On Humans

The Big Picture: From the Origin of Life to the Rise of Humans ~ Tim Coulson


Listen Later

Welcome to the first episode of the Origins of Humankind!

In this sweeping pilot, we cover the entire planetary backstory of human existence – from the origins of life to the climate change that kickstarted human evolution. Our expert guide on this journey is Tim Coulson, the Head of Biology at the University of Oxford and the author of A Universal History of Us

The episode explores questions such as:

  • What is "life”? How did it begin?
  • The surprising role of meteors (even before dinosaurs)
  • Why animals? 
  • “Ediacaran Garden” and the dawn of predators
  • Blood, bones, and the dawn of “terrestrial fish” (yup, that’s us!)
  • Our ancestors amongst the dinosaurs
  • Fruits and snakes in primate evolution
  • The climate change that made humanity 
  • The rise and spread of humans 


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


MORE LINKS

  • More stuff: OnHumans.Substack.com/Origins

  • Support the show: Patreon.com/OnHumans

  • Free lectures on human origins: CARTA

  • Tim Coulson’s book: A Universal History of Us


NEXT EPISODE

#2 An Unusual Ape (Tuesday 2nd of April)

In episode two, we follow the first steps on the human line, exploring how abandoning life in the trees paved the way for many of our human oddities.

Key questions: Why was upright posture so important? What did it do to parents and children? When did the brains of our ancestors start to show human oddities?

Your guide: Dean Falk, a leading expert on brain evolution at the University of Florida. She recently published a book titled A Botanic Age, looking at human evolution before the Stone Age.

Stay tuned. And subscribe to On Humans.


KEYWORDS

Evolution | Human evolution | Human origins | Origin of life | Emergence of life | Abiogenesis | Natural history | History of life | Meteors | Organic chemistry | Vertebrate evolution | Tetrapods | Dinosaurs | Pleistocene | Predators | Early humans | Austrolopithecins | Lucy | Homo erectus | Homo ergaster | Homo sapiens | Megafauna extinction | Humanity | Carl Sagan | Ediacaran Garden | Cambrian Explosion | Mesozoic | Jurassic | Triassic | Cretaceous | The Great Oxigenation Event | Sauropsids | Synapsids |


...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

On HumansBy Ilari Mäkelä

  • 4.3
  • 4.3
  • 4.3
  • 4.3
  • 4.3

4.3

41 ratings


More shows like On Humans

View all
Science Friday by Science Friday and WNYC Studios

Science Friday

6,185 Listeners

Radiolab by WNYC Studios

Radiolab

43,774 Listeners

This American Life by This American Life

This American Life

90,802 Listeners

Fresh Air by NPR

Fresh Air

37,766 Listeners

Hidden Brain by Hidden Brain, Shankar Vedantam

Hidden Brain

43,337 Listeners

Science Vs by Spotify Studios

Science Vs

11,793 Listeners

The Daily by The New York Times

The Daily

110,865 Listeners

Throughline by NPR

Throughline

16,109 Listeners

Short Wave by NPR

Short Wave

6,211 Listeners

Unexplainable by Vox

Unexplainable

2,232 Listeners

NO SUCH THING by iHeartPodcasts and Kaleidoscope

NO SUCH THING

333 Listeners

Luna Luna: Forgotten Fantasy by DreamCrew

Luna Luna: Forgotten Fantasy

49 Listeners

Things Bakers Know: The King Arthur Baking Podcast by King Arthur Baking Company

Things Bakers Know: The King Arthur Baking Podcast

469 Listeners

The Intersect with Cory Corrine by Cory Corrine and Dear Media

The Intersect with Cory Corrine

34 Listeners

Hidden Parts by Tracy Candido

Hidden Parts

35 Listeners