The Origins of Humankind: Where Do We Really Come From?

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