Episode
The Origins of Humankind: Where Do We Really Come From?
- Podcast
- On Humans
- Published
- Jan 10, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 1707
- Processing state
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- https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ilari-makela/episodes/The-Origins-of-Humankind-Where-Do-We-Really-Come-From-e3deu5b
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Summary
Happy 2026! On Humans has typically marked the coming of January by revisiting the previous year’s most popular episode. This time, the New Year special packs the five-hour-long "Origins of Humankind" series into one fast-paced dive through deep time. By mixing highlights from the original interviews with fresh narration, this episode offers a captivating journey through many of the great topics around human origins, such as: Who were the first primates The role of fruits, snakes, and predators The human solution to danger How to grow a human brain? What did our ancestors eat? Effects of our upright posture Origins of music & language How Homo sapiens took over the world Enjoy! LINKS For the original five-hour experience, see: OnHumans.Substack.com/Origins For a shorter series on ancient DNA: see OnHumans.Substack.com/DNA Support: Patreon.com/OnHumans The series was produced together with CARTA (UCSD & Salk Institute). For past recordings of CARTA symposia on human origins, see: Carta.Anthropogeny.org/Symposia KEYWORDS Human evolution | Human origins | Science | Biology | Paleoanthropology | Anthropology | Archaeology | Fossils | aDNA | History of life | Life history | Dinosaurs | Primates | Apes | Hominins | Homo sapiens | Evolution of language | Evolution of music | Brain evolution | Paleoneurology | Neanderthals | Denisovans | Neolithic Revolution | Spread of agriculture | Human destiny