Osher Lifelong Learning Institute / CARTA Master Classes

CARTA members and prominent UCSD scholars address topics related to human-origins research in biennial Osher classes.

Presented by: Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (UC San Diego Extension) and the UC San Diego/Salk Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny (CARTA)

Venue: Osher (UC San Diego Extended Studies La Jolla Campus): 8980 Villa La Jolla Drive

Coordinators: Jesse Robie (CARTA) and Mavis Porter (Osher)

Format:In this series of talks, UC San Diego scholars who are CARTA members or associated with CARTA’s Graduate Specialization in Anthropogeny, will address different topics related to human origins research. The talks are both in person and online. In person participation requires an Osher membership. Each class is a lecture for roughly the first hour followed by participant Q&A.

Upcoming Classes:

Pascal Gagneux	The Quest for Human Origins Wednesday, September 30, 2026, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm (Pacific) The human species presents a striking paradox as we combine an obvious mammalian and primate nature with distinct combinations of biological and behavioral traits, making us humans spectacular outliers among the living world. New fossils, archeological finds, ancient DNA and other ancient molecular data, combined with comparative behavioral studies and neuroscience are providing crucial new information. Our understanding of human origins faces many humbling unknowns about the age of key human innovations. These include symbolic capacity, personal names or kinship terms, language, home base use, fire use, pair-bonding, projectile weapon use, composite tool use, fiber use, bodily modifications, and death rituals. The human phenomenon results from idiosyncratic concatenations of unlikely events. Key factors likely include both opportunities and constraints stemming from massive physical and cultural niche construction by our species that has increasingly taken its evolutionary fate into its own hands.
Stephan Kaufhold	Animal Cognition and the Origins of Human Thinking Wednesday, October 7, 2026, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm (Pacific) Cognitive science and psychology are mostly concerned with human thinking. But humans are primates, and human cognition is a particular form of primate cognition. By comparing ourselves to other animals, we can reconstruct the evolutionary origins of our own minds. To this end, studying our closest living animal relatives, the nonhuman primates (e.g., macaques, orangutans, bonobos, chimpanzees), is particularly informative. In this talk, I introduce the field of comparative cognition and walk through several studies from the field, including my own work on how primates handle conflict over resources. I will discuss how psychological agency and cognitive flexibility evolved to deal with uncertainty in both social and physical environments.
Raihan Alam	Why Fairness Matters: From Monkeys to Modern Society Wednesday, October 14, 2026, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm (Pacific) This lecture will explore one of the most powerful forces shaping human society: fairness. Why do humans care so deeply about being treated—and treating others—fairly? Why are we sometimes willing to sacrifice our own self-interest in the name of fairness? Drawing from behavioral economics, comparative research, developmental psychology, and cultural evolutionary theory, we will examine how our concern for fairness may have evolved to help sustain cooperation. The lecture will trace the roots of fairness from reactions to unequal outcomes in non-human animals, through the development of fairness norms and punishment in children, to the role of culture and institutions in enabling large-scale human cooperation. Participants will also learn about how fairness shapes trust and compliance with the law in modern society, and will explore social psychological theories that explain why—despite our taste for fairness—we see, and often accept, so much inequality in the world.
Carol Marchetto	Stem Cells and Human Evolution Wednesday, October 21, 2026, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm (Pacific) Comparative analyses of brain cells in closely related species can shed light on changes occurring during evolution. The study of post-mortem brains of nonhuman primates (NHPs) has been limited and often does not recapitulate important species-specific developmental hallmarks. This talk will discuss new technology to investigate the development of live neurons from human and nonhuman primates and compare specific cell behaviors such as migration and maturation. We show differential migration patterns in human neural progenitor cells compared to those of chimpanzees and bonobos, suggesting changes related to maturation timing in human neurons. The strategy proposed here lays the groundwork for further comparative analyses between humans and NHPs and opens new avenues for understanding the differences in the neural underpinnings of cognition and neurological disease susceptibility between species.

Past Classes:

	Media	Class
Pascal Gagneux		The Quest for Human Origins Apr 1, 2025 Humans present a striking paradox; combining an obvious primate nature with distinct behavioral traits makes them notable outliers among species. Our understanding of human origins is limited by our meager knowledge of the appearance of key human innovations, including use of language, fire,... read more
Federico Rossano		Animal communication Nov 27, 2024 This lecture will explore how different animal species communicate and what is similar and different between human communication and other animals' ways of communicating. We will review different types of animal signaling, the informative vs. manipulative functions of communication, when and why... read more
Rachel Mayberry		How language in the environment shapes the child’s brain Nov 13, 2024 Why talk to babies? To grow their brains! Babies don’t talk to us, so why should we talk to them? Do they understand us better when we use high pitched and simplified baby talk? Why do we so often use baby talk with babies anyway? Do babies get confused when we use more than one language with them... read more
Nicholas Nelson		Anthropogeny Graduate Specialization experience Oct 30, 2024 This lecture will share the experience of working towards a Ph.D. in biology at UC San Diego with tales and insights gleaned as a student of human origins in CARTA’s Anthropogeny Graduate Specialization. Nicholas Nelson investigates the neuroscience of chronic pain, yet his most impactful graduate... read more
Pascal Gagneux		The planet-altering ape Oct 16, 2024 This lecture will address how humans became “the planet-altering ape” that is now causing the sixth mass extinction and climate change crises and how we can become “the planet-protecting ape.” The evolutionary lineage leading to humans underwent many defining changes since our last common ancestor... read more
Tatum Simonson		Human high-altitude adaptation Oct 2, 2024 This lecture focuses on how permanent high-altitude residents have adapted to low oxygen levels in the Himalayan, Andean, and Ethiopian highlands. Important biological factors are key to these adaptations, which vary among continental groups. Recent studies show that different changes lead to... read more
Pascal Gagneux		One Health and Emerging Diseases Dec 7, 2022 This talk will address the latest insights into the origin of humans and how this single species of primate became a planetary force. I will discuss biological aspects ranging from molecules (e.g., DNA, glycoproteins, antibodies, etc.) to societies (e.g., nature deficit syndrome, habitat... read more
Margaret Schoeninger		Evolution of the Human Diet Nov 23, 2022 This lecture will discuss the evolution of the human diet in a comparative setting. It will highlight the importance of cultural inventions from hunting prey much larger than ourselves to processing and cooking food. All indications are that humans are now biologically dependent on the cultural... read more
Carol Marchetto		Stem Cells and Human Evolution Nov 9, 2022 Comparative analyses of brain cells in closely related species can shed light on changes occurring during evolution. The study of post-mortem brains of nonhuman primates (NHPs) has been limited and often does not recapitulate important species- specific developmental hallmarks. This talk will... read more
Adena Schachner		Music, Dance, Evolution: The Origins and Consequences of Human Musicality Oct 26, 2022 Music and dance are cultural universals and begin early in infancy. In this talk, we'll explore the origins of these fundamentally human behaviors, from an evolutionary, cognitive, and developmental perspective. Why can humans move to a beat, while many other species cannot? What can children’s... read more
Charles Kennel		The Coming Crisis of the Anthropocene Oct 12, 2022 This talk will broadly trace connections between past and present human exploitation of the environment, the coming crisis of the Anthropocene and what we humans can do to alleviate the crisis.
Lindsay Hunter		Rising Star Cave’s Chambers of Secrets Dec 2, 2020 The Rising Star Cave near South Africa’s Cradle of Humankind World Heritage site has produced some of the greatest fossil hominin discoveries. Paleoanthropologist and underground astronaut Lindsay Hunter gives a firsthand account of its exploration.
Federico Rossano		The Evolutionary Roots of Human Sociality Nov 25, 2020 Humans are social animals, but so are many other animals. Yet compared to other non-human primates, humans appear to be more cooperative with each other, have greater control of their communicative signals, and appear to spend more time interacting with each other. So what is special about human... read more
Patricia Churchland		The Brains Behind Morality Nov 4, 2020 This lecture will discuss the concept of morality as it relates to human behavior. What are the social and neurobiological roots of moral behavior?
Pascal Gagneux		Evolution of the Human Diet Oct 7, 2020 This lecture will address the evolution of the human diet in a comparative setting. It will highlight the importance of cultural inventions from hunting prey much larger than ourselves to processing and cooking food. All indications are that humans are now biologically dependent on the cultural... read more
Margaret Schoeninger		Fossil Record of Human Origins Sep 30, 2020 This lecture focuses on the fossil record with an emphasis on ecological changes and associated dietary changes facilitating the appearance of anatomically modern humans (AMHs). We begin by tracing the evolution of the earliest primate-like mammals from more than 50 million years ago (mya), to the... read more