We are a movable species. In less than 50 thousand years, Homo sapiens has penetrated practically all corners of humanity. And the story started long before trains and airplanes.

This is an episode about thoese 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 STORY

This 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 Massilani

FACT CHECKING

No errors have been found as of now. If you find an error in this or other episodes, get in touch via the form below.

LINKS

Articles and essays: ⁠⁠⁠OnHumans.Substack.com⁠⁠⁠

Support: ⁠⁠⁠Patreon.com/OnHumans⁠⁠⁠

Contact Form: ⁠⁠⁠https://forms.gle/h5wcmefuwvD6asos8⁠⁠

⁠⁠CARTA symposium⁠⁠

The Moreno lab⁠⁠

KEYWORDS

Human 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 |

European 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 STORY

This 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 CHECKING

No errors have been found as of now. If you find an error in this or other episodes, get in touch via the form below.

LINKS

Articles and essays: ⁠⁠OnHumans.Substack.com⁠⁠

Support: ⁠⁠Patreon.com/OnHumans⁠⁠

Contact Form: ⁠⁠https://forms.gle/h5wcmefuwvD6asos8⁠

⁠CARTA symposium⁠

The Massilani lab⁠

KEYWORDS

Human evolution | Human origins | Anthropogeny | Anthropology | Paleoanthropology | Genetics | Homo sapiens | Ancient DNA | Comparative genetics | Human biodiversity | Admixture | Archaeogenetics | Archaeology | Mbuti | Papuans | Neanderthals

Genetics 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-Estrada

FACT CHECKING

No errors have been found as of now. If you find an error in this or other episodes, get in touch via the form below.

LINKS

Articles and essays: ⁠OnHumans.Substack.com⁠

Support: ⁠Patreon.com/OnHumans⁠

Contact Form: ⁠https://forms.gle/h5wcmefuwvD6asos8

CARTA symposium

Gokhman's lab

KEYWORDS

Human 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

The 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 CHECKING

No 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.

LINKS

Articles and essays: OnHumans.Substack.com

Support: Patreon.com/OnHumans

Contact Form: https://forms.gle/h5wcmefuwvD6asos8

KEYWORDS

Human 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 |

You 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/Brain⁠⁠

Want to support the show? Join the club at ⁠⁠Patreon.com/OnHumans⁠⁠

MENTIONS

Names: 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

Science has learned much about the brain. But how well do we understand this organ of the mind? Are we even close to cracking the neural code? Is a groundbreaking theory of consciousness just around the corner?

In this final episode of the brain science -series, Matthew Cobb takes us on a tour of the story of neuroscience. We meet many colourful characters, but this is not just a history for history’s sake. More importantly, this is a reflection on the increasingly clear limits that brain science is coming up against — limits often left invisible behind the thirst for stories about new discoveries. 

Enjoy!

FACT CHECKING

Contrary to the precise phrasing in the episode, a handful of new psychiatric drugs have entered the market recently. The general observation remains well-supported.

If you spot an error in this or other episodes, please reach out on ⁠⁠Substack⁠⁠ or via ⁠⁠email⁠⁠.

LINKS

Matthew Cobb’s book is ⁠The Idea of the Brain: The Past and Future of Neuroscience ⁠

For more episodes on the human brain, check ⁠OnHumans.Substack.com/Brain⁠

Want to support the show? Join the club at ⁠Patreon.com/OnHumans⁠

MENTIONS

Names: Matthew Cobb | Galen | Aristotle | Andreas Vesalius | William Harvey | William Shakespeare | Queen Victoria | Karl Marx | Pierre Paul Broca | René Descartes | Eve Marder | David Marr | Francis Crick | Geoffrey Hinton | John Hopfield | Warren McCulloch | Walter Pitts | John von Neumann | Alan Turing | Kenneth Craik | Sir John Eccles | Elon Musk | Nicolaus Copernicus | Galileo Galilei

Terms and concepts: recurrent laryngeal nerve | phrenology | localization of function | strokes/aphasia | Broca’s area | plasticity | hemispheric lateralization | corpus callosum | split-brain | consciousness | anesthesia (halothane, etc.) | drugs & neuromodulators | SSRIs | serotonin | dopamine | psychedelics | obster stomatogastric ganglion | three-body-problem | EEG “brainwaves” (gamma, theta, etc.) | David Marr’s levels | neural code | PDP / connectionism | backpropagation | LLMs (e.g. ChatGPT, DeepSeek) | biological plausibility vs engineering | von Neumann architecture | McCulloch–Pitts logical neurons | neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) | “Jennifer Aniston” cells | single-unit recording | connectomics | Human Brain Project | cochlear implants | BCI / robotic arm control | tetraplegia | problem of consciousness | enactive cognition

Dopamine. Serotonin. Endorphins. We have all heard these terms. And these are not just scientific curiosities. Few are those who have never wondered if their brain chemicals are "just off balance".

So how accurate are the popular theories about these mythic molecules?

To guide us through the topic, I'm joined by Judy Grisel—an ex-addict and a world-leading neuroscientist of addiction.

We will discuss all the main elements of brain chemistry by using drugs and addictions as a window into the topic. Towards the end, we also search for ways to better help those who struggle with addiction.

As always, we finish with my guest's reflection on humanity.

DIG DEEPER

This episode is part 4 of this autumn's brain science series. See more

at ⁠⁠OnHumans.Substack.com⁠/brain⁠⁠

Judy Grisel’s book is Never Enough: The Neuroscience and Experience of Addiction

Want to support the show? Join the club at Patreon.com/OnHumans.

FACT-CHECKING

No major mistakes have been found so far.
As a minor note, the SSRI study we mention in healthy volunteers primarily assessed cognitive processing (reinforcement learning/sensitivity) rather than self-reported “emotional flattening”; however, general blunting of emotional responses in healthy participants has been reported by earlier researchers.

If you spot an error in this or other episodes, please reach out on Substack or via email.

KEYWORDS

Names mentioned: Kent Berridge | Mark Lewis | Barbara Sahakian | Trevor Robbins

Technical concepts: dopamine | wanting vs liking | serotonin (5/HT) | serotonin receptor 2A | selective serotonin uptake inhibitors SSRIs | GABA vs glutamate | endorphins | endocannabinoids | alcohol | cocaine | MDMA | psychedelics | behavioral addictions (e.g. porn) | runner's high | cannabis / THC | neurogenesis & pruning | brain plasticity | SSRIs | MDMA (SERT reversal) | emotional blunting | opponent-process theory (A→B) | addiction as disease vs learned state | meaning, motivation, recovery

Our brains can feel remote and abstract. Hidden behind Latin names and textbook diagrams, they rarely feel as personal to us as our hearts and stomachs.

In this episode, neurologist and author Pria Anand helps us get a little more intimate with that grey, wrinkly seat of our consciousness.

Together we explore both the structural architecture and the musical synchronies of the brain. We travel across the left and the right brain, "listen" to the meaning of different brain waves, and discuss some of the most perplexing examples from the annals of neuroscience. What emerges is not just an intimate journey through the organ that makes us who we are, but also an exploration on the meaning of pain, identity, and storytelling.

As always, we finish with my guest's reflection on humanity.

DIG DEEPER

This episode is part 3 of this autumn's brain science series. See more

at ⁠⁠OnHumans.Substack.com⁠/Brain⁠⁠

📖 Dr Anand's new book is The Mind Electric: A Neurologist on the Strangeness and Wonder of Our Brains

Want to support the show? Join the club at Patreon.com/OnHumans

FACT CHECKING

No major mistakes have been found so far.

As a small correction, the patient with conflicting career goals did not, when asked, want to be an "architect", but a "draftsman". See "A Divided Mind" by Joseph LeDoux and colleagues (free PDF).

If you find a mistake in this or other episodes, you reach out directly to at Substack.com/OnHumans or via email.

KEYWORDS

Names mentioned: Michael Gazzaniga | Joseph LeDoux | Patient P.S. | Henry Molaison (H.M.) | William Halsted | Julius Caesar | Fyodor Dostoevsky | Dr. Strangelove | Matthew Cobb | Suzana Herculano-Houzel

Terms and concepts discussed: neurology | neuropsychology | brain damage | lesions | REM sleep (rapid eye movement) | paradoxical sleep | REM atonia | narcolepsy | sleep apnea | Parkinson’s disease | dementia | slow-wave sleep | EEG (electroencephalography) | brain oscillations | alpha waves | theta waves | seizure | epilepsy | focal seizure | generalized tonic-clonic seizure | aura | déjà vu | phantom smell (olfactory hallucination) | corpus callosum | callosotomy | anterior cerebral artery | cerebral aneurysm | hemispatial neglect | apraxia | alien hand (anarchic hand) | visual cortex | language dominance (left hemisphere) | thalamus | somatosensory cortex | limbic system | hippocampus | mesial temporal lobe | anterior temporal lobectomy | anterograde amnesia | retrograde amnesia | Korsakoff dementia (Wernicke–Korsakoff) | transient global amnesia | posterior cortical atrophy | aphasia | confabulation | nociception | lidocaine | dissociative anesthetic | epidural anesthesia | spinal anesthesia | paralytic (neuromuscular blocker) | neocortex | cortex | brainstem | cerebellum | cerebellar lesion | ataxic dysarthria | folia (cerebellar) | trunk (elephant, motor control) | Buddha’s “two arrows” parable

Here is a simple story about the origins of the human brain: All primate brains are dense with neurons—they are the supercomputers of the animal world. What's more, the human brain is just what you’d expect from a primate of our size: big, packed with neurons, but no more special than that. It's the chimps and gorillas who are special: without cooked food, their brains lacked the fuel to keep up with the growing body.

Or so argued Suzana Herculano-Houzel, my guest in last week's episode.

In today's episode, paleo-neurologist Dean Falk explains why she thinks this is only part of the story.

I'll let her tell you why.

Enjoy!

DIG DEEPER

This episode is part 2 of this autumn's brain science series. See more

at OnHumans.Substack.com⁠/Brain

See also last spring's episode with Dean Falk on toolmaking and childhoods, as part of the Origins of Humankind -series.

SUPPORT THE SHOW

OnHumans.Patreon.com

MENTIONS AND KEYWORDS

Scholars

Charles Darwin | Dietrich Stout | Robin Dunbar | Katarina Semenderfi | Weiwei Men | Joseph Ledoux | Jane Goodall

Technical terms

Endocasts | Sulci and gyri | Broca's area | Brodmann Area 10, also known as BA10 and the frontal pole | Acheulean hand axe technology

Keywords

Brain science | Neuroscience | Neurology | Paleoneurology | Evolutionary Anthropology | Comparative Anatomy | Cognitive Archaeology | Origins of Consciousness

I'm excited to announce that On Humans is launching a new series this fall! This one will explore the wonders of the human brain. The new episodes will drop throughout September and early October.

To set the stage, we will revisit a conversation with neuroscientist Suzana Herculano-Houzel, newly re-edited and remastered. It’s the simplest and most elegant story I’ve heard about how our brains came to be — and it sets the stage for the debates to follow.

Enjoy!

DIG DEEPER

Herculano-Houzel's book is called The Human Advantage.

Check out the series page at OnHumans.Substack.com/Brain

For more on human evolution, see the full series on the Origins of Humankind.

SUPPORT THE SHOW

You can pledge your support at ⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon.com/OnHumans⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

KEYWORDS 

Human evolution | Brain evolution | Neuroscience | Biology | Anthropology | Cerebral Cortex | Neuron counting | Comparative neurology | Comparative biology | Comparative anatomy | Harry Jerrison | Paleoanthropology | Human origins |

Why did the great powers of Asia stagnate whilst Europe was rising? This question—often called the Great Divergence—is one of the most defining questions of modern history.

Few case studies illuminate this question as well as the contrast between Britain and India. Did colonialism make Britain rich and India poor? Or was Britain’s rise already underway before conquest? And what does all this tell us about the everyday experiences of the people of on two sides of the divide?

This episode is a live recording from the British Academy, where I was invited to speak at the launch of Bishnupriya Gupta’s An Economic History of India. I was honoured to give this talk on this exceptionally rich topic, speaking after some of the leading experts of India's history.

How did I do?

Share your thoughts in the comments at OnHumans.Substack.com.

Enjoy!

DIG DEEPER

Read: See my article on the ⁠"Origins of Modern India⁠⁠". Complement with "Origins of Modern China" from last fall.

Listen: Check out the two-part "⁠What About India?⁠" series from this February. Complement with the episode with Professor Tirthankar Roy this July.

SUPPORT THE SHOW

You can pledge your support at ⁠⁠⁠Patreon.com/OnHumans⁠⁠⁠⁠

KEYWORDS 

Big history | Economic History | Why the West | Gunpowder empires | Mughals | Colonialism | Imperialism | British East India Company | European colonialism | History of Colonialism | Geographical Determinism | Environmental Determinism | Political History | Fiscal History | Great Divergence | Western Dominance | Early Modern History | Kenneth Pomerantz | Steven Broadberry