How It All Began

TED Radio Hour

NPR

Social Sciences, Society & Culture, Science, Technology

4.4 • 21.3K Ratings

🗓️ 6 December 2019

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this hour, TED speakers explore our origins as a species — who we are, where we come from, where we're headed — and how we're connected to everything that came before us. In an updated interview, futurist Juan Enriquez says homo sapiens are becoming a new species, right before our eyes. Other guests from the original 2014 episode include geneticist Spencer Wells, historian David Christian, paleontologist Jack Horner, and anthropologist Louise Leakey.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Guy here. So today's show is all about the evolution of our species, where we come from,
0:05.6	and where we're headed. And with all the advancements in gene editing technology,
0:10.0	we can now modify our very own DNA, faster, cheaper, and more precisely. So could we be evolving
0:17.0	into a different species or even several variations of species? Well, this episode first aired in
0:22.9	October of 2014, but we've re-interviewed our last speaker to get an update on where this
0:28.5	technology is headed. He's a futurist who says evolution is no longer driven just by nature,
0:35.0	but also by human choice. This episode is called How It All Began. Hope you enjoy.
0:42.4	This is the Ted Radio Hour. Each week, groundbreaking Ted Talks.
0:50.5	Ted Talks. Ted. Ted. Technology. Entertainment. Design.
0:54.5	Design. Is that really what's 10 for just a minute? I've never known the delivered at Ted
0:58.4	conferences around the world. It's the gift of the human imagination. We've had to believe in
1:02.6	impossible things. The true nature of reality beckons from just beyond. Those talks, those ideas
1:10.8	adapted for radio. From NPR. I'm Guy Ross. A couple weeks ago, I got a small package in the mail,
1:23.6	and inside there was a kit. It was a couple of plastic test tubes. There were a few plastic scrapers,
1:29.1	some Ziploc bags. My instructions were to scrape the inside of my cheeks up and down for about 30
1:36.6	seconds. And how was that for you? It was great. And send those sticks back to this guy. My name is
1:43.6	Dr. Spencer Wells and I'm a card-carrying explorer at the National Geographic Society. I'm the director
1:49.6	of the Geneographic project there. The Geneographic project at National Geographic has collected
1:54.9	cheek swabs from about 700,000 people around the world. And in each of those swabs embedded in the DNA,
2:04.4	there's a story. So what do you find? What do I come from? Well, I'm looking at your results right now.
2:11.3	Okay. And so we're analyzing several pieces of your genome. On your mother's side, your type is T1B3.
2:20.4	It's mostly found in southeastern Europe in the Middle East. And your subtype is more common in
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