Summary
When people talk about human brains, the story is normally about how our brains have become bigger over time. And that’s true, but it makes the process sound a lot more linear than it probably was. Dr. Mark Hubbe of the University of Tennessee – Knoxville joins the show to discuss his recent paper that explores how and when our faces got smaller and our brains got bigger.
Recommendations
- Dr. Hubbe’s Google Scholar profile
- Dr. Hubbe’s faculty profile at the University of Tennessee – Knoxville
- Hubbe, M., Harvati, K. Evolutionary drivers of encephalization and facial reduction in the genus Homo. Nat Commun 17, 5625 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-74739-w
- Dr. Katerina Harvati’s Google Scholar Profile
- The Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoecology
- Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
- Center for the Study of Human Origins
- Shubin, N. (2009). Your Inner Fish: A Journey Into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body. Vintage.
- Gould, S. J. (1992). The Panda’s Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History. W. W. Norton & Company.
- Dawkings, R. (1997). Climbing Mount Improbable. W. W. Norton & Company.
- Källén, A. (2025) The Trouble with Ancient DNA. University of Chicago Press.
- Sapolsky, R.M. (2002). A Primate’s Memoir: A Neuroscientist’s Unconventional Life Among the Baboons. Scribner.
- Weiner, J. (1995). The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time. Vintage.
- Murray, C. (2020). Human Diversity: The Biology of Gender, Race, and Class. Twelve.
- Nguyen, T.C. (2026). The Score: How to Stop Playing Somebody Else’s Game. Penguin Press.
- Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter’s The Long Earth series
- Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series
- The Good Place (TV show)
- Greer, A.S. (2017). Less. Little, Brown Paperbacks.
