Can a Human Outrun a Horse?

From Origin Stories by The Leakey Foundation

August 6, 2025 · 39 min · Episode 89

About this episode

This episode explores the endurance running hypothesis and whether humans can outrun horses.

This is a story about sweat, survival, speed, and the peculiar ways running may have shaped us as humans. Armed with a hydration vest, a dream, and paleoanthropologist Daniel Lieberman's endurance running hypothesis, filmmaker Nicole Teeny set out to push the limits of her own endurance. Nicole's mission takes her from the Kalahari Desert to Kansas to see if humans really did evolve to run. Along the way, she discovers humans' unusual superpower and asks, can a human outrun a horse? This episode was written and produced by Nicole Teeny . Sound designed and produced by Ray Pang. Edited by Audrey Quinn. Our host and executive producer is Meredith Johnson. Want more of this story? Listen to Nicole's four-episode series on ESPN's 30 for 30 podcast! Support our show and the science we talk about! Until August 31, all donations to Origin Stories and The Leakey Foundation will be quadruple-matched by Leakey Foundation trustee Nina Carroll and the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation.

People in this episode

Host: Meredith Johnson

Guest: Nicole Teeny

Topics covered

endurance running
human evolution
sweat
survival
speed
paleoanthropology

Keywords

endurance
running
human evolution
sweat
survival
Kalahari Desert
Kansas

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The Leakey Foundation, ESPN, Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, Leakey Foundation