Creation Story

Radiolab

WNYC Studios

Science, Natural Sciences, History, Society & Culture, Documentary

4.6 • 43.5K Ratings

🗓️ 10 October 2025

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ella al-Shamahi is one part Charles Darwin, one part Indiana Jones. She braves war zones and pirate-infested waters to collect fossils from prehistoric caves, fossils that help us understand the origin of our species. Her recent hit BBC / PBS series Human follows her around the globe trying to piece together the unlikely story of how early humans conquered the world. But Ella’s own origins as an evolutionary biologist are equally unlikely. She sits down with us and tells us a story she has rarely shared publicly, about how she came to believe in evolution, and how much that belief cost her. Special thanks to Misha Euceph and Hamza Syed.EPISODE CREDITS: Reported by - Latif NasserProduced by - Jessica Yung and Pat Walterswith help from - Sarah QariFact-checking by - Diane Kellyand Edited by - Pat Walters EPISODE CITATIONS: Videos - “Human” (https://www.bbcearth.com/shows/human), Ella’s show on the BBC and PBS Signup for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing [email protected]. Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Simons Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Wait, you're listening.
0:03.1	Okay.
0:04.4	All right.
0:05.6	Okay.
0:07.0	All right.
0:08.5	You're listening to Radio Lab.
0:11.4	Radio Lab.
0:11.9	From W. N. Y.
0:13.9	C.
0:14.8	See?
0:15.1	Yeah.
0:19.4	Latif, how do I pronounce your name? Because I'm pronouncing it the Yemeni way. Do you pronounce it the Yemeni way? I'm excited about your pronouncing it the Yemeni way. Because it's used heavily by Yemenis. Lathif. Like just to mean like something's nice or something? Yeah. Or how's your day going? Latif. Oh, yeah, I love it. Oh, that makes me feel so warm. Wait, now pronounce your name for me, so I know how did it say your name to Yem anyway. Al-A. Ala? Al-a. It's like at the end, it's too much. Everyone kept calling me Allah, and I was like, I know I'm great.
0:54.5	But, you know, I think that's too far, guys.
1:00.9	Hey, I'm Latif Nasser.
1:02.6	This is Radio Lab.
1:03.9	And I'm talking with Ella al-Shemahi.
1:06.8	She's a paleo-anthropologist, an evolutionary biologist.
1:10.1	And she's like, honestly, the modern-day Indiana Jones.
1:13.2	She travels all over the place, collecting fossils.
1:16.5	Sometimes this takes her into active war zones or through pirate-infested waters, and she does all of this to help piece together the story of how humans came to be.
1:28.4	I think this is what our story is kind of epic, man.
1:32.5	Our story's epic.
	...

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