How Climate Crafted Humanity—Or Did It?
In a new podcast episode, Yale professor Jessica Thompson helps us understand the long relationship between humanity and climate change.
On Humans is back from the break!
To mark the summer heat, here is a two-part series on how climate has shaped the human story. In next week's episodes, we will explore the role of water and weather in the origins of European colonialism. But today, we start by crawling deeper into the past: to the origins of humanity itself.
In this episode, Yale professor Jessica Thompson helps us navigate one of the most influential ideas in human evolution: that an ancient climate change pushed our ancestors out of the jungle, onto the savanna, and eventually toward big brains, meat-eating, and tool use.
This is a captivating story. It has been mentioned many times on the show. But do the details hold up?
What follows is a sweeping account of human origins, which nuances — but does not reject — the grand arc explored in The Origins of Humankind series. This is a story about a climate that has never remained steady. It serves as a poignant reminder of the weather's power to shape human destiny. But it’s also a story about human resilience and our capacity, from the very beginning, to defy the iron laws of ecology. Enjoy!
Thoughts about the episode? Share them in the comments!
Listen (1h06): Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Other players
Dig Deeper
The savanna hypothesis was discussed in several episodes of The Origins of Humankind. Complement this with an episode about the end of the Pleistocene and the rise of farming with Andrea Mantranga.
Ancient diets and brain growth have been discussed extensively on the show before. See especially the episodes with Suzana Herculano-Houzel, Chris Stringer, and Ian Tattersall.
The peculiarity of human childcare has also been a frequent topic. See especially the episode with the “alloparenting” legend herself: Sarah Blaffer Hrdy.
Keywords
Human evolution | Human origins | Paleoanthropology | Human biology | Climate change | Miocene | Pleistocene | Brain evolution | Brain energetics | Deep history | Anthropology | Archaeology | Austrolopithecins | Genus homo | Bipedalism | Evolution of apes | Missing link |
When trying to wrap my head around some of these BIG picture ideas through DEEP time: I often wonder what percentage of whatever we are talking about was preserved (and then found) in the fossil record? Is there any way to infer that from other data?