Ep. 871: Are Birds Actually Dinosaurs?
The MeatEater Podcast
MeatEater
4.9 • 37.9K Ratings
🗓️ 4 May 2026
⏱️ 113 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Steven Rinella talks with paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and author, Steve Brusatte.
Topics discussed: The Story of Birds is out now!; Steve's other best selling books on The Rise and Reign of Mammals and The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs; why birds are dinosaurs; the odds of something becoming a fossil; the physical traits, adaptations, and eating habits that helped early birds survive; and more.
Connect with Steve and The MeatEater Podcast Network
Steve on Instagram and Twitter
MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:02.3 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:04.4 | First Lights fieldwear collection is made for the work that happens long before opening day and continues when the season ends. |
| 0:12.3 | Products built for early mornings, full days in real use. |
| 0:16.3 | Hard wearing where they need to be versatile where it matters. |
| 0:20.0 | No shortcuts. |
| 0:22.5 | Just gear designed for the work that earns the season. Built to perform, built to last. Check out. First |
| 0:28.9 | Light's new fieldwear gear at firstlight.com. This is the meat eater podcast coming at you shirtless, severely bug-bitten, and in my case, underwearless. |
| 0:49.0 | We hunt the meat-eater podcast. |
| 0:51.6 | You can't predict anything. |
| 0:53.1 | Brought to you by First Light. |
| 0:55.6 | When I'm hunting, I need gear that won't quit. |
| 0:58.8 | First Light builds. |
| 1:00.0 | No compromise gear that keeps me in the field longer. |
| 1:03.8 | No shortcuts, just gear that works. |
| 1:06.4 | Check it out at firstlight.com. |
| 1:09.0 | That's F-I-R-S-T-L-I-T-E.com. |
| 1:16.6 | Holy smokes, we're joined today by paleontologists and writer Steve Broussaddy, who has this very |
| 1:22.3 | popular science collection. And it started out with the rise and fall of the dinosaurs. Correct? |
| 1:28.2 | That's right. Big Time New York Times bestseller. It got on the list. It was a shock. A dinosaur book on the bestseller list, which was awesome. |
| 1:35.6 | And then the rise and rain of the mammals, which tells the story of the mammals. And then the new book out right now, the story of birds. |
| 1:42.9 | And that's literally out like today, the day that we're saying. Yeah, this is the publication day. Oh, that's so I'm happy. I'm honored to be here with you on the day the book comes out. Yeah, I got an admission to make though. And I just have to come out and say it. I haven't read the books. Well, I'm glad you're honest. If I could touch them though and absorb all the knowledge. if I could touch them and absorb all the knowledge and have that in my head so I could be like that guy. Yep. And also, like, dominate that end of trivia. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, you know, there's a lot of factoids and a lot of trivia in these books, but really they're pop science books and they're meant for everybody, you know, I'm a professor, I'm a scientist, I teach at the University of Edinburgh and |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from MeatEater, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of MeatEater and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.