Mar 2nd, 2010 · With a menagerie of old instruments and a mammoth reverb tank, The Walkmen's members produce ghostly, shambolic songs that float along underneath lead singer Hamilton Leithauser's idiosyncratic yelp. The band will perform as part of NPR Music's SXSW showcase at Stubb's on March 17 in anticipation of its forthcoming sixth album.
Dec 18th, 2009 · Woolly mammoths and ancient horses may have been roaming the North American steppes longer than scientists thought. Evolutionary biologist Eske Willerslev describes how his team used DNA samples taken from permafrost cores to recalculate when the animals may have disappeared.
Nov 20th, 2009 · One of the great mysteries about North America is what killed off woolly mammoths and other exotic animals that roamed the land after the last ice age. Ideas have ranged from a comet impact and climate change to human hunters. A study published Friday in Science Magazine provides new clues about this — cleverly deduced from samples of a fungus that grew on the animal's dung.
May 28th, 2009 · In a year of great music, the Dark Was the Night compilation ranks near the top. Now comes Dark Was the Night: The Concert, a truly mammoth undertaking. Members of The National curated the May 3 event to benefit AIDS research with performances by David Byrne, The Dirty Projectors, Feist, Bon Iver, Sharon Jones and My Brightest Diamond.
May 1st, 2009 · Two years ago, reindeer herders in Siberia discovered a 40,000-year-old baby woolly mammoth on a riverbank. Paleontologist Daniel Fisher explains what is known about the mammoth's life and how she died, and what she reveals about the period during which she lived.
Apr 25th, 2009 · Lyuba, a 1-month-old baby mammoth, walked the tundra about 40,000 years ago and then died mysteriously. She miraculously reappeared on a riverbank in northwestern Siberia in 2007, discovered by a reindeer herder. She is the most perfectly preserved woolly mammoth ever discovered and gives researchers their best chance yet to build a genetic map of a species that vanished at the end of the last ice age. Host Jacki Lyden talks to paleontologist Dan Fisher.
Feb 18th, 2009 · Massive deposits of fossils — from ancient algae to a mammoth named Zed — were recently excavated in the La Brea tar pits in California. Robin Turner, president of ArchaeoPaleo Resource Management, talks about the discovery.
Feb 6th, 2009 · When lawmakers and the Obama administration began to assemble the mammoth economic stimulus bill, they decided that there would be no earmarks. That means they give up control over how the money is spent, leaving the decision to public servants around the country.