Tracking the First People into Ice Age North America | Craig Childs

Craig Childs chronicles the last millennia of the Ice Age, the violent oscillations and retreat of glaciers, the clues and traces that document the first encounters of early humans, and the animals whose presence governed the humans chances for survival.
With the cadence of his narrative moving from scientific observation to poetry, he reveals how much has changed since the time of mammoth hunters, and how little. Across unexplored landscapes yet to be peopled, readers will see the Ice Age, and their own age, in a whole new light.
Craig Childs is a writer, wanderer and contributing editor at High Country News, commentator for NPR's Morning Edition, and teaches writing at University of Alaska and the Mountainview MFA at Southern New Hampshire University. His books include Atlas of a Lost World: Travels in Ice Age America (02019), Apocalyptic Planet (02013) and House of Rain (02008).
"Tracking the First People into Ice Age North America" was given on August 4, 02020 as part of Long Now's Seminar series. The series was started in 02003 to build a compelling body of ideas about long-term thinking from some of the world's leading thinkers. The Seminars take place in San Francisco and are curated and hosted by Stewart Brand. To follow the talks, you can:
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[@HamCubes]

Wow! Childs is a _master weaver of words_ - a rare & mighty gift to be blessed with.

[@bobbyblair20]

That was a nice trip thanks for the ride sir.

[@nebulanz8232]

Damn good writer this man is.

[@jrixtine]

Craig, we're on the same page. I use the early evidence of prehistoric people as a backdrop for my fictional stories. I also live in Colorado with experience on the many rivers of western Colorado and eastern Utah. I appreciate the references of mammoth in the lowlands of the Mississippi, which is a location for another novel in the works. Thank you.

[@denisesaunchegrow4088]

That was fantastic, listened twice. I am glad to hear people saying we must have had several times of coming into the new world...and different ways, coast included.

[@jrixtine]

Congratulations on securing a site in western Colorado for your creativity. Thank you for connecting with me via KZbin. I am a writer, artist and musician in western Colorado.

[@qwertyuiopgarth]

Re: California as a 'land of plenty'. I am sure that there were trade connections between California and the agricultural civilizations to the south and east, but 'California as a land of plenty' provides a partial explanation for why there was no (little?) agriculture in California. The other part of the story would be that agriculture/agricultural technology did not yet provide enough of a benefit for the effort expended for the Californians to see adopting it as advantageous. Some evidence that would support this 'set of assumptions' would be if there was evidence of the pre-Columbian Californians doing things to improve their hunting/gathering resources and/or actively cultivating something for ceremonial/medicinal/occasional-but-significant-use purposes (was there tobacco cultivation in California?). If Columbus and others hadn't shown up eventually someone would have started irrigation agriculture in the Central Valley and things would have started snowballing from there.

[@kmaher1424]

Almost poetry...