How Earth Shaped Life and Life Shaped Earth: A Conversation Across Deep Time | Sean B. Carroll x Andrew H. Knoll

Curiosity ⇔ Entangled

In this episode of Curiosity Entangled, evolutionary biologist Sean B. Carroll and paleontologist Andrew H. Knoll dive deep into the intertwined story of life and Earth—how genetics and geology, extinction and emergence, have sculpted the living world as we know it. From early microbial life and the Cambrian explosion to mass extinctions and planetary evolution, this conversation maps billions of years of change and discovery.

Sean and Andy reflect on how their once-separate disciplines—evo-devo and paleontology—came together to unlock new understandings of form, function, and time. They explore the episodic history of water on Mars, the transformative role of oxygen in animal evolution, the legacy of the Mars Rover, and the very real consequences of global environmental change today. Along the way, they share personal stories of fossil-hunting, career pivots, and the emotional pull of scientific storytelling. For anyone curious about Earth’s past, present, and precarious future, this episode is a time capsule and a call to curiosity.

5 Questions This Episode Might Leave You With

1. How did common genetic toolkits shape life’s diversity across wildly different species?

2. What does Mars’s episodic climate history suggest about life beyond Earth?

3. How did a collaboration between evo-devo and paleontology unlock new insights into evolution?

4. What caused Earth’s great mass extinctions—and what can they teach us today?

5. Can scientific storytelling help shift how we think about the planet’s future?

Learn More About the Guests

Sean B. Carroll –Distinguished University Professor of Biology, University of Maryland

Executive Producer, HHMI Tangled Bank Studios

Professor Emeritus of Molecular Biology & Genetics, University of Wisconsin–Madison

https://tangledbankstudios.org

https://www.seanbcarroll.com/

Andrew H. Knoll –Fisher Research Professor of Natural History

Research Professor of Earth & Planetary Sciences, Harvard University

https://eps.harvard.edu/people/andrew-h-knoll

https://www.amazon.com/Brief-History-Earth-Billion-Chapters/dp/0062853910

Timestamps

00:00:50 – Mars’s climate history: wet–dry–wet again?

00:05:25 – Andy’s pivot from engineering to geology and biology

00:11:09 – Bridging disciplines: paleontology meets evo-devo

00:15:27 – Discovering shared genetics across the animal kingdom

00:19:20 – Fossil hunting in the Arctic and unearthing deep time

00:24:28 – Oxygen, tectonics, and the rise of large animals

00:27:25 – Sean’s childhood fascination with salamanders

00:35:15 – Why scientists are never bored

00:39:12 – Sean’s leap from researcher to writer and filmmaker

00:45:17 – Writing to think: how books reshape scientific thought

00:51:02 – Global collaboration in science and the joy of mentorship

00:54:27 – The climate parallels between past mass extinctions and today

01:00:25 – Volcanism, CO₂, and the End-Permian extinction

01:04:11 – Stories of recovery: hope in biodiversity conservation

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