We Underestimated the Neanderthal

The Daily

The New York Times

Daily News, News

4.3 • 107.6K Ratings

🗓️ 25 January 2026

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Pop culture has not been kind to the Neanderthal. In books, movies and even TV commercials, the species is portrayed as rough and mindless, a brutish type that was rightly supplanted by our Homo sapiens ancestors. But even 40,000 years after the last Neanderthals walked the earth, we continue to make discoveries that challenge that portrayal. New research suggests Neanderthals might have been less primitive — and a lot more like modern humans — than we might have thought. The Times science reporters Carl Zimmer and Franz Lidz discuss recent discoveries about Neanderthals, and what those discoveries can tell us about the origins of humanity.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Michael. A quick note before today's show. The Sunday Daily is meant to be a break
0:06.4	from the week's news, which is exactly what today's episode is. But there is big news this weekend,
0:12.9	a massive winter storm that will affect at least half the country, and the second fatal
0:19.2	shooting of an American citizen by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis.
0:24.8	We're going to bring you the latest on both of these stories starting on Monday.
0:30.8	Okay, here's today's show.
0:37.0	From the New York Times, I'm Michael Bobarrow.
0:39.9	This is the Daily on Sunday.
0:42.9	The Neanderthal's struggle for survival must have been difficult.
0:46.4	He knew nothing about growing food or of making pottery or weaving.
0:50.4	For 150 years, we thought we knew what Neanderthals were.
0:55.0	Primitive, brutish, and generally inferior to humans.
1:00.0	Scientists are fairly certain that the Neanderthal never attained a highly developed social organization.
1:06.0	But in the past year alone, a raft of major new studies,
1:10.0	touching on everything from the nuances of their
1:14.0	love lives to their elite hunting skills have made one thing abundantly clear. We badly underestimated
1:23.5	the Neanderthal, and it's now time for an official reevaluation of the species.
1:30.3	Today, my colleagues Carl Zimmer and Franz Litts explore the scientific revelations
1:37.3	that are vindicating our closest ancient relative.
1:43.3	It's Sunday, January 25th.
1:46.5	Franz and Carl, welcome to the Sunday Daily.
2:01.3	Thanks for having us.
	...

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