#57 How the Dinosaurs Disappeared — and Why We Love the Story

What really killed the dinosaurs?

We’ve all heard the asteroid story: a rock from space slams into Earth, fire rains down, and the mighty dinosaurs vanish overnight. It’s clean. It’s dramatic. It’s the perfect ending.

But the truth may be messier — a long decline fueled by volcanic eruptions, climate swings, and a final “kill cascade.” So why do we cling to the Hollywood version?

In this episode of Think First, Jim Detjen explores how the extinction story has become part science, part mythology — and why the way we tell it might reveal more about us than about the dinosaurs.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We've been told the same story since grade school.
66 million years ago, a rockfrom space slammed into Earth.
Fire rained down, the skieswent dark and the dinosaurs all
of them were gone.
Simple, clean, dramatic, almosttoo dramatic.
What if the story isn't wrongbut it's edited?

(00:21):
What if the real extinction wasslower, messier, and a little
inconvenient for the blockbusterversion we like to tell this is
Think First.
Where we don't follow thescript, we question it Because
in a world full of poetic truthsand professional gaslighting,

(00:41):
someone's gotta say the quietpart out loud.
Gaslighting.
Someone's got to say the quietpart out loud.
Here's the official scriptAsteroid, yucatan Peninsula,
chicxulub crater, iridium, dustin the soil, a calling card from
space, a single cataclysm thatended 75% of life on Earth.

(01:03):
The dinosaurs never saw itcoming.
It's the most popular theorybecause it's cinematic.
You can put it in a museumdiorama, you can make a movie
about it, you can sell t-shirts.
But step outside the asteroidspotlight and you'll hear other
theories.
Some scientists point to theDeccan Traps in India, ancient

(01:24):
volcanic fields so massive theypoured out millions of cubic
kilometers of lava, enough toshroud the sky in ash, block
sunlight, poison oceans and turnEarth's thermostat down a few
notches for hundreds ofthousands of years.
Others talk about slow-burn,climate change, shifting seas,
collapsing food chains,ecosystems on the edge.

(01:46):
The dinosaurs might have beenlimping along long before the
big rock arrived.
And then there's the killcascade theory Volcanoes weaken
the biosphere, climate swingsdestabilize it.
Then, and only then, theasteroid deals the final blow.
The truth it's messy, complex,not as snackable as giant space

(02:09):
rock equals extinction.
But the asteroid story worksbecause it feels right.
It's our modern flood myth.
One day everything changes, themighty fall, nature hits the
reset button.
It's Noah's Ark with betterspecial effects.
It's also strangely comforting,because if extinction comes
from one clean hit, we canbelieve it won't happen again,

(02:33):
at least not in our lifetime.
Here's the thing Try questioningthe single-impact theory in
public.
Even if you're a credentialedscientist, you risk being lumped
in with flat earthers.
It's the same reflex we seewhen anyone asks inconvenient
questions about climate policy,nutrition science or, let's be
honest, history itself.

(02:53):
When the narrative isemotionally satisfying,
skepticism becomes sociallydangerous.
And maybe that's why we lovetelling it, because deep down
we're already rehearsing our ownextinction stories, whether
it's climate change, nuclear waror AI gone rogue.
We want a singular villain, afinal day, a moment we can point

(03:15):
to and say that's when it allchanged.
But history and prehistoryrarely works like that.
It's almost always a slowerosion, a chain of causes and a
series of warning signs weignore until it's too late.
So maybe the dinosaurs didn'tvanish overnight, maybe their
story is really a mirror and theasteroid we're watching for has

(03:38):
already hit.
I'm Jim Detchen and you don'tneed all the answers, but you
should question the ones you'rehanded, because sometimes the
story that survives is just theone that sells Until next time.
Stay skeptical, stay curiousand always think first.
Want to go deeper?

(04:02):
Want to go deeper?
Visit Gaslight360.com slashclarity to learn how to spot
gaslighting and poetic truth inmedia, politics and history.
Empower yourself to dissectnarratives, uncover hidden
truths and challenge the tacticsthat keep us in the dark.
Light your flame and startseeing the world with sharper

(04:25):
eyes.