Channel logo

Big History: The Big Bang, Life on Earth, and the Rise of Humanity

Season 1
In 48 thought-provoking lectures, traverse the sweeping expanse of cosmic history as seen through the conventional scale of history, the larger scales of biology and geology, and the universal scale of cosmology. With its awe-inspiring scope, Big History provides you with a new way to understand history and our place in the universe.
202448 episodesTV-PG
Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy

Terms apply

Prime membership required

Episodes

  1. S1 E1 - What Is Big History?
    July 17, 2024
    32min
    TV-PG
    Is it possible to tell a story of everything, from the big bang up to the present day? This episode introduces the background and unique aspects of this broad, multidisciplinary perspective on history.
    Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
  2. S1 E2 - Moving across Multiple Scales
    July 17, 2024
    30min
    TV-PG
    Most history series cover time spans of a few decades or a few centuries, but big history requires us to survey the past over scales that span billions of years. This episode explores ways to become more familiar with the immense scales needed to cover the modern creation story.
    Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
  3. S1 E3 - Simplicity and Complexity
    July 17, 2024
    30min
    TV-PG
    In this episode, we introduce one of the unifying themes of the series: the development of increasing complexity since the creation of the Universe. Here, we'll examine the definition of complexity and ask how our Universe builds more complex entities.
    Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
  4. S1 E4 - Evidence and the Nature of Science
    July 17, 2024
    31min
    TV-PG
    Why should we trust the claims of modern science about events in the distant past? This episode lays some ground rules about evidence for proving scientific claims and describes how new dating techniques have allowed scientists to peer further back into the past than previously thought possible.
    Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
  5. S1 E5 - Threshold 1—Origins of Big Bang Cosmology
    July 17, 2024
    31min
    TV-PG
    We encounter the first threshold of complexity (the creation of the Universe at the moment of the big bang) and explore the scientific evidence that allows us to piece together this ever-evolving story of creation.
    Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
  6. S1 E6 - How Did Everything Begin?
    July 17, 2024
    30min
    TV-PG
    This episode surveys the history of different ideas about the creation of the Universe, from Ptolemaic theories of an Earth-centered cosmos to the modern notion of a constantly expanding Universe.
    Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
  7. S1 E7 - Threshold 2—The First Stars and Galaxies
    July 17, 2024
    31min
    TV-PG
    How did the Universe change from a cloud of dust to a constellation of stellar bodies? This episode describes how gravity was fundamental in crossing the second threshold of the series: the creation of stars and galaxies from huge clouds of hydrogen and helium atoms.
    Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
  8. S1 E8 - Threshold 3—Making Chemical Elements
    July 17, 2024
    30min
    TV-PG
    Stars created the preconditions for crossing a third threshold of complexity: the formation of chemical elements. As stars collapse and die, they fuse to create new atoms that are the building blocks of all the complex chemicals that make up our Earth.
    Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
  9. S1 E9 - Threshold 4—The Earth and the Solar System
    July 17, 2024
    29min
    TV-PG
    With this episode, we shift from the scale of the Universe to that of our solar system. Here we examine the processes by which planets and solar systems are created and the evidence that helps us piece together this part of the story.
    Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
  10. S1 E10 - The Early Earth—A Short History
    July 17, 2024
    31min
    TV-PG
    The tumultuous early history of the Earth is presented in this episode, including the development of our planet's internal layers, the generation of its magnetic field, the creation of the first seas, and the appearance of its early atmosphere.
    Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
  11. S1 E11 - Plate Tectonics and the Earth's Geography
    July 17, 2024
    31min
    TV-PG
    In this episode, we examine the history of the Earth's surface and learn how the notion of our planet as fixed and unchanging was eventually overturned by a new vision of the Earth's crust as broken into plates that are constantly on the move.
    Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
  12. S1 E12 - Threshold 5—Life
    July 17, 2024
    30min
    TV-PG
    With the consideration of the next threshold of complexity, life, we develop a definition of life itself, and begin to consider how life-forms adapt and change over time.
    Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
  13. S1 E13 - Darwin and Natural Selection
    July 17, 2024
    31min
    TV-PG
    In "On the Origin of Species," Charles Darwin revealed a new story: an account of how all living species change and adapt. This lecture recounts how Darwin arrived at his revolutionary theory, and how he shared his ideas with contemporaries who were making similar breakthroughs.
    Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
  14. S1 E14 - The Evidence for Natural Selection
    July 17, 2024
    31min
    TV-PG
    In this episode, we examine the various kinds of evidence Darwin used to establish his theory of natural selection, including the fossil record, similarities among species, and the geographic distribution of species. We also review modern evidence of natural selection.
    Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
  15. S1 E15 - The Origins of Life
    July 17, 2024
    31min
    TV-PG
    How was life first created from non-life? Modern biologists tell a complex story of the creation of life which involves the development of organic matter from simpler molecules such as amino acids, nucleic acids, sugars, and proteins.
    Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
  16. S1 E16 - Life on Earth—Single-celled Organisms
    July 17, 2024
    29min
    TV-PG
    Here, study the first four (out of eight) major evolutionary transitions, embracing the first 3 billion years of the Earth’s history, a period in which all living organisms consisted of single cells.
    Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
  17. S1 E17 - Life on Earth—Multi-celled Organisms
    July 17, 2024
    32min
    TV-PG
    The fusion of single-celled organisms into larger, multi-celled organisms c. 600 million years ago marked a turning point in the development of life forms on this planet. In this lecture, we focus on the evolution of multi-cellular organisms, tracing four evolutionary steps leading to our own species, "Homo sapiens."
    Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
  18. S1 E18 - Hominines
    July 17, 2024
    31min
    TV-PG
    How did modern humans evolve from ape-like ancestors? This episode surveys the evolution of primates and great apes, and then traces the adaptive development of hominines, a group of bipedal primates that appeared in Africa 7 million years ago.
    Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
  19. S1 E19 - Evidence on Hominine Evolution
    July 17, 2024
    31min
    TV-PG
    To construct the story of hominine evolution, scientists rely on three kinds of evidence: archaeological evidence, evidence based on the study of modern primates, and evidence based on genetic comparisons between modern species of primates, including ourselves.
    Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
  20. S1 E20 - Threshold 6—What Makes Humans Different?
    July 17, 2024
    31min
    TV-PG
    Human beings represent a new threshold of complexity in the story of life on Earth. In this episode, we examine two things that make us unique: use of symbolic language and collective learning.
    Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
  21. S1 E21 - "Homo sapiens"—The First Humans
    July 17, 2024
    31min
    TV-PG
    Does the archaeological record reveal when the first members of our species appeared? In this episode, we examine evidence from the Stone Age and consider several theories of the early history of the first humans.
    Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
  22. S1 E22 - Paleolithic Lifeways
    July 17, 2024
    31min
    TV-PG
    Using remains left behind by our ancestors and studies of modern societies that still use stone technologies, modern researchers have constructed a portrait of the Paleolithic way of life. In this episode, we enter into this world and learn what life was like for our distant ancestors.
    Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
  23. S1 E23 - Change in the Paleolithic Era
    July 17, 2024
    32min
    TV-PG
    Change was gradual over the course of the long Paleolithic era, but there were some significant shifts that altered lifeways for human beings. These include climate changes during two ice ages, the rise of various technological innovations, and adaptive migration to nearly all parts of the globe.
    Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
  24. S1 E24 - Threshold 7—Agriculture
    July 17, 2024
    30min
    TV-PG
    The appearance of agriculture set human history off in entirely new directions by increasing human control of food, energy, and other resources. The development of agriculture brings about changes in the environment and lays the foundation for the development of more complex human societies.
    Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy
  25. S1 E25 - The Origins of Agriculture
    July 17, 2024
    30min
    TV-PG
    Why, after 200,000 years of foraging, should human communities in quite different parts of the world take up agriculture almost simultaneously? In this episode, we explore the different factors leading to this innovation.
    Free trial of The Great Courses Signature Collection or buy

Details

More info

Subtitles
None available
Producers
The Great Courses
Cast
David Christian
Studio
The Great Courses
By clicking play, you agree to our Terms of Use.