Origin Stories
The Leakey Foundation
Outreach Signals
Publishing Details
Contact & Outreach
About This Podcast
Podcasting 2.0 Features
Social Media
Explore Statistics
Recent Episodes
Biruté Mary Galdikas - A Life Among Orangutans
Biruté Mary Galdikas passed away on March 24, 2026, at the age of 79. She spent more than 50 years studying orangutans in Borneo and fighting to protect them. Before she began her work, orangutans…
Top Human Origins Discoveries of 2025
2025 was another exciting year in human origins research! In this episode, four scientists and Leakey Foundation grantees (and one podcast host) share their picks for the top discoveries of the year.…
Origin Stories x The Science Podcast
This episode features two stories from the Science Podcast. First, Science writer Ann Gibbons tells the story of three ancient hominin species that lived side-by-side in South Africa's Cradle of…
Can a Human Outrun a Horse?
This is a story about sweat, survival, speed, and the peculiar ways running may have shaped us as humans. Armed with a hydration vest, a dream, and paleoanthropologist Daniel Lieberman's endurance…
The Origin Story of Origin Stories - 10th Anniversary
After 10 years of exploring the stories behind breakthrough science, it's time to tell our own origin story! In this special anniversary episode, we're flipping the script to share how Origin Stories…
The Shanidar Cave Neanderthals
Shanidar Cave is a unique archaeological site in Kurdistan where scientists found the remains of 10 Neanderthal men, women, and children. Some of these individuals had survived serious injuries, and…
Top Human Origins Discoveries of 2024
2024 was another amazing year in human origins research. In this episode, three Leakey Foundation grantees (and one podcast host) share their picks for the most exciting discoveries of the year.…
Lucy
In this episode, we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the discovery of Lucy, one of the most iconic and important scientific discoveries ever made. Paleoanthropologist Don Johanson tells the story of…
Ape Medicine
Are humans the only animals that practice medicine? In this episode, two scientists share surprising observations of orangutans and chimpanzees treating wounds–their own and others'–with plants and…
The First Story
Over 50,000 years ago on what is now the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, someone climbed a towering rock formation and painted a mysterious image on a cave ceiling. The painting shows three…
Understanding Neanderthals
Early prehistorians had little more than stones and bones to work with as they tried to piece together the story of the Neanderthals, but today's researchers work in ways that early prehistorians…
The Story of Human Hair
Why do humans have most of our hair on our heads, not our bodies? Why do we have so many varieties of hair color, thickness, and curliness? Dr. Tina Lasisi is a biological anthropologist whose work…
The Musical Ape
Music is universal in all human cultures, but why? What gives us the ability to hear sound as music? Are we the only musical species–or was Darwin right when he said every animal with a backbone…
Custodian of the Ancestors
What is it like to be responsible for the safekeeping of the ancestors of everyone in the world? In this episode, we travel to the National Museum of Ethiopia to see our most famous fossil relative –…
A Brief History of Bling
Travel through 50,000 years of human history following clues hidden inside beads made from ostrich eggshells. In this episode, researchers Jennifer Miller and Yiming Wang share how these tiny…
Top Human Origins Discoveries of 2023
2023 was another exciting year in human origins research! Fossil discoveries and long-term primate studies expanded our understanding of what makes us human. In this episode, four Leakey Foundation…
Siblings
Sibling relationships can include everything from love and support–to tension, competition, and conflict. They might also play a fundamental role in the evolution of our species. In the final…
Fatherhood
Humans invest enormous amounts of time and energy into bringing up our babies. This unique investment is a fundamental part of what it means to be human. In this episode, the second in a three-part…
Motherhood
Humans invest enormous amounts of time and energy into bringing up our babies. This unique investment is a fundamental part of what it means to be human. In this episode, the first in a three-part…
Boomplaas Cave - Bonus Interview
How did climate change impact ancient human behavior? This is one of the questions Justin Pargeter and his team are investigating at a site called Boomplaas Cave in South Africa. This site has a…
Frequently Asked Questions
Origin Stories has published 92 episodes since April 2015, covering topics in Life Sciences, Natural Sciences.
Origin Stories is currently highly active with new episodes every 2 months. Average episode length is 30m.
Sign up on Grep.FM to access contact details for Origin Stories, including email and social media links.
Similar Podcasts
Science Friday
Science Friday and WNYC Studios
1,333 episodes
Stuff To Blow Your Mind
iHeartPodcasts
3,121 episodes
Unexplainable
Vox
286 episodes
This Week in Microbiology
Vincent Racaniello
357 episodes
19 Keys Presents High Level Conversations
EYL Network
484 episodes
Qiological Podcast
Michael Max
500 episodes