Why does the New York City skyline look the way it does? In part, because of what happened there 500 million years ago, says geologist Anjana Khatwa, author of the new book Whispers of Rocks . In it, she traces how geology has had profound effects on human life, from magnetism of the ocean floor to voter trends in the Southern U.S..

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This episode was produced by Berly McCoy, edited by Brent Baughman and Rebecca Ramirez and fact checked by Tyler Jones. The audio engineer was Robert Rodrigue

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