Origins of Homo Sapiens

The Ancients

History Hit

History

4.7 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 24 August 2025

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Where do we come from? The origins of modern humans stretch back hundreds of thousands of years, and new discoveries are reshaping how we understand our species’ story.

In this episode, recorded on location at London’s Natural History Museum, Tristan Hughes speaks with Professor Chris Stringer, one of the world’s leading paleoanthropologists. Together they explore fossil evidence, our genetic links to Africa, encounters with Neanderthals, and the search for “Mitochondrial Eve.”

This is your definitive guide to how Homo sapiens emerged and spread across the planet.

The First Britons -

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5cKCCdeptxhxOMRD8HGavq?si=5127601ade01478b

Human Evolution: Dragon Man -

https://open.spotify.com/episode/128XsUffcThVirTghas7OA?si=34c571e9526f491d

Presented by Tristan Hughes. Audio editor is Aidan Lonergan and the producer is Joseph Knight. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.

All music courtesy of Epidemic Sounds

The Ancients is a History Hit podcast.

LIVE SHOW: Buy tickets for The Ancients at the London Podcast Festival here: https://www.kingsplace.co.uk/whats-on/words/the-ancients-2/

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey guys, Tristan here, and I have an exciting announcement. The Ancients will be returning to the
0:06.0	London Podcast Festival. Now, last year tickets, they sold out at record speed. So this time,
0:12.6	we've been upgraded. We've got a bigger room. And you, you can be there too on Friday the 5th of
0:18.8	September at 7pm at King's Place.
0:21.6	Now I've invited Friend of the podcast, the fabulous Dr. Eve MacDonald, to join me on stage
0:27.6	where we will be exploring the gripping story of ancient Carthage.
0:32.6	Carthage, the Phoenician city that became a superpower, an empire that rivaled Rome for control in the
0:38.9	Western Mediterranean, and ultimately had a terrible traumatic demise.
0:44.8	Of course, the ancients is nothing without you, so we want you to be there in the audience
0:49.5	taking part and asking us your burning questions. Tickets for the festival always sell fast.
0:56.1	So book yourself a seat now at www. kingsplace.co.uk forward slash what's on.
1:02.6	We'll click the link in the show notes of this episode. The team and I cannot wait to see you there.
1:07.6	The team and I cannot wait to see you there.
1:31.3	Homosapians, modern humans, us. Today we are the only species of human left alive on the planet. But that wasn't always the case. When Homo sapiens emerged, they were one of several different species that walked this Earth,
1:39.3	and there was no guarantee that Homo sapiens would rise to dominate. And yet, they did. So what do we know about
1:47.7	the emergence of modern humans? How far back can we go? And why do all prehistoric roads
1:54.8	lead back to Africa? We're covering all of that and more in today's episode.
2:07.2	This is the story of the origins of Homo sapiens, originally recorded in the spring of 2022,
2:13.4	with our guest, one of the leading experts on human evolution, Dr. Chris Stringer.
2:21.1	Chris, on the ancients, on history here, we've covered some huge topics in the past, but there aren't many topics that get bigger than this one, is it, the origins of modern humans, the
2:25.3	origins of our species?
2:27.3	That's right, yes, it is a big topic and it's one where we've had so many discoveries
	...

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