Happy 2026! On Humans has typically marked the coming of January by revisiting the previous year’s most popular episode. This time, the New Year special packs the five-hour-long "Origins of Humankind" series into one fast-paced dive through deep time.

By mixing highlights from the original interviews with fresh narration, this episode offers a captivating journey through many of the great topics around human origins, such as:

• Who were the first primates
• The role of fruits, snakes, and predators
• The human solution to danger
• How to grow a human brain?
• What did our ancestors eat?
• Effects of our upright posture
• Origins of music & language
• How Homo sapiens took over the world

Enjoy!

LINKS

For the original five-hour experience, see: OnHumans.Substack.com/Origins

For a shorter series on ancient DNA: see OnHumans.Substack.com/DNA

Support: Patreon.com/OnHumans

The series was produced together with CARTA (UCSD & Salk Institute). For past recordings of CARTA symposia on human origins, see: Carta.Anthropogeny.org/Symposia

KEYWORDS

Human evolution | Human origins | Science | Biology | Paleoanthropology | Anthropology | Archaeology | Fossils | aDNA | History of life | Life history | Dinosaurs | Primates | Apes | Hominins | Homo sapiens | Evolution of language | Evolution of music | Brain evolution | Paleoneurology | Neanderthals | Denisovans | Neolithic Revolution | Spread of agriculture | Human destiny