Blazing the Trail features insights from Professor John Gowlett and Honorary Fellow Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes from the Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology.
Professor John Gowlett is in Episode 3, 'Playing with Fire,' and explores the profound impact of fire on human evolution.
Blazing the Trail press release:
Sydney, Tuesday 3 December, 2024: Launched today, Blazing the Trail, a five-episode podcast series developed by Breakthru Productions, Australian Museum and University of Sydney, incorporates the latest human evolution evidence to take listeners on an epic journey from our earliest ancestors in Africa to the global spread of Homo sapiens.
Focusing on what makes us the people we are today, Blazing the Trail highlights key milestones in our human journey such as the development of tools, mastering fire, the creation of language, and our capacity for adaptation and migration.
Australian Museum archaeologist and lecturer, University of Sydney, Dr Amy Way, a stone artefact specialist who studies the richness of past human behaviour said Blazing the Trail reveals how and why Homo sapiens became so successful.
“For over a million years, humans have been blazing trails across our world. Investigating our shared story of human evolution. Distilling decades of scientific research from the leading anthropologists of our time, this podcast series provides listeners with a greater understanding of where we come from and why we’re the last humans standing,” Dr Way said.
Director, producer and writer, BreakThru Productions, Hugh Welchman said the podcast series is ‘paleoanthropology 101’ for the public.
“Our origin story is mind-blowing. Scientists have discovered more about our origins in the past two decades than in the previous two millennia. We explore some of our unique characteristics, and what it means to be human: standing upright, language, the use of fire; why those features led us, Homo sapiens, to dominate the world,” Welchman said.
Chief Scientist and Director, Australian Museum Research Institute, Professor Kris Helgen said Blazing the Trail series is a timely reminder of our evolutionary story.
“This year is the 50th anniversary of the discovery of ‘Lucy’ – the 3.2 million-year-old skeleton which provided a crucial missing link in our evolutionary tree,” Professor Helgen said.
“Reflecting on that incredible find, this podcast series explores and provides a deeper understanding of Homo sapiens history. Our ability to both adapt to, and change the environment, proved successful and it will be the key to us surviving and thriving into the future.”
Dr Way, together with Madeline Robinson, PhD candidate, University of Sydney, wrote the scripts for the first five episodes with leading and emerging scientists in this field including Professor Christopher Stringer, Natural History Museum, London, UK; Professor Emma Mbua, National Museum of Kenya; Assistant Professor Kathryn Ranhorn, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University; Dr Keneiloe Molopyane, Centre of the Exploration of the Deep Human Journey, University of Witwatersrand; South Africa and a National Geographic Emerging Explorer, among others.
Blazing the Trail is out now on streaming platforms including Spotify, Youtube, Audible. Listen here