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Origin Stories

Explore human evolution one story at a time. This award-winning show blends storytelling with scienc

Episodes

Total: 84

Every animal that lives in groups has to make decisions as a group. Even a seemingly simple decision

Humans have evolved very differently from other primates. Is there one thing responsible for humans

The Power Paradox What is power? Where does social power come from? What happens in our bodies and w

Humans and our recent ancestors have been accomplished endurance runners for more than a million yea

Episode 18: Empathy

2016/8/25

Empathy has long been considered a uniquely human trait, but it's an ability that has also been obse

Every day for 55 years a dedicated group of researchers, students, and field assistants have spent t

Humans are very verbal compared to other animals. We talk constantly, and our voices can signal many

Episode 16: Neanderthals

2016/7/1

People have been fascinated with Neanderthals since they were first discovered in the mid-1800s. For

When Kristen Hawkes first started to research the foraging habits of the Hadza hunter-gatherers, she

Laughter is a universal human behavior. Have you ever wondered why we laugh or what it really means

In this episode we take a closer look at the evolutionary arms race between humans and the microbes

Tuberculosis is the world's leading cause of death by infectious disease, and it has been plaguing h

Episode 11: Face Mites

2016/2/25

The bad news is that everybody has face mites. The good news is that these tiny cousins of spiders a

Alison Gopnik is a professor of psychology and affiliate professor of philosophy at the University o

We humans have evolved very differently from other primates. Is there one thing responsible for huma

This episode of Origin Stories was recorded live in San Francisco as part of the Bay Area Science Fe

In On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin used a sketch of a tree of life to help describe his the

For over 35 years Dorothy Cheney and Robert Seyfarth have been studying wild African primates in ord

Have you ever wondered what it's like to make a major fossil discovery? Arizona State University gra

Every day for 55 years a dedicated group of researchers, students, and Tanzanian field assistants ha