Who Were the Neanderthals? | The MeatEater Podcast Ep. 896

Steven Rinella talks with authors Dimitra Papagianni and Michael A. Morse.

Topics discussed: What we mean when we say “neanderthal,” taal v. thaal; 23andMe; human and neanderthal interactions; how language may have operated; cannibalism through the ages; neanderthal fashion; the limits of site excavation; and more.

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Chapters:
00:03:43 — What Actually Is a Neanderthal? Anatomy, Timeline, and Where They Lived
00:09:02 — What Your 23andMe Neanderthal Percentage Actually Means
00:14:48 — The Bottleneck: How Homo Sapiens Left Africa and Picked Up Neanderthal DNA
00:17:10 — How Did Humans and Neanderthals Actually Interact?
00:22:29 — Did Neanderthals Have Language? The Social Brain Hypothesis Explained
00:27:04 — The Dunbar Number: Why Your Brain Has a Hard Limit of 150 People
00:36:39 — Cannibalism: Neanderthals, Modern Humans, and a Cave in Belgium
00:41:40 — Organized Warfare Is Way More Recent Than You Think
00:52:46 — Clothing, Jewelry, and Eagle Talon Necklaces: How They Adorned Themselves
00:57:07 — Did Neanderthals Learn Jewelry and Tools From Modern Humans?
01:04:28 — Neanderthal Diet: The One Threshold They Never Crossed
01:11:22 — How Did the Neanderthals Actually Go Extinct?
01:15:40 — What Scientists Wish They Could Know About Neanderthals
01:23:02 — Will There Be a Fourth Edition? The Future of Neanderthal Research