How wood shaped human history and evolution - a podcast by RNZ

Roland Ennos says humanity owes a huge debt to the most humble of materials; wood. His book The Wood Age: How One Material Shaped the Whole of Human History takes us on a sweeping ten-million-year tour, charting how wood has been critical to our evolution; shaping our bodies and our minds. Starting from great apes who built their nests among the trees, to early humans who depended on wood for fire, shelter, tools and weapons; on to the structural design of wheels and woodwinds, and to the invention of paper and the printing press. Roland Ennos a visiting professor of biological sciences at the University of Hull and has an expansive knowledge of all things arboreal - and has literally written the book on trees; the author of the Natural History Museum's official guide to trees.

Further episodes of Nine To Noon

Further podcasts by RNZ

Website of RNZ