Episode
Can We Tell a (True) Story of Human Origins? Live from UC San Diego
- Podcast
- On Humans
- Published
- Nov 24, 2025
- Duration seconds
- 2541
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Summary
The science of human origins keeps producing new theories. But are we any closer to telling a true story of human origins? Or are we simply drowning in data? Earlier this November, the chair of UCSD’s Department of Anthropology invited me to explore this question in a campus talk. My optimistic claim was that underneath many of the field’s important debates, a powerful story has been emerging. At its core, this is a story about calories, cooperation, and climate change. And at the centre of it are not men hunting or women gathering. At the centre of it are children playing and learning. Here is the recording from the talk . Check out also my Substack essay inspired by this talk, with many of the pictures and graphs from the slides! PS. I was in San Diego to attend a CARTA symposium on the role of genetics in the study of human origins. I managed to record three episodes behind the scenes. Live recordings coming soon ! FACT CHECKING No major errors have been found yet. As a small correction, the mention about macaques vs giraffe's should have been about neurons in the cortex, not total neurons in the brain. The main idea doesn't change. If you find an error in this or other episodes, get in touch via the form below. LINKS Articles and essays: OnHumans.Substack.com Support: Patreon.com/OnHumans Contact Form: https://forms.gle/h5wcmefuwvD6asos8 KEYWORDS Human evolution | Human origins | Anthropogeny | Anthropology | Paleoanthropology | Genus Homo | Australopithecins | Human brain | Comparative neuroanatomy | Human tool cultures | Alloparenting | Cooking hypothesis | Expensive tissue hypothesis | Life history | r vs K strategies |