Catastrophe, climate, and deep-time detective work.
Kosmographia is a long-form science-and-prehistory conversation built around Randall Carlson’s dynamic view of Earth history. Episodes move from mound complexes and flood geology to solar flares, Holocene climate shifts, and civilization-scale disruptions.
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Kosmographia is a long-form conversation about Earth history, catastrophe, ancient landscapes, and the fragile conditions that let civilization exist. Randall Carlson is the central figure, and the episodes often revolve around his attempts to connect field observations, scientific papers, old questions, and newly visible patterns. The show thinks in systems. A mound is not only a mound; it might be a horizon platform, a geometry problem, a memory device, or part of a larger prehistoric design. A flood channel is not only erosion; it becomes a question about water depth, sediment load, deltas, bed load, saltation, and the violence needed to reshape a valley. Episodes regularly move through maps and slides, so the pacing can feel like sitting inside a research session while the group argues through what the evidence might mean. It is detailed. It is also loose. The same discussion may move from Monks Mound to Poverty Point, from Lake Huron dive sites to dry-suit training, or from Greenland ice cores to Bronze Age collapse. Solar variability has become a major thread, with attention to flares, coronal mass ejections, cosmic rays, carbon dioxide forcing, and the limits of stable-climate assumptions. Holocene climate is another core concern. The show returns to neoglaciation, the climatic optimum, the 8,300-year cold spike, glacier retreat, exposed trees, and the way rapid climate shifts appear in high-resolution records. Ancient catastrophe gives the series its emotional gravity. Atlantis, Hapgood, Younger Dryas events, megafauna, submerged sites, and lost-civilization arguments are treated as open questions rather than tidy conclusions. The conversations can be speculative, but they are rarely shallow. Papers are read aloud. Terms are defined. Maps are revisited. Field trips matter because scale matters, and the group often insists that a landscape has to be seen before it can be understood. The humor is informal and self-aware, with recurring participants interrupting the seriousness before returning to the evidence. Kosmographia works best for listeners who like patient, technical, exploratory discussions that are comfortable with uncertainty. It is less a polished science explainer than an ongoing investigation into how geology, astronomy, climate, and human memory might fit together.
Made for: For listeners drawn to alternative prehistory, geology, archaeoastronomy, megafloods, and long-form arguments about abrupt change. It suits people who enjoy technical digressions and do not mind unresolved questions.
What sets it apart: The show combines field-trip geology, screen-shared research, ancient-site geometry, and solar-climate speculation in one ongoing conversation. Its distinctive strength is the willingness to sit with maps, papers, vocabulary, and uncertainty for long stretches.
All the Randall you can handle
Monks Mound becomes a possible skywatching perch, and suddenly your horizon looks suspiciously useful.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A relaxed, speculative look at Monks Mound as a possible platform for horizon astronomy.
Cosmographia's Episode 107 stays with North American mound complexes, moving from Ohio sites newly placed on the World Heritage List to Monks Mound and its scale.
A grounded look at ancient earthworks, submerged landscapes, and evidence that remains intriguingly unsettled.
America's mound-building past comes into focus through parallel earthworks, long barrows, and the idea that old stories may preserve symbolic memories of a great destruction.
A wide-ranging Holocene review connects solar change, climate records, and Bronze Age upheaval while leaving room for open questions.
This PlayNext review follows a conversation that tries to give the Holocene its due. Randall Carlson and the other speakers move through changes in the sun, high-resolution climate records from Greenland and Antarctica, and the idea that Earth's past holds stretches of stability…
A measured look at Holocene warmth, glacier evidence, and the cold spike that cut through it.
This episode frames Holocene temperature history as a story of shifting climate pressure, from the sun's possible role in upheaval to the neoglaciation that followed the climatic optimum.
A measured review of solar influence, plasma, and a logarithmic CO2 curve tied to returned heat.
The episode centers the sun in a discussion of climate and plasma, then moves into carbon dioxide and heat being returned toward the lower atmosphere.
Documentary storytelling on ecology and Indigenous land stewardship, hosted by Mendel and Adam.
Books, systems, and the questions that unlock them.
Coastal science, patiently and beautifully reported.
Soil life, climate repair, practical regeneration.
Randall Carlson opens episode 107 of Cosmographia by returning to the Ohio mound complexes after the World Heritage List designation for the state sites.
Cosmographia and Randall Carlson spend the episode on North American mound culture, from Cahokia in Missouri to long barrows, graded ways, and composite earthworks.
Cosmographia episode 105 returns to the Holocene, with Randall Carlson arguing that Earth history fits a dynamic model shaped by repeated convulsions and catastrophes.
Randall Carlson argues that solar variability, not CO2 alone, sits behind Holocene climate swings and extreme events like the 14,300-year pulse.
Randall Carlson uses Holocene climate swings, including the 8,300-year cold spike and the neoglaciation around 6,000 years ago, to argue that climate has never been stable.
Cosmographia episode 102 centers on a paper about a possible giant solar flare and a 14,300 BP carbon-14 spike in French Alps tree rings.
Cosmographia #101 follows Randall Carlson, Brad, Kyle, and Russ from a Montana recon into Atlantis, Hapgood, and impact debates.
Cosmographia opens with Randall Carlson, Kyle, and the crew returning after travel, harvests, and a sold-out Montana date, then joking about Frank Zappa's "dental floss tycoon." The episode turns to Columbia Gorge megaflood evidence, using Maryhill's Stonehenge Memorial, Hood River fan deltas, and the John Day River "nook" to show how the landscape was carved.
["Kosmographia episode 99 mixes an Idaho flood recon with a carbon-fertilization argument about CO2 and plant growth.", "Brad and Randall Carlson walk through Lake Bonneville, Red Rock Pass, Twin Falls, Bruneau Dunes, and Hell's Canyon while Kyle and Mike appear in the banter.", "Randall quotes Graham D.
["Episode 098 of Cosmographia returns after travel, with Randall Carlson, Brad, Mike, and Russ joking about road schedules, a planned episode-100 beer show, and how long it has been since they recorded.", "The discussion turns to carbon dioxide fertilization, including a greenhouse kept at 1,200 ppm CO2 and Randall's claim that plants are built from sunlight, water, and atmospheric carbon.", "Randall then walks through a Norwegian kettle-lake study, the Dark Ages Cold Period, the 536 cooling sequence, and the Justinian Plague as examples of climate-driven social disruption.", "The second half focuses on a 2021 solar-variability paper in Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics, a quoted criticism of IPCC consensus-building, and the debate over urban versus rural temperature records."]
Randall Carlson discusses climate change, extreme storms, and urban heat island effects in a revamped studio.
The hosts return from holiday break, discussing their celebrations and transitioning into the show's usual topics of cosmology and earth science.
Randall Carlson and co-host discuss the Tarot card Temperance and its connection to Mithraic symbolism and the great year.
Randall Carlson discusses the great year model and its connection to ancient flood events and the precessional cycle.
Randall Carlson returns to discuss upcoming expeditions and adventures with his co-host.
Randall Carlson discusses glacial outbursts and the stability of ice dams, focusing on the end of the Younger Dryas period.
Randall Carlson and his co-hosts discuss topics related to cosmology, geology, and ancient mysteries in this podcast episode.
The hosts discuss a recent field trip to the Scablands, featuring drone footage and geological observations.