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

Update: 2025-11-19

Description

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

Comments

In Channel

130: Back to the FTR (with Séan Roberts, Cole Robertson, and Annemarie Verkerk)

2025-12-0602:53:34

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

2025-11-1902:25:50

128: Across the Universe (with Natan Last)

2025-10-2202:07:26

127: Oh (with Maia Chao, Kelly Wright, and Caitlin Green)

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125: Friends With Words (live with Martha Barnette and friends)

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124: Algospeak (with Adam Aleksic)

2025-08-2301:49:40

123: Conscious Language (with Karen Yin)

2025-08-0301:54:22

122: The Interaction Engine (with Stephen Levinson)

2025-07-1255:34

121: Learning from LLMs (with Adele Goldberg)

2025-06-2902:22:45

120: Gesture! ✨👐✨ (with Lauren Gawne)

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119: Eurovision Goes to Uni (with Paulette van der Voet and Solveig Bollig)

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118: The A.I. Con (with Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna)

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117: Sometimes It Feels Like I'm the Only One Trying to Fix English Around Here (live with friends for LingFest25)

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116: Enough Is Enuf (with Gabe Henry)

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114: Bye Bye I Love You (with Michael Erard)

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113: "Official" English (with Carmen Fought)

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112: WotY 2024: The Last Word

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111: Words of the Week of the Year 2024 (live with Mignon Fogarty and friends)

2024-12-2101:42:41

110: Diego's Dossier (with Diego Diaz)

2024-12-1801:04:03

109: Language Oppression in Tibet (with Gerald Roche and Sasha Wilmoth)

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00:00

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

#box-pro-ellipsis-176554366362871{-webkit-line-clamp:2;}129: They Started It: Children and Language Evolution (with Madeleine Beekman)

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

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