Siblings
Origin Stories
Meredith Johnson
4.8 • 554 Ratings
🗓️ 31 October 2023
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Sibling relationships can include everything from love and support–to tension, competition, and conflict. They might also play a fundamental role in the evolution of our species. In the final installment of our three-part series on family relationships, researchers Karen Kramer, Cat Hobaiter, and Rachna Reddy explore surprising new science about the role of siblings in primate and human evolution.
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Credits:
This episode was produced by Leo Hornak. Sound design and production by Ray Pang. Host and executive producer, Meredith Johnson. Our editor is Audrey Quinn. Theme music by Henry Nagle, additional music by Lee Roservere and Blue Dot Sessions.
Sponsors:
Dana LaJoie and Bill Richards, Jeanne Newman, the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, and the Joan and Arnold Travis Education Fund.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Origin Stories, the Leaky Foundation podcast. |
| 0:09.0 | I'm Meredith Johnson. |
| 0:12.0 | Today we have the final episode in our three-part mini-series, exploring human evolution through the lens of childhood and the fundamental relationships that shape our species |
| 0:22.4 | and our lives. In this episode, we look at siblings, one of the most important relationships |
| 0:28.9 | in many people's lives, a relationship that can include everything from love and support |
| 0:34.2 | to tension, competition and conflict. |
| 0:38.7 | Origin Stories contributor Leo Hornack has our story. |
| 0:44.2 | They're big, but I'm not a big boy now. |
| 0:47.8 | Now I'm a toy. |
| 0:50.3 | I'm spending Sunday afternoon at a friend's house, |
| 0:53.5 | and as usual, all three of their kids are competing for attention. |
| 0:58.4 | These, they. |
| 1:00.6 | And right now, a lot of the competition centres on a new book of amazing global facts. |
| 1:07.3 | Americans spend nearly $800 million each year on peanut butter. |
| 1:14.1 | Peanut butter on jam. |
| 1:18.9 | The brothers are 9, 7 and 3. |
| 1:22.5 | And that means each of them knows they sometimes need to fight to be heard. |
| 1:41.1 | And my one is the way. Each of them knows they sometimes need to fight to be heard. We're going to be heard. Our relationships with our siblings can be some of the most profound we have in our lives. After our parents, siblings are often the very first people we live with |
| 1:46.0 | and the first people we get to know. Sometimes they become the people we know best. And that's |
| 1:52.0 | also why living with siblings can be a wonderful, infuriating and intensely competitive experience. |
| 1:58.0 | The worst thing about brothers is they sometimes annoy you. However, the best thing about brothers is they sometimes annoy you. |
| 2:01.6 | However, the best thing about brothers is they can play with you sometimes and be nice to you. |
... |
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