Annie Jacobsen

And so the sun's rays are now poisonous. So you have people living underground and you have this great thawing. And with that great thawing comes pathogens and plague. And you have this, you know, system where the small bodied animals, the insects and whatnot, begin reproducing really fast. And the larger body animals like you and me begin to go extinct. Right.

Professor Toon said it to me this way. You know, he said 66 million years ago, an asteroid hit Earth, killed all the dinosaurs and wiped out 70% of the species. And nuclear war would likely do the same. And so here we are talking about this because there is a difference. There's nothing you can do about an asteroid, but there is something you can do about a nuclear war.

Professor Toon said it to me this way. You know, he said 66 million years ago, an asteroid hit Earth, killed all the dinosaurs and wiped out 70% of the species. And nuclear war would likely do the same. And so here we are talking about this because there is a difference. There's nothing you can do about an asteroid, but there is something you can do about a nuclear war.

Professor Toon said it to me this way. You know, he said 66 million years ago, an asteroid hit Earth, killed all the dinosaurs and wiped out 70% of the species. And nuclear war would likely do the same. And so here we are talking about this because there is a difference. There's nothing you can do about an asteroid, but there is something you can do about a nuclear war.

Carl Sagan talked about that in this amazing book that he wrote with two scientist colleagues called The Cold and the Dark. And there's a bunch of essays about exactly this, right? Like what would happen and how long would it take? It's really interesting. It's dated, you know, it's from the 80s, but man, is it shocking.

Carl Sagan talked about that in this amazing book that he wrote with two scientist colleagues called The Cold and the Dark. And there's a bunch of essays about exactly this, right? Like what would happen and how long would it take? It's really interesting. It's dated, you know, it's from the 80s, but man, is it shocking.

Carl Sagan talked about that in this amazing book that he wrote with two scientist colleagues called The Cold and the Dark. And there's a bunch of essays about exactly this, right? Like what would happen and how long would it take? It's really interesting. It's dated, you know, it's from the 80s, but man, is it shocking.

And you think about that where, okay, so men return to sort of the worst, most base versions of themselves. Civilization is gone, right? Meaning, you know, civil society. There's no rule of law. It's just fend for yourself. There's, you know, people fighting over what little resources there are. Man returns to a hunter-gatherer state.

And you think about that where, okay, so men return to sort of the worst, most base versions of themselves. Civilization is gone, right? Meaning, you know, civil society. There's no rule of law. It's just fend for yourself. There's, you know, people fighting over what little resources there are. Man returns to a hunter-gatherer state.

And you think about that where, okay, so men return to sort of the worst, most base versions of themselves. Civilization is gone, right? Meaning, you know, civil society. There's no rule of law. It's just fend for yourself. There's, you know, people fighting over what little resources there are. Man returns to a hunter-gatherer state.

And to really think about this idea, I looked at the oldest known archaeological site in the world in Turkey, which is called Gobekli Tepe. And it's really fascinating to me because I interviewed one of the two archaeologists who first found this site in the early 90s. And the lead archaeologist was a guy named Klaus Schmidt, and Michael Morsch was the young graduate student who was with him.

And to really think about this idea, I looked at the oldest known archaeological site in the world in Turkey, which is called Gobekli Tepe. And it's really fascinating to me because I interviewed one of the two archaeologists who first found this site in the early 90s. And the lead archaeologist was a guy named Klaus Schmidt, and Michael Morsch was the young graduate student who was with him.

And to really think about this idea, I looked at the oldest known archaeological site in the world in Turkey, which is called Gobekli Tepe. And it's really fascinating to me because I interviewed one of the two archaeologists who first found this site in the early 90s. And the lead archaeologist was a guy named Klaus Schmidt, and Michael Morsch was the young graduate student who was with him.

And Morsch's description of, like, coming upon this, like, rumored-to-be site—there was something called a wishing tree on the site, which I just found so human and perfect that it was this magical place— And it was locatable because there was a wishing tree on a hill and it's where people went to wish and to hope that their wishes came true. I mean, how human is that, right?

And Morsch's description of, like, coming upon this, like, rumored-to-be site—there was something called a wishing tree on the site, which I just found so human and perfect that it was this magical place— And it was locatable because there was a wishing tree on a hill and it's where people went to wish and to hope that their wishes came true. I mean, how human is that, right?

And Morsch's description of, like, coming upon this, like, rumored-to-be site—there was something called a wishing tree on the site, which I just found so human and perfect that it was this magical place— And it was locatable because there was a wishing tree on a hill and it's where people went to wish and to hope that their wishes came true. I mean, how human is that, right?

And that is where beneath the wishing tree, kind of like in the shadow of the wishing tree, there was a tep, which is a hill. And beneath that, there is the oldest known civilization in the world. 12,000 years ago, a group of hunter-gatherers built this site. Why? We don't know.

And that is where beneath the wishing tree, kind of like in the shadow of the wishing tree, there was a tep, which is a hill. And beneath that, there is the oldest known civilization in the world. 12,000 years ago, a group of hunter-gatherers built this site. Why? We don't know.

And that is where beneath the wishing tree, kind of like in the shadow of the wishing tree, there was a tep, which is a hill. And beneath that, there is the oldest known civilization in the world. 12,000 years ago, a group of hunter-gatherers built this site. Why? We don't know.

But I imagined when, through Morse's descriptions of coming upon, like, you know, he tripped on a rock, he told me, right? He tripped over a stone that turned out to be The top part of a 12,000-year-old sculpted man, giant pillar, right? And he talked about coming upon that. And then no one knows really what Gobekli Tepe was for.