What Should We Eat? Evolution, Diet, and Health
Origin Stories
What does evolutionary science tell us about what we should eat? In this episode, Harvard paleoanthropologist and author Daniel Lieberman joins us to discuss food, health, human evolution, and his new book, "Fed Up: What Evolution Reveals About Food, Diet, Health, and Eating Well." Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to funding human origins research and sharing discoveries. Support our work and this show at Book Giveaway Enter your name Winners will be drawn at random on October 13. No donation necessary to win! Links to learn more "Nothing in...
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The Not So Naked Ape: The Origins of Clothing
Origin Stories
Humans are the only animals that get dressed every day. Clothing is one of our most important inventions, yet we rarely even think about it as a technology. Nina Jablonski joins us to explore when and why our ancestors started wearing clothes, and what that decision meant for our survival, our migration across the planet, and our sense of self. Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to funding human origins research and sharing discoveries. Please support our work at . Links to learn more: Nina Jablonski lecture on ""
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Biruté Mary Galdikas - A Life Among Orangutans
Origin Stories
Biruté Mary Galdikas passed away on March 24, 2026, at the age of 79. She spent more than 50 years studying orangutans in Borneo and fighting to protect them. Before she began her work, orangutans were the least understood of the great apes. She changed that. Her research formed the foundation of what we now know about orangutans. She was the first to learn what they ate, how they lived, how they moved, their long interbirth intervals, and so much more. Including the many threats to their survival. Her lifelong dedication inspired generations to care about orangutans and their...
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Top Human Origins Discoveries of 2025
Origin Stories
2025 was another exciting year in human origins research! In this episode, four scientists and Leakey Foundation grantees (and one podcast host) share their picks for the top discoveries of the year. Support this show and the science we talk about. Your tax-deductible gift to The Leakey Foundation will be matched! Want more science between podcast episodes? Join our monthly newsletter for human origins . Links to learn more All research articles are open-access and free to read
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Origin Stories x The Science Podcast
Origin Stories
This episode features two stories from the Science Podcast. First, Science writer Ann Gibbons tells the story of three ancient hominin species that lived side-by-side in South Africa’s Cradle of Humankind. Then, anthropologist Melanie Beasley discusses her new study on why chemical signals in Neanderthal teeth and bones make them look like hypercarnivores. Her research suggests they were just eating a lot of maggots! Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to funding human origins research and sharing discoveries. The Science podcast is a...
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Can a Human Outrun a Horse?
Origin Stories
This is a story about sweat, survival, speed, and the peculiar ways running may have shaped us as humans. Armed with a hydration vest, a dream, and paleoanthropologist Daniel Lieberman’s endurance running hypothesis, filmmaker Nicole Teeny set out to push the limits of her own endurance. Nicole’s mission takes her from the Kalahari Desert to Kansas to see if humans really did evolve to run. Along the way, she discovers humans' unusual superpower and asks, can a human outrun a horse? This episode was written and produced by . Sound designed and produced by Ray Pang. Edited by Audrey Quinn....
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The Origin Story of Origin Stories - 10th Anniversary
Origin Stories
After 10 years of exploring the stories behind breakthrough science, it's time to tell our own origin story! In this special anniversary episode, we're flipping the script to share how Origin Stories began. Join us behind the scenes, revisit three milestone episodes, and get an exciting update on the Punan Batu community's fight for their ancestral lands in Borneo. Here's to our listeners who've made this decade of science and storytelling possible, and to many more stories ahead. Links to learn more: Support science: In honor of 10 years of Origin Stories, please consider donating $10...
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The Shanidar Cave Neanderthals
Origin Stories
Shanidar Cave is a unique archaeological site in Kurdistan where scientists found the remains of 10 Neanderthal men, women, and children. Some of these individuals had survived serious injuries, and one seemed to have been buried with flowers beneath his body. The discoveries at Shanidar challenged long-standing ideas of who Neanderthals were and what separates our species from theirs. Now, more than 50 years after the original excavations, scientists have returned to Shanidar to answer lingering questions about the Neanderthals who lived and died there. Double your impact Support Origin...
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Top Human Origins Discoveries of 2024
Origin Stories
2024 was another amazing year in human origins research. In this episode, three Leakey Foundation grantees (and one podcast host) share their picks for the most exciting discoveries of the year. Support this show and the science we talk about. Your tax-deductible gift to The Leakey Foundation will be quadruple-matched through midnight on December 31! . Want more science between podcast episodes? Join our monthly newsletter for human origins . Links to learn more All research articles are open-access and free to read
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Lucy
Origin Stories
In this episode, we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the discovery of Lucy, one of the most iconic and important scientific discoveries ever made. Paleoanthropologist Don Johanson tells the story of his early scientific career and the pivotal moment when he discovered 3.2 million-year-old hominin fossils in Ethiopia's Afar region. It's a story that connects us to our deepest roots and shows how one remarkable fossil changed our view of what it means to be human. Links to learn more: - from The Leakey Foundation from the Institute of Human Origins Quadruple your impact: Through December 31...
info_outline2024 was another amazing year in human origins research. In this episode, three Leakey Foundation grantees (and one podcast host) share their picks for the most exciting discoveries of the year.
Support this show and the science we talk about. Your tax-deductible gift to The Leakey Foundation will be quadruple-matched through midnight on December 31! Click here to donate.
Want more science between podcast episodes? Join our monthly newsletter for human origins news and updates from Origin Stories and The Leakey Foundation.
Links to learn more
All research articles are open-access and free to read
On the genetic basis of tail-loss evolution in humans and apes
Why don’t humans have tails? Scientists find answers in an unlikely place
Long genetic and social isolation in Neanderthals before their extinction
Meet Thorin: A cave-dwelling population of Neanderthals isolated for 50,000 years
Recurrent evolution and selection shape structural diversity at the amylase locus
How early humans evolved to eat starch
Footprint evidence for locomotor diversity and shared habitats among early Pleistocene hominins
Fossilized footprints reveal two extinct hominin species living side by side 1.5 million years ago