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What were Neanderthals really like? Our closest relatives shared an incredible amount in common with us, argues Dr. Rebecca Wragg Sykes, author of the wonderful new book Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death, and Art. But we shouldn't pigeonhole them; Neanderthals persisted for hundreds of thousands of years across time and space, living diverse and varied lives everywhere from mountains to deserts to icy tundra.Listen to new episodes 1 week early, to exclusive seasons 1 and 2, and to all episodes ad free with Wondery+. Join Wondery+ for exclusives, binges, early access, and ad free listening. Available in the Wondery App here.Support us by supporting our sponsors! The Great Courses Plus - Go to thegreatcoursesPLUS.com/TIDES and treat yourself to a FREE Trial of access to the entire library.SimpliSafe - Get 30% off SimpliSafe plus a free security camera today by visiting SIMPLISAFE.com/TIDES. Hurry! This deal expires on Friday.

Five thousand years ago, a man died more than 10,000 feet high in the Alps of northern Italy. He had been shot in the back with an arrow, the corpse left behind, where he was frozen into a glacier along with all of his belongings. He stayed there until two hikers found him - still half covered in ice - in 1991. What was Ötzi's life like? And what can we learn about his final days and hours? Thanks to incredible scientific studies, we know more about Ötzi than almost anybody who's ever lived.Listen to new episodes 1 week early, to exclusive seasons 1 and 2, and to all episodes ad free with Wondery+. Join Wondery+ for exclusives, binges, early access, and ad free listening. Available in the Wondery App. https://wondery.app.link/tidesofhistoryIf you'd like to see pictures of Ötzi and his equipment, check out the accompanying post.Support us by supporting our sponsors!PlushCare - Go to plushcare.com/tides.Indeed - Try Indeed out with a FREE SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLAR CREDIT at indeed.com/TIDES. Offer valid through December 31. Terms and conditions app.

Today, everywhere from Bengal to British Columbia, some 3.2 billion people speak an Indo-European language. All of these diverse languages are descended from a common ancestor spoken long before the advent of writing. But where and when was that, and who were the speakers of Proto-Indo-European? Follow us more than 5,000 years back in time to a story about livestock herding, horseback riding, chieftains, burial mounds, and powerful new gods.Listen to new episodes 1 week early, to exclusive seasons 1 and 2, and to all episodes ad free with Wondery+. Join Wondery+ for exclusives, binges, early access, and ad free listening. Available in the Wondery App. https://wondery.app.link/tidesofhistorySupport us by supporting our sponsors! SimpliSafe - Visit simplisafe.com/TIDES and get a FREE security camera, plus a 60-day risk-free trial with any new system order.

The first farmers of Europe and their descendants persisted for thousands of years. In the Neolithic heartland of eastern Europe, along the Danube River and through the northern Balkan Mountains, they built a unique civilization: Old Europe, with its artificial mounds, gorgeous pottery, and for the first time, the use of metal. The first cities in the world grew out of this long-lived Neolithic just before it disappeared forever.If you'd like to see visuals of the things discussed in today's episode, check out the accompanying post on my Substack, and be sure to subscribe.Support us by supporting our sponsors!The New Yorker - Get 12 weeks of The New Yorker for just SIX dollars, plus a FREE tote bag. Go to newyorker.com/TIDES!Theragun - Go to theragun.com/TIDES RIGHT NOW and get your Gen 4 Theragun TODAY.

When we think of the medieval world, our minds usually turn to knights, royalty, and clergy. But the backbone of the medieval economic and social order was the humble peasant. In this rebroadcast from 2018, we explore the world and lives of the vast bulk of the people who actually lived in the Middle Ages, and why they matter.

How do we know what we know about the deep past? What languages did people speak in prehistory? And why, if the life of an early farmer seemed to be so miserable, did farmers have so many children? I answer all of these questions and more in our first prehistory mailbag episode.Support us by supporting our sponsors!PlushCare - Make your appointment today. Go to plushcare.com/tides.Great Courses Plus - Start your FREE trial at thegreatcoursesplus.com/tides.Upstart - Hurry to upstart.com/tides to find out HOW LOW your Upstart rate can be. Checking your rate only takes a few minutes!

It didn't take long for the first pioneering farmers of Europe to establish mature and stable societies. The monuments of these societies are still with us today: enormous earthen tombs and standing stones, silent reminders of a lost civilization.If you'd like to see some pictures of the monuments I talk about in today's episode, check out the accompanying post here.Support us by supporting our sponsors!Indeed - Try Indeed out with a FREE $75 DOLLAR CREDIT at indeed.com/TIDES.PlushCare - Make your appointment today. Go to plushcare.com/TIDES.

Farming came into existence in the Fertile Crescent, but it didn't stay there. By 5000 BC, agriculture had spread east and west, reaching both Central Asia and the Atlantic Ocean. But how did this happen? Did indigenous hunter-gatherers adopt farming, or did the farmers themselves move and bring their way of life with them?If you'd like to see some visuals of the things we talk about in this episode, check out the accompanying post on Substack.Support us by supporting our sponsors!Upstart - Find out just how low your rate can be today at upstart.com/tides.SimpliSafe - When you visit simplisafe.com/tides you get a FREE HD camera.The Great Courses Plus - Get FREE access to their entire library at thegreatcoursesplus.com/tides.

Today, pizza powers a $100 billion dollar global industry -- but when the Carney brothers opened the very first Pizza Hut in 1958, it was still practically unheard-of outside major US cities. Since then, the passion for pies has grown like crazy, fueling a competitor named Domino’s and taking these one-time mom and pop joints global. But when their businesses began to rise, they inspired a whole host of competitors to join the market, forcing both companies to innovate at a rapid pace. Listen to the latest season of Business Wars: Pizza Hut vs. Domino's now at wondery.fm/pizza_TOH.

The domestication of animals has transformed the way that people eat, clothe themselves, and live over the past 10,000 or so years, but what in the world does "domestication" even mean? How did this happen, and why did people start doing this? I talk with Professor Greger Larson of Oxford University about the genetics of animal domestication and how cutting-edge science is helping us answer these age-old questions.Support us by supporting our sponsors!Upstart - Find out how low your Upstart rate can be today at upstart.com/tides. SimpliSafe - Get FREE HD camera at simplisafe.com/tides.The Great Courses Plus - Go to thegreatcoursesplus.com/tides to access to their entire library for FREE.

The domestication of plants and animals has remade the way that people feed themselves, organize their societies, and interact with the landscapes around them. But for most of the human past, this isn't how people subsisted. When, where, and how did people start farming? And most importantly, why?If you'd like to see some visuals of the things we talk about in this episode, check out the accompanying post on Substack.Support us by supporting our sponsors!Plush Care - Start your FREE 30 day trial at plushcare.com/tides.Net Suite - Get your FREE guide and schedule your FREE product tour at netsuite.com/tides.Master Works - Do to masterworks.io and use promo code TIDES to skip the waitlist today.

Silvio Berlusconi was a charismatic multi-millionaire real-estate mogul who upended the Italian political order and hypnotized an entire nation. He was the longest-serving prime minister of one of the world’s wealthiest countries, until he was brought down by three powerful women - and two words: “Bunga Bunga.” From Wondery, the makers of Dirty John and The Shrink Next Door, and hosted by comedian Whitney Cummings, “Bunga Bunga” is an eight part series on the incredible true story of the rise and fall of Silvio Berlusconi, told with Whitney’s signature wit and style.Listen to Podcast: wondery.fm/TidesofHistory_BB

For most of Homo sapiens' time out of Africa, we lived in a world defined by ice. But by around 20,000 years ago, the ice had begun to melt, the glaciers retreating back toward the poles and mountain ranges. This left behind a new world, a whole different series of environments, opportunities, and perils for the people who had made it through the Ice Age.Support us by supporting our sponsors!SimpliSafe - Get FREE shipping and a 60 day risk free trial when you got to simplisafe.com/tides. Great Courses Plus - Visit thegreatcoursesplus.com/tides to access to the entire library for FREE.

Professor John Hawks of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, one of the world's best communicators on the deep human past and paleoanthropology, joins me to talk about archaic humans, genomics, and whether the concept of different human species even makes sense these days. Check out his blog, which is an amazing resource, and follow him on Twitter.Support us by supporting our sponsors!Indeed - Get a free 75 dollar credit to use toward your job posting at indeed.com/tides.Masterworks - Skip the 25,000 person waitlist when you go to masterworks.io and use the promo code TIDES to invest today.

Gone are the days of Pong and Spacewars, but their legacies live on in the video games of today through augmented reality, worldwide tournaments, and professional gamer leagues. But this trillion dollar global industry had humble beginnings. Not so long ago, video games were almost exclusively played by the programmers who made them. Wondery’s latest season of American Innovations is all about video games — who plays them, who makes them, and how they made their way out of a programmer’s computer and into living rooms across the world. Binge the full season now at http://wondery.fm/innovations_TOH.

Our understanding of the past is constantly in flux, and there's no field where that's clearer than with the early settlement of the Americas. I'm joined by Professor Jennifer Raff of the University of Kansas, an anthropological geneticist, to discuss the game-changing (or not?) recent work pushing back the date of first settlement to 30,000 years ago or more.Support us by supporting our sponsors! Masterworks - Skip the waitlist when you visit masterworks.io and use promo code TIDES. NetSuite - Schedule your free product tour and get your free guide at netsuite.com/tides.

The Dollop is a comedic podcast about American history. Each episode centers around an event or person from selected for its humorousness or peculiarity.The Dollop is hosted by Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds.Subscribe today: http://wondery.fm/TheDollop_TOHHear the rest of "The Year of the Locust": http://wondery.fm/YearOfTheLocust

The Americas were the last continents Homo sapiens reached. Why did it take so long for people to enter this vast and promising expanse of land? Who were they, and where had they come from? In today's episode, we explore the latest - just days old! - science of the First Americans, and discover the descendants they've left behind even today.Support us by supporting our sponsors! PlushCare - Start your FREE 30 day trial membership today at plushcare.com/tides. SimpliSafe - Go to simplisafe.com/tides to get FREE shipping and 60 day risk free trial. Indeed - Try indeed.com/tides today for your 75 dollar credit.

Twenty thousand years ago, the world was locked in ice. The glaciers advanced from the poles and mountain ranges, swallowing huge portions of the planet's surface and making the rest colder and drier, a more difficult place to live. Yet people nevertheless thrived, spreading out across the continents and creating some of the most incredible art in human history.

Ancient DNA is the key that's unlocking the deep history of humanity, allowing us to answer questions about our collective past that we never dreamed of addressing even 20 years ago. Eske Willerslev is a pioneer in the field of extracting, sequencing, and analyzing the preserved DNA of people who lived thousands upon thousands of years ago; on top of that, he's a fascinating person with unique perspectives on how to understand the human past.Net Suite - Get your free guide and schedule your product tour now at netsuite.com/tides.Indeed - indeed.com/tides helps you find qualified candidates.