💬 For a big portion of human history, we shared the planet with other human species. What was that world like to be part of? How often did we interact with prehistoric humans - and would we have recognised the differences between them and us?

⚡ Michael Marshall is a science writer and expert voice on ancient human species. In this episode he paints a picture of this ancient world, where Neanderthals, Hobbits and Denisovans and other early humans walked alongside us.

Don't miss an episode - subscribe now:

https://podfollow.com/what-we-did-before

🎧 Stay tuned to learn about:

➡ The many species of the Homo genus that have existed - and those who lived with us

➡ Whether any other hominins attempted to reshape the landscape - and conquer it

➡ What the likes of Homo erectus and Homo naledi got up to in their spare time

➡ Just how similar looking Neanderthals were to modern humans

➡ The LRJ people - a group of Homo sapiens that tried to push into Europe and failed

➡ The types of tools, art and rituals other hominins demonstrated

About the podcast:

What We Did Before is a podcast exploring the history of everyday life, from how we kept food fresh before fridges, to how we survived without shoes and what came before AI.

About your host:

Ollie Guillou is an award-winning podcast producer and broadcaster. He's co-founder of OG Podcasts, working with the likes of New Scientist, Dr Karan and Lessons From Our Mothers.

Connect with Ollie:

Website: www.ogpodcasts.co.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollie-guillou

Email: hello@ogpodcasts.co.uk

Image Credits:

Tim Evanson, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Cicero Moraes (Arc-Team) et alii, CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Neanderthal-Museum, Mettmann, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Cicero Moraes, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

💬 The birth of the chemical industry - one which has reshaped the course of human history - happened in a small town in England. In the 19th century, Widnes was transformed into a major centre of the chemical industry.

This era saw the rise of the bleach packers - workers who shovelled toxic chemicals to earn a living, wearing bandages to protect themselves from burns and muzzles to avoid passing out.

⚡Catalyst is the UK’s only museum dedicated to the chemical industry. And in this episode Judith Wilde, Heritage Manager at the museum, introduces us to the museum’s extensive archive of historical artefacts.

Now, more than 30 years since it was curated, Catalyst is getting a complete makeover - so this is a last chance to see the museum before it changes for good.

Don't miss an episode - subscribe now:

https://podfollow.com/what-we-did-before

🎧 Stay tuned to learn about:

➡ The ancient origins of humanity’s obsession with chemicals

➡ Why Widnes was chosen to house these chemical factories

➡ What life would’ve been like in such a heavily polluted industrial town

➡ The bleach packers - and why it was one of the worst jobs of the 19th century

➡ How soap first emerged - to clean floors, not bodies

➡ The rise of anaesthetics and antibiotics

Visit Catalyst Museum: https://www.catalyst.org.uk/

About the podcast:

What We Did Before is a podcast exploring the history of everyday life, from how we kept food fresh before fridges, to how we survived without shoes and what came before AI.

About your host:

Ollie Guillou is an award-winning podcast producer and broadcaster. He's co-founder of OG Podcasts, working with the likes of New Scientist, Dr Karan and Lessons From Our Mothers.

Connect with Ollie:

Website: www.ogpodcasts.co.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollie-guillou

Email: hello@ogpodcasts.co.uk

💬 For thousands of years, humans believed the heart controlled the body - your thoughts, your emotions…everything. The brain was just a radiator - something to discard when preparing the dead.

But why did our ancestors think this for so long? Were there no tell-tale signs? It’s only in the last few hundred years that the brain has received the attention it deserves. And even once it did, we believed a lot of strange things about how it works.

⚡In this episode Matthew Cobb, author of The Idea of the Brain, explains why throughout history we believed the heart was the seat of thought and emotion. And he explores the many bizarre and surprising ways we’ve tried to grapple with how our brain actually works.

Don't miss an episode - subscribe now:

https://podfollow.com/what-we-did-before

🎧 Stay tuned to learn about:

➡ Why Ancient Egyptians literally threw away the brain during mummification

➡ The clues present in the heart that led ancient people to believe it was in control

➡ How skull size and the nonsense practise of “phrenology” became mainstream

➡ The gruesome story of Phineas Gage - and what he taught us about the brain

➡ Why ancient brain experiments gave us one of the most famous novels ever written

➡ How our modern understanding of the brain as “like a computer” is just as strange

Grab Matthew’s book here:

https://amzn.eu/d/049Th1r2

About the podcast:

What We Did Before is a podcast exploring the history of everyday life, from how we kept food fresh before fridges, to how we survived without shoes and what came before AI.

About your host:

Ollie Guillou is an award-winning podcast producer and broadcaster. He's co-founder of OG Podcasts, working with the likes of New Scientist, Dr Karan and Lessons From Our Mothers.

Connect with Ollie:

Website: www.ogpodcasts.co.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollie-guillou

Email: hello@ogpodcasts.co.uk

Image Credit: SimplisticReps, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Raffaele pagani, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0 via Wikimedia Commons