Season 1

1. Birth, Brains and Brawn

2020-01-01

As one of the smartest and most physically capable animals, why are we born so helpless? Ironically, it’s because we are so smart. This episode looks at what makes our brains special and how other animals like the octopus achieve a remarkable array of talents with a lot less. As the upright ape, our musculoskeletal system has also given us an amazingly efficient form of locomotion – running. By becoming one of the world’s best endurance runners, humans gained a crucial edge over many other species.

2. Loving, Living and Dying

2020-01-01

We are taught that competition is the key driver of evolutionary change in animals. But cooperation is key to the success of many species, including humans – the ultra-cooperative species. Many of the behaviours we consider to be unique – like tool use and language are shared by many other animals. But humans have achieved a complexity that far surpasses any animal through pushing the cooperative boundaries past family groups and towards a truly global network. What brought us to this point?