The End of the World
Curious Cases
BBC
4.8 • 4.1K Ratings
🗓️ 9 December 2019
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
"What would become the dominant species if, or when, humans go extinct?"
This cheery question leads Drs Rutherford and Fry to embark on an evolutionary thought experiment.
Zoologist Matthew Cobb questions whether humans really are the dominant species. Ecologist Kate Jones explains why some species are more extinction-prone than others. Plus Phil Plait, AKA The Bad Astronomer, busts some myths about why the dinosaurs went extinct.
Send your questions for future series, along with any Curio correspondence for the podcast, to: curiouscases@bbc.co.uk
Presenters: Hannah Fry, Adam Rutherford Producer: Michelle Martin
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2019.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts |
| 0:04.8 | Hi, excuse the interruption. I'm Hugh Dennis and I'd like to tell you about the Radio |
| 0:09.6 | 4 Christmas appeal. Over its long history, listeners have supported St Martin in the |
| 0:14.8 | Fields and helped thousands of people away from homelessness and into a safe and secure |
| 0:19.9 | place to live. How? Well, all over the UK, emergency grants of up to £350 helped people |
| 0:27.4 | to pay a deposit on a flat or pay rent a res to avoid eviction. Frontline workers offer |
| 0:32.8 | encouragement and challenge so people aren't alone while they get their lives back together. |
| 0:38.6 | And in London, the connection at St Martin's helps people off the streets and to find a |
| 0:43.2 | home. Please support the BBC Radio 4 Christmas |
| 0:46.8 | appeal with St Martin in the Fields by donating online on the Radio 4 website. If you want |
| 0:52.6 | to hear how your support is helping, you can go to BBC Sounds and listen to a programme |
| 0:57.1 | all about the Christmas appeal, called Making a Difference with asthma Mia. Whether you're |
| 1:02.8 | a long-standing donor or this is your first year, thank you. Home starts here. |
| 1:08.2 | Music Radio Music Radio Music |
| 1:14.6 | I'm Dr Adam Rutherford. And I'm Dr Hannah Fry. And you are going to send us your everyday |
| 1:19.4 | mysteries. And we are going to investigate them using the power of science. Science. |
| 1:25.2 | I like it. |
| 1:27.2 | Music Radio Music |
| 1:30.2 | Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, Curios, great and small. This is the final episode |
| 1:36.6 | in series 14 of the Curious Cases of Brotherford and Fry. Have we actually been commissioned |
| 1:41.7 | to do another sit? Is this the end? I don't know. I'm not going to pay my bills. Michelle, |
| 1:46.6 | have we been, are we doing more of these? I think so. I haven't been told to stop yet. |
... |
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