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Origin Stories

This award-winning show combines science and narrative to explore our human story and explain why we are the way we are. Listen and explore human evolution one story at a time.

Ranked #1

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Episode 43: We Eat Bugs

Episode 43: We Eat Bugs

Have you ever considered how profoundly food has shaped who we are as a species? Julie Lesnik is a paleoanthropolgist wh... Read more

29 May 2020

28mins

Ranked #2

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Episode 40: The Denisovans

Episode 40: The Denisovans

A mysterious new human relative was discovered ten years ago from a pinky bone found in a Siberian cave. They're called ... Read more

28 Nov 2019

31mins

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Ranked #3

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Episode 39: Piltdown Man

Episode 39: Piltdown Man

In this episode, we explore the story of Piltdown Man – one of the most notorious hoaxes in history.  When Piltdown Man ... Read more

31 Oct 2019

37mins

Ranked #4

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Episode 32: From the Archive - Carl Sagan

Episode 32: From the Archive - Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan explores the evolution of human intelligence from the big bang, fifteen billion years ago, through today in t... Read more

29 Nov 2018

48mins

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Ranked #5

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Episode 08: Being Human with Robert Sapolsky

Episode 08: Being Human with Robert Sapolsky

This episode of Origin Stories was recorded live in San Francisco as part of the Bay Area Science Festival. It was the f... Read more

5 Dec 2015

38mins

Ranked #6

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Episode 16: Neanderthals

Episode 16: Neanderthals

People have been fascinated with Neanderthals since they were first discovered in the mid-1800s. For a long time, they h... Read more

1 Jul 2016

23mins

Ranked #7

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Episode 42: The Cave Punan

Episode 42: The Cave Punan

Deep in the forests of Borneo, lives a society of hunter-gatherers who speak a language never before shared with outside... Read more

8 Apr 2020

34mins

Ranked #8

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Episode 27: Out of Eden the Long Way

Episode 27: Out of Eden the Long Way

One of the big questions in the study of human evolution is the question of how our ancestors spread across the world. O... Read more

21 Sep 2017

31mins

Ranked #9

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Episode 03: Jane Goodall

Episode 03: Jane Goodall

Dr. Jane Goodall is a legend. She is a science hero, a trailblazing researcher who inspires people around the world. In ... Read more

30 Jun 2015

24mins

Ranked #10

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Episode 19: Being Human - Born and Evolved to Run

Episode 19: Being Human - Born and Evolved to Run

Humans and our recent ancestors have been accomplished endurance runners for more than a million years. Our evolutionary... Read more

28 Oct 2016

35mins

Ranked #11

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Episode 24: Ancestor

Episode 24: Ancestor

Just recently, the news media announced the discovery of a 13 million-year-old fossil ape called Alesi. This remarkable ... Read more

31 Aug 2017

25mins

Ranked #12

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Episode 28: What They Left Behind

Episode 28: What They Left Behind

The stories and songs of prehistoric people are lost. Their art and artifacts are all that remain of their culture. The ... Read more

28 Sep 2017

38mins

Ranked #13

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Episode 29: Rewriting Our Story

Episode 29: Rewriting Our Story

For a long time, scientists have been searching for the first Homo sapiens in the Great Rift Valley of Ethiopia. The sto... Read more

7 Nov 2017

23mins

Ranked #14

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Episode 26: Rising Star

Episode 26: Rising Star

It's not every day you see a Facebook post that changes your life, but that's exactly what happened to Leakey Foundation... Read more

14 Sep 2017

39mins

Ranked #15

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Episode 25: Stones and How to Use Them

Episode 25: Stones and How to Use Them

The paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey described stone tools as “fossilized human behavior.” These rocks, shaped by our hu... Read more

7 Sep 2017

23mins

Ranked #16

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Episode 14: Being Human - Why Do We Laugh?

Episode 14: Being Human - Why Do We Laugh?

Laughter is a universal human behavior. Have you ever wondered why we laugh or what it really means when we do? Greg Bry... Read more

18 May 2016

39mins

Ranked #17

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Episode 09: Did Cooking Make Us Human? (Re-release)

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... Read more

31 Dec 2016

25mins

Ranked #18

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Episode 05: Discovery at Ledi-Geraru

Episode 05: Discovery at Ledi-Geraru

Have you ever wondered what it's like to make a major fossil discovery? Arizona State University graduate student Chalac... Read more

26 Aug 2015

15mins

Ranked #19

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Episode 06: Being a Nice Animal

Episode 06: Being a Nice Animal

For over 35 years Dorothy Cheney and Robert Seyfarth have been studying wild African primates in order to better underst... Read more

27 Oct 2015

18mins

Ranked #20

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Episode 04: How to Document a Society

Episode 04: How to Document a Society

Every day for 55 years a dedicated group of researchers, students, and Tanzanian field assistants have spent their days ... Read more

5 Aug 2015

16mins

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