Origin Stories is back!

FromOrigin Stories

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Origin Stories is back!

FromOrigin Stories

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Length:

2 minutes

Released:

Jan 24, 2023

Format:

Podcast episode

Description

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!

Released:

Jan 24, 2023

Format:

Podcast episode

Titles in the series (80)

This award-winning show combines science and narrative to explore our human story and explain why we are the way we are. Listen and explore human evolution one story at a time.

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Episode 07: The Currant Bush of Life with Bernard Wood: In On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin used a sketch of a tree of life to help describe his theory of evolution. In this metaphor, the branches of the tree represent the relationships between all living and extinct creatures. Humans, like all... by Origin Stories
18 min listen
Episode 06: Being a Nice Animal: For over 35 years Dorothy Cheney and Robert Seyfarth have been studying wild African primates in order to better understand the evolution of the human mind. In this episode they tell us about their long-term study of free-ranging baboons in the... by Origin Stories
18 min listen
Episode 01: On Two Feet: One of the things that makes us different from other animals is the way we move around on two feet. Figuring out how and why our ancestors first stood up is one of the big questions in the study of human evolution. Carol Ward is an anatomy professor... by Origin Stories
13 min listen
Episode 15: The Grandmother Hypothesis: When Kristen Hawkes first started to research the foraging habits of the Hadza hunter-gatherers, she noticed that the older women in the society were spending their time collecting food and sharing it with their grandchildren. She started to wonder if... by Origin Stories
13 min listen
Episode 14: Being Human - Why Do We Laugh?: Laughter is a universal human behavior. Have you ever wondered why we laugh or what it really means when we do? Greg Bryant of UCLA studies the evolution of communication and vocal behavior, especially of spontaneous vocal expressions such as... by Origin Stories
40 min listen
Episode 04: How to Document a Society: Every day for 55 years a dedicated group of researchers, students, and Tanzanian field assistants have spent their days crawling through thorns and vines as they follow chimpanzees to observe their behavior. They write everything down in notes and on... by Origin Stories
16 min listen
Intro to Origin Stories: The Leakey Foundation Podcast by Origin Stories
1 min listen
Episode 20: The Power Paradox - LIVE: The Power Paradox What is power? Where does social power come from? What happens in our bodies and with our behavior when we have power and when we don't? What can we learn about lasting social power from small-scale hunter-gatherer societies?... by Origin Stories
41 min listen
Episode 03: Jane Goodall: Dr. Jane Goodall is a legend. She is a science hero, a trailblazing researcher who inspires people around the world. In this episode, Jane Goodall shares part of the story of how she went from working as a secretary to becoming the world's leading... by Origin Stories
24 min listen
Episode 16: Neanderthals: People have been fascinated with Neanderthals since they were first discovered in the mid-1800s. For a long time, they have been seen as dumb, brutish cavemen. As more discoveries have been made in the past few decades, our picture of who Neanderthals... by Origin Stories
23 min listen
Episode 18: Empathy: Empathy has long been considered a uniquely human trait, but it's an ability that has also been observed in apes and other animals. Primatologist Frans de Waal says that examples of empathy in non-human primates and other mammals suggest that... by Origin Stories
26 min listen
Episode 12: The Origins of Tuberculosis: Tuberculosis is the world's leading cause of death by infectious disease, and it has been plaguing humanity for a very long time. In the first episode of a two-part series on infectious disease and human evolution, Dr. Anne Stone of Arizona State... by Origin Stories
18 min listen
Episode 05: Discovery at Ledi-Geraru: Have you ever wondered what it's like to make a major fossil discovery? Arizona State University graduate student Chalachew Seyoum and professor Kaye Reed tell us their exciting story. Seyoum was working as part of a team co-directed by... by Origin Stories
15 min listen
Episode 02: Why Do We Get Hiccups?: Hiccups are an annoyance that we all deal with, but don't usually give much thought to. In this episode of Origin Stories, independent producer Ben Nimkin brings us the remarkable story of Charles Osborne, a man who holds the Guiness World Record... by Origin Stories
18 min listen
Episode 22: Altruism: Why do people risk their own lives to save a stranger? Why do we share food or give money to charity? The human capacity for altruism has been a puzzle for scientists since Darwin. In this episode of Origin Stories, primatologist Joan Silk explores... by Origin Stories
22 min listen
Episode 04: How to Document a Society (Re-release): Every day for 55 years a dedicated group of researchers, students, and field assistants have spent their days crawling through thorns and vines as they follow chimpanzees to observe their behavior. They write everything down in notes and on maps and... by Origin Stories
17 min listen
Episode 09: Did Cooking Make Us Human? (Re-release): Humans have evolved very differently from other primates. Is there one thing responsible for humans becoming human? Some evolutionary biologists think that the way we process our food, namely cooking it, could explain why our species developed so... by Origin Stories
25 min listen
Episode 08: Being Human with Robert Sapolsky: This episode of Origin Stories was recorded live in San Francisco as part of the Bay Area Science Festival. It was the first of The Leakey Foundation and the Baumann Foundation’s new “Being Human” event series. Our speaker was Robert... by Origin Stories
39 min listen
Season 2 Preview: Our new season of Origin Stories is coming soon! This is a sneak preview of the first episode. by Origin Stories
3 min listen
Episode 11: Face Mites: The bad news is that everybody has face mites. The good news is that these tiny cousins of spiders and ticks seem to be harmless for the vast majority of us. In this episode, entomologist and evolutionary biologist Michelle... by Origin Stories
20 min listen
Episode 31: The Four Year War: 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... by Origin Stories
27 min listen
Episode 13: Evolutionary Arms Race: In this episode we take a closer look at the evolutionary arms race between humans and the microbes that make us sick. What does each side bring to the fight? Dr. Pardis Sabeti of Harvard University is a computational biologist who uses math and... by Origin Stories
21 min listen
Episode 35: From the Archive - Raymond Dart: 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... by Origin Stories
32 min listen
Episode 19: Being Human - Born and Evolved to Run: Humans and our recent ancestors have been accomplished endurance runners for more than a million years. Our evolutionary history as runners partly accounts for why aerobic exercise is such a key component of human health. In this talk, recorded in... by Origin Stories
35 min listen
Episode 25: Stones and How to Use Them: The paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey described stone tools as “fossilized human behavior.” These rocks, shaped by our human ancestors and found in archaeological sites around the world, can give us clues about how ancient people lived.... by Origin Stories
23 min listen
Episode 32: From the Archive - Carl Sagan: 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... by Origin Stories
48 min listen
Episode 09: Did Cooking Make Us Human?: We humans have evolved very differently from other primates. Is there one thing responsible for humans becoming human? Some evolutionary biologists think that the way we process our food, namely cooking it, could explain why our species developed so... by Origin Stories
18 min listen
Episode 24: Ancestor: Just recently, the news media announced the discovery of a 13 million-year-old fossil ape called Alesi. This remarkable fossil was found in Kenya, and it’s from a time period where there’s a big blank spot in the fossil record of our family tree.... by Origin Stories
26 min listen
Episode 10: Being Human with Alison Gopnik by Origin Stories
38 min listen
Episode 21: Follow the Leader?: Every animal that lives in groups has to make decisions as a group. Even a seemingly simple decision like "where should we go for dinner?" can be complicated to negotiate. Is there a simple rule behind how humans and other animals make... by Origin Stories
21 min listen

More Episodes from Origin Stories

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The Story of Human Hair: Why do humans have most of our hair on our heads, not our bodies? Why do we have so many varieties of hair color, thickness, and curliness? Dr. Tina Lasisi is a biological anthropologist whose work explores these evolutionary mysteries. In this... by Origin Stories
35 min listen
The Musical Ape: Music is universal in all human cultures, but why? What gives us the ability to hear sound as music? Are we the only musical species–or was Darwin right when he said every animal with a backbone should be able to perceive, if not enjoy music?... by Origin Stories
27 min listen
Custodian of the Ancestors: 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... by Origin Stories
33 min listen
A Brief History of Bling: 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... by Origin Stories
27 min listen
Top Human Origins Discoveries of 2023: 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... by Origin Stories
44 min listen
Siblings: 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... by Origin Stories
31 min listen
Fatherhood: 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... by Origin Stories
30 min listen
Motherhood: 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... by Origin Stories
30 min listen
Episode 67: Boomplaas Cave Bonus - Ancient Climates and Human History: 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... by Origin Stories
34 min listen
Episode 66: Field School Diaries: 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... by Origin Stories
33 min listen
Episode 65: The Hobbit: In 2003, researchers on the Indonesian island of Flores uncovered a small skeleton that relative Hobbit transformed our understanding of human evolution. decades ago, the Hobbit's discovery flipped our understanding of human evolution upside... by Origin Stories
30 min listen
Episode 64: A Giganto Mystery: 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... by Origin Stories
27 min listen
Episode 63: The New Metabolism: 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... by Origin Stories
28 min listen
Episode 62: Top Human Origins Discoveries of 2022: 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... by Origin Stories
35 min listen
First Steps at Laetoli: 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... by Origin Stories
27 min listen
Episode 60: Discovering Us: 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... by Origin Stories
23 min listen
Episode 59: Top Human Origins Discoveries of 2021: 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... by Origin Stories
31 min listen
Episode 58: Biruté Mary Galdikas - 50 Years with Orangutans: 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... by Origin Stories
34 min listen
Entre Chien et Loup: How Dogs Began: 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... by Origin Stories
54 min listen
Bonus Episode: Short and Sweat: 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... by Origin Stories
18 min listen
Episode 55: Monkeys Get Creative: 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 Send us your questions! Have a... by Origin Stories
23 min listen
Episode 54: The Obstetrical Dilemma: 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... by Origin Stories
35 min listen
Episode 53: Sleep and the Moon: 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... by Origin Stories
28 min listen
Episode 52: How to Study an Endangered Species: 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... by Origin Stories
28 min listen
Episode 51: The Teeth Remember: 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... by Origin Stories
21 min listen
Episode 50: Understanding Neanderthals: 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... by Origin Stories
43 min listen
Episode 49: Exercise: 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... by Origin Stories
36 min listen
Episode 48: Ancestor (rerelease): 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... by Origin Stories
25 min listen
Episode 47: Skin: 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.... by Origin Stories
68 min listen
Episode 46: Interview with María Martinón-Torres: 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... by Origin Stories
10 min listen

Discover this podcast and so much more

Origin Stories is back!

Origin Stories is back!

Description

Titles in the series (80)

More Episodes from Origin Stories