The Ultimate Survivalists | Evolutionary Anthropologist Dr. Steven Churchill | Ep. 008

This week on the show, we have Duke University’s Dr. Steven Churchill swinging into town to talk about early man as the ultimate survivalist. Dr. Churchill has been part of discovering two important early hominids and when it comes to neanderthals, he’s certainly among the most knowledgeable. One thing he knows for sure? Early man was on the strugglebus, but pushed through to become the ultimate survivalist. 

We talk about:

• Some of Dr. Churchill’s research at Duke University
• Homo Neledi 
• The Rising Star cave system
• How to say “Cro Magnon” the sexy (and correct) way
• Steve’s book, Thin on the Ground
• How everything wanted to kill early man
• Neanderthals being hybrid into oblivion 
• Hunting habits and tools
• Why living in “the fertile crescent” sucked 
• How cave bears were vegans, but would happily unalive you

Links mentioned in this episode

• Steve’s Book: Thin on the Ground: Neandertal Biology, Archeology, and Ecology (Foundation of Human Biology)
• Steve on Wired’s Tech Support

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Credits

• Special thanks to Dr. Steven Churchill for the extra photos
• Featuring Dr. Steven Churchill
• Produced by Andrew O'Neill with Hayden Sammak
• Intro and Animations by Barry Thompson
• Photograph Contributions for Animation by Carver Weeks
• Additional Graphics by Andrew O’Neill 
• Production Assistance by John Stock 
• “Welcome to the Backcountry” theme song by Logan Roth, Will Brown, Arjun Dube and produced at Treacle Mine Studios, Phila, PA