In this episode, we explore five strange fossilized footprints found by Mary Leakey at the site of Laetoli in Tanzania. Decades after their original discovery, these footprints have revealed a new story about our ancient ancestors that expands our understanding of how hominins moved and who they interacted with.   

This episode was produced by Ray Pang and Meredith Johnson. Our editor is Audrey Quinn. Theme music by Henry Nagle. Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions and Lee Roservere.

This episode was generously sponsored by Jim Carty and Pat Randall. Jim is a long-time supporter of The Leakey Foundation who actually volunteered to work at Laeotli in the 1980s to help figure out a way to preserve the Laetoli footprints.

First Steps at Laetoli

A little experiment in what's possible in 24-hours (with a 4 minute time limit.) My #radiorace went a little beyond 10am. But I met amazing people and had a great time. Once you start, you can't stop! 


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Julia Barton is a freelance editor who edits for Revisionist History, The World, and Studio 360. She reports for Radiolab, Marketplace, 99% Invisible, and more.

"If people think they might want to be an editor the first step is to pitch to places that have good editors and get edited and really pay attention to that process. ... But also the second thing is to just listen to work — work that you like and work that you don't like — and figure out how are you reacting to it. Like where am I bored? Where am I confused? Where am I checking Twitter? Alternately, why am I unable to do what I thought I was doing because the story is so damn good that I can't do anything but listen to it?"

Tape

35: Julia Barton

Origin Stories is The Leakey Foundation’s podcast about how we became human. Listen and explore human evolution one story at a time.

First Steps at Laetoli

Origin Stories

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