Fifty thousand years ago, Homo sapiens was not the only species of humans in the world. There were also Neanderthals in what is now Europe, the Near East, and parts of Eurasia; Hobbits (H. floresiensis) on the island of Flores in Indonesia; Denisovans in Siberia and eastern Eurasia; and H. luzonensis in the Philippines. Tom Higham investigates what we know a ... Show More
Apr 2025
Amy Zhang, "Circular Ecologies: Environmentalism and Waste Politics in Urban China" (Stanford UP, 2024)
After four decades of reform and development, China is confronting a domestic waste crisis. As the world's largest waste-generating nation, the World Economic Forum projects that by 2030, the volume of household waste in China will be double that of the United States. Starting in ... Show More
1h 7m
Today
Elizabeth Anne Davis, "The Time of the Cannibals: On Conspiracy Theory and Context" (Fordham UP, 2024)
In 2009, the body of a former president of the Republic of Cyprus, Tassos Papadopoulos, was stolen from his grave. The Time of the Cannibals reconsiders this history and the public discourse on it to reconsider how we think about conspiracy theory, and specifically, what it means ... Show More
1h 30m
Nov 23
Sarah Hoiland, "Righteous Sisterhood: The Politics and Power of an All-Women's Motorcycle Club" (Temple UP, 2025)
A righteous sister identifies herself as a biker. She might wrench, or maintain, her own bike, and she prefers to ride with other righteous sisters. Righteous Sisterhood: The Politics and Power of an All-Women's Motorcycle Club (Temple UP, 2025) is Dr. Sarah Hoiland’s insightful ... Show More
44m 53s
Mar 2021
Jeremy DeSilva, "First Steps: How Upright Walking Made Us Human" (Harper, 2021)
Blending history, science, and culture, a stunning and highly engaging evolutionary story exploring how walking on two legs allowed humans to become the planet’s dominant species. Humans are the only mammals to walk on two, rather than four legs—a locomotion known as bipedalism. ... Show More
1h 6m
Nov 2017
Interstellar visitor, Svante Paabo, Synthetic biology, Plight of the Axolotl
On 19th October, a mysterious object sped through our solar system. It was first spotted by astronomers with a telescope in Hawaii. Its trajectory and speed told of its interstellar origins. It is the first body to be detected from outside our solar system. Scientists are now pub ... Show More
34m 23s
Jul 2018
a16z Podcast: The Scientific Revolution of Ancient DNA
<p>with Jorge Conde (@jorgecondebio), David Reich, and Hanne Tidnam (@omnivorousread)</p>
<p>Trying to reconstruct the deep past of ancient humans out of present-day people has until now been like trying to reconstruct a bomb explosion in a room from bits of shrapnel, says David ... Show More
31m 38s
Mar 2022
Homo sapiens prend un coup de vieux !
300.000 ans et toutes ses dents. C'est l'âge d'Homo sapiens. En tout cas, d'après la génétique. Dans les faits, le plus ancien fossile de notre espèce est daté à 195.000 ans, peut-être 200.000, on sait pas trop. Ou plutôt, on l'ignorait. Découvert en 1967 en Ethiopie, l'homme de ... Show More
13m 8s
Apr 2021
Evolution: Animals, Aliens, and Ourselves
<p>The search for and conjecture about alien life has evolved, from science fiction to just plain science. On this episode, host Lauren Richardson talks to Arik Kershenbaum, Ph.D, author of the new book “The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy: What Animals on Earth Reveal about Alie ... Show More
38m 38s