129: They Started It: Children and Language Evolution (with Madeleine Beekman)

About this episode

The episode explores the intersection of language evolution and childcare through the insights of evolutionary biologist Madeleine Beekman.

We've asked linguists about how language began, but what would an evolutionary biologist tell you? Prof Madeleine Beekman says it's part of a complex web of body, brain, and community, and at the heart of it is (perhaps surprisingly) childcare. Madeleine is the author of The Origin of Language: How We Learned to Speak and Why . Timestamps Cold open: 0:00 Intros: 0:42 News: 9:07 Related or Not: 30:02 Interview with Madeleine Beekman: 49:43 Words of the Week: 1:40:49 Comments: 2:01:30 The Reads: 2:08:07 Outtakes: 2:17:38

People in this episode

Hosts: Daniel Midgley, Ben Ainslie, Hedvig Skirgård

Guest: Madeleine Beekman

Topics covered

• language evolution
• childcare
• linguistics
• evolutionary biology
• community
• communication

Keywords

• language
• evolution
• childcare
• linguistics
• interview
• Madeleine Beekman
• communication

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: The Origin of Language: How We Learned to Speak and Why

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