vogelzang, and this is The Not Old Better Show. Welcome to another conversation in our Good Better Best series with Good Housekeeping. Stef Sassos is back with us. She leads Good Housekeeping’s Nutrition and Fitness Lab, where food claims and popular trends get a closer look. Today, I’m asking her to help us shop with...
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Before We Knew the Ending: America, Fascism, and the Warnings We Were Still Learning to Hear William I. Hitchcock on A Shadow Over the World
The Not Old - Better Show
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🎙️ Your Home, Your Taste: Good Housekeeping’s Lis Engelhart on Timeless Style, Holiday Smarts & Ignoring the Influencer Noise
The Not Old - Better Show
🏡 What happens when home design stops being about trends and starts being about judgment? That question is at the center of my latest conversation with Lis Engelhart, Visual Styling Director at Good Housekeeping, for our Good Better Best Interview Series on The Not Old Better Show. Lis has spent years creating beautiful spaces for magazines and real people. But what interested me most was her belief that a home should work for the people who actually live there. Not the imaginary version of ourselves we think we’re supposed to become. Not the algorithm. Not the latest design trend. 🎄...
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🔧 One Month Became Eight Years: Tim Leatherman and the Tool That Built a Life 🧰
The Not Old - Better Show
A loose bolt. A leaking pipe. A car that refuses to cooperate. Most of us see aggravation. Tim Leatherman saw an invention. In 1975, Tim and his wife, Chau, were traveling through Europe on a tight budget in a temperamental $300 Fiat. Tim carried a scout knife, but every roadside repair and questionable hotel sink left him wishing for one more thing. Pliers. He wrote down four words: “Add pliers to pocketknife.” Simple idea. Brutal journey. Tim thought he could build the prototype in one month. It took three years. Then came rejection after rejection. Knife companies said it was a tool....
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No Power. No Pharmacy. Now What? 🔦💊 Dr. Sue Anne Bell on Emergency Preparedness After 60
The Not Old - Better Show
🚨 NO POWER. NO PHARMACY. NOW WHAT? 🔦💊 We tend to think about emergency preparedness as bottled water, flashlights and a go-bag. But after 60, preparedness can become much more complicated. What happens when the systems supporting our everyday independence suddenly aren’t available? For this National Preparedness Month edition of The Not Old Better Show, I speak with University of Michigan disaster researcher and experienced disaster responder Dr. Sue Anne Bell. Her work asks us to think beyond the emergency itself and consider what happens when healthcare, medications, electricity,...
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Small Home Fixes, Big Peace of Mind 🏠
The Not Old - Better Show
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Your Cells Are Changing: Roxanne Khamsi on the DNA We Acquire as We Age
The Not Old - Better Show
Right now, inside your body, cells are dividing. Each time they divide, they must copy an enormous instruction manual: your DNA. Most copies are remarkably accurate. Some acquire changes. We tend to think of DNA as fixed. You receive it from your parents, carry it through life, and perhaps pass part of it to your children. But scientists are finding that inheritance is only the opening chapter. As we grow older, our cells collect mutations. Sunlight can leave its mark on skin cells. Tobacco smoke can alter cells in the lungs. Inflammation, infection, copying errors, environmental exposures,...
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From Peacocks to Penguins: Chloe Chapin on the Sartorial Revolution
The Not Old - Better Show
👔 The most powerful costume may be the one we stopped noticing. In Suitable: The Sartorial Revolution and the Fashioning of Modern Men, fashion historian and former Broadway costume designer Chloe Chapin follows an extraordinary transformation. Men moved from colorful coats, patterned waistcoats, and elaborate display to the plain, dark suit. That change carried political meaning. During the early American republic, restrained clothing came to represent democracy, rationality, masculinity, seriousness, and public authority. Plainness became a choice that looked increasingly natural. Chapin...
info_outlineLa Brea Tar Pits: Peril and Promise - Dr. Emily Lindsey
The Not Old Better Show, Inside Science Interview Series
Welcome to The Not Old Better Show, Smithsonian Associates Interview Series on radio and podcast. Today’s episode is part of our Inside Science series.
Our guest today is Smithsonian Associate, Dr. Emily Lindsey., from the Natural History Museum, Los Angeles. Dr. Lindsey will be presenting at the Smithsonian Associates program coming up, and the title of Dr. Lindsey's presentation is La Brea Tar Pits: Peril and Promise. Dr. Lindsey is the Assistant Curator and Excavation Site Director, Rancho La Brea, and her research integrates information from past and modern ecosystems to understand how Ice Age animals and environments functioned, how climate conditions and human actions intersect to drive extinctions and to predict future ecological responses in the face of modern global change. No other paleontological site in the world has as great a potential to answer these questions as La Brea Tar Pits.
In the heart of the third-largest city in North America, geologic processes have conspired to create the richest Ice Age fossil site on Earth. For more than 50,000 years, underground crude oil has seeped to the surface, trapping plants and animals in the world-famous La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles. Over the past century, their remains have helped scientists paint a picture of the Ice Age, a time when saber-toothed cats, mammoths, camels, dire wolves, and giant ground sloths roamed across North America in ecosystems as biodiverse as the modern African savanna.
Dr. Lindsey and I will discuss what happened to this lost world, and what does it mean for our planet today? Dr. Emily Lindsey will lead us today on a virtual tour of the La Brea Tar Pits that covers 20-million-years, from the ancient seabed to LA’s modern car culture. We will learn about the history of Los Angeles, which is inextricably intertwined with oil, which literally fueled the city’s economic and geographic expansion. Today, the rich fossil treasure troves preserved in petroleum are being used not just to reveal the past, but to help plan for a climate-resilient future in one of the continent’s most populous and biodiverse regions.
La Brea Tar Pits is the best and most complete record of life during the Ice Age, a living laboratory for scientists and the global community to engage in and learn from groundbreaking research, and discover plants and animals trapped in the tar pits over the last 50,000 years.
Please join me in welcoming to The Not Old Better Show, Smithsonian Associates Inside Science Interview Series on radio and podcast, Smithsonian Associate, Dr. Emily Lindsey.
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