The story continues! In part 2 of the Origins of Humankind, we trace the first steps of our ancestors after they left the chimpanzee lineage.

To get humanity going, our ancestors had to wander through millions of years of what anthropologist Dean Falk has called the Botanic Age. It's a time shrouded in mist, yet it may hold the key to some of humanity’s most defining traits — from language and music to our clumsy toes and our large brains.

On this walk through the mysteries of the Botanic Age, our guide is Dean Falk herself. She is a Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and the world's leading expert on human brain evolution. Together, we try to make sense of topics such as:

The common ancestor between humans and chimpanzees
Against “Man the Toolmaker”: Tool use in other apes
The walking ape: how bipedalism shaped our ancestors
Origins of language
Origins of music
Size matters, but… The early evolution of the human brain

As always, we finish with the guest’s reflections on humanity.

MORE LINKS

More stuff (including written highlights): ⁠OnHumans.Substack.com/Origins⁠
Support the show: ⁠Patreon.com/OnHumans⁠
Free lectures on human origins: ⁠CARTA⁠
Dean Falk’s book: ⁠The Botanic Age

WHAT'S NEXT

Origins of Humankind #3: What Is a Human?

The stage has been set. It is time for humanity to enter. But what is a human? What makes a skeleton fall into the Genus "Homo"? And why did this puzzling genus evolve?

Key questions: Why did humans evolve? And how do modern humans differ from Neanderthals or other extinct humans?

Our guide: Chris Stringer is an iconic figure in the field, best known for his groundbreaking work towards the widely accepted Out of Africa -theory of human evolution. His career at London’s Natural History Museum stretches across five decades.

When: April 9th, 2025

KEYWORDS

The Botanic Age

Mentioned by

Mentioned in 0 episodes

The AI-powered Podcast Player