Columbus Science Pub Presents: Eat Like a Mastodon: Ohio in the Pleistocene
October 1, 2026 07:00p.m.
$8.00
There is a fruit growing wild in Ohio that tastes like banana custard and was built to be eaten by an animal that has been extinct for 13,000 years. It’s called the paw paw. The animal was the mastodon.
Dr. Hal Lescinsky will take you back to Pleistocene Ohio, a place that looked startlingly like the African savanna, complete with lions, elephants, and ground sloths the size of a car. Ohio shared almost all of its big animals with South Africa, right up until human hunters arrived and the giants vanished. What’s left are the clues: skulls, fossils, and native plants still shaped by animals no one alive has ever seen.
Dr. Lescinsky raises paw paws himself. If the season cooperates, he’ll bring some for you to taste.
Food and drink will be available from the kitchen at Shadowbox Live! Use the code “getnerdy” to lower the $8 suggested donation to $4.
Please view our floor chart below, then select your table at the dropdown before you select the number of seats you want at that table.
