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PODCAST

Origin Stories

The Leakey Foundation

Explore human evolution one story at a time. This award-winning show blends storytelling with science that will change your understanding of who we are.

science natural sciences

All Episodes

27:21

A Giganto Mystery

Origin Stories ·

2023/03/28

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 tell us about extinctions happening now. Learn more: Where Giants Roamed Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach. Click here to support this show and the

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27:32

The New Metabolism

Origin Stories ·

2023/03/01

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 Meredith Johnson, produced and sound designed by Ray Pang, and edited by Audrey Quinn. Support this show and the science we talk about. leakeyfoundation.org/donate Links: Burn by Herman Pontzer, PhD Pontzer Lab The energetics of uniquely human subsistence

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35:05

Top Human Origins Discoveries of 2022

Origin Stories ·

2023/01/31

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 promising potential to improve the future of medicine. In this episode, four Leakey Foundation scientists shared their favorite human evolution discoveries from the past year. Our guests Carol Ward, University of Missouri Sofia Samper Carro, Australian

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01:49

Origin Stories is back!

Origin Stories ·

2023/01/24

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!

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27:11

First Steps at Laetoli

Origin Stories ·

2022/05/17

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 understanding of how hominins moved and interacted. ThanksThanks to Dr. Ellison McNutt and Dr. Charles Musiba for sharing their work. Thanks as well to Jim Carty and Pat Randall for generously sponsoring this episode. Jim is a long-time Leakey

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23:21

Discovering Us

Origin Stories ·

2022/02/25

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 important scientific work of Leakey Foundation researchers. Want to win your own copy of the book? Take our listener survey for a chance to win one of three giveaway copies! Discovering Us is also available for sale anywhere you buy books, but when you

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31:16

Episode 59: Top Human Origins Discoveries of 2021

Origin Stories ·

2021/12/21

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 scientists discuss their favorite human origins discoveries of 2021. Click here for a transcript of this episode. Our guests: Scott A. Williams, New York UniversityJessica Thompson, Yale UniversityGiulia Gallo, University of California at DavisFernando

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33:48

Episode 58: Biruté Mary Galdikas - 50 Years with...

Origin Stories ·

2021/11/09

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 what is now the longest ongoing study of orangutans in the history of science. This is her story. She was the third in the group of now world-famous scientists known as the Trimates—Jane Goodall in Tanzania, Dian Fossey in Rwanda, and Biruté Mary Galdikas

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54:02

Entre Chien et Loup: How Dogs Began

Origin Stories ·

2021/10/05

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 journey from wolf to dog. This story was originally produced for the CBC program IDEAS. Click here for a transcript of this episode. Guests in this episode: (in order of appearance) Angela Perri is an archaeologist at Durham University, U.K. Sebastian

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17:30

Bonus Episode: Short and Sweat

Origin Stories ·

2021/09/29

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 anthropologist at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts who studies metabolism, endurance, and the evolution of sweat. Visit his website to learn more about him and his research. Click here for a one-minute video about his Leakey Foundation-supported

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22:40

Episode 55: Monkeys Get Creative

Origin Stories ·

2021/07/07

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 These tiny monkeys have entered their Stone Age with a bang First report of habitual stone tool use by Cebus monkeys Habitual Stone-Tool Aided Extractive Foraging in White-Faced Capuchins, Cebus Capucinus Video of capuchins using tools Research presentation on social learning by Leakey

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34:42

Episode 54: The Obstetrical Dilemma

Origin Stories ·

2021/06/04

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 early so their big brains can fit through the mother’s pelvis, which can’t get any wider due to our method of bipedal locomotion. This problem, the idea says, is solved by an evolutionary tradeoff that increases risks to pregnant mothers who must struggle to

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28:27

Sleep and the Moon

Origin Stories ·

2021/05/07

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 between sleep and the cycles of the moon. Links de la Iglesia Lab Moonstruck Sleep It's not just the pandemic. The moon may be messing with your sleep, too The de la Iglesia Lab Sleep and Homelessness Project Science and Evolution of Sleep | Ask a

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28:02

Episode 52: How to Study an Endangered Species

Origin Stories ·

2021/03/27

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 study was started by primatologist Richard Wrangham in 1987, and project members have collected daily records of the chimps there ever since. These notes hold the life stories of around 150 chimpanzees, and this long-term data is a powerful way for

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20:35

Episode 51: The Teeth Remember

Origin Stories ·

2021/03/02

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 to tell a detailed and intimate story about the lives of two Neanderthal children and the changing world they lived in. Links The Tales Teeth Tell What teeth can tell about the lives and environments of ancient humans and Neanderthals Wintertime

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43:19

Episode 50: Understanding Neanderthals

Origin Stories ·

2021/02/01

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 Rebecca Wragg Sykes' new book Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Art, and Death synthesizes more than a century of research on Neanderthals – from the first Neanderthal fossil discovered, to the most up to date and cutting edge research - revealing a vivid

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36:23

Episode 49: Exercise

Origin Stories ·

2020/12/31

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 though we know it’s good for us. Dan Lieberman, author of the new book Exercised: Why Something We Never Evolved to Do Is Healthy and Rewarding, tells the story of how we never evolved to do voluntary physical activity for the sake of health, and helps us

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25:26

Episode 48: Ancestor (rerelease)

Origin Stories ·

2020/11/27

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 us something new about the early evolution of apes and shows what the common ancestor of humans and all the other living apes might have looked like. In this episode, Dr. Nengo tells the story behind the discovery. This episode was originally released in

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01:07:50

Episode 47: Skin

Origin Stories ·

2020/11/03

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. Nina Jablonski explains the evolution of human skin color and discusses some of the ways that harmful color-based race concepts have influenced societies and impacted social well-being. Links Nina Jablonski's website Video - "The Evolution and Meaning of

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09:38

Episode 46: Interview with María Martinón-Torres

Origin Stories ·

2020/09/30

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 is entirely in Spanish. We’ll be back with an English-language episode in October. Special thanks to Dub and Ginny Crook for sponsoring this episode. Click here for a transcript of this episode.

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