What does the story of India reveal about the big questions of world history? I got to talk about this at the British Academy. What an honour! Recording out now. This was at the book launch of B. Gupta's "Economic History of India", hosted by the always-inspiring @cagewarwick.bsky.social. 1/3

Farming changed everything. But why did humans start doing something so... weird? @andreamatranga.bsky.social might have the answer! This was one of my all-time favourite episodes. Here it is as an encore, wrapping up this summer's climate trilogy. Listen: open.spotify.com/episode/0kK8... Read:

Climate. Colonialism. Hot topics. But do they relate? Yes, according to Tirthankar Roy. And not just for climate justice. Author of the Origins of Colonialism, Roy argues that we cannot understand the rise of British Empire without understanding the monsoon climate. Is he right? Listen now!

Climate changed. Africa dried up. Jungles gave way to savanna. A certain ape ventured onto the grasslands. Humanity was born. So goes a popular theory in human evolution. Is it true? 👀 Check the new episode with Yale's Jessica Thompson! onhumans.substack.com/p/how-climat...

I really enjoyed this five-episode series. Among other things, I appreciate the summary essay of each episode. It should be standard for every podcast.👏

From the archive. “For much of the 20th century, the Ainu narrative created by outsiders revolved around their demise. But something else caught the attention of Japanese colonists and others traveling to Mosir: the Ainu’s relationship with bears.” Read more: www.sapiens.org/archaeology/...

Sex cells are binary. But humans are not sex cells. To understand humans we must move beyond a male-female binary. Or so argues Augustin Fuentes, author of the new book, Sex is a Spectrum. Is he right? Tune in to our chat! 🎧 onhumans.substack.com/p/an-essenti... @anthrofuentes.bsky.social

It’s official a Pope has been chosen! They haven’t released the name yet so we only know this one thing…It isn’t Trump… he would have proclaimed his deity before the smoke left the chimney! 🤡💥

Okay. It’s over. We’ve covered it all: the origin of life, human evolution, the spread of Homo sapiens. Now, an epic epilogue — The Holocene Story! 🙏Grateful to Johannes Krause, Dean Falk, @chrisbstringer.bsky.social & @timcoulson.bsky.social. What a journey! 🎧 65 min 📖 15 min bit.ly/42RumtX

How did Homo sapiens become the first global species of humans? 🌎 Join Johannes Krause and I as we explore the epic migrations of humanity! Listen. Read. All for free at: 👉 onhumans.substack.com/p/a-human-li... #Archaeology #Anthropology #HumanEvolution

The new series of @pnas.org articles on the history of inequality require some careful reading. The identical data set leads some to agree and others to disagree with Dawn of Everything... What's going on? Here are some initial thoughts.

What a graph! Striking. A new piece in the puzzle called the origins of inequality.

Things are about to get personal... In episode three of the series, Chris Stringer guides us through the story of humanity itself open.substack.com/pub/onhumans...

Wow! I just finished a long and important conversation on sex biology with @anthrofuentes.bsky.social We touched upon so much! Hermaphrodite worms. Sex changing fish. Intersex humans. And of course, difficult topics around how to discuss such sensitive issues in public. Stay tuned!

What are the chances! Just today, I published a piece where @chrisbstringer.bsky.social promised that ongoing proteomic work will soon help us solve the mystery of Denisovans. Then this comes out. Decades after his Out of Africa work, Stringer is still ahead of the curve. A source of inspiration! ✨

How did humans evolve? 🧠 And why are we the only once left? 🌍 Join Chris Stringer from @nhm-london.bsky.social and myself on this epic quest to understand our shared origins. 🎧 Listen or read at: onhumans.substack.com/p/origins-of... @chrisbstringer.bsky.social #science #evolution

Hubble photos help me whenever thinking about humanity starts feeling solipsistic ✨

Great episode on botanic age, the first pre-Homo inventions (sleeping nests and baby slings) speech and rhythm.

How do humans fit into the broader story of life on Earth? 🌍 I had a fascinating conversation about this with @timcoulson.bsky.social the former head of @biology.ox.ac.uk The video version of our conversation is now available. Enjoy! youtu.be/9alOHnfk0zk

This is great!!!

I tend to take these reports of animal grammar with some scepticism. But only some! Super interesting.

The journey continues! 🙌 In this new episode of The Origins of Humankind, we zoom into the first half of the hominin story — searching for the deepest roots of our human oddities 🔍 Listen or read at: onhumans.substack.com/p/origins-of...

"Our most recent common ancestor probably lived no earlier than 1400 B.C. and possibly as recently as A.D. 55." That's closer than biblical Eve! www.scientificamerican.com/article/huma...

This was epic! 🔥 Tim Coulson was recently the Head of Biology at Oxford. He did a brilliant job explaining how the rise of humans fits into the broader story of life on Earth 🌍 🧬 Listen or read for free! 👉 onhumans.substack.com/p/the-big-pi... @timcoulson.bsky.social @biology.ox.ac.uk

🧬 A plot twist! Study suggests that Homo sapiens was burn out of two separate lineages. They were separated for ~1 million years and reunited around 300,000 years ago, giving rise to... us! www.cam.ac.uk/research/new... 🙏 to @trevorcousins.bsky.social @aylwyn-scally.bsky.social et al.

It was a real joy to chat to @ilarimakela.bsky.social on his On Humans podcast. You can hear it on Spotify. It was recorded a while ago when I was still head of @biology.ox.ac.uk open.spotify.com/episode/3VUW...

"The Origins of Humankind" is now live! 👏 We’ve assembled the world’s leading experts to reconstruct humanity’s 4-billion-year origin story—with cutting-edge science as our guide. The first episode is out now! Listen. Read. Subscribe. All for free at: 👉 onhumans.substack.com/origins

It's out -- the 53th episode of On Humans! This starts a two-part series on the origins of modern India. The first episode focuses on the hugely contested effects of British rule in India. This is not one to miss! Listen 🎧: onhumans.substack.com/p/what-about...

Can any of you guess? 😉 @yashenghuang.bsky.social @delong.social @ideenali.bsky.social @andreamatranga.bsky.social Link >> onhumans.substack.com/p/what-about...

It's often said that agriculture led to states. But agriculture came millennia before the first proper states. Here's another culprit: mastery of water💧 www.academia.edu/38521622/Nav...

Happy Valentine's Day! I've never been the most loyal follower of this festivity, but I decided to mark the occasion this year. Here are three interesting things about romantic love, from #anthropology to #biology and world #literature. Enjoy! onhumans.substack.com/p/three-inte...

It's out! 👏 The 51st episode of On Humans explores the origins of patriarchy with @angarikadeb.bsky.social You can listen in full or read a summary at: onhumans.substack.com/p/why-patria...

Fun fact of the day: This exists. www.scuba.com/blog/strange...

Early hominins moved from forests and into grasslands. We can detect this from their diet. But interestingly, the genus Homo returned to a more mixed diet. Why? A return to the forest? Or eating the meat of arboreal beasts? 🤔 youtu.be/CQDA6SXiZtY?...

From a lecture by Dean Falk on her new book, "The Botanic Age". (Yes, hominins made tools before the Stone Age) www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXET... Hosted by the @leakeyfoundation.bsky.social

With everything so seemingly terrible these days & no sign of anything remotely hopeful in the near future, I thought you might need this photo of a baby giraffe.

"Varki had just stumbled across the first biochemical difference between humans and chimpanzees." This is the best article I've read on the mystery called "scialic acid". www.quantamagazine.org/researchers-...

"Migrants send or bring back over three times the amount of money provided by global foreign aid. Cutting transaction fees could make this support even more effective in reducing poverty." ourworldindata.org/great-global...

Winter mind, summer mind: Lower temperatures "evoke a need for social connection" while higher temperatures "facilitate notions of others as closer and more sociable" www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Fun fact of the day: All big dinosaurs died out 66m years ago. Small mammals (and small flying dinosaurs) survived. Well-known story. But 250m years ago, the inverse happened! Then, the ancestors of mammals were huge, and most were killed in a mass extinction, leaving the centre stage for dinos.

Why is the Battle of Hastings more famous than the Battle of Kitombo?

The "Y-chromosome Bottleneck" is one the most momentous events in human history. We should pay attention. According to this paper, it might be linked to the dawn of patrilinear societies - one of the key ingredients in the origins of patriarchy. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Last week, I got to interview @yashenghuang.bsky.social in front of a great audience at the London Business School. Did you miss the event? You can listen to our chat now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your shows! 👉 onhumans.substack.com/p/live-from-...

🥁 It’s on: the first-ever live recording of On Humans! Come meet me and @yashenghuang.bsky.social at London Business School this Wednesday at 4.30pm. Only a handful of places left. Be fast! 💨 Tickets (free) 🎟️ e.cglink.me/2ka/r40866 Please share! 🙌

Archaeologists find low levels of violence amongst Japanese hunter-gatherers. This is important: Japan is one of the best-excavated countries in the world. And unlike Europe, China or the Middle East, Japan was all hunter-gatherers until very recently. #archaeology #anthropology #war

This is a sad but important finding on the vicious cycle between war and bad governance. However, I think this vicious cucle can be stopped. Finland had a pretty rough time during WW2. And Finns are not exactly the textbook example of a low-trust society. #war #socialscience #economics

🚨 To all scientists and science communicators: The public trusts science more when we acknowledge the limits of our knowledge! A habit to parctice in 2025. www.nature.com/articles/s41... Thank you @shaunambowes.bsky.social et al! #science

Any recommendations on scholars working on the economic history of #India / #SouthAsia? I'm searching for folks able to talk about the long run trends, perhaps in comparison to China or Europe, on topics such as #economicgrowth #inequality #politicaleconomy and long-run evolution of real wages.

So interesting! Note that men do most of the hunting amongst BaYaka. Women do most of the gathering. Doesn't seem to be a problem for gender equality. As I've quoted before: "Among a liberated society of equals, status and power has little to do with who brings in the meat." [email protected]

As a bonus: "Deep History" sounds cooler! www.sapiens.org/archaeology/... Thanks for this interesting piece @stephenacabado.bsky.social ! #archaeology #anthropology #prehistory