Podcast: Rick Potts | A Long Becoming

Our last episode of season one of Language of God is an interview with Rick Potts, who directs the Hall of Human Origins at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. He gives lots of great stories about hunting fossils and then talks about the touring exhibit that went into lots of small town libraries.

Also, we discuss what it is that distinguishes humans from other species. Especially our recent ancestors? Rick sees significance in John 1:1 and the role of language.

Let’s talk!

2 Likes

This topic was automatically closed 3 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.

We refeatured this podcast today so I wanted to open this thread back up for any thoughts. It’se one of our most popular episodes!

Great interview. Our pastor recently had a sermon series on communion/Lord’s supper and the connectedness that comes from sharing a table. As I listened to the podcast, I was struck by how his group at a dig started the day with a big breakfast, and that brought them together and perhaps was a part of why they returned for more dirty hard work leading to finding the remains of another group of humans a million years before butchering an elephant and sharing a similar unity in purpose and a shared task. That experience, shared over a million years, perhaps is part of what makes us human.

Thoroughly enjoyed this. A very worthy sequel / prequel to the Uniquely Unique series. Thanks.

1 Like

Environmental variability hypothesis:
The hypothesis that adaptation to a variable environment, rather than a static environment or directional change, has characterized human evolution.

I came across this interesting idea on the Smithsonian website, so it appears that may be Rick Potts is doing some new science. It would be nice to discuss some new science on this website, rather than talk about people’s theories about evolution.