The First Humans in the Americas

Pop quiz time. For twenty points and a hall pass for a week, how did the first humans come to America? If you say across a land bridge from Siberia, you get an A for remembering what generations of kids have been taught. If you add "on foot through Alaska, and down through a gap in Canadian ice sheets," you get extra credit for recall.

But now, it's time for us all to go back to class. New archeology is adding big new ideas to the first Americans' truly amazing story. Maybe they weren't inland striders. Maybe they were beach boys. Maybe they came in boats out of the mists of deeper time than we ever imagined.

Hear about the first Americans in the land of the wooly mammoth.

Guests:

Andrea Dorfman, Head Reporter of Science Section at Time magazine

David Meltzer, Professor of Pre-History at Southern Methodist University

Dennis Stanford, Curator of Archaeology and Director of Paleoindian/Paleoecology Program at the Smithsonian Institution.