Neanderthals, interbreeding and a world exclusive with Chris Stringer

Bunch of Apes Podcast

In this episode I was totally humbled to be able to talk to such a great guest in the form of Chris Stringer. Chris is the lead in Human Origins and the National History Museum here in the UK, has an extraordinarily comprehensive background in Prehistory and has published more books then I have done podcast episodes. Excitingly, as we were emailing back and forth to arrange a time to record, Chris let slip that a press embargo on some very current and ground breaking research was being lifted that day at 4pm. We recorded at 3, so technically....we had it first! Admittedly it has now been out for a few days now the podcast is being released....but still: A bunch of apes exclusive, revealing how the earliest Homo-sapiens in Europe were breeding with Neanderthals 45000 years ago AND, some strong hints that it may have been a simple case of interbreeding and absorbing the Neanderthal genome in certain areas of Europe that led to their mysterious demise. Before Chris got into this, I spoke to him about his role at the museum and some of the changes of perspective he has had in his vast career so far, as well as the trials and tribulations of sharing prehistory over twitter and being a social media presence. We discussed the out of Africa vs multi-regional hypothesis, and the origins of our closest cousins The Neanderthals. There was so much incredible info packed into this episode I have had to listen back twice to even begin to absorb it all. Hopefully you will do the same and enjoy listening to Chris as much as I did. You can find Chris on twitter @ChrisStringer65 where he regularly shares fascinating articles, news and his own perspectives. For any of his many publications, head to any good online book store.