Origin Stories is The Leakey Foundation’s monthly podcast that explores human evolution one story at a time. This award-winning show blends storytelling with science that will change your understanding of what it means to be human.
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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….
Season 2 Preview
Our new season of Origin Stories is coming soon! This is a sneak preview of the first episode.
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…
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…
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…