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

The Origins of Humankind: Where Do We Really Come From?