This is Origin Stories, the Leaky Foundation podcast.

I'm Meredith Johnson, and I've been saying this to you about once a month for a full decade.

It's our 10th anniversary, and today on the show, I'll tell you the origin story of origin stories.

We'll go behind the scenes, revisit some milestone episodes,

and I'll update you on some exciting developments in a story that's close to my heart.

Before we get into it, I need to ask for your support.

In this moment when federal research and education budgets are being slashed, you can keep human origin science going strong.

Every donation will be matched, so your impact will be doubled.

In celebration of 10 years of origin stories, please consider giving $10 a month to help support this show and the critical research we talk about. We're the only 100%

donor-supported nonprofit dedicated to funding human origins research, and right now we need all

the support we can get. Go to leakyfoundation.org slash origin stories or click the link in your

show notes. Your gift will fund this show and directly support the science

we talk about. Now, here's our story. I remember the exact moment the idea for this show was born.

It was in 2013, just a few months after I'd started my new dream job at the Leakey Foundation.

I was organizing school visits to bring scientists into classrooms and planning lectures

at museums across the country.

It was exciting and more than a little overwhelming.

For the first time in my life, I was spending time with scientists and learning who they were and why they do what they do.

So it's May of 2013, and I met one of my first public lectures, a symposium on Paleolithic Art at the Field Museum in Chicago.

I was there with one of our speakers, the foremost French expert on Paleolithic art, Jean-Cloat.

You see, in this big chamber, which is really huge, it's the biggest in the cave, there are no

paintings, except right at the end.

...