CARTA - Anthropogeny (Audio)

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Science & Medicine

Natural Sciences

Multidisciplinary researchers explore the origins of humanity and the many facets of what makes us human.

Last refreshed: July 20th, 2025 at 3:47 AM ⓘ

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Episodes

CARTA: Mismatch: Human Origins and Modern Disease - Questions Answers and Closing Remarks

The human body has traits that evolved at different times, from 1.5 billion to 2 million years ago, each bringing health benefits and risks. Multicellularity enabled organs and cancer. The immune system defends us but can cause inflammation. Breastfeeding supports infant health but relates to breast cancer risk. Menstruation and invasive placentas improved reproduction but led to pain and cancer risks. Human-specific traits like bipedalism and aging brought new issues like back pain and childbir...

Jul 06, 2025•1 hr 16 min

CARTA: Three Smokes in the Evolution of the Human Exposome with Caleb Finch

Humans have long been exposed to three main types of smoke: from early domestic fires, modern wildfires, and more recently, tobacco and fossil fuel pollution. All release tiny particles from partly burned plants, containing harmful chemicals like nitrogen oxides and carcinogens. These particles raise risks for lung cancer, dementia, and even childhood obesity. Studies show that air pollution can disrupt brain chemistry, increase Alzheimer’s-related proteins, and activate stress-related genes (NF...

Jul 03, 2025•18 min

CARTA: The Industrialized Gut Microbiome with Justin and Erica Sonnenberg

The human gut microbiome is tightly linked our health. Our analyses of diverse human populations from around the globe, ranging from hunter-gatherer to industrialized, show that the gut microbiome is profoundly influenced by lifestyle. With a large collaborative team, we conducted deep metagenomic sequencing of the gut microbiomes of Tsimane horticulturalists from Bolivia and compared them to those of Hadza hunter-gatherers from Tanzania. We are also investigating whether diet and microbial ther...

Jun 27, 2025•20 min

CARTA: Biocultural Reproduction: The Human Style of Hyper-cooperation with Barry Bogin

The essence of Being Human is the practice of Biocultural Reproduction (BCR). BCR is defined as the set of marriage and kinship based rules for extra-maternal cooperation in the production, feeding, and care of offspring. Human evolution theory needs to explain how people successfully combined a vastly extended period of offspring dependency and delayed reproduction with helpless newborns — with large heads and much body fat (even with problems giving birth) -- a short duration of breast-feeding...

Jun 23, 2025•18 min

CARTA: Osteoarthritis Back Problems Difficult Birth - Scars of Our Evolution? with Martin Häusler

Musculoskeletal disorders are one of the most important challenges of modern medicine worldwide. They are often attributed to maladaptations of our body to our peculiar form of locomotion, upright bipedalism. This lecture will explore the evolutionary origin of major musculoskeletal disorders such as back problems and hip joint osteoarthritis. I will show that these problems represent a relatively recent phenomenon, occurring only during the last few decades, and thus are unrelated to our skelet...

Jun 20, 2025•20 min

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