About this season
Dissects all the ways humans have transformed the planet. Earth has never experienced anything like us: a single species dominating and transforming the planet. Biologist Shane Campbell-Staton travels the globe to explore our Human Footprint and to discover how the things we do reveal who we truly are.
Episodes (6)
1. Shelf Life
Aired 25 June 2025 • 56 min
Shane travels from New York City to rural Thailand to explore the Human Footprint of the supermarket – a 20th-century innovation that transformed our relationship with food, reshaping our bodies, our society, and our planet along the way.
2. The Enemy of My Enemy
Aired 2 July 2025 • 56 min
In humankind’s conquest of planet Earth, we rely on improbable allies – species we’ve recruited from nature to help us defeat our adversaries. But in this brave new world of “biocontrol,” is the enemy of an enemy always a friend?
3. Dressed to Kill
Aired 9 July 2025 • 56 min
Take a look in the mirror… do you like what you see? From biotech labs to beaver ponds, from New York Fashion Week to Chile’s textile graveyards, Shane unravels how the trends we chase to fit in and stand out leave a lasting mark on our planet.
4. The Honey Trap
Aired 16 July 2025 • 56 min
Everyone knows the honey bee, but it’s just one species – there are 20,000 others! Humans have depended on bees – both wild and managed – for millennia. But as bee populations collapse around the world, can we save them before it’s too late?
5. Dammed If You Do
Aired 23 July 2025
Shane travels from ancient aqueducts to modern mega-dams, following our age-old quest to tame water. On a journey down the Colorado River, he discovers how humanity’s thirst for control has reshaped rivers, ecosystems, and civilization itself.
6. Vanishing Act
Aired 30 July 2025
From fossils entombed in tar to cells frozen in hope, Shane traces the arc of extinction from prehistory to the present. On an epic global journey, he meets species at the brink of oblivion… and the people who won’t give up on them.