Human Footprint

Shane’s journey begins in North Carolina, where Julius Tillery – a.k.a. “The Puff Daddy of Cotton” – is a 5th-generation Black cotton farmer. Julius and Shane dig into the rich soils that underlie the “Black Belt,” a broad swath of the South that formed the heart of the U.S. cotton industry.

Over an ice cream with Historian Laponce Harrison, Shane learns the boll weevil’s history – and how this insect became an icon in the town of Enterprise, Alabama.

Meet Craig McClain, the selfie-master turned biological oceanographer. While he studies tiny creatures in the ocean, he's also unraveling the secrets hidden within the rock formations. Join us as we delve into the past to understand the incredible ripple effect behind each layer of time.

Shane explores the history and science of cotton. A prehistoric coastline from North Carolina to Texas laid the foundation for a crop that re-shaped our history, our culture, and even our DNA.

Rain or shine, Scott and Angie Mullaney, the rat-busting duo behind Unique Pest Management, hit the city streets at night with their trusty dogs, ready to conquer the rodent kingdom.

In Singapore, green spaces are no longer an escape from the city, they ARE the city. Pearl Chee, the genius architect behind Kampung Admiralty, proves that where there's a will (and a law), there's a way to bring nature into the concrete jungle.

Meet Kristin Winchell, the urban evolution expert. She's on a mission to unravel the secrets of anoles — the charismatic lizards thriving in cities like San Juan. Join us as we embark on a journey through the concrete jungle and discover how anoles have adapted to their urban playground.

In "The Urban Jungle," Shane explores the modern city: an ecosystem built by, for us. He encounters three species thriving in the city, reckons with our complex urban history, and envisions a new and wilder urban future.

Despite their abundance, scientists know close to nothing about what cats are doing in the wild, or what their impact might be. Dr. Roland Kays plan? Track cats the way we’ve tracked other large predators – by fitting them with GPS enabled collars.

Shane follows geneticist Sarah Hearne into a vault of over 28,000 species of maize that has weaved itself into the fabric of Mexico's past, present and future. But in the last century, just a handful of varieties have come to dominate global corn production. What happened?

Shane shares a meal with local Mexican chefs committed to reviving the sacred heritage of maize and preserving culture through corn.

Shane explores the surprising science and unexpected histories of “The Replacements”: five animal and plant species that made allies of humans, grew to dominate the planet alongside us, and changed their destinies (and our own) forever.

Shane joins a “canine freestyle” class to see how dogs and their human dance partners communicate without words to improvise elaborate and definitely-not-silly routines.

At the Duke Puppy Kindergarten – a “preschool” for service dogs – Evolutionary Biologists, Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods, show Shane that dogs have an unmatched ability to understand human body language.

They say dogs are man's best friend, but Inuit sled dogs take it to a whole new level. They're not just companions, they're the lifeline of Resolute Bay. Shane’s journey begins above the Arctic Circle, where the power and endurance of Inuit sled dogs allow a traditional way of life to thrive.

Shane discovers why dogs are more than man’s best friend – they’ve been reshaped by evolution into the perfect partner for our species. And just as we’ve transformed them, dogs have left an unmistakable pawprint on us and the world we both share.

To become the world’s Top Predator, we also have to eliminate the competition. We’ve waged war on America’s wolves for two centuries. For decades, eliminating wolves was an official federal policy. Shane joins Yellowstone National Park’s wolf recovery lead, Dan Stahler, to investigate a fresh kill and learn why humans can’t replace the role that wild predators play in our ecosystems.

Shane steps into a land of giants at the to meet Nick Pyenson, a biologist who studies ancient (and living) whales, to find out why even the biggest animals that ever lived aren't off limits for the planet's Top Predator.

From Mozambique's Gorongosa National Park to the scars left on the elephant population, Shane's research is revealing how our actions can change the course of evolution itself.

There’s a killer inside us. Our biology, culture, technology, and economy have transformed our species into the greatest predator the world has ever seen. From Yellowstone to Mozambique, Shane explores our global impact as the planet’s top predator.