Origin Stories

What is it like to be responsible for the safekeeping of the ancestors of everyone in the world? In this episode, we travel to the National Museum of Ethiopia to see our most famous fossil relative ? Lucy ? and meet Yared Assefa, the person who takes care of her and all of our Ethiopian fossil ancestors and relatives. 

If you love fossils, you won't want to miss this episode!

Special thanks

Thanks to Yared Assefa, Dr. Berhane Asfaw, and Dr. Mulugeta Feseha, who hosted The Leakey Foundation at the National Museum of Ethiopia.

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Links to learn more

President Obama's speech to the African Union
Lucy: A marvelous specimen
Top ten human evolution discoveries in Ethiopia
Rare 3.8 million-year-old fossil skull recasts origins of iconic Lucy 
Ethiopia is top choice for the cradle of Homo sapiens

The Leakey Foundation

Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach.

Funding provided by the Foundation has made many of the fossil hominin discoveries in Ethiopia possible. In addition, Our Baldwin Fellowship program has been building scientific capacity in Ethiopia and other countries since 1978. We also have a new program called the Francis H. Brown African Scholarship Fund that provides up to $25,000 for East African students or early career researchers in botany and geology. Learn about all of our grant programs at leakeyfoundation.org/grants

Lunch Break Science

Lunch Break Science is The Leakey Foundation's online series featuring short talks and interviews with Leakey Foundation grantees. Feed your brain with Lunch Break Science every third Thursday at 11 am Pacific on Facebook, YouTube, and leakeyfoundation.org/live.

Credits

Host and Producer: Meredith Johnson
Editor: Audrey Quinn
Theme Music: Henry Nagle

Additional Music:

Lee Rosevere "Tech Toys" and music from Blue Dot Sessions.

Sponsors

Origin Stories is made possible by support from Jeanne Newman, the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, the Joan and Arnold Travis Education Fund, and donors like you!

Travel through 50,000 years of human history following clues hidden inside beads made from ostrich eggshells. In this episode, researchers Jennifer Miller and Yiming Wang share how these tiny artifacts reveal a sweeping story of ancient social networks, cultural connections, and human adaptability.

Support the show

Help us make more episodes! All tax-deductible donations to Origin Stories will be quadruple-matched!

>>>> Please click here to make a one-time or monthly donation. 

Guests

Dr. Jennifer Miller Dr. Yiming Wang

Links to learn more

Ostrich eggshell beads reveal 50,000-year-old social network in Africa (open access) An ancient social safety net in Africa was built on beads Are these snail shells the world's oldest known beads? Zambezi basin (Wikipedia) Paleoclimatology info and interactive paleoclimate map (National Centers for Environmental Education

Sponsors and credits

This episode was generously sponsored by Leakey Foundation Fellow Eddie Kislinger in honor of his wife, jewelry designer Cathy Waterman. Her designs are inspired by nature and influenced by her study of and connection with ancient human history. We are grateful to them for making this episode possible.

Additional support comes from Jeanne Newman, the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, the Joan and Arnold Travis Education Fund, and our listener-supporters.

Origin Stories is produced by Ray Pang. Our editor is Audrey Quinn. Theme music by Henry Nagle. Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions and Lee Roservere.

2023 was another exciting year in human origins research! Fossil discoveries and long-term primate studies expanded our understanding of what makes us human. In this episode, four Leakey Foundation scientists shared their favorite human evolution discoveries from the past year.

Help us make more episodes! All tax-deductible donations to Origin Stories will be quadruple-matched!

>>>> Please click here to make a one-time or monthly donation. 

Guests

Briana Pobiner Emma Finestone Nasser Malit  Risa Luther

Links to learn more

Top 13 Discoveries in Human Evolution, 2023 Edition Hunting and processing of straight-tusked elephants 125,000 years ago: Implications for Neanderthal behavior (open-access research paper) Neanderthals lived in groups big enough to eat giant elephants Evidence for the earliest structural use of wood at least 476,000 years ago (open-access research paper Early Homo erectus lived at high altitudes and produced both Oldowan and Acheulean tools (open-access research paper) The surprising toolbox of the early Homo erectus Demographic and hormonal evidence for menopause in wild chimpanzees (open-access research paper) Wild chimpanzees experience menopause Chimpanzee menopause revealed ft. Melissa Emery Thompson (Lunch Break Science on YouTube)

Sponsors and credits

Origin Stories is sponsored by Jeanne Newman, the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation,  and the Joan and Arnold Travis Education Fund. 

Origin Stories is produced by Ray Pang. Our editor is Audrey Quinn. Theme music by Henry Nagle. Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions and Lee Roservere.

Sibling relationships can include everything from love and support?to tension, competition, and conflict. They might also play a fundamental role in the evolution of our species. In the final installment of our three-part series on family relationships, researchers Karen Kramer, Cat Hobaiter, and Rachna Reddy explore surprising new science about the role of siblings in primate and human evolution.

Links to learn more:

Why are there so many humans? Children and social learning Karen Kramer Cat Hobaiter Rachna Reddy

Support Origin Stories and help us explore human evolution one story at a time.

Your tax-deductible gift makes our show possible. Click here to donate!

Credits:

This episode was produced by Leo Hornak. Sound design and production by Ray Pang. Host and executive producer, Meredith Johnson. Our editor is Audrey Quinn. Theme music by Henry Nagle, additional music by Lee Roservere and Blue Dot Sessions.

Sponsors:

Dana LaJoie and Bill Richards, Jeanne Newman, the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, and the Joan and Arnold Travis Education Fund.

Humans invest enormous amounts of time and energy into bringing up our babies. This unique investment is a fundamental part of what it means to be human. In this episode, the second in a three-part series on family relationships, researchers Lee Gettler, Stacy Rosenbaum, and Sonny Bechayda explore how our species' approach to fatherhood may have shaped some of the most important traits that set us apart from other mammals.   Leo Hornak produced this episode. Sound design by Ray Pang. Host and executive producer, Meredith Johnson. Our editor is Audrey Quinn. Theme music by Henry Nagle, additional music by Lee Roservere and Blue Dot Sessions. Sounds effects provided by Kevin Luce by way of freesound dot org
Support the show! Every donation makes a difference and helps us create new episodes.  Click to make a tax-deductible donation today!   This episode was generously sponsored by father and daughter Bill Richards and Dana Lajoie. Additional support from the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, Jeanne Newman, and the Joan and Arnold Travis Education Fund.   Links to learn more: Fatherhood, pairbonding and testosterone in the Philippines Fathers' care in context Who keeps children alive?

Humans invest enormous amounts of time and energy into bringing up our babies. This unique investment is a fundamental part of what it means to be human. In this episode, the first in a three-part series on family relationships, researchers Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, Stacy Rosenbaum, and Amy Scott explore how our species' approach to motherhood may hold the key to some of the most important traits that set us apart from other mammals. 

Links to learn more:

Sarah Blaffer Hrdy - Childrearing in Evolution (video) Sarah Blaffer Hrdy - Mothers and Others (article) Citrona Walnut Farm Grantee Spotlight: Amy Scott Stacey Rosenbaum - Gorilla group structure Stacey Rosenbaum - Gorillas, humans, and early life adversity The Birth Bliss Academy

Support Origin Stories

Origin Stories needs your support. Your donation helps bring the untold stories and latest research in human evolution to thousands of curious minds worldwide. Your gift, no matter the amount, makes a big difference! Click here to support the show.

Credits:

This episode was produced by Leo Hornak. Sound design by Ray Pang. Host and executive producer, Meredith Johnson. Our editor is Audrey Quinn. Recording assistance Catherine Monahon. Theme music by Henry Nagle, additional music by Lee Roservere and Blue Dot Sessions.

Sponsors:

Dana LaJoie and Bill Richards, Jeanne Newman, the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, and the Joan and Arnold Travis Education Fund.

How did climate change impact ancient human behavior? This is one of the questions Justin Pargeter and his team are investigating at a site called Boomplaas Cave in South Africa. This site has a unique record of human presence over the past 80,000 years or so. Importantly, the site is helping researchers piece together the story of how humans adapted to rapidly shifting climates in the past.

Origin Stories producer Ray Pang interviews Leakey Foundation grantee Justin Pargeter, an archaeologist and professor at NYU about his work at the site, the history and importance of the cave, and why African-led research is critical for the future of science.

Links to learn more:

Justin Pargeter, NYU Drone tour of the Boomplaas Cave area Human Origins Migration and Evolution Research Group (HOMER) Joan Cogswell Donner Field School Scholarship Boomplaas Cave (Wikipedia) New ages from Boomplaas Cave, South Africa, provide
increased resolution on late/terminal Pleistocene human
behavioural variability

Support Origin Stories

Origin Stories needs your support. Your donation helps bring the untold stories and latest research in human evolution to thousands of curious minds worldwide. Your gift, no matter the amount, makes a big difference! Click here to support the show.

Credits:

This episode was produced by Ray Pang. Our editor is Audrey Quinn. Theme music by Henry Nagle, additional music by Lee Roservere.

This special episode takes you inside the world of archaeology students at Boomplaas Cave, one of South Africa?s flagship human evolution research sites. Led by Dr. Justin Pargeter, the students chronicle their field school journey through personal audio diaries, offering a candid look at the joys, thrills, and challenges of archaeological fieldwork.

Thanks to Justin Pargeter, Monique Niekerk, Asi Ntsodwa, Bacara Spruit, and all the students at Boomplaas Cave field school.

Learn more:

Justin Pargeter, NYU Drone tour of the Boomplaas Cave area Human Origins Migration and Evolution Research Group (HOMER) Joan Cogswell Donner Field School Scholarship Boomplaas Cave (Wikipedia) New ages from Boomplaas Cave, South Africa, provide
increased resolution on late/terminal Pleistocene human
behavioural variability

Credits:

Produced by Ray Pang, Meredith Johnson, and Taylor Cook. Sound design by Ray Pang. Edited by Audrey Quinn

Support the show:

Love Origin Stories? Here's your chance to double the impact! Every dollar you donate helps us explore and explain our shared human origins, and right now, every donation will be matched! Click here to donate!

In this episode, we explore the fascinating tale of the Hobbit, an unexpected fossil find that shook the world's understanding of human evolution. Join researcher Matt Tocheri as he shares how this tiny hominin revolutionized the human story and transformed his life. 

Links:

From the Field: Matt Tocheri
Homo floresiensis
Can rat bones solve an island mystery?

 

Love Origin Stories? Here's your chance to double the impact! Every dollar you donate helps us explore and explain our shared human origins, and right now, every donation will be matched! Click here to donate!

Dr. Kira Westaway is part of an international research team working to solve the mystery of Gigantopithecus, the largest ape that ever walked the earth. In this episode, we explore how this massive primate lived, why it disappeared, and what it can tell us about extinctions happening now. 

Learn more:

Where Giants Roamed

Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach.

Click here to support this show and the science we talk about. Your donation will be matched by Jeanne Newman.

This episode was generously sponsored by Jeanne Newman, the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation and the Joan and Arnold Travis Education Fund. 

Origin Stories is produced and sound designed by Ray Pang. Our editor is Audrey Quinn. Theme music by Henry Nagle. Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions and Lee Roservere.

 

 

How do human bodies use energy? In this episode, Leakey Foundation grantee Dr. Herman Pontzer shares groundbreaking research that upends our understanding of metabolism, calories, and the history of our species. 

Origin Stories is hosted by Meredith Johnson, produced and sound designed by Ray Pang, and edited by Audrey Quinn.

Support this show and the science we talk about. leakeyfoundation.org/donate 

Links:

Burn by Herman Pontzer, PhD

Pontzer Lab

The energetics of uniquely human subsistence strategies

 

2022 was another exciting year in human origins research! New fossil discoveries and ancient DNA research expanded our understanding of the past. We learned something surprising about the evolution of human speech, and new methodologies and showed promising potential to improve the future of medicine. In this episode, four Leakey Foundation scientists shared their favorite human evolution discoveries from the past year.

Our guests

Carol Ward, University of Missouri Sofia Samper Carro, Australian National University Kevin Hatala, Chatham University Megan Henriquez, City University of New York

Links to learn more

Evolutionary loss of complexity in human vocal anatomy as an adaptation for speech When less is more in the evolution of language The face of the first European found in Atapuerca Europe's oldest fossil named after Pink Floyd Meet the first Neanderthal family Genetic insights into the social organization of Neanderthals Population genetics study of Strongyloides fuelleborni 

The Leakey Foundation

Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing human origins research and outreach.

Want to support the show? Your donation will be matched by Leakey Foundation President Jeanne Newman who is matching up to $5,000 in gifts from Origin Stories listeners. Every dollar helps! leakeyfoundation.org/originstories23

Sponsors and credits

This episode was generously sponsored by Diana McSherry and Pat Poe. Origin Stories is also sponsored by Jeanne Newman, the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, Camilla and George Smith, and the Joan and Arnold Travis Education Fund. Thanks as well to the Benevity Community Impact Fund for their support of the show.

Origin Stories is produced by Ray Pang. Our editor is Audrey Quinn. Theme music by Henry Nagle. Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions and Lee Roservere.

Join us for these events

February 8, 6 pm Pacific -  Where is the love?: Secrets of Chimpanzee Relationships - click to register

February 16, 11 am Pacific - Lunch Break Science with Tom Plummer - click to watch

We've been hard at work on a new season of stories about how we became human. Origin Stories returns on January 31 with monthly episodes!

In this episode, we explore five strange fossilized footprints found by Mary Leakey at the site of Laetoli in Tanzania. Decades after their original discovery, these footprints have revealed a new story about our ancient ancestors that expands our understanding of how hominins moved and interacted. 

Thanks
Thanks to Dr. Ellison McNutt and Dr. Charles Musiba for sharing their work. 

Thanks as well to Jim Carty and Pat Randall for generously sponsoring this episode. Jim is a long-time Leakey Foundation supporter who actually volunteered to work at Laeotli in the 1980s to help figure out a way to preserve the Laetoli footprints.   Learn more Footprint evidence of early hominin locomotor diversity at Laetoli, Tanzania   Charming video of Dr. McNutt coaxing a baby bear to walk upright   Dr. Charles Musiba's website Dr. Ellison McNutt's website The Kilham Bear Center   Conservation of the Laetoli Footprints - a talk by Dr. Charles Musiba   The Ngorongoro Conservation Area Unesco World Heritage Site  

Survey and Discovering Us giveaway

Click here to take our short audience survey, and you could win one of three free copies of Discovering Us: 50 Great Discoveries in Human Origins by Evan Hadingham.

Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and educational outreach.

Support this show and the science we talk about. Your donations will be matched by the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation.

leakeyfoundation.org/donate 

Lunch Break Science is The Leakey Foundation's web series featuring short talks and interviews with Leakey Foundation grantees. Episodes stream on the first and third Thursdays of every month.

leakeyfoundation.org/live

This episode was produced and sound designed by Ray Pang. Our editor is Audrey Quinn. Theme music by Henry Nagle. Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions and Lee Roservere.

In this episode, we talk with Evan Hadingham, senior science editor for the PBS program NOVA. His new book, Discovering Us: 50 Great Discoveries in Human Origins, highlights the thrilling fossil finds, groundbreaking primate behavior observations, and important scientific work of Leakey Foundation researchers. Want to win your own copy of the book? Take our listener survey for a chance to win one of three giveaway copies! Discovering Us is also available for sale anywhere you buy books, but when you buy it through bookshop.org, 10% of the proceeds go to support our work. Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach.

Support this show and the science we talk about. Your donations will be matched by the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation.

leakeyfoundation.org/donate 

Lunch Break Science is The Leakey Foundation's web series featuring short talks and interviews with Leakey Foundation grantees. Episodes stream on the first and third Thursday of every month.

leakeyfoundation.org/live

This episode was produced by Ray Pang. Our editor is Audrey Quinn. Theme music by Henry Nagle. Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions and Lee Roservere.

2021 was a big year in science! Fossil discoveries introduced new relatives to our family tree, new findings added fascinating twists to the human story, and breakthroughs in research methods opened new worlds to explore. In this episode, five scientists discuss their favorite human origins discoveries of 2021.

Click here for a transcript of this episode.

Our guests:

Scott A. Williams, New York University
Jessica Thompson, Yale University
Giulia Gallo, University of California at Davis
Fernando Villanea, University of Colorado at Boulder
Erin Kane, Boston University

Read more about their top discoveries:

Dragon Man

Late Middle Pleistocene Harbin cranium represents a new Homo species 

Stunning ?Dragon Man' skull may be an elusive Denisovan?or a new species of human

'Dragon man' claimed as new species of ancient human but doubts remain 

SedaDNA

Unearthing Neanderthal population history using nuclear and mitochondrial DNA from cave sediments

Bacho Kiro

Initial Upper Palaeolithic humans in Europe had recent Neanderthal ancestry

Early Homo sapiens groups in Europe faced subarctic climates

Like Neanderthals, Early Humans Endured a Frigid Europe

White Sands footprints

Evidence of humans in North America during the Last Glacial Maximum

Ancient Footprints Push Back Date of Human Arrival in the Americas

National Park Services White Sands Website

Camera trap research on Dryas monkeys

A natural history of Chlorocebus dryas from camera traps in Lomami National Park and its buffer zone, Democratic Republic of the Congo, with notes on the species status of Cercopithecus salongo 

Using local knowledge and camera traps to investigate occurrence and habitat preference of an Endangered primate: the endemic dryas monkey in the Democratic Republic of the Congo-

Picture Perfect: Camera Traps Find Endangered Dryas Monkeys 

The Leakey Foundation

Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach.

This month, thanks to Jorge and Ann Leis and the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, all donations will be quadruple-matched. Click here to make a donation!

Credits

This episode was hosted and produced by Meredith Johnson and Ray Pang. Our editor is Audrey Quinn. 

Music by Henry Nagle and Lee Roservere. Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions.

Please send us your questions!

Have a question about human evolution? Something you've always wondered about? We will find a scientist to answer it on a special episode of Origin Stories!

There are three ways to submit your question:

Leave a voicemail at +1(707)788-8582

Visit speakpipe.com/originstories and leave a message

Record a voice memo on your phone and email it to us at [email protected]

Lunch Break Science

Lunch Break Science is The Leakey Foundation's web series featuring short talks and interviews with Leakey Foundation grantees. Episodes stream live on the first and third Thursdays of every month. Sign up for event reminders and watch past episodes at leakeyfoundation.org/live

As a young girl, Biruté Mary Galdikas dreamed of going to the forests of Southeast Asia to study the least-known of all the great apes, the elusive orangutan. People told her it would be impossible. But, in 1971, she traveled to Borneo and started what is now the longest ongoing study of orangutans in the history of science. This is her story.

She was the third in the group of now world-famous scientists known as the Trimates?Jane Goodall in Tanzania, Dian Fossey in Rwanda, and Biruté Mary Galdikas in Borneo. The Trimates were the first women to establish long-term studies of great apes in the wild. They were all mentored by Louis Leakey.

Their work formed the basis of everything science now knows about chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans. And they've inspired generations of researchers and conservationists to follow in their footsteps.

Today's episode celebrates Dr. Biruté Mary Galdikas and her half-century of field research and orangutan conservation work.

About our guest

Dr. Galdikas is the founder and president of Orangutan Foundation International. She's a research professor at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver and Professor Extraordinaire at the Universitas Nasional in Jakarta. She's a 19-time Leakey Foundation grantee, and she was one of Louis Leakey's last proteges in his lifetime.

Links

Orangutan Foundation International Ways to get involved Learn about palm oil

Credits

Ray Pang produced this episode. Sound design by Ray Pang. Our editor is Audrey Quinn. Meredith Johnson is the host and executive producer of Origin Stories. Thanks to Talain Blanchon for audio of Dr. Galdikas in the field and for recording our interview with Dr. Galdikas in his studio. And special thanks to Marcus Foley and Emily Patton for all their help.

Archival lecture audio is from The Leakey Foundation archive.

Music by Henry Nagle and Lee Roservere.

Please send us your questions!

Have a question about human evolution? Something you've always wondered about? We will find a scientist to answer it on a special episode of Origin Stories!

There are three ways to submit your question:

Leave a voicemail at +1(707)788-8582

Visit speakpipe.com/originstories and leave a message

Record a voice memo on your phone and email it to us at [email protected]

The Leakey Foundation

Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach.

Thanks to Jeanne Newman and the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, all donations to support the podcast will be quadruple-matched. Visit leakeyfoundation.org/donate and use the notes field to let us know your donation is for Origin Stories.

Lunch Break Science

Lunch Break Science is The Leakey Foundation's web series featuring short talks and interviews with Leakey Foundation grantees. Episodes stream live on the first and third Thursdays of every month. Sign up for event reminders and watch past episodes at leakeyfoundation.org/live

Scientists agree that dogs evolved from wolves, but exactly how and when that happened is hotly contested. In this episode, Origin Stories contributor Neil Sandell examines the evolution of the relationship between dogs and humans, and explores the journey from wolf to dog.

This story was originally produced for the CBC program IDEAS. 

Click here for a transcript of this episode.

Guests in this episode: (in order of appearance)

Angela Perri is an archaeologist at Durham University, U.K.

Sebastian Dicenaire is a French playwright and audio producer living in Brussels

Greger Larson is director of the Palaeogenomics & Bio-Archaeology Research Network at the University of Oxford, U.K.

Kathryn Lord is an evolutionary biologist at the Karlsson Lab of the University of Massachusetts Medical School and the Broad Institute.

Mietje Germonpré is a palaeontologist at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences in Brussels.

Sarah Marshall-Pescini is a behavioural scientist at the Wolf Science Center in Austria, and the Domestication Lab at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna.

Friederike Range is a biologist and co-founder of the Wolf Science Center. She is a research professor at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna.

Giulia Cimarelli is a biologist at the Wolf Science Center, and a postdoctoral fellow at the Domestication Lab at University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna. 

Credits

This episode was produced by Neil Sandell. Find him on Twitter.

Send us your questions!

Have a question about human evolution? Something you've always wondered about? We will find a scientist to answer it on a special episode of Origin Stories!

There are three ways to submit your question:

Leave a voicemail at (707) 788-8582 Visit speakpipe.com/originstories and leave a message Record a voice memo on your phone and email it to us at [email protected]

The Leakey Foundation

Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach.

All donations to support the podcast will be quadruple-matched thanks to Jeanne Newman and the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation. Visit leakeyfoundation.org/donate and use the notes field to let us know your donation is in support of Origin Stories.

Lunch Break Science

Lunch Break Science is The Leakey Foundation's web series featuring short talks and interviews with Leakey Foundation grantees. Episodes stream live on the first and third Thursdays of every month. Sign up for event reminders and watch past episodes at leakeyfoundation.org/live

Learn about the evolution of our extraordinary ability to cool ourselves down. Biological anthropologist Andrew Best discusses the past, present, and future of sweat in this special bonus episode.

About our guest

Dr. Andrew Best is a biological anthropologist at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts who studies metabolism, endurance, and the evolution of sweat. Visit his website to learn more about him and his research.

Click here for a one-minute video about his Leakey Foundation-supported research project on the evolution of sweat glands.

Episode Transcript

Google Doc Transcript PDF Transcript

Links to more sweaty science 

The science of sweat Giving sweat the respect it deserves  The weird science of how sweat attracts 

Open access research papers of interest

Human Locomotion and Heat Loss: An Evolutionary Perspective Repeated mutation of a developmental enhancer
contributed to human thermoregulatory evolution

Credits

This episode was produced by Ray Pang. To keep up with and learn more about his work, follow Ray at @PangRay on Twitter. 

Our editor is Audrey Quinn. Meredith Johnson is the host and executive producer of Origin Stories.

Music by Henry Nagle and Lee Roservere.

Send us your questions!

Have a question about human evolution? Something you've always wondered about? We will find a scientist to answer it on a special episode of Origin Stories!

There are three ways to submit your question:

Leave a voicemail at +1(707) 788-8582 Visit speakpipe.com/originstories and leave a message Record a voice memo on your phone and email it to us at [email protected]

The Leakey Foundation

Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach.

All donations to support the podcast will be quadruple-matched thanks to Jeanne Newman and the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation. Visit leakeyfoundation.org/donate and use the notes field to let us know your donation is in support of Origin Stories.

Lunch Break Science

Lunch Break Science is The Leakey Foundation's web series featuring short talks and interviews with Leakey Foundation grantees. Episodes stream live on the first and third Thursdays of every month. Sign up for event reminders and watch past episodes at leakeyfoundation.org/live!

Producer and scientist Kevin McLean travels to an island off the coast of Panama where researchers have found an isolated group of monkeys with a creative approach to surviving in a challenging environment.

Links

These tiny monkeys have entered their Stone Age with a bang

First report of habitual stone tool use by Cebus monkeys

Habitual Stone-Tool Aided Extractive Foraging in White-Faced Capuchins, Cebus Capucinus

Video of capuchins using tools

Research presentation on social learning by Leakey Foundation grantee Brendan Barrett

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

Department for the Ecology of Animal Societies

Claudio Montezo Moreno's biodiversity research website

Send us your questions!

Have a question about human evolution? Something you've always wondered about? We will find a scientist to answer it on a special episode of Origin Stories!

There are three ways to submit your question:

Leave a voicemail at (707) 788-8582 Visit speakpipe.com/originstories and leave a message Record a voice memo on your phone and email it to us at [email protected]

The Leakey Foundation

Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach.

All donations to support the podcast will be quadruple-matched thanks to Jeanne Newman and the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation. Visit leakeyfoundation.org/donate and use the notes field to let us know your donation is in support of Origin Stories.

Lunch Break Science

Lunch Break Science is The Leakey Foundation's web series featuring short talks and interviews with Leakey Foundation grantees. Episodes stream live on the first and third Thursdays of every month. Sign up for event reminders and watch past episodes at leakeyfoundation.org/live

The widely-held idea known as the ?obstetrical dilemma? is a hypothesis that explains why babies are so helpless, and why childbirth is so difficult for humans compared to other animals. 

The obstetrical dilemma suggests that babies are born early so their big brains can fit through the mother?s pelvis, which can?t get any wider due to our method of bipedal locomotion. This problem, the idea says, is solved by an evolutionary tradeoff that increases risks to pregnant mothers who must struggle to birth bigger and bigger-brained babies through narrow birth canals.  

On this episode, Leakey Foundation grantees Dr. Holly Dunsworth and Dr. Anna Warrener describe their search for the evidence behind the obstetrical dilemma and they discuss the importance of the stories we tell about our bodies.

Send us your questions!

Have a question about human evolution? Something you've always wondered about? We will find a scientist to answer it on a special episode of Origin Stories!

There are three ways to submit your question:

Leave a voicemail at (707) 788-8582 Visit speakpipe.com/originstories and leave a message Record a voice memo on your phone and email it to us at [email protected]

Links

The Mermaid's Tale

A Most Interesting Problem

There is no 'obstetrical dilemma': towards a braver medicine with fewer chilbirth interventions

Metabolic hypothesis for human altriciality

A Wider Pelvis Does Not Increase Locomotor Cost in Humans, with Implications for the Evolution of Childbirth

The obstetrical dilemma hypothesis: there's life in the old dog yet

YouTube - Close up video of chimp childbirth

The Leakey Foundation

Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach.

All donations to support the podcast will be quadruple-matched thanks to Jeanne Newman and the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation. Visit leakeyfoundation.org/donate and use the notes field let us know your donation is in support of Origin Stories.

Thanks

Thanks to Lynn and Larry Schafran for sponsoring this episode. We are grateful for their support of The Leakey Foundation and our educational programs.

Lunch Break Science

Lunch Break Science is The Leakey Foundation's web series featuring short talks and interviews with Leakey Foundation grantees. Episodes stream live on the first and third Thursdays of every month. Sign up for event reminders and watch past episodes at leakeyfoundation.org/live

 

Sleep is one of the defining traits of human life. It's also one of the most mysterious. Dr. Horacio de la Iglesia is a neurobiologist who's on a quest to understand how patterns of human sleep evolved. His new research shows an unexpected connection between sleep and the cycles of the moon.

Links

de la Iglesia Lab
Moonstruck Sleep
It's not just the pandemic. The moon may be messing with your sleep, too
The de la Iglesia Lab Sleep and Homelessness Project
Science and Evolution of Sleep | Ask a Biologist

Podcast Recommendation: Our Opinions Are Correct 

The Leakey Foundation

Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach.

All donations to support the podcast will be quadruple-matched thanks to Jeanne Newman and the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation. Click leakeyfoundation.donorsupport.co/page/originstories to donate!

 

Lunch Break Science

Lunch Break Science is The Leakey Foundation's web series featuring short talks and interviews with Leakey Foundation grantees. Episodes stream live on the first and third Thursdays of every month. Sign up for event reminders and watch past episodes at leakeyfoundation.org/live

 

 

What is it like to study an endangered species like chimpanzees, knowing they may go extinct within your lifetime?

Leakey Foundation grantee Dr. Zarin Machanda is a co-director of the Kibale Chimpanzee Project, a long-term field study in Uganda. This study was started by primatologist Richard Wrangham in 1987, and project members have collected daily records of the chimps there ever since.

These notes hold the life stories of around 150 chimpanzees, and this long-term data is a powerful way for scientists to understand chimpanzees?and ourselves.

The Leakey Foundation

Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach.

Support Long-Term Field Research

The Leakey Foundation?s Primate Research Fund helps keep long-term primate studies going no matter what. We provide emergency funding to projects facing a gap in their usual funding - or other emergencies that threaten their ability to collect data.

During the pandemic we have had more applications than ever so we need your help. We are trying to raise a total of $25,000 for this fund. Every donation up to that total amount will be quadruple-matched. Any amount helps! Click here to learn more and donate.

Register for Free Lecture
April 7, 2021 7:00 pm Eastern

Why are humans the way we are? One way to answer this question is to look to our closest cousins, the chimpanzees. Join Assistant Professor of Psychology and Anthropology Alexandra Rosati of the University of Michigan and Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Biology Zarin Machanda of Tufts University as they examine the world of chimpanzees, including chimpanzee social lives, ecological context, and how they think and solve problems.

Click to register for free!

Lunch Break Science

Lunch Break Science is The Leakey Foundation's web series featuring short talks and interviews with Leakey Foundation grantees. Episodes stream live on the first and third Thursdays of every month. Sign up for event reminders and watch past episodes at leakeyfoundation.org/live

Links

Kibale Chimpanzee Project
Dr. Zarin Machanda
First Molar Eruption, Weaning, and Life History in Wild Chimpanzees
No Grumpy Old Men in the World of Chimps
Social selectivity in aging chimpanzees
The Kasisi Project
Primates and social media

 

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Your life story is hidden in your teeth. The days, weeks, years, and stressful events of your life are recorded in tiny timelines that can be read by scientists like Leakey Foundation grantee Dr. Tanya Smith.

She and her colleagues used fossil teeth to tell a detailed and intimate story about the lives of two Neanderthal children and the changing world they lived in.

Links

The Tales Teeth Tell 
What teeth can tell about the lives and environments of ancient humans and Neanderthals
Wintertime stress, nursing, and lead exposure in Neanderthal children
Reconstructing hominin life history

Dr. Tanya Smith's website

The Leakey Foundation

Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach.

Support The Leakey Foundation

Support this show and the science we talk about. Become a monthly donor and your donations will be matched by the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation. leakeyfoundation.org/donate 

Lunch Break Science

Lunch Break Science is The Leakey Foundation's web series featuring short talks and interviews with Leakey Foundation grantees. Episodes stream live on the first and third Thursdays of every month. leakeyfoundation.org/live

Early prehistorians had little more than stones and bones to work with as they tried to piece together the story of the Neanderthals, but today?s researchers work in ways that early prehistorians could never have imagined.

Archaeologist and author Rebecca Wragg Sykes' new book Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Art, and Death synthesizes more than a century of research on Neanderthals ? from the first Neanderthal fossil discovered, to the most up to date and cutting edge research - revealing a vivid portrait of one of our most intriguing and misunderstood relatives.

Links

Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death, and Art by Rebecca Wragg Sykes Rebecca Wragg Sykes' website Kindred bibliography with 61 pages of Neanderthal research papers Leakey Foundation grantee Carolina Mallol's Neanderthal Fire Project

The Leakey Foundation

Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach.

Support The Leakey Foundation

Support this show and the science we talk about. For the month of February, we are running a campaign in celebration of Charles Darwin?s birthday. 100% of the money we raise will go towards funding research grants, and all donations up to a total of $2,500 will be matched by Leakey Foundation trustee Mike Smith and matched again by the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation. leakeyfoundation.org/donate 

A Most Interesting Problem

As part of our Darwin celebration, we?re having a virtual event on Saturday, February 13. ?A Most Interesting Problem? celebrates Charles Darwin's contributions to science and explores what Darwin got right and wrong about human evolution - 150 years after the publication of his book The Descent of Man. The speakers will be Jeremey DeSilva, Darwin historian Janet Browne, Brian Hare, Yohannes Haile-Selassie, Augustin Fuentes, Holly Dunsworth, and Ann Gibbons. Visit bit.ly/originsdarwin to get your free tickets.

Lunch Break Science

Lunch Break Science is The Leakey Foundation's web series featuring short talks and interviews with Leakey Foundation grantees. Episodes stream live on the first and third Thursdays of every month. leakeyfoundation.org/live.

If exercise is healthy, why do so many people avoid doing it? If we're born to be active, why is it so hard to keep your New Year's resolutions about exercise? On this episode, learn about the powerful instincts that cause us to avoid exercise even though we know it?s good for us.

Dan Lieberman, author of the new book Exercised: Why Something We Never Evolved to Do Is Healthy and Rewarding, tells the story of how we never evolved to do voluntary physical activity for the sake of health, and helps us think about exercise in a whole new way. 

About our guest

Daniel Lieberman is a professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University, a member of The Leakey Foundation?s Scientific Executive Committee, and a pioneering researcher on the evolution of human physical activity. His research is on how and why the human body looks and functions the way it does. He has long been fascinated by the evolution of the human head but his main focus is currently on the evolution of human physical activity. He is especially interested in how evolutionary approaches to activities such as walking and running, as well as changes to our body?s environments (such as wearing shoes and being physically inactive) can help better prevent and treat musculoskeletal diseases. To address these problems, he integrates experimental biomechanics and physiology in both the laboratory and the field with analyses of the human fossil record.

Links

Exercised: Why Something We Never Evolved to Do Is Healthy and Rewarding - pre-order at bookshop.org Register for Dan Lieberman's January 5 Leakey Foundation lecture

The Leakey Foundation

Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach.

Support The Leakey Foundation

Support this show and the science we talk about. Donate today and your gift will be matched. leakeyfoundation.org/donate

Lunch Break Science

Lunch Break Science is The Leakey Foundation's web series featuring short talks and interviews with Leakey Foundation grantees. Episodes stream live on the first and third Thursdays of every month. leakeyfoundation.org/live.

In 2017, Dr. Isaiah Nengo announced the discovery of a 13 million-year-old fossil ape found in Kenya. This remarkable fossil, nicknamed Alesi, was from a time period where there?s a big blank spot in the fossil record of our family tree. Alesi tells us something new about the early evolution of apes and shows what the common ancestor of humans and all the other living apes might have looked like. In this episode, Dr. Nengo tells the story behind the discovery.

This episode was originally released in 2017. We're revisiting it now because Isaiah Nengo will be featured on our new web series, Lunch Break Science, on December 3 at 11 am Pacific. He will share updates on his research and exclusive footage of his recent field work in the Turkana Basin.

Visit leakeyfoundation.org/live and sign up to receive event reminders.

Special thanks to Isaiah Nengo of Stony Brook University and the Turkana Basin Institute, and Ellen Miller of Wake Forest University.

The Leakey Foundation

Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach. Support this show and the science we talk about with a tax-deductible donation.

Links

Click here to see photos of the discovery, along with a 3D animation of the inside of the fossil.

New 13 million-year-old infant fossil ape skull sheds light on ape evolution

Questions and answers about Alesi

Skull secrets of an ancient ape

Research article in Nature: New infant cranium from the African Miocene sheds light on ape evolution

Credits

Produced by: Meredith Johnson and Shuka Kalantari

Editor: Julia Barton

Sound Design: Katie McMurran

Theme Music: Henry Nagle

Intern: Yuka Oiwa

Additional Music: Tech Toys by Lee Rosevere

Can you give us a 5-star rating?

If you like the show, please leave us a review or rating on Apple Podcasts. It's the best way to help other people find the show and we really appreciate it.

 

Variation in human skin color has fascinated and perplexed people for centuries. As the most visible aspect of human variation, skin color has been used as a basis for classifying people into ?races.? In this lecture, Leakey Foundation grantee Dr. Nina Jablonski explains the evolution of human skin color and discusses some of the ways that harmful color-based race concepts have influenced societies and impacted social well-being.

Links

Nina Jablonski's website Video - "The Evolution and Meaning of Human Skin Color" Skin, A Natural History Skin We Are In Finding Your Roots curriculum and activities Bill Nye's TikTok on Dr. Jablonski's work The American Association of Physical Anthropology's Statement on Race and Racism

The Leakey Foundation

Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach.

Support The Leakey Foundation

Support this show and the science we talk about. Donate today and your gift will be matched. leakeyfoundation.org/donate

Lunch Break Science

Lunch Break Science is The Leakey Foundation's web series featuring short talks and interviews with Leakey Foundation grantees. Episodes stream live on the first and third Thursdays of every month. leakeyfoundation.org/live.

Learn about the evolution of human hair

Join The Leakey Foundation's Young Professionals Group on November 19 for an evening with evolutionary biologists Tina Lasisi and Elizabeth Tapanes to learn all about the evolution of human hair. Visit leakeyfoundation.org/ypg for an invitation to the event.

September 30 is International Podcast Day and on this episode, we?re handing things over to producer Lucía Benavides, who sat down with Leakey Foundation grantee María Martinón-Torres for an interview about her life and career.

This bonus episode is entirely in Spanish. We?ll be back with an English-language episode in October.

Special thanks to Dub and Ginny Crook for sponsoring this episode. 

Click here for a transcript of this episode.

Atapuerca is a place that holds the mystery of human evolution in Europe from 1.2 million years ago through recent times. You can find, in one place, the oldest human in Europe, the first murder in the archaeological record, and fossils that tell a range of stories from disturbing and grisly to tender and heartwarming. María Martinón-Torres is a Leakey Foundation grantee who is sometimes called a "detective of the dead" because she pieces together clues to learn about the lives and deaths of the people who once inhabited northern Spain.

Special thanks

Thanks to María Martinón-Torres for sharing her work. Thanks to Dub and Ginny Crook for sponsoring this episode.

Links to learn more

The Atapuerca website
María Martinón-Torres' website
Learn about Atapuerca on efossils.org
Unesco World Heritage information
Sima del Elefante - The First Hominin of Europe
Gran Dolina - Human Meat Just Another Meal for Early Europeans?
Sima de los Huesos

The Leakey Foundation

Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach.

Support The Leakey Foundation

We're looking for 20 new monthly "Bedrock Donors." Become a Bedrock Donor today and your monthly gift will be quadruple-matched!

Lunch Break Science

Lunch Break Science is The Leakey Foundation's online series featuring short talks and interviews with Leakey Foundation grantees. Episodes resume in October but you can watch all of the past episodes on demand at leakeyfoundation.org/live.

Credits

Host, Writer, Producer: Meredith Johnson
Producer: Lucia Benavides
Editor: Audrey Quinn
Special thanks to Shuka Kalantari
Theme Music: Henry Nagle

Additional Music:

Lee Rosevere "Tech Toys" and music from Blue Dot Sessions.

Sponsors

Origin Stories is made possible by support from Dub and Virginia Crook, Diana McSherry, Jeanne Newman, Camilla Smith, and donors like you!

Get Social

We'd love to connect with you on Twitter and Facebook. Please say hi and let us know what you think of the show!

If you like the show, please leave us a review or rating on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. It's the best way to help other people find the show and we really appreciate it.

Call us!

We've set up a voicemail line and we'd love to hear from you! Call us at ?(707)788-8582? to let us know how you're doing and if there is anything you'd like to hear on this podcast. 

 

What is it like to be responsible for the safekeeping of the ancestors of everyone in the world? In this episode, we travel to the National Museum of Ethiopia to see our most famous fossil relative ? Lucy, and meet Yared Assefa, the person who takes care of her and all of our Ethiopian fossil ancestors and relatives. 

If you love fossils, you won't want to miss this episode!

Special thanks

Thanks to Yared Assefa, Dr. Berhane Asfaw, and Dr. Mulugeta Feseha, who hosted The Leakey Foundation at the National Museum of Ethiopia.

Links to learn more

President Obama's speech to the African Union
Lucy: A marvelous specimen
Top ten human evolution discoveries in Ethiopia
Rare 3.8 million-year-old fossil skull recasts origins of iconic Lucy 
Ethiopia is top choice for the cradle of Homo sapiens

The Leakey Foundation

Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach.

Funding provided by the Foundation has made many of the fossil hominin discoveries in Ethiopia possible. In addition, Our Baldwin Fellowship program has been building scientific capacity in Ethiopia and other countries since 1978. We also have a new program called the Francis H. Brown African Scholarship Fund that provides up to $25,000 for East African students or early career researchers in botany and geology. Learn about all of our grant programs at leakeyfoundation.org/grants

Lunch Break Science

Lunch Break Science is The Leakey Foundation's online series featuring short talks and interviews with Leakey Foundation grantees. Feed your brain with Lunch Break Science every third Thursday at 11 am Pacific on Facebook, YouTube, and leakeyfoundation.org/live.

Credits

Host and Producer: Meredith Johnson
Editor: Audrey Quinn
Theme Music: Henry Nagle

Additional Music:

Lee Rosevere "Tech Toys" and music from Blue Dot Sessions.

Sponsors

This season of Origin Stories is made possible by support from Diana McSherry, Jeanne Newman, Camilla Smith, and donors like you!

 

 

Have you ever considered how profoundly food has shaped who we are as a species? Julie Lesnik is a paleoanthropolgist who studies the evolution of the human diet. Her special focus is on insects as food in the past, present, and the future. 

Additional Information

Read more about Julie Lesnik's work and check out her book Edible Insects and Human Evolution.

Follow her on Twitter: @JulieLesnik

Want to try some edible insects?

Here are a few places we recommend:

Don Bugito
Entomo Farms

Looking for recipes? 

Julie Lesnik's "Insect Bake-Off" recipes
Chef-created recipes from the New York Times
Recipes from "The Bug Chef"

Call us!

We've set up a voicemail line and we'd love to hear from you! Call us at ?(707)788-8582? to let us know how you're doing and if there is anything you'd like to hear on this podcast. 

The Leakey Foundation

Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach. Support this show and the science we talk about with a tax-deductible donation.  

Visit leakeyfoundation.org/donate to donate today! Every donation will be matched.

Credits

Host and Producer: Meredith Johnson

Editor: Audrey Quinn

Theme Music: Henry Nagle

Additional Music:

Lee Rosevere "Tech Toys" and music from Blue Dot Sessions.

Sponsors

This season of Origin Stories is made possible by support from Diana McSherry, Jeanne Newman, Camilla Smith, and donors like you!

Get Social

We'd love to connect with you on Twitter and Facebook. Please say hi and let us know what you think of the show!

If you like the show, please leave us a review or rating on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. It's the best way to help other people find the show and we really appreciate it.

Deep in the forests of Borneo, lives a society of hunter-gatherers who speak a language never before shared with outsiders. Until now.

The Cave Punan are the last surviving hunter-gatherers in Indonesia and they have reached out for help to save their forest home and their culture.

In 2018, Leakey Foundation grantee Steve Lansing was invited by the elected leader of the Punan in Borneo to meet the Cave Punan. He soon learned of the Cave Punan's unique song language and their urgent need to protect their forest from illegal palm oil plantations. They asked for his help to share their story and save their forest. 

Steve Lansing and his Indonesian colleagues are now working with local organizations on a plan to support the Cave Punan.

Origin Stories is the first media outlet to share their story and their songs. We hope you will share this podcast with your friends to help raise awareness of the Cave Punan and their plight.

Additional Information

Visit our blog to see photos and videos of the Cave Punan.

Read more about Steve Lansing's research on his website.

Steve Lansing would like to thank his colleagues at the Eijkman Institute of Molecular Biology in Indonesia.

Call us!

We've set up a voicemail line and we'd love to hear from you! Call us at ?(707)788-8582? to let us know how you're doing and if there is anything you'd like to hear on this podcast. 

The Leakey Foundation

Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach. Support this show and the science we talk about with a tax-deductible donation. Help us raise money to pay teachers to create lesson plans and activities based on this podcast. 

Visit leakeyfoundation.org/donate to donate today! Every donation will be matched.

Credits

Host and Producer: Meredith Johnson

Editor: Audrey Quinn

Theme Music: Henry Nagle

Additional Music:

Lee Rosevere "Tech Toys", and music from Blue Dot Sessions.

Sponsors

This season of Origin Stories is made possible by support from Diana McSherry, Jeanne Newman, Camilla Smith, and donors like you!

Get Social

We'd love to connect with you on Twitter and Facebook. Please say hi and let us know what you think of the show!

If you like the show, please leave us a review or rating on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. It's the best way to help other people find the show and we really appreciate it.

What happens when bows and arrows and face-to-face conversations are replaced by high powered weapons and cell phones practically overnight? Dr. Polly Wiessner is an anthropologist who has studied the Enga of Papua New Guinea for 30 years and her current research is focused on how traditional societies cope with rapid cultural change.

This episode features a talk given by Dr. Wiessner at The Leakey Foundation's Survival Symposium in 2019. Videos of the seven talks given at the symposium will be on our YouTube channel next week. 

If you want to see more Leakey Foundation talks, check out our events calendar for an upcoming lecture near you! 

A mysterious new human relative was discovered ten years ago from a pinky bone found in a Siberian cave. They're called the Denisovans, and people around the world carry their DNA today. Until just a few months ago, the sum total of all the fossils the Denisovans left behind could fit in the palm of your hand. Now new research is unlocking more of their secrets.

Thanks

Thanks to Bence Viola and Viviane Slon for sharing their work. 

Dr. Viola also wants to give a shoutout to his colleagues, including Anatoly Derevyanko over more than 40 years has excavated countless sites in Siberia, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan. And Michael Sunkov who now heads the excavations at Denisova.

I also want to thank Sergey Zelensky who provided the sounds of Denisova cave and the recording of the conference.

Click here to learn more about Leakey Foundation grantee Frido Welker?s work on ancient proteins.

The Leakey Foundation

Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach. Support this show and the science we talk about with a tax-deductible donation.

For a limited time, all donations up to $5,000 will be matched 4:1 thanks to Gianni Amato and Gordon and Ann Getty. Once we pass $5,000, all donations will be doubled.

Visit leakeyfoundation.org/donate to donate today!

Credits

Host and Producer: Meredith Johnson

Editor: Julia Barton

Theme Music: Henry Nagle

Additional Music:

Lee Rosevere "Tech Toys", and music from Blue Dot Sessions.

Sponsors

This season of Origin Stories is made possible by support from Dixon Long, Diana McSherry, Jeanne Newman, Camilla Smith, and donors like you!

Get Social

We'd love to connect with you on Twitter and Facebook. Please say hi and let us know what you think of the show!

If you like the show, please leave us a review or rating on Apple Podcasts. It's the best way to help other people find the show and we really appreciate it.

In this episode, we explore the story of Piltdown Man ? one of the most notorious hoaxes in history. 

When Piltdown Man was discovered in a gravel pit outside a small English village in 1912, it was celebrated as a "missing link." The find captured the public's imagination and became world-famous. The problem was that Piltdown Man was a complete fraud. The purported fossils were actually made up of modern human bones and an orangutan mandible.

The Piltdown hoax suspects have included Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of Sherlock Holmes, and the philosopher Teilhard de Chardin. Now, more than 100 years later, scientists have narrowed the suspects down to a single culprit. 

 

Thanks:

Thanks to producer Leo Hornak for reporting this story.

Thanks also to Professor Chris Dean of University College, London, Dr. Isabelle De Groote of Liverpool University, Karolyn Shindler, Professor Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum, London, and Dr. David Joyce of Clark University, who runs the excellent Piltdown Plot website.

Thanks as well to Dr. Miles Russell of Bournemouth University - author of  "Piltdown Man: The Secret Life of Charles Dawson."

And finally thanks as well to Dr. Hugh Cecil for his advice and encouragement.

Readings were by Luke Blackall, Angelo Hornak, and Jonathan Keates.

 The archival lecture audio used in this episode is from The Leakey Foundation Archive. You can listen to Dr. Weiner's complete lecture on our website. 

The Leakey Foundation

Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach. The Leakey Foundation funds cutting-edge research about human evolution and human behavior. Support this show and the science we talk about with a tax-deductible donation. Thanks to a generous supporter, your donation will automatically be doubled!

Visit leakeyfoundation.org/donate to donate today!

Credits

Producer: Leo Hornak

Editor: Julia Barton

Host and Series Producer: Meredith Johnson

Senior Producer: Catherine Girardeau

Sound Design: Katie McMurran

Theme Music: Henry Nagle

Additional Music:

Lee Rosevere "Tech Toys" 

Sponsors

This season of Origin Stories is made possible by support from Dixon Long, Jeanne Newman, Camilla Smith, and donors like you!

Get Social

We'd love to connect with you on Twitter and Facebook. Please say hi and let us know what you think of the show!

If you like the show, please leave us a review or rating on Apple Podcasts. It's the best way to help other people find the show and we really appreciate it.

In the final installment of our "From the Archive" series, Kenyan paleoanthropologist Louis S.B. Leakey shares the story of his life and work in a never-before-released interview recorded in 1969.

The Leakey Foundation was formed 1968 in honor of Louis Leakey and we are proud to carry on his mission of increasing scientific knowledge, education, and public understanding of human origins, evolution, behavior, and survival.

You can help carry on Louis Leakey's legacy by donating to The Leakey Foundation. Every donation will be doubled!

leakeyfoundation.org/donate

Mary Leakey was called the "grand dame" of archaeology. She was a methodical and exacting scientist who made some of the world's most significant archaeological discoveries. In this lecture from The Leakey Foundation archive, Mary Leakey tells the story of Olduvai Gorge, the place where she found fossils that completely changed our understanding of human origins.

Want to support Origin Stories? All donations are being matched 4:1. Give today at leakeyfoundation.org/originstorieschallenge

Tepilit Ole Saitoti was a Maasai warrior, author, and natural resources expert. In this lecture from The Leakey Foundation archive, Saitoti tells his life story, discusses Maasai culture, and explores the challenges faced by the Maasai people.

Learn more and see photos on our blog.

Want to support Origin Stories? All donations are being matched 4:1. Give today at leakeyfoundation.org/originstorieschallenge

Raymond Dart was getting dressed for a wedding when he was given two boxes of rocks and fossils. Inside the boxes, he found the first evidence of humanity?s African origins. This episode tells the story of the 1924 discovery of the Taung Child through a never-before-released lecture by Dr. Raymond Dart.

Show Notes

The Leakey Foundation is celebrating its 50th anniversary by sharing rare, previously unreleased lectures from the Foundation?s archive.

The fourth lecture in this "From the Archive" series is by Dr. Raymond Dart, a neuroanatomist, discoverer of the Taung Child, and the person who named the genus Australopithecus.

Raymond Dart was born in Australia in 1893. He studied biology and became a medical doctor specializing in neuroanatomy. He moved to South Africa in 1922 to help establish the anatomy department at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. In 1924, as he was getting dressed for a wedding, he received two boxes full of rocks and fossils from a nearby mine. The fossils inside those boxes changed his life ? and our understanding of human origins.

Dr. Dart gave two Leakey Foundation lectures. In this episode, you'll hear clips from one of them, along with the entirety of his lecture entitled "Why Study Human Origins?" which was recorded in Washington, D.C., in 1975.

The Leakey Foundation

Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach. 

4X Donation Match

Support this show and the science we talk about with a tax-deductible donation. Thanks to a generous supporter, your donation will automatically be quadrupled!

Visit leakeyfoundation.org/originstorieschallenge to donate today!

Sponsors

This season of Origin Stories is made possible by support from Dixon Long, Jeanne Newman, Camilla Smith, and donors like you!

Get Social

We'd love to connect with you on Twitter and Facebook. Please say hi and let us know what you think of the show!

If you like Origin Stories, please leave us a review or tell a friend about the show. We really appreciate it!

Credits

Host and Series Producer: Meredith Johnson

Sound Engineer/Mix: Katie McMurran

Theme Music: Henry Nagle

Additional Music: Lee Rosevere "Tech Toys"

In this never-before-released archival lecture from 1974, anthropologist Margaret Mead discusses the lives of women from prehistoric through modern times.

Show Notes

The Leakey Foundation is 50 years old this year, and we?re celebrating this milestone by sharing rare, previously unreleased lectures from the Foundation?s archive. These talks are like a time capsule that lets you hear from scientists in their own words and in their own voices - as they were making the discoveries that made them famous.

The third lecture in this "From the Archive" series is by Margaret Mead, the world famous cultural anthropologist and author. 

Margaret Mead was born in 1901 and she had a long and distinguished career as an anthropologist. She served as president of the American Anthropological Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Among other academic appointments, she was a curator of anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City where she worked from 1926 until her death in 1978. After her death, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Jimmy Carter in 1979. This award is the highest civilian honor given by the United States government

The citation on her award said - "Margaret Mead was both a student of civilization and an exemplar of it. To a public of millions, she brought the central insight of cultural anthropology: that varying cultural patterns express an underlying human unity. She mastered her discipline, but she also transcended it. Intrepid, independent, plain-spoken, fearless, she remains a model for the young and a teacher from whom all may learn."

Margaret Mead's Leakey Foundation lecture entitled ?Women - Primitive and Modern? was recorded in Pasadena, California in 1974.

The Leakey Foundation

Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach. The Leakey Foundation funds cutting-edge research about human evolution and human behavior.

4X Donation Match

Support this show and the science we talk about with a tax-deductible donation. Thanks to a generous supporter, your donation will automatically be quadrupled!

Visit leakeyfoundation.org/originstorieschallenge to donate today!

Sponsors

This season of Origin Stories is made possible by support from Dixon Long, Jeanne Newman, and Camilla Smith.

Get Social

We'd love to connect with you on Twitter and Facebook. Please say hi and let us know what you think of the show!

If you like Origin Stories, please leave us a review or rating on Apple Podcasts. It's the best way to help other people find the show and we really appreciate it.

Credits

Host and Series Producer: Meredith Johnson

Sound Engineer/Mix: Katie McMurran

Theme Music: Henry Nagle

Additional Music:

Lee Rosevere "Tech Toys"

In this never-before-released archival lecture from 1973, the legendary primatologist Dian Fossey tells the story of the early years of her groundbreaking mountain gorilla research.

Show Notes

The Leakey Foundation is 50 years old this year, and we?re celebrating this milestone by sharing rare, previously unreleased lectures from the Foundation?s archive. These talks are like a time capsule that lets you hear from scientists in their own words and in their own voices - as they were making the discoveries that made them famous.

The second lecture in this "From the Archive" series is by Dian Fossey, the legendary primatologist who was sent by Louis Leakey to study the mountain gorillas of Rwanda. She gave this Leakey Foundation lecture in 1973, only six years after she started the Karisoke Research Center in the Virunga Mountains.

In this talk, she describes what it was like to establish the Karisoke research center, and she shares what she?d learned so far about their lives and behavior.

The Leakey Foundation

Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach. The Leakey Foundation funds cutting-edge research about human evolution and human behavior.

4X Donation Match

Support this show and the science we talk about with a tax-deductible donation. Thanks to a generous supporter, your donation will automatically be quadrupled!

Visit leakeyfoundation.org/originstorieschallenge to donate today!

Sponsors

This season of Origin Stories is made possible by support from Dixon Long, Jeanne Newman, and Camilla Smith.

Get Social

We'd love to connect with you on Twitter and Facebook. Please say hi and let us know what you think of the show!

If you like Origin Stories, please leave us a review or rating on Apple Podcasts. It's the best way to help other people find the show and we really appreciate it.

Credits

Host and Series Producer: Meredith Johnson

Sound Engineer/Mix: Katie McMurran

Theme Music: Henry Nagle

Additional Music:

Lee Rosevere "Tech Toys"

Carl Sagan explores the evolution of human intelligence from the big bang, fifteen billion years ago, through today in this never-before-released archival lecture.

Show Notes
The Leakey Foundation is 50 years old this year, and we?re celebrating this milestone by sharing rare, previously unreleased lectures from the Foundation?s archive. These talks are like a time machine that lets you hear from scientists in their own words and in their own voices - as they were making the discoveries that made them famous.

The first lecture in this "From the Archive" series is by Carl Sagan, the renowned astrophysicist and science communicator. He gave this Leakey Foundation lecture in 1977, around the time of the launch of the Voyager 1 space probe and five months before the release of his Pulitzer Prize-winning book Dragons of Eden? A book about human intelligence and the evolution of the brain.

In this talk, he explores the origins of life on earth and shares his thoughts on how we came to have brains that can attempt to comprehend the vastness of the universe.

About Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan served as the David Duncan Professor of Astronomy and Space Sciences and Director of the Laboratory for Planetary Studies at Cornell University. He played a leading role in the Mariner, Viking, Voyager, and Galileo spacecraft expeditions, for which he received the NASA Medals for Exceptional Scientific Achievement and Distinguished Public Service. Sagan published more than 600 scientific papers and articles and was author, co-author or editor of more than 20 books. His Emmy and Peabody award-winning television series, Cosmos, became the most widely watched series in the history of American public television. The accompanying book, also called Cosmos, is one of the bestselling science books ever published in the English language. Dr. Sagan received the Pulitzer Prize, the Oersted Medal, and many other awards, including twenty honorary degrees for his contributions to science, literature, education, and the preservation of the environment.

The Leakey Foundation

Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach. The Leakey Foundation funds cutting-edge research about human evolution and human behavior.

4X Donation Match

Support this show and the science we talk about with a tax-deductible donation. Thanks to a generous supporter, your donation will automatically be quadrupled!

Visit leakeyfoundation.org/originstorieschallenge to donate today!

Sponsors

This season of Origin Stories is made possible by support from Dixon Long, Jeanne Newman, and Camilla Smith.

Get Social

We'd love to connect with you on Twitter and Facebook. Please say hi and let us know what you think of the show!

If you like the show, please leave us a review or rating on Apple Podcasts. It's the best way to help other people find the show and we really appreciate it.

Credits

Host and Series Producer: Meredith Johnson

Sound Engineer/Mix: Katie McMurran

Theme Music: Henry Nagle

Additional Music:

Lee Rosevere "Tech Toys" 

A scientist solves the mystery of the only known chimpanzee civil war...thus far.

In 1960, Louis Leakey sent Jane Goodall to start her study of chimpanzees at Gombe National Park, Tanzania. Her first decade of research led her to think that chimpanzees were like nicer versions of humans. But in the early 1970s, the Gombe chimp community split in two and deadly violence erupted. The cause has remained a mystery until now. A new study by Leakey Foundation grantee Joseph Feldblum reveals similarities between the ways chimpanzee and human societies break down.

Thanks:

Thanks to Joseph Feldblum for sharing his work. Visit his website to learn more about his research.

Thanks to Jane Goodall for everything. Visit her website to learn more about her work and the Gombe chimpanzees.

The archival audio used in this episode is from The Leakey Foundation Archive. The narration in the first part of our story was recorded in 1970 for a Leakey Foundation filmstrip. The lecture audio is from a 1978 Leakey Foundation lecture entitled "Cannibalism and Warfare in Chimpanzee Societies."

The Leakey Foundation

Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach. The Leakey Foundation funds cutting-edge research about human evolution and human behavior. Support this show and the science we talk about with a tax-deductible donation. Thanks to a generous supporter, your donation will automatically be quadrupled!

Visit leakeyfoundation.org/originstorieschallenge to donate today!

Credits

Editor: Julia Barton

Host and Series Producer: Meredith Johnson

Associate Producer: Shuka Kalantari

Sound Design: Katie McMurran

Theme Music: Henry Nagle

Additional Music:

Lee Rosevere "Tech Toys" 

Sponsors

This season of Origin Stories is made possible by support from Dixon Long, Jeanne Newman, and Camilla Smith.

Get Social

We'd love to connect with you on Twitter and Facebook. Please say hi and let us know what you think of the show!

If you like the show, please leave us a review or rating on Apple Podcasts. It's the best way to help other people find the show and we really appreciate it.

Origin Stories returns November 15th with more stories about how we became human.

The stories and songs of prehistoric people are lost. Their art and artifacts are all that remain of their culture.

The painted caves of Ice Age Europe are the world's most famous examples of prehistoric art. What does this art reveal about the people who made it? Why did they paint those images on cave walls? What do the images mean?

Jean Clottes is one of the world's preeminent prehistorians and a leading expert on prehistoric art. He has devoted his life to asking these big questions, and his insights have challenged popular assumptions about prehistoric art and how it evolved.

In this episode, producer Neil Sandell visits Clottes at his home in the foothills of the Pyrénées in France, and they journey deep into a painted cave called Niaux to see the famous Salon Noir.

This episode was awarded the grand prize in the Prix Maruli? International Audio Festival in the documentary category.

The Leakey Foundation

Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach. The Leakey Foundation funds cutting-edge research about human evolution and human behavior. Support this show and the science we talk about with a tax-deductible donation. Thanks to a generous supporter, your donation will automatically be doubled!

Links

Check out the complete show notes and bonus material at leakeyfoundation.org  

Credits

Producer: Neil Sandell

Editor: Julia Barton

Host and Series Producer: Meredith Johnson

Sound Design: Neil Sandell

Theme Music: Henry Nagle

Intern: Yuka Oiwa

Additional Music:

Kai Engel "Denouement" and "Difference" Parvus Decree "The Eternal Wheel" and "Gau" Alex Mason "Other" Scott Holmes "Still Missing"  Lee Rosevere "Tech Toys"

Sponsors

This season of Origin Stories is made possible by support from Dixon Long. 

The Leakey Foundation thanks the following people for their generous support of this episode: 

Jean and Ray Auel, Sharal Camisa, Dennis Fenwick and Martha Lewis, Victoria and Barry Fong, Jeanne Newman, Sharon Metzler-Dow, and Lisa and Bill Wirthlin.

Additional Support

We are also brought to you with support from Audible.com, the internet's leading provider of spoken-word entertainment. Our listeners get a 30-day free trial and free audiobook download at audibletrial.com/originstories

Get Social

We'd love to connect with you on Twitter and Facebook. Please say hi and let us know what you think of the show!

If you like the show, please leave us a review or rating on Apple Podcasts. It's the best way to help other people find the show and we really appreciate it. 

Three true tales about what it's like to do field research.

Kelly Stewart, Dorothy Cheney, and Robert Seyfarth share stories of gun smuggling, pet leeches, close encounters with hippos, and fan mail from one of the world's most infamous mass murderers.

This bonus episode was recorded live at a Leakey Foundation Fellows event in 2016.

The Leakey Foundation

Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach. Support this show and the science we talk about with a tax-deductible donation. Thanks to a generous supporter, your donation will automatically be doubled!

If you donate before midnight on December 31, 2017, your donation will be quadrupled!

Links

Baboon Metaphysics Being a Nice Animal   Survey   Tell us what you think of the show! We'd love to know! Click here to take our short survey. Thank you!   Leakey Foundation Fellows Program   Leakey Foundation Fellows are an exclusive group of science supporters. Benefits of becoming a Fellow include unique travel opportunities and an invitation to be our guest to the annual Leakey Foundation Fellows' dinner with some of the world's leading human origins researchers.

Credits

Host and Series Producer: Meredith Johnson

Theme Music: Henry Nagle

Additional Music:

Podington Bear "Stars Are Out"

Lee Rosevere "Tech Toys"   Sponsors

This season of Origin Stories is made possible by support from Dixon Long. 

Additional Support

We are also brought to you with support from Audible.com, the internet's leading provider of spoken-word entertainment. Our listeners get a 30-day free trial and free audiobook download at audibletrial.com/originstories

Get Social

We'd love to connect with you on Twitter and Facebook. Please say hi and let us know what you think of the show!

If you like the show, please leave us a review or rating on Apple Podcasts. It's the best way to help other people find the show and we really appreciate it. 

 

 

For a long time, scientists have been searching for the first Homo sapiens in the Great Rift Valley of Ethiopia. The story we've been telling about the origin of our species has gone something like this: Around 200,000 years ago in East Africa, the first Homo sapiens emerged, splitting off from an ancestral species, possibly Homo erectus. We had big brains and a knack for tool making. We spread out across the world from there. We adapted, and we alone survived.

Now a scientific discovery made by Leakey Foundation grantee Jean-Jacques Hublin and colleagues has challenged the story we tell about ourselves and pushed the date of the origin of our species back by 100,000 years.

The Leakey Foundation

Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach. The Leakey Foundation funds cutting-edge research about human evolution and human behavior. Support this show and the science we talk about with a tax-deductible donation. Thanks to a generous supporter, your donation will automatically be doubled!

Links

Check out the complete show notes and bonus material at leakeyfoundation.org   Survey   Tell us what you think of the show! We'd love to know! Click here to take our short survey. Thank you!  

Credits

Editor: Julia Barton

Host and Series Producer: Meredith Johnson

Associate Producer: Shuka Kalantari

Sound Design: Katie McMurran

Theme Music: Henry Nagle

Additional Music:

Lee Rosevere "Tech Toys"   Special thanks to Sarah Geledi and Sylvio Tupke

Sponsors

This season of Origin Stories is made possible by support from Dixon Long. 

 

Additional Support

We are also brought to you with support from Audible.com, the internet's leading provider of spoken-word entertainment. Our listeners get a 30-day free trial and free audiobook download at audibletrial.com/originstories

Transcripts are provided by Adept Word Management. They are a small, family-run business based in Houston, Texas. They have been long-time supporters of this show and they were impacted by Hurricane Harvey. Please visit Adept Word Management for your transcription needs.

Get Social

We'd love to connect with you on Twitter and Facebook. Please say hi and let us know what you think of the show!

If you like the show, please leave us a review or rating on Apple Podcasts. It's the best way to help other people find the show and we really appreciate it. 

The stories and songs of prehistoric people are lost. Their art and artifacts are all that remain of their culture.

The painted caves of Ice Age Europe are the world's most famous examples of prehistoric art. What does this art reveal about the people who made it? Why did they paint those images on cave walls? What do the images mean?

Jean Clottes is one of the world's preeminent prehistorians and a leading expert on prehistoric art. He has devoted his life to asking these big questions, and his insights have challenged popular assumptions about prehistoric art and how it evolved.

In this episode, producer Neil Sandell visits Clottes at his home in the foothills of the Pyrénées in France, and they journey deep into a painted cave called Niaux to see the famous Salon Noir.

 

The Leakey Foundation

Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach. The Leakey Foundation funds cutting-edge research about human evolution and human behavior. Support this show and the science we talk about with a tax-deductible donation. Thanks to a generous supporter, your donation will automatically be doubled!

Links

Check out the complete show notes and bonus material at leakeyfoundation.org  

Credits

Producer: Neil Sandell

Editor: Julia Barton

Host and Series Producer: Meredith Johnson

Sound Design: Neil Sandell

Theme Music: Henry Nagle

Intern: Yuka Oiwa

Additional Music:

Kai Engel "Denouement" and "Difference" Parvus Decree "The Eternal Wheel" and "Gau" Alex Mason "Other" Scott Holmes "Still Missing"  Lee Rosevere "Tech Toys"

Sponsors

This season of Origin Stories is made possible by support from Dixon Long. 

The Leakey Foundation thanks the following people for their generous support of this episode: 

Jean and Ray Auel, Sharal Camisa, Dennis Fenwick and Martha Lewis, Victoria and Barry Fong, Jeanne Newman, Sharon Metzler-Dow, and Lisa and Bill Wirthlin.

Additional Support

We are also brought to you with support from Audible.com, the internet's leading provider of spoken-word entertainment. Our listeners get a 30-day free trial and free audiobook download at audibletrial.com/originstories

Transcripts are provided by Adept Word Management. They are a small, family-run business based in Houston, Texas. They have been long-time supporters of this show and they were impacted by Hurricane Harvey. Please visit Adept Word Management for your transcription needs.

Get Social

We'd love to connect with you on Twitter and Facebook. Please say hi and let us know what you think of the show!

If you like the show, please leave us a review or rating on Apple Podcasts. It's the best way to help other people find the show and we really appreciate it. 

One of the big questions in the study of human evolution is the question of how our ancestors spread across the world.

Our species evolved in Africa and migrated around the world from there. Most people on earth today are mixed descendants of multiple migrations to different places.

Somewhere in almost everyone?s family history, whether it was last year or thousands of years ago, there was someone who left the place they were born and set out into the unknown, looking for a new life somewhere else. For most of humankind?s time on this planet, we all did it the same way. We walked.

Paul Salopek is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and National Geographic Explorer who is on an epic ten-year journey around the world on foot, tracing the path of early human migration out of Africa. Along the way he is talking with people and sharing their stories through his writing, and through educational programs for students. His project is called the Out of Eden Walk.

You can learn more at leakeyfoundation.org.

The Leakey Foundation

Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach. The Leakey Foundation funds cutting-edge research about how and when humans spread around the world. Support this show and the science we talk about with a tax-deductible donation. Thanks to a generous supporter, your donation will automatically be doubled!

Links

Check out the complete show notes and bonus material at leakeyfoundation.org

Out of Eden Walk

Out of Eden Learn

Articles by Paul Salopek:

The Glorious Boneyard: A Report From Our Starting Line Gona: First Kitchen Borders Matter No Reply The Natural History of Compassion

Articles about early human migration:

Were modern humans in Indonesia 73,000 years ago? Clues to Africa's Mysterious Past Found in Ancient Skeletons

Credits

Editor: Julia Barton

Host and Series Producer: Meredith Johnson

Associate Producer: Shuka Kalantari

Sound Design: Katie McMurran

Theme Music: Henry Nagle

Intern: Yuka Oiwa

Additional Music: Tech Toys by Lee Rosevere

Sponsors

This season of Origin Stories is made possible by support from Dixon Long. 

We are also brought to you with support from Audible.com, the internet's leading provider of spoken-word entertainment. Our listeners get a 30-day free trial and free audiobook download at audibletrial.com/originstories

Transcripts are provided by Adept Word Management. They are a small, family-run business based in Houston, Texas. They have been long-time supporters of this show and they were impacted by Hurricane Harvey. Please visit Adept Word Management for your transcription needs.

Get Social

We'd love to connect with you on Twitter and Facebook. Please say hi and let us know what you think of the show!

If you like the show, please leave us a review or rating on Apple Podcasts. It's the best way to help other people find the show and we really appreciate it.