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An Introduction To VPR's Timeline

Water has the power to shape the land around it.
Jane Lindholm
/
VPR
Water has the power to shape the land around it.

In this episode we want to introduce you to another show made at VPR that we think you're really going to like. It's called Timelineand it explores the history of western music. Host James Stewart has just made 4 special episodes exploring the elements fire, water, earth and air. We're bringing you the water episode!

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"Picture a wide oceanic abyss, an endless sea, formless, without border or shape. This is the image that begins many creation stories from cultures around the world. In Ancient Egypt the waters of Nun flow timeless and the world began as the first sun rose over this endless sea. In the book of Genesis, the Spirit of God hovers over the face of formless waters before anything is made. The Greeks called this chaos and out of chaos came the first of the gods. So many stories of the origin of life start here with a primordial, cosmic ocean. "Water itself is a phenomenal molecule, made up of some of the most plentiful elements in the cosmos: hydrogen and oxygen. Water is abundant in our solar system and beyond. There are asteroids, comets, clouds and vast oceans of ice. Water is everywhere. What is far less common is liquid water. Scientists are looking for liquid water because according to our understanding of life and its origins, water is the incubator of all living things. We believe there might be liquid oceans under the icy surface of some of Jupiter’s and Saturn’s moons, and there is evidence that liquid water once flowed over the surface of Mars. But there is no place like home. "Water covers over 70 percent of the Earth’s surface. Here we can find it in all three physical states: steam, liquid and ice. Water is the main ingredient to make you! An adult human is more than 60 percent water. And here’s the most fascinating thing about water: Anywhere we’ve found liquid water on this planet, we’ve found life. From the highest mountain to the deepest cave, where there is water, there is life." --James Stewart

Melody is the Contributing Editor for But Why: A Podcast For Curious Kids and the co-author of two But Why books with Jane Lindholm.
Jane Lindholm is the host, executive producer and creator of But Why: A Podcast For Curious Kids. In addition to her work on our international kids show, she produces special projects for Vermont Public. Until March 2021, she was host and editor of the award-winning Vermont Public program Vermont Edition.
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