Blazing the Trail: International experts create new podcast on our epic human story

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 ‘palaeoanthropology 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 sapien 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.

List of Episodes

Episode 1. Who Are We? - uncover the current evidence for the origin of Homo sapiens

• Professor Chris Stringer, Natural History Museum, London, UK
• Professor Emma Mbua, National Museum of Kenya, first female Palaeontologist in East Africa
• Assistant Professor Kathryn Ranhorn, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University
• Dr Keneiloe Molopyane, post-doctoral research fellow, Centre of the Exploration of the Deep Human Journey, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa and a National Geographic Emerging Explorer

Episode 2. We weren’t alone! - not the only humans to walk this earth, we meet some of our now extinct relatives.

• Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes, Honorary Fellow, University of Liverpool, UK, Honorary Research Associate, University of Cambridge, UK
• Professor Andrzej Wiśniewski, University of Wroclaw, Poland
• Dr Viviane Slon, Researcher from Max Planck Institute, Germany and Tel Aviv University, Israel

Episode 3. Playing with Fire - delve deeper into the early evidence for several of our most important and unique adaptations – how we used fire.

• Professor John Gowlett, University of Liverpool, UK
• Professor Polly Weissner, University of Utah and Arizona State University, USA
• Wayne Brennan, First Nations mentor, University of Sydney, Australia

Episode 4. Finding our Voice – developing our language.

• Professor Robert Mailhammer, University of Western Sydney, Australia
• Associate Professor Mark Harvey, Linguistics, University of Newcastle, Australia
• Professor Maggie Tallerman, Newcastle University, UK

Episode 5. Out of Africa and Into the Unknown – explore how we survived the most challenging of new environments as we first migrated across the globe.

• Assistant Professor Pat Faulkner, Zooarcheology, University of Sydney
• Dr Oshan Wedage, University of Sri Jayawardenepura, Sri Lanka
• Dr Shimona Kealy, Post-doctoral research fellow, College of Asia and Pacific, Australian National University.

Credits

Blazing the Trail is a joint production between the University of Sydney, Australian Museum, University of Liverpool, UK, and the University of Wroclaw and BreakThru Productions in Poland.

• Presented and cowritten by Dr Amy Way, Australian Museum and University of Sydney
• Sound editing by Peter Adams, Media Producer, School of Humanities, University of Sydney
• Sound design and mixing by Michal Jankowski, BreakThru Productions, Poland
• Music by: Eric Wainaina, Tim Arinaitwe and Vini Ngugi and music mixed by: Mbogua Mbugua Mbugua
• Scripts and production, Madeline Robinson University of Sydney
• Producer Hugh Welchman, BreakThru Productions
• Production by Kacper Romaniuk, Dr Monika Folkieska-Zukowska, Adam Mytnik, BreakThru Productions
• PR & Marketing, Aneta Jablonska, BreakThru Productions
• Podcast design & promo materials, Michal Janicki, Lucja Madziar & Katia Kaliada

With special thanks to Professor Keith Dobney for conceptualisation and Dr Lucy Timbrell for input in design and content.

The podcast was made possible by a grant from the Tom Austen Brown bequest, Archaeology, University of Sydney, and supplemented by a AHRC targeted funding grant awarded to Dr Lucy Trimbell, and a discretionary grant by Professor Przemysław Wiszewski, University of Wrocław.

About the Australian Museum

The Australian Museum (AM) was founded in 1827 and is the nation’s first museum. It is internationally recognised as a natural science and culture institution focused on Australia and the Pacific. As custodian of more than 22 million objects and specimens, the AM is uniquely positioned to provide a greater understanding of the region through its scientific research, exhibitions, and public and education programs. Through the Australian Museum Research Institute (AMRI), the AM also plays a leading role in conserving Australia’s biodiversity through understanding the environmental impacts of climate change, potential bio-security threats and invasive species. Visit Australian Museum for more information.

About University of Sydney

The University of Sydney is one of the world’s leading, comprehensive research and teaching universities. We offer an exceptional range of disciplines – more than 400 areas of study – and our community includes more than 70,000 students, 8000 permanent and fixed-term staff and 350,000 alumni in more than 170 countries. Leadership has always been at the core of our values. We were one of the first universities in the world to admit students solely on academic merit, and to open our doors to women on the same basis as men. Our aim is to make lives better not just by producing leaders of society, but through equipping our people with the qualities that allow them to serve all of our communities at every level. In creating the first university in Australia in 1850, our founders recognised the power of education to inspire positive change. We hold that belief just as strongly today. Currently ranked 18th in the global QS World University Rankings, the University of Sydney is also consistently placed among the top universities in the world. Learn more.

About University of WROCLAW

We have been operating since 1702 and are one of the oldest universities in Central Europe. We build on the historical heritage of Silesia and the legacy of Austrian, Prussian, Czech and Polish culture, continuing also the traditions of the Polish universities in Lviv and Vilnius. We hold the title of Research University as the only university in Lower Silesia and one of ten in Poland. This means that in the coming years we will receive additional funding for the implementation of the University of Wrocław project, which was awarded in the competition “Initiative of Excellence – Research University”. The project envisages many benefits for current and future students of our University, including scholarship and grant programmes, tutoring, reducing the size of class groups and expanding the offer of programmes in English, as well as the introduction of additional single-degree studies intended for particularly talented and ambitious people.

We employ the best specialists, also from foreign academic centres. We operate like a small city – our academic community amounts to 30 thousand people. At our 12 faculties (Faculty of Biotechnology, Faculty of Chemistry, Faculty of Letters, Faculty of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, Faculty of Social Communication and Media Studies, Faculty of Law, Administration and Economics, Faculty of Social Sciences, Faculty of Historical and Pedagogical Sciences, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Earth Sciences and Environmental Management, Faculty of Physics and Astronomy, Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science) you will find a wide range of diverse fields of study – from humanities, law and social sciences, to biological, chemical and geographical sciences, as well as mathematics, computer sciences and science.

About BreakThru Productions

BreakThru Productions Sp. z o.o. was created by Hugh Welchman and Sean Bobbit in 2012. It is known for groundbreaking, artistic and commercially successful projects. Their first major production, "Peter and the Wolf", won the Oscar for best animated short, premiered to a sold out Royal Albert Hall, and was a pioneering film in the now popular format of films exhibited in concert halls accompanied by live orchestras. The studio was nominated for an Oscar for the film “Loving Vincent” - world’s first fully painted feature film, which was a success both with film festivals and in terms of worldwide box office. Their latest production "The Peasants" was a painting adaptation of a Nobel-prize novel, which won over 15 audience awards at prestigious festivals.

Media Enquiries:

Claire Vince, Media and Communications Adviser
T 0468 726 910
E Claire.Vince@Australian.Museum