Origin Stories

Empathy has long been considered a uniquely human trait, but it's an ability that has also been observed in apes and other animals. Primatologist Frans de Waal says that examples of empathy in non-human primates and other mammals suggest that empathy has a long evolutionary history in humans.   Frans de Waal is the C.H. Candler Professor of Psychology at Emory University where he directs the Living Links Center for the Advanced Study of Ape and Human Evolution. He's the author of several books including The Age of Empathy, and most recently, Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?   Credits: Nancy Rosenbaum produced our story. Our editor is Audrey Quinn. Theme music by Henry Nagle. Additional music by Podington Bear, Lee Rosevere, and Box Cat Records. Being Human Bonus produced by Meredith Johnson.   Being Human: This episode was produced as part of the Being Human initiative. A joint project of The Leakey Foundation and the Baumann Foundation.    The Being Human initiative is all about why we experience our lives the way we do, including our thoughts, feelings, and behavior. Keep listening after our story for the "Being Human Bonus Segment" where we talk about  how the science in this episode applies to real world situations. Our guest is Natalee Hanson, a special education teacher who works with students who have emotional and behavioral disabilities.   The Leakey Foundation: Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation. The Leakey Foundation advances human origins research and offers educational opportunities to cultivate a deeper, collective understanding of what it means to be human. We give research grants to scientists and share their groundbreaking discoveries through our podcast, website, and lecture programs. We also give scholarships to students from developing countries to attend field schools and earn advanced degrees.   You can help The Leakey Foundation fund important scientific research and outreach programs like this podcast by making a tax-deductible donation to The Leakey Foundation. Visit leakeyfoundation.org/donate before August 31st and your donation will be doubled!    Adept Word Management: Origin Stories is sponsored by Adept Word Management. Intelligent transcripts. Visit them for all of your transcription needs at adeptwordmanagement.com.    You can find transcripts of our past episodes at leakeyfoundation.org.  

Every day for 55 years a dedicated group of researchers, students, and field assistants have spent their days crawling through thorns and vines as they follow chimpanzees to observe their behavior. They write everything down in notes and on maps and checksheets.  This episode continues the story of Jane Goodall's pioneering Gombe chimpanzee research study. Thanks to Anne Pusey, director of the Jane Goodall Institute Research Center at Duke University, and to Emily Boehm, Joseph Feldblum and Kara Walker from Duke University. Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation. The Leakey Foundation is proud to support ongoing research at Gombe and around the world. Since 1968, we've awarded over 35 research grants to Jane Goodall and other scientists studying chimpanzees at Gombe. Learn more and help support science at leakeyfoundation.org! CREDITS: Produced by Meredith Johnson. Our editor is Audrey Quinn. Music in this episode is by Henry Nagle, Lee Rosevere, and Kevin MacLeod ("Backed Vibes" Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0). Transcripts are provided by Adept Word Management.

Humans are very verbal compared to other animals. We talk constantly, and our voices can signal many things beyond the meaning of our words. The human voice is also highly differentiated between the sexes.    In this live recording of our Being Human event in February 2016, Dr. David Puts explores how studying the human voice can be a good way to gain insight into human sexual selection.   Dr. Puts is an associate professor in the department of anthropology at Pennsylvania State University. His research focuses on the evolution and development of human sexuality and sex differences. He's especially interested in how sex hormones influence our psychology, behavior, and anatomy—and how these traits were shaped by sexual selection.   About Being Human Being Human mixes short talks from great minds with fun hands-on experiments, drinks, conversation, and storytelling. Each month we explore different aspects of our evolution, our behavior, and the human experience.   Join us on July 28th for "Born and Evolved to Run" and learn about the evolution of our remarkable ability for long-distance running. Our speaker will be Dr. Daniel Lieberman of Harvard University.   Tickets are $10 and are available at Ticketfly.com.   Being Human is a joint initiative of The Leakey Foundation and the Baumann Foundation.   Learn More Puts Lab at Pennsylvania State University   Sponsors The Being Human initiative of The Leakey Foundation and the Baumann Foundation. Dedicated to understanding modern life from an evolutionary perspective.   The Leakey Foundation   Adept Word Management  

People have been fascinated with Neanderthals since they were first discovered in the mid-1800s. For a long time, they have been seen as dumb, brutish cavemen. As more discoveries have been made in the past few decades, our picture of who Neanderthals were and how they lived has shifted dramatically. In this episode we talk with Shara Bailey, a Leakey Foundation grantee and professor at New York University, about our closest extinct relatives. Who were the Neanderthals? And why did they disappear? Links The Makers of the Protoaurignacian and implications for Neanderthal extinction Humans mated with Neanderthals much earlier and more frequently than thought Thank Neanderthals for your immune system Leakeyfoundation.org/donate Sponsored by Adept Word Management Credits Edited by Audrey Quinn Theme song by Henry Nagle Additional music by Lee Rosevere, Podington Bear, and Blue Dot Sessions  

When Kristen Hawkes first started to research the foraging habits of the Hadza hunter-gatherers, she noticed that the older women in the society were spending their time collecting food and sharing it with their grandchildren. She started to wonder if this type of contribution from grandmothers might explain why humans have such long lives. Her grandmother hypothesis suggests that grandmothering may have led to many of the things that make humans different from other great apes. Thanks to Kristen Hawkes of the University of Utah for sharing her work with us. Dr. Hawkes is a member of The Leakey Foundation's Scientific Executive Committee. Links Kristen Hawkes' Website Grandmothers and the evolution of pair bonds Grandmothers and the evolution of human longevity: a review of findings and future directions Leakeyfoundation.org Credits This episode was produced by Schuyler Swenson. Our editor is Audrey Quinn. Scoring and mixing by Schuyler Swenson. Origin Stories theme music by Henry Nagle. Additional music by Lee Rosevere.  Sponsors This episode was produced with support from the Being Human initiative of The Baumann Foundation and The Leakey Foundation. Transcripts are provided by Adept Word Management.

Laughter is a universal human behavior. Have you ever wondered why we laugh or what it really means when we do? Greg Bryant of UCLA studies the evolution of communication and vocal behavior, especially of spontaneous vocal expressions such as laughter. In this episode of Origin Stories he explores the origins and evolution of human laughter in a talk that was recorded live at our Being Human event series. Links: Being Human Join Team Leakey! Run a full or half-marathon and help raise money for science.   Greg Bryant http://gabryant.bol.ucla.edu http://www.gregbryant.org/Laughter_EHB2014.pdf http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2016/04/05/1524993113.abstract?sid=b503eb7d-e2ea-4c0b-9dcd-479c234f5465

In this episode we take a closer look at the evolutionary arms race between humans and the microbes that make us sick. What does each side bring to the fight? Dr. Pardis Sabeti of Harvard University is a computational biologist who uses math and computers to look into the genomes of humans and infectious microbes to see how both humans and microbes are evolving. She was named one of TIME Magazine's People of the Year in 2014 for her role in the fight against ebola. Links Pardis Sabeti's Lab Thousand Days on Bandcamp

Tuberculosis is the world's leading cause of death by infectious disease, and it has been plaguing humanity for a very long time. In the first episode of a two-part series on infectious disease and human evolution, Dr. Anne Stone of Arizona State University investigates a mysterious case of tuberculosis in ancient Peruvian mummies and finds surprising new evidence in the search for the origins of TB. Thanks to Anne Stone for sharing her work. Her lab is on Twitter @StoneLab and online. Here's a link to Stone's Nature paper. Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation. Learn more about The Leakey Foundation and help support science at leakeyfoundation.org This episode was released on World Tuberculosis Day, 2016. Learn more at stoptb.org

The bad news is that everybody has face mites. The good news is that these tiny cousins of spiders and ticks seem to be harmless for the vast majority of us.  In this episode, entomologist and evolutionary biologist Michelle Trautwein describes how she and her colleagues collected face mite DNA from a variety of volunteers for a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The results of the study were surprising and further confirmed our current understanding of human migration through time. Listen as we explore the lives of these close personal friends of ours, and learn how they may help us answer new questions about our own evolution. Learn more and see photos if you dare, on The Leakey Foundation blog. Sponsors: Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation. The Leakey Foundation advances human origins research and offers educational opportunities that cultivate a deeper, collective understanding of what it means to be human.  For a limited time all donations to The Leakey Foundation will be matched by an anonymous donor. Give today at Leakeyfoundation.org/donate. Transcripts are provided by Adept Word Management. Links:  Global divergence of the human follicle mite Demodex folliculorum: Persistent associations between host ancestry and mite lineages Origin of Clothing Lice Indicates Early Clothing Use by Anatomically Modern Humans in Africa    

Alison Gopnik is a professor of psychology and affiliate professor of philosophy at the University of California at Berkeley. Her research focuses on how babies and young children learn about the world. She’s the author of over 100 journal articles and several books including The Scientist in the Crib and The Philosophical Baby.  This episode is part of the Being Human event series, presented by The Leakey Foundation with support from the Baumann Foundation. Thanks to Alison Gopnik for sharing her work. You can learn more about her research at alisongopnik.com. The Leakey Foundation is a nonprofit organization that funds human origins research and outreach. Visit leakeyfoundation.org to learn more. The Being Human initiative is dedicated to understanding modern life from an evolutionary perspective. Learn more at leakeyfoundation.org/beinghuman. Music in this episode is by Henry Nagle and Lee Rosevere. Sound Engineering by Rob Byers.