Northern Latitudes Podcast

Dr. Sylvia Pineda-Munoz | What Earth’s Deep Past Teaches Us About Our Climate Future

What can the deep past tell us about the moment we’re living in now?

In this episode of Northern Latitudes, host Bill Ault sits down with Dr. Sylvia Pineda-Munoz — a paleontologist, ecologist, and founder of Climate Ages — to explore how ancient climates, fossil records, and long-term ecological patterns can help us better understand today’s climate and biodiversity challenges.

Sylvia’s work bridges science and storytelling. By looking millions of years into Earth’s history, she helps translate complex research into insights that feel both grounded and relevant. Rather than focusing on prediction or panic, her approach emphasizes perspective — what past moments of rapid change reveal about resilience, limits, and adaptation.

Together, Bill and Sylvia discuss how species have responded to environmental upheaval, what the fossil record can tell us about the future, and why storytelling plays such an important role in helping people connect with climate science. It’s a conversation about slowing down, zooming out, and learning to read the long patterns written into the landscape around us.

This episode isn’t about easy answers. It’s about context — and what becomes possible when we take the long view.

In This Episode

• Why Earth’s deep history still matters today
• What fossil records reveal about resilience and collapse
• How past climate shifts compare to modern change
• Translating complex science through storytelling

🌍 About the Guest

Dr. Sylvia Pineda-Munoz is a paleontologist and ecologist whose research focuses on how species respond to environmental change over long timescales. She is the founder of Climate Ages, a platform dedicated to connecting Earth’s deep past with today’s climate and biodiversity conversations through accessible storytelling and science communication.

🔗 Learn More

• Climate Ages: https://climateages.com
• Sylvia Pineda-Munoz on Google Scholar
• Sylvia’s writing on Medium

🎧 Listen & Subscribe

You can find this episode — and all episodes of Northern Latitudes — at northernlatitudes.ca, or wherever you get your podcasts.

If this conversation resonated with you, consider sharing it with someone who enjoys thoughtful discussions about place, time, and the natural world.