CARTA

Episodes

• CARTA: The Idea Organ - Questions Answers and Closing Remarks 2026-04-22
  Humans live in a world of ideas—born in the brain, shared through language, accumulated in culture across generations, and made reality. From the…
• CARTA: Development and Evolutionary Specializations of Human Cognitive Networks with Nenad Sestan 2026-04-17
  The extraordinary abilities of the cerebral cortex are central to what sets humans apart from other species. A defining feature of the cortex is its…
• CARTA: The Costs of Big Brains with Alex Pollen 2026-04-15
  Human brain expansion is often discussed in terms of the genetic and molecular innovations that drove uniquely human cognitive abilities. Yet…
• CARTA: The Human Brain in its Usual Extraordinary and Compromised States with Bruce Miller 2026-04-11
  Dr. Bruce Miller, director of the UCSF Edward and Pearl Fein Memory and Aging Center, examines what neurodegenerative disease reveals about the…
• CARTA: The Transformational Potential of Computer-assisted Brains with Joseph Paradiso 2026-04-03
  From stone tools and shelters to symbolic art and abstract thought, human history is shaped by a brain built to form and share ideas. Joseph…
• CARTA: The Evolution of the Human Brain through Shifts in Gene Regulation with Miles Wilkinson 2026-03-27
  A fundamental question in biology is: how did humans acquire their unique characteristics? What allows us to stand upright, while our primate…
• CARTA: Human Brain Specializations Related to Language and Theory of Mind with James Rilling 2026-03-21
  Humans excel at transmitting ideas, skills, and knowledge across generations, and at building on those competencies in a cumulative manner. James…
• CARTA: Hominin Paleoneurology During the Stone Age - and Before! with Dean Falk 2026-03-17
  The distinct biology of the human brain, scaffolded by language and culture, allows ideas to be formed, named, shared, and accumulated across…
• CARTA: Human-specific Alterations in Brain Cellular Proportions with Genevieve Konopka 2026-03-13
  Our brains are engines of imagination—an “idea organ” that has transformed both our species and the planet. Genevieve Konopka, Chair of the…
• CARTA: The Idea Organ - Welcome and Opening Remarks 2026-03-12
  Humans live in a world of ideas—born in the brain, shared through language, accumulated in culture across generations, and made reality. From the…
• CARTA: Neanderthalizing Brain Organoids with Alysson Muotri 2026-03-02
  Humans live in a world of ideas—born in the brain, shared through language, accumulated in culture across generations, and made reality. Professor…
• CARTA: Ancient DNA: New Revelations - Questions Answers and Closing Remarks 2026-02-01
  Dramatic advances in ancient DNA technologies have revolutionized our understanding of the human past. As part of the CARTA symposium on Ancient…
• CARTA: Population Genetics of Latin America and Oceania with Andrés Moreno-Estrada 2026-01-29
  Genetic data is transforming the understanding of our own species and refining historical chapters at different scales around the globe. However,…
• CARTA: Genetic History of Humans and Animals in South Asia with Maanasa Raghavan 2026-01-22
  The human genetic history of South Asia has been shaped by its pivotal location at the crossroads of East and West Eurasia, dramatic landscapes such…
• CARTA: Central Asian Population Genetics and Natural Selection with Ainash Childebayeva 2026-01-15
  Ancient DNA has revolutionized the study of the human past, providing unprecedented insights into ancient migrations and interactions among…
• CARTA: The Genetic History of Europe with Johannes Krause 2026-01-09
  Over the past decade, archaeogenetics has analyzed more than 15,000 ancient genomes spanning 45,000 years of western Eurasian prehistory, uncovering…
• CARTA: Ancient DNA - New Revelations Welcome and Opening Remarks 2026-01-08
  Dramatic advances in ancient DNA technologies have revolutionized our understanding of the human past. Since the publication of the first ancient…
• CARTA: Human Population History in North and East Asia with Choongwon Jeong 2025-12-26
  The Kazakh and Mongolian Steppes span 5,000 kilometers west to east along the northern latitude of Asia. This unique ecozone allowed rapid movements…
• CARTA: Human Microbiome Evolution with Christina Warinner 2025-12-19
  Humans have a deep and complex relationship with microbes. Beyond disease, microbes also profoundly shape human health and behavior through their…
• CARTA: Evolutionary Switches - How Regulatory Variants Shaped Human Evolution with David Gokhman 2025-12-09
  David Gokhman of the Weizmann Institute of Science explores how changes in gene regulation shaped recent human evolution. His team used massively…
• CARTA: Archaic Human Genomes with Diyendo Massilani 2025-12-05
  The sequencing of genomes from archaic humans, such as Neanderthals and Denisovans, has transformed our understanding of human evolutionary history.…
• CARTA: Archaic Introgression Reveals Human Dispersals with Janet Kelso 2025-11-24
  The genome sequences of Neandertals and Denisovans have provided a wealth of new information about the origins, migrations, and interactions of…
• CARTA: Mismatch: Human Origins and Modern Disease - Questions Answers and Closing Remarks 2025-07-06
  The human body has traits that evolved at different times, from 1.5 billion to 2 million years ago, each bringing health benefits and risks.…
• CARTA: Three Smokes in the Evolution of the Human Exposome with Caleb Finch 2025-07-03
  Humans have long been exposed to three main types of smoke: from early domestic fires, modern wildfires, and more recently, tobacco and fossil fuel…
• CARTA: The Industrialized Gut Microbiome with Justin and Erica Sonnenburg 2025-06-27
  The human gut microbiome is tightly linked our health. Our analyses of diverse human populations from around the globe, ranging from hunter-gatherer…
• CARTA: Biocultural Reproduction: The Human Style of Hyper-cooperation with Barry Bogin 2025-06-23
  The essence of Being Human is the practice of Biocultural Reproduction (BCR). BCR is defined as the set of marriage and kinship based rules for…
• CARTA: Osteoarthritis Back Problems Difficult Birth - Scars of Our Evolution? with Martin Häusler 2025-06-20
  Musculoskeletal disorders are one of the most important challenges of modern medicine worldwide. They are often attributed to maladaptations of our…
• CARTA: Primate Skeletal Gene Regulation: Risks of Human Skeletal Disease Specifically Osteoarthritis with Genevieve Housman 2025-06-16
  Phenotypic variation within the skeleton has biological, behavioral, and biomedical functional implications for individuals and species. Thus, it is…
• CARTA: Does the Placenta Drive the Evolution of Cancer Malignancy with Günter Wagner 2025-06-13
  The rate of cancer and cancer malignancy differ greatly among mammalian species. The placental – maternal interface is also highly variable between…