Uploaded August 2025 | Updated September 2026, 19 hours ago
Why are we so much chattier than other species? Madeleine Beekman has a surprising answer: blame the babies. Madeleine is professor emerita of evolutionary biology at the University of Sydney, and in her new book, The Origin of Language: How We Learned to Speak and Why (geni.us/onNWOj) , she explains that due to a series of evolutionary accidents, human infants were born so helpless that survival depended on coordinating care. Language, she argues, evolved as a kind of project-management system for baby-rearing. In other words, we didn’t start talking because we were geniuses; we started talking because we were exhausted parents.
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Why are we so much chattier than other species? Madeleine Beekman has a surprising answer: blame the babies. Madeleine is professor emerita of evolutionary biology at the University of Sydney, and in her new book, The Origin of Language: How We Learned to Speak and Why (geni.us/onNWOj) , she explains that due to a series of evolutionary accidents, human infants were born so helpless that survival depended on coordinating care. Language, she argues, evolved as a kind of project-management system for baby-rearing. In other words, we didn’t start talking because we were geniuses; we started talking because we were exhausted parents.
📱 Follow The Next Big Idea Daily on Apple Podcasts (podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-next-big-idea-daily/id1666681752) , Spotify (open.spotify.com/show/1h6s4GXR7orZV1HDaQm3CA?si=7cfbcba76a754a58) , or wherever you listen (https://episodes.fm/1666681752)
📩 Want more bite-sized insights from the best new nonfiction delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for our Book of the Day newsletter (bookoftheday.nextbigideaclub.com/?utm_source=nbidaily&utm_medium=shownotes)
