Origin Stories
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This is a story about sweat, survival, speed, and the peculiar ways running may have shaped us as humans. Armed with a hydration vest, a dream, and paleoanthropologist Daniel Lieberman's endurance running hypothesis, filmmaker Nicole Teeny set out to push the limits of her own endurance. Nicole's mission takes her from the Kalahari Desert to Kansas to see if humans really did evolve to run. Along the way, she discovers humans' unusual superpower and asks, can a human outrun a horse?
This episode was written and produced by Nicole Teeny. Sound designed and produced by Ray Pang. Edited by Audrey Quinn. Our host and executive producer is Meredith Johnson.
Want more of this story? Listen to Nicole's four-episode series on ESPN's 30 for 30 podcast!
Support our show and the science we talk about! Until August 31, all donations to Origin Stories and The Leakey Foundation will be quadruple-matched by Leakey Foundation trustee Nina Carroll and the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation.
After 10 years of exploring the stories behind breakthrough science, it's time to tell our own origin story! In this special anniversary episode, we're flipping the script to share how Origin Stories began. Join us behind the scenes, revisit three milestone episodes, and get an exciting update on the Punan Batu community's fight for their ancestral lands in Borneo.
Here's to our listeners who've made this decade of science and storytelling possible, and to many more stories ahead.
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In honor of 10 years of Origin Stories, please consider donating $10 per month to support the show and the science we talk about! Your donation will be matched, doubling your impact!
Donate at leakeyfoundation.org/originstories
Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and education.
This episode was generously sponsored by Don Dana. Origin Stories is also sponsored by our community of listeners, along with Jeanne Newman, the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, and the Joan and Arnold Travis Education Fund.
Origin Stories is produced by Meredith Johnson and Ray Pang. Our editor is Audrey Quinn. Theme music by Henry Nagle. Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions and Lee Roservere.
Shanidar Cave is a unique archaeological site in Kurdistan where scientists found the remains of 10 Neanderthal men, women, and children. Some of these individuals had survived serious injuries, and one seemed to have been buried with flowers beneath his body. The discoveries at Shanidar challenged long-standing ideas of who Neanderthals were and what separates our species from theirs. Now, more than 50 years after the original excavations, scientists have returned to Shanidar to answer lingering questions about the Neanderthals who lived and died there.
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Support Origin Stories with a one-time or monthly donation. Your gift will be matched, and every dollar helps make this show possible. Go to leakeyfoundation.org/originstories to donate.
Links to learn more
The Shanidar Cave Project Ralph Solecki's excavations Ralph S. and Rose L. and Solecki Papers at the Smithsonian Shanidar Z: 75,000-year-old face revealed More about Shanidar Z Shanidar Cave location New Shanidar research on cooking Revisiting the flower burial Shanidar: The First Flower People (pdf of book by Ralph Solecki)
Sponsors
Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a donor-supported nonprofit dedicated to funding human origins research and sharing discoveries to advance public understanding of science.
This episode is generously sponsored by Dub and Ginny Crook. Dub and Ginny are long-time Leakey Foundation Fellows who directly support scientific research and science communication projects. They are passionate about human origins research and making science accessible for all. We are deeply grateful for their support.
Are you interested in sponsoring a future episode? Email [email protected] to learn more!
Origin Stories is listener-supported. Additional support comes from Jeanne Newman, the Anne and Gordon Getty Foundation, and the Joan and Arnold Travis Education Fund.
Credits
This episode was produced and written by Ray Pang and Meredith Johnson. Sound design by Ray Pang. Our editor is Audrey Quinn. Michael Gallagher helped record the interviews at Cambridge. Our theme music is by Henry Nagle with additional music by Blue Dot Sessions and Lee Roservere.
2024 was another amazing year in human origins research. In this episode, three Leakey Foundation grantees (and one podcast host) share their picks for the most exciting discoveries of the year.
Support this show and the science we talk about. Your tax-deductible gift to The Leakey Foundation will be quadruple-matched through midnight on December 31! Click here to donate.
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Links to learn more
All research articles are open-access and free to read
On the genetic basis of tail-loss evolution in humans and apes
Why don't humans have tails? Scientists find answers in an unlikely place
Long genetic and social isolation in Neanderthals before their extinction
Meet Thorin: A cave-dwelling population of Neanderthals isolated for 50,000 years
Recurrent evolution and selection shape structural diversity at the amylase locus
How early humans evolved to eat starch
Footprint evidence for locomotor diversity and shared habitats among early Pleistocene hominins
Fossilized footprints reveal two extinct hominin species living side by side 1.5 million years ago