Dear Travelers,
While listening to the podcast Tides of History, produced by Wondery Media, I came across an episode entitled “Ancient DNA and the Future of the Past,” and I was intrigued. I wanted to explore more about what was talked about in the episode, but also the podcast itself.
Tides of History is a podcast that looks at the general history of the world and does not focus on a specific geographic area or theme. Each season of Tides of History covers a different era; Season 1 focuses on the rise of the modern era, and Season 5 is titled The Iron Age. The episode “Ancient DNA and the Future of the Past” is episode 169 of Season 5.
The purpose of the podcast is to educate the listener on the topic of the episode. “Ancient DNA and the Future of the Past” looks at the development of genetic analysis to help give anthropologists, archeologists, and ancient historians a better understanding of the ancient world. The reason this podcast episode was made was that there was a new study in ancient genetics published recently that changed the landscape of studying the ancient world. The host did a good job giving an overview of not only the studies about DNA preservation but also the historical concerns of this discovery.
The key points are the changes in archeological research and the potential to use this in historical, archeological, or anthropological research. There were parts of the episode that were boring, but for the most part, it was interesting and directly engaged with the archeological scholarship. The audience for this episode is archaeologists, anthropologists, and ancient historians. The show is effective at identifying its target audience but not so much at reaching them.
The episode is split into 7 different sections: A Family’s Story (the introduction), Archeologies Revolutions, The DNA Record, Early Challenges, The Genome Revolution, A Contentious Relationship, and Unlocking Personal Histories (the conclusion). The way that they move from one section of the podcast to another involves verbal transitions as well as music. This type of organization helps engage with the target audience. There is an interactive transcript if you listen to the episode on the Apple Podcasts app, and the show notes can be found on the Wondery website. Unfortunately, the website does not include a bibliography of the articles and research material that were used when creating the episode.
This type of podcast uses a narrative style. I am not sure if this style helps with the audience or hurts. The narrator is not an expert in this type of study or research, but he is well-researched. Because this type of episode does not tell a story but rather explains different research methods and how to use them, I think it would have been more impactful if the episode featured guests who actually used these types of methods for research. What I enjoyed the most about the episode was the stories that were mentioned. It is rare to hear stories about ancient people that are backed by science.
Have you listened to the Tides of History Podcast? What do you think? Let me know!
Happy Travels!
Hannah<3
Hannah Pullen 
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