Neanderthals

The Infinite Monkey Cage

BBC

Comedy, Science

4.7 • 9.4K Ratings

🗓️ 25 January 2021

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Neanderthals

Brian Cox and Robin Ince are joined by hominids Alan Davies, Neanderthal expert and author Rebecca Wragg Sykes, and paleontologist and woolly mammoth expert Tori Herridge and learn just how misunderstood our ancestors have been. The image of the lumbering, ape like, simple, grunting Neanderthal has been turned on its head with the discovery that we are far more related to Neanderthals then we ever thought possible. Nearly all Europeans will have around 2% Neanderthal DNA, and the revelation of widespread interbreeding between Neanderthals and modern humans has turned the idea of our exceptionalism on its head. It seems that what defines us may have defined the Neanderthals as well, and we are not so different after all.

Producer: Alexandra Feachem

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.
0:04.7	Hello, I'm Brian Cox.
0:05.8	And I'm Robin Inz, and this is the Infinite Hominid Cage.
0:09.1	One of the things that I love about science is just the speed of change.
0:13.9	Things are always changing.
0:15.4	Books go out of date, for instance.
0:17.0	For instance, my Jim Alchulele book of Home Alchemy is an absolute waste of time
0:22.4	and led to a lot of burnt pans.
0:24.0	And I would also say my Jim Alchulele book of Cold Fusion was less than impressive,
0:29.0	where it just said all you needed were two cornettos, a bag of oven chips and a swing ball set.
0:34.4	It didn't work.
0:36.0	In fact, even proper books by scientists that aren't just on the telly, you know, sometimes
0:40.5	they go out of date.
0:42.2	Thank you.
0:45.7	Today we broaden the definition of the Cage to include all hominids because we're talking
0:50.5	about Neanderthals to whom we are all related.
0:53.5	Except possibly me, Brian's related to them because he is the hairy one, but I'm related
0:57.2	to whatever those ones on BBC 4 documentary, those little bald ones are.
1:01.4	Is it homofloresciences?
1:03.5	No, yet again I meant Jim Alchulele.
1:06.4	The one of the great changes, of course, in Onyanderthal knowledge means that your mummajoke
1:13.6	has changed.
	...

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