# Prologue: The (Very Simple) Story of the Human Brain ~ Suzana Herculano-Houzel Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/on-humans-5714769/prologue-the-very-simple-story-of-the-human-brain-suzana-herculano-houzel Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/on-humans-5714769/prologue-the-very-simple-story-of-the-human-brain-suzana-herculano-houzel.md Podcast: [On Humans](https://stenobird.com/podcast/on-humans-5714769) Published: 2025-08-28T16:04:29+00:00 Episode link: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ilari-makela/episodes/Prologue-The-Very-Simple-Story-of-the-Human-Brain--Suzana-Herculano-Houzel-e37ej6s Audio file: https://anchor.fm/s/b6269808/podcast/play/107481756/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-7-28%2Fd38f44ef-0c91-ca9d-59f9-6866cccc95dc.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/on-humans-5714769/episodes/prologue-the-very-simple-story-of-the-human-brain-suzana-herculano-houzel Duration seconds: 3020 ## Resource I'm excited to announce that On Humans is launching a new series this fall! This one will explore the wonders of the human brain. The new episodes will drop throughout September and early October. To set the stage, we will revisit a conversation with neuroscientist Suzana Herculano-Houzel , newly re-edited and remastered. It’s the simplest and most elegant story I’ve heard about how our brains came to be — and it sets the stage for the debates to follow. Enjoy! DIG DEEPER Herculano-Houzel's book is called The Human Advantage. Check out the series page at OnHumans.Substack.com/Brain For more on human evolution, see the full series on the Origins of Humankind. SUPPORT THE SHOW You can pledge your support at ⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon.com/OnHumans⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ KEYWORDS Human evolution | Brain evolution | Neuroscience | Biology | Anthropology | Cerebral Cortex | Neuron counting | Comparative neurology | Comparative biology | Comparative anatomy | Harry Jerrison | Paleoanthropology | Human origins | ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/on-humans-5714769/episodes/prologue-the-very-simple-story-of-the-human-brain-suzana-herculano-houzel/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/on-humans-5714769/prologue-the-very-simple-story-of-the-human-brain-suzana-herculano-houzel.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.