European thinkers once divided humanity into distinct "races". The idea stuck, even if the science moved on. The shape of humanity, it turned out, is far messier than the old race theorists ever imagined.

This much is well known.

Still , genetics does study different human "populations". Biological differences between these populations are reported every day. So have we simply changed words? Has anything really changed?

Yes, everything has changed.

To explain why, I'm glad to have Diyendo Massilani on the show.

Trained in France and Gabon, Massilani runs a lab at the Yale School of Medicine, where he studies ancient DNA and human adaptations. This fall, his lab has produced one of the most interesting analysis of human biodiversity that I have ever seen. I'm proud to feature it on the podcast before publication.

Our conversation begins from the counter-intuitive implications of the Out of Africa theory, and its significance for ideas about race. We then discuss Massilani's own analysis about how the level of genetic differences between modern-day humans.

As always, we finish with my guest's reflections on humanity.

DECODING OUR STORY

This is episode 2 in the "Decoding Our Story" mini-series, recorded live at the Salk Institute's CARTA symposium on ancient DNA. The other episodes are:

"The Neanderthal Mirror: Latest Findings About the Lines Between Us" ~ David Gokhman (published)

"Restless Humanity: The Epic Migrations Into America, Polynesia, and... Beyond?" ~ Andrés Moreno-Estrada (5th of Dec)

FACT CHECKING

No errors have been found as of now. If you find an error in this or other episodes, get in touch via the form below.

LINKS

Articles and essays: ⁠⁠OnHumans.Substack.com⁠⁠

Support: ⁠⁠Patreon.com/OnHumans⁠⁠

Contact Form: ⁠⁠https://forms.gle/h5wcmefuwvD6asos8⁠

⁠CARTA symposium⁠

The Massilani lab⁠

KEYWORDS

Human evolution | Human origins | Anthropogeny | Anthropology | Paleoanthropology | Genetics | Homo sapiens | Ancient DNA | Comparative genetics | Human biodiversity | Admixture | Archaeogenetics | Archaeology | Mbuti | Papuans | Neanderthals