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What was the worst year to be alive on planet Earth?\xa0\xa0\nWe make the case for 536 AD, which set off a cascade of catastrophes that is almost too horrible to imagine. A supervolcano. The disappearance of shadows. A failure of bread. Plague rats. Using evidence painstakingly gathered around the world - from Mongolian tree rings to Greenlandic ice cores to Mayan artifacts - we paint a portrait of what scientists and historians think went wrong, and what we think it felt like to be there in real time. (Spoiler: not so hot.)\xa0 We hear a hymn for the dead from the ancient kingdom of Axum, the closest we can get to the sound of grief from a millennium and a half ago.\nThe horrors of 536 make us wonder about the parallels and perpendiculars with our own time: does it make you feel any better knowing that your suffering is part of a global crisis? Or does it just make things worse?"Thanks to reporter Ann Gibbons whose Science article "Eruption made 536 \u2018the worst year to be alive"\xa0got us interested in the first place.\xa0In case you want to learn more about 536, here are some other sources:\xa0Timothy P. Newfield, \u201cThe Climate Downturn of 536-50\u201d in the Palgrave Handbook on Climate HistoryDallas Abbott et al., \u201cWhat caused terrestrial dust loading and climate downturns between A.D. 533 and 540?\u201dJoel Gunn and Alesio Ciarini (editors), \u201cThe A.D. 536 Crisis: A 21st Century Perspective\u201dAntti Arjava, \u201cThe Mystery Cloud of 536 CE in the Mediterranean Sources\u201d\xa0And for more on the composer Yared, watch Meklit Hadero\u2019s TED talk \u201cThe Unexpected Beauty of Everyday Sounds\u201d\nCredits:\xa0This episode was reported by Latif Nasser and Lulu Miller, and produced by Simon Adler.\xa0 With sound and music from Simon Adler and Jeremy Bloom.\nSpecial Thanks:\xa0Thanks to Joel Gunn, Dallas Abbott, Mathias Nordvig, Emma Rigby, Robert Dull, Daniel Yacob, Kay Shelemey, Jacke Phillips, Meklit Hadero, and Joan Aruz.\nSupport Radiolab by becoming a member today at Radiolab.org/donate.\xa0\nRadiolab\xa0is on YouTube!\xa0Catch up with new episodes and hear classics from our archive. Plus, find other cool things we did in the past \u2014\xa0like miniseries, music videos, short films and animations, behind-the-scenes features,\xa0Radiolab\xa0live shows, and more. Take a look, explore and subscribe!