Podcast
On Humans
Hosted by Ilari Mäkelä · EN
Where do we come from? How did we get here? And what kinds of creatures are we?
On Humans features conversations with leading scholars about the human story, making new research about humanity more accessible to everyone and more meaningful to the big questions about who we are.
In addition to regular episodes, the show now includes longer series on some of the greatest arcs in the journey of our species, covering everything from the evolution of apes to the making of the modern economy.
https://onhumans.substack.com/about
29episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
The Original Affluent Society? Lessons from 60-Years of "Man the Hunter" Research ~ Richard B. Lee
Feb 1000:58:40Tap to summarizeWhat was life like before farming? Was it nasty, brutish, and short? Or did our hunter-gatherer ancestors live lives that were relatively free, affluent, and ecologically stable?In the lack of a time machine, many anthropologists have sought answers from studying the few hunter-gatherer communities that still exist today. In 1966, several leading names in the field were invited to present their results at a symposium at the University of Chicago. This “Man the Hunter” conference became a landmark event, but what exactly were the results? And have they stood the test of time? To mark the 60th anniversary of the "Man the Hunter" symposium, On Humans is glad to share the first-ever long-form podcast with the legendary anthropologist and co-organiser of the symposium, Richard B. Lee. We discuss the legacy of the conference, Lee’s own experiences living with hunter-gatherers in the Kalahari, and his reflections on what we do and do not know about the ancient lifeways of hunter-gatherers. As we do so, we also discuss various controversies and mysteries, from women's roles to Native American farmers, and from archaeological black holes toThe Dawn of Everything.Enjoy!FACT-CHECKINGNo factual errors have been detected so far. If you see an error, you can get in touch using the form below.LINKSSupport: Patreon.com/OnHumansGet in touch: https://forms.gle/h5wcmefuwvD6asos8Music by Aleksey Chistilin (Lexin_Music) via Pixabay.MENTIONSThe Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race (Jared Diamond) https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-worst-mistake-in-the-history-of-the-human-race-12157The Original Affluent Society (Marshall Sahlins) https://www.uvm.edu/~jdericks/EE/Sahlins-Original_Affluent_Society.pdfFor my previous coverage on “woman the hunter” controversies, see “Is Man the Hunter Dead” and my interviews with Cara Ocobock and Katie Starkweather, all available here: https://onhumans.substack.com/p/is-man-the-hunter-deadFor Richard Lee's own comments on the controversy, see his interview with Vivek Venkataraman https://osf.io/x7ar3_v1/Names: Richard B. Lee | James Suzman | Marshall Sahlins | David Graeber | David Wengrow | Jared Diamond | Sarah Blaffer Hrdy | Jerome Lewis | Colin Turnbull | James Woodburn | Eleanor Leacock | Louis Henry Morgan | Karl Marx | George Armelagos | Irvin DeVore | Sherwood Washburn | Jay Desmond Clark | Harriet Rosenberg | Lawrence K. Marshall | Elizabeth Marshall | John Marshall | Greta Thunberg | Vivek VenkataramanEthnic groups: San | Ju/’hoansi | !Kung | Khoisan | Khoikhoi | “Bushmen” | “Hottentots” | First Nations | Tlingit | Haida | Inuit | Australian Aboriginal peoples | Bayaka| Batek | Huron-Wendat | Iroquois | Six Nations | Plains Indians | Hopi | Navajo | CherokeeKEY WORDSanthropology | archaeology | ethnography | human origins | human behavioural ecology | hunter-gatherers | paleolithic | neolithic transition | original affluent society | Kalahari Desert | Botswana | Namibia | paleogenetics | gathering vs hunting | gender roles | women hunting | egalitarianism | origins of hierarchy | surplus | food storage | salmon economies | Northwest Coast hunter-gatherers | archaeology of early farmers | bioarchaeology | stature/height decline | teeth health | disease burden | zoonoses | cross-species infection | Neolithic fertility increase | population pressure and “intensification” | chiefdoms | states | empires | ecology vs culture debate | materialist vs idealist | concentration–dispersion | colonialism | exploitation | land rights | climate change | human futures
Transcribe →What Can Shamans Teach Us About Religion? | Many Minds with Manvir Singh
Jan 2101:19:51Tap to summarizeThe world is full of religions, but none as timeless as shamanism. And whilst many modern religions have shed their shamanic skins, the shaman is rarely as far away as we have been told.Or so argues anthropologist Manvir Singh in his book, Shamanism: The Timeless Religion. Singh’s work is fascinating in its capacity to link the exocit with the familiar, showing how rainforest rituals are not so far removed from urban modernity as we might think. Today, I will have the rare chance to enjoy Singh's insights together with you, as a listener. The hard work will be done by Kensy Cooperider, the host of the Many Minds Podcast. Many Minds is one of my own go-to shows and has a lot to recommend for it. Just like On Humans, it breaks down complex scientific concepts about humanity into easy-to-follow yet in-depth conversations. Yet unlike On Humans, it has insanely well-referenced show notes! Just check this one out.Kensy and I had a beachside chat this November and decided it would be good to introduce ourselves to each other's audiences. So here we go! LINKSMany Minds: https://disi.org/manyminds/Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute: https://disi.org/Episode page: https://disi.org/the-shaman-with-a-thousand-faces/Manvir Singh: https://www.manvir.org/KEYWORDSAnthropology | Psychology | Religion | Cross-cultural study | Abrahamic religions | Neo-shamanism | Human universals |
Transcribe →The Origins of Humankind: Where Do We Really Come From?
Jan 1000:28:27Tap to summarizeHappy 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 dangerHow 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 worldEnjoy!LINKSFor the original five-hour experience, see: OnHumans.Substack.com/OriginsFor a shorter series on ancient DNA: see OnHumans.Substack.com/DNASupport: Patreon.com/OnHumansThe series was produced together with CARTA (UCSD & Salk Institute). For past recordings of CARTA symposia on human origins, see: Carta.Anthropogeny.org/SymposiaKEYWORDSHuman 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
Transcribe →Why Do We Laugh? Philosophers on Jokes, Humor, and the Human Condition ~ Mira Magdalena Sickinger
Dec 2401:02:29Tap to summarize“The podcast is great, but one thing hasn’t been covered yet: humour. It’s an essential part of our human condition, and would certainly be worth an episode.”This listener feedback was easy to agree with. From standup comedy to nervous laughter, our lives are filled with chuckles and giggles. Why? Why do adults laugh at witty jokes whilst children laugh at the simple pleasures of peek-a-boo? And why should any of us laugh in the first place?My guest is Mira Magdalena Sickinger. a poet and a philosopher of humour from the University of Vienna.We cover a lot in the discussion: from the social roles of humour, to the politics of joking, and the therapeutic effects of a humorous attitude. In the course of the conversation, we cover the views of many intellectual giants, from Sigmund Freud to Immanuel Kant — and while the conversation includes a handful of silly jokes (be warned), it ends with a deeper reflection on how humour can serve as a window into the human condition itself. FACT CHECKINGNo errors have been found as of now. If you find an error in this or other episodes, get in touch via the form below.LINKSArticles and essays: OnHumans.Substack.comSupport: Patreon.com/OnHumansContact Form: https://forms.gle/h5wcmefuwvD6asos8MENTIONSSimon Critchley | Ted Cohen | Robin Dunbar | Ágnes Heller | John Morreal | Immanuel Kant | Thomas Wilk & Steven Gimbel | V S Ramachandran | Sigmund Freud | Janet Bing & Joanne Scheibman | Thomas Nagel | Aristotle | Thomas Aquinas | John Dewey | Robin TylerKEYWORDSPhilosophy | Psychology |Anthropology | Incongruence theory | Relief theory | Superiority theory | Play theory | Humor | Blended spaces | Stasi & communism jokes in East Germany | Feminist & queer humor | Jokes | Absurdity | Irony | Existentialism | Meaning of life |
Transcribe →Restless Humanity: The Epic Migrations Into the Americas, Polynesia, and... Beyond? ~ Andrés Moreno-Estrada
Dec 500:25:31Tap to summarizeWe are a movable species. In less than 50 thousand years, Homo sapiens has penetrated practically all corners of the earth. This is an episode about those epic migrations, with a focus on the two furthest edges of the human migratory map: the Americas in the West and the Polynesian islands in the East. In the end, we discuss emerging evidence that those branches met each other -- work coming directly out of the work of my guest, Andrés Moreno-Estrada.Enjoy!DECODING OUR STORYThis is episode 3 in the "Decoding Our Story" mini-series, recorded live at the Salk Institute's CARTA symposium on ancient DNA. The other episodes are:"The Neanderthal Mirror: Latest Findings About the Lines Between Us" ~ David Gokhman "Beyond Race: A New Outlook on the Shape of Humanity" ~ Diyendo MassilaniFACT CHECKINGNo errors have been found as of now. If you find an error in this or other episodes, get in touch via the form below.LINKSArticles and essays: OnHumans.Substack.comSupport: Patreon.com/OnHumansContact Form: https://forms.gle/h5wcmefuwvD6asos8CARTA symposiumThe Moreno labKEYWORDSHuman population history | Human origins | Anthropogeny | Anthropology | Ancient Migration | Out of Africa | Homo sapiens | Ancient DNA | Comparative genetics | Austronesian expansion | Taiwan | Admixture | Archaeogenetics | Archaeology | Polynesia | Easter Islands | Rapa Nui | Hawai'i | Aotearoa New Zealand | Tonga Fiji | Native American origins | Latino genetics | Latinx genetics | Hispanic genetics | Indegenous genetics |
Transcribe →Beyond Race: A New Outlook on the Shape of Humanity ~ Diyendo Massilani
Dec 100:14:37Tap to summarizeEuropean thinkers once divided humanity into distinct "races". The idea stuck, even if the science moved on. The shape of humanity, it turned out, is far messier than the old race theorists ever imagined.This much is well known.Still , genetics does study different human "populations". Biological differences between these populations are reported every day. So have we simply changed words? Has anything really changed?Yes, everything has changed. To explain why, I'm glad to have Diyendo Massilani on the show.Trained in France and Gabon, Massilani runs a lab at the Yale School of Medicine, where he studies ancient DNA and human adaptations. This fall, his lab has produced one of the most interesting analysis of human biodiversity that I have ever seen. I'm proud to feature it on the podcast before publication. Our conversation begins from the counter-intuitive implications of the Out of Africa theory, and its significance for ideas about race. We then discuss Massilani's own analysis about how the level of genetic differences between modern-day humans.As always, we finish with my guest's reflections on humanity. DECODING OUR STORYThis is episode 2 in the "Decoding Our Story" mini-series, recorded live at the Salk Institute's CARTA symposium on ancient DNA. The other episodes are:"The Neanderthal Mirror: Latest Findings About the Lines Between Us" ~ David Gokhman (published)"Restless Humanity: The Epic Migrations Into America, Polynesia, and... Beyond?" ~ Andrés Moreno-Estrada (5th of Dec)FACT CHECKINGNo errors have been found as of now. If you find an error in this or other episodes, get in touch via the form below.LINKSArticles and essays: OnHumans.Substack.comSupport: Patreon.com/OnHumansContact Form: https://forms.gle/h5wcmefuwvD6asos8CARTA symposiumThe Massilani labKEYWORDSHuman evolution | Human origins | Anthropogeny | Anthropology | Paleoanthropology | Genetics | Homo sapiens | Ancient DNA | Comparative genetics | Human biodiversity | Admixture | Archaeogenetics | Archaeology | Mbuti | Papuans | Neanderthals
Transcribe →The Neanderthal Mirror: Latest Findings About the Lines Between Us ~ David Gokhman
Nov 2700:21:35Tap to summarizeGenetics is rewriting the human story. This week, On Humans takes you behind the scenes of this rapidly evolving frontier via three live-recordings, captured at the Salk Institute's CARTA symposium on ancient DNA. The first episode explores the differences between us and the Neanderthals.For centuries, we tried to understand Neanderthals through stones and bones alone. Now genetics is offering a new tool, allowing researchers to see how ancient bodies and brains developed. In this opening episode, David Gokhman explains what these new tools are revealing about us, Neanderthals, and the lines between us.UP NEXT "Beyond Race: New Surprises About the Shape of Humanity" ~ Monday Dec 1st with Diyendo Massilani"Restless Humanity: The Epic Migrations Into America, Polynesia, and... Beyond?" ~ Friday Dec 5th with Andrés Moreno-EstradaFACT CHECKINGNo errors have been found as of now. If you find an error in this or other episodes, get in touch via the form below.LINKSArticles and essays: OnHumans.Substack.comSupport: Patreon.com/OnHumansContact Form: https://forms.gle/h5wcmefuwvD6asos8CARTA symposiumGokhman's labKEYWORDSHuman evolution | Human origins | Anthropogeny | Anthropology | Archaeogenetics | Archaeology | Paleoanthropology | Genus Homo | Neanderthals | Ancient DNA | Comparative genetics | Archaeogenetics | Language evolution | Origins of language | Symbolic culture | Extinction | Species concept
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Can We Tell a (True) Story of Human Origins? Live from UC San Diego
Nov 2400:42:21Tap to summarizeThe science of human origins keeps producing new theories. But are we any closer to telling a true story of human origins? Or are we simply drowning in data? Earlier this November, the chair of UCSD’s Department of Anthropology invited me to explore this question in a campus talk. My optimistic claim was that underneath many of the field’s important debates, a powerful story has been emerging. At its core, this is a story about calories, cooperation, and climate change. And at the centre of it are not men hunting or women gathering.At the centre of it are children playing and learning.Here is the recording from the talk . Check out also my Substack essay inspired by this talk, with many of the pictures and graphs from the slides! PS. I was in San Diego to attend a CARTA symposium on the role of genetics in the study of human origins. I managed to record three episodes behind the scenes. Live recordings coming soon!FACT CHECKINGNo major errors have been found yet. As a small correction, the mention about macaques vs giraffe's should have been about neurons in the cortex, not total neurons in the brain. The main idea doesn't change. If you find an error in this or other episodes, get in touch via the form below.LINKSArticles and essays: OnHumans.Substack.comSupport: Patreon.com/OnHumansContact Form: https://forms.gle/h5wcmefuwvD6asos8KEYWORDSHuman evolution | Human origins | Anthropogeny | Anthropology | Paleoanthropology | Genus Homo | Australopithecins | Human brain | Comparative neuroanatomy | Human tool cultures | Alloparenting | Cooking hypothesis | Expensive tissue hypothesis | Life history | r vs K strategies |
Transcribe →Epilogue: Is the Brain Free to Choose? ~ Tim Coulson
Nov 500:16:24Tap to summarizeYou decided to start reading this. But could you have chosen otherwise? In this short epilogue to this fall's brain science -series, Oxford biologist Tim Coulson gives his defense of free will. (The episode is an unheard clip from the conversation with Tim Coulson, originally recorded as part of the Origins of Humankind -series in March 2025. )LINKS For highlights, longer quotes, and references, see my essay at OnHumans.Substack.com.Tim Coulson's book is called The Universal History of Us (in the UK) and The Science of Why We Exist (in the US). For more episodes on the human brain, check OnHumans.Substack.com/BrainWant to support the show? Join the club at Patreon.com/OnHumansMENTIONSNames: Albert Einstein | Niels Bohr Terms and concepts: free will | many worlds -interpretation vs the Copenhaguen interpretation of quantum mechanics | Brownian motion | Quantum biology | stochasticity vs determinism | neural integration vs complexity | chance & necessity | philosophy | physics | biology | neuroscience
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52 | What About India? Part I: Mughals, British, and the Causes of Poverty ~ Bishnupriya Gupta
Feb 14, 202501:07:13Tap to summarizeFollowing the success of last year’s What About China -trilogy, I’m delighted to introduce a two-part series on the economic history of India. This series examines the origins of modern India by focusing on politics, poverty, and the experience of ordinary Indians from 1600 till today.The first episode covers the decline of the Mughals and the hugely controversial rule of the British East India Company and, later, the British Crown.One thing is clear: Most Indians lived in poverty when the British left. So, how much of Indian poverty was due to British policies? How much was shaped by deeper trends? And what should we make of those infamous railways?To tackle these questions, I’m joined by Bishnupriya Gupta, a professor of economics at the University of Warwick and one of the world’s leading historians of the Indian economy. Her new book, An Economic History of India, provides a uniquely objective and data-driven exploration of India’s history, focusing on the well-being of ordinary people.In this episode, we discuss:Indian vs English living standards in 1600 / The impact of British colonialism on India’s economy / The Great Famines of Bengal / What both imperial apologists and Indian nationalists get wrong about the British rule. In the end, Gupta also explains why Mahatma Gandhi's education might be a clue as to why India lagged behind East Asia in the 20th Century. Enjoy — and stay tuned for Part II on the era of Independence!MENTIONSBooks: An Economic History of India by Bishnupriya Gupta; The Great Divergence by Kenneth Pomerantz; Other scholars: Stephen Broadberry | Prasannan Parthasarathy | Nico Voigtländer & Hans-Joachim Voth | Indrajit Ray | Oded Galor (see episodes #12 and #13) On Humans episode: What About China (with Yasheng Huang, #44-46); Birth of Modern Prosperity (with Daron Acemoglu; Oded Galor, Brad DeLong; Branko Milanovic, after #40) Keywords: Mughal India | British colonialism | British Rad | East India Company | Indian nationalism | Indian deindustrialisation | Cotton trade | Indian railways | Primary vs higher education | Great Bengali faminesLINKSRead more at OnHumans.Substack.com. You can also find On Humans on YouTube and BlueSky!Feeling generous? Join the wonderful group of my patrons at Patreon.com/OnHumans, or get in touch for other ways to support!Email: makela dot ilari at outlook dot com
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