Did Meat Make Us Human?

Sidedoor

Smithsonian Institution

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4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 21 September 2022

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Eating meat is what made us human. At least, that's one of the leading theories to explain how our brains got so big. The theory says that our human ancestors evolved bigger brains as a result of switching from a plant-based to a nutrient-rich meat diet. But earlier this year a Smithsonian researcher discovered that this theory may not have as much meat on its bones as previously believed.

Guests:

Briana Pobiner, paleoanthropologist; research scientist and museum educator with the Human Origins Program at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History

Becky Malinsky, curator of primates, Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute

Andrew Barr, paleoanthropologist; assistant professor of anthropology, The George Washington University

Transcript

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0:00.0	Okay, before we get started, I want to let you know that this episode we are doing something a little bit different.
0:05.8	I am going to pass the mic over to Side Door Producer James Morrison.
0:10.5	He's always hard at work behind the Side Door stories that you hear, but usually you don't get to hear from him directly,
0:16.9	unless he is reading a historical news clipping or voicing a historical character with like a terrible British accent.
0:24.0	So now I'm here to officially introduce you to James Morrison.
0:28.0	Hello. Okay, that was terrible British. You need to stop. Sorry.
0:32.3	You can't read this as a British host. Okay, hi everybody.
0:35.8	That sounded almost normal. Okay, so I'm passing the mic to you. Here you go.
0:40.0	Yes, thank you, Lizzy. I will take good care of it. I think you're ready to go.
0:44.0	Yes, I am ready to go and you are ready to go on vacation. I see you already have your Hawaiian shirt on and everything.
0:49.3	That's right. I'm going to catch my plane right now.
0:52.1	All right, well, we'll be ready when you come back. Okay, have fun.
1:05.7	This is Side Door, a podcast from the Smithsonian with support from PRX. I'm James Morrison.
1:11.0	What did you do this morning? Take a second to think about it and just think through your routine.
1:26.4	If you're like me, you woke up and you took a shower. Maybe you watched a little TV or you read
1:31.3	the news and then you blended a smoothie. And now let's say you're driving in your car listening
1:37.6	to this podcast or maybe you're standing in the subway or you're jogging.
1:42.8	Now let's compare your day to a Gorillas, like the ones of the Smithsonian's National Zoo.
1:48.2	They typically wake up with the sun rise or as the lights come on. Gorillas in the wild would do
1:55.1	the same thing. They wake up as the sun comes up in the morning. This is Becky Melinsky, curator of
2:00.8	primates at the zoo. She says that after the Gorillas wake up, they go and they check to see what the
2:05.5	other Gorillas are doing. Then they grab breakfast in the wild. That would be things like leaves and
	...

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