Alice Roberts, one of the UK’s leading public scientists, talks to Samira Shackle about what we can learn from the burial sites of the earliest Britons, as explored in her new book ‘Ancestors’. What does our prehistory – cannibalism and all - tell us about who we are? How does the way we mark death illuminate our perspective on life? And how are genetics and archaeology shaping each other today? Plus, Alice tells Samira how she came to be a humanist, and discusses the value of storytelling and science communication in our pandemic age, and beyond.

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Reading list:

Alice Roberts, ‘Ancestors: A Prehistory of Britain in Seven Burials’ (2021)

Alice Roberts and Andrew Copson, ‘The Little Book of Humanism: Universal Lessons on Finding Purpose, Meaning and Joy’ (2020)

David Reich ‘Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human’ (2018)

Peter Forbes ‘What Ancient DNA says about us’, New Humanist magazine (2018)

‘Digging for Britain’ presented by Alice Roberts

Alice Roberts is President of Humanists UK

Hosts: Samira Shackle and Niki Seth-Smith
Executive producer: Alice Bloch
Sound engineer: David Crackles
Music: Danosongs
Image: Photo by Dave Stevens, artwork by Ed Dingli