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Restless Humanity: The Epic Migrations Into the Americas, Polynesia, and... Beyond? ~ Andrés Moreno-Estrada

December 5, 2025 · 26 min

Show notes

We are a movable species. In less than 50 thousand years, Homo sapiens has penetrated practically all corners of the earth.

This is an episode about those epic migrations, with a focus on the two furthest edges of the human migratory map: the Americas in the West and the Polynesian islands in the East. In the end, we discuss emerging evidence that those branches met each other -- evidence coming directly out of the work of my guest, Andrés Moreno-Estrada.

Enjoy!


DECODING OUR STORY

This is episode 3 in the "⁠Decoding Our Story⁠" mini-series, recorded live at the Salk Institute's CARTA symposium on ancient DNA. The other episodes are:

"The Neanderthal Mirror: Latest Findings About the Lines Between Us" ~ David Gokhman

"Beyond Race: A New Outlook on the Shape of Humanity" ~ Diyendo Massilani


FACT CHECKING

No errors have been found as of now. If you find an error in this or other episodes, get in touch via the form below.


LINKS

Articles and essays: ⁠⁠⁠OnHumans.Substack.com⁠⁠⁠

Support: ⁠⁠⁠Patreon.com/OnHumans⁠⁠⁠

Contact Form: ⁠⁠⁠https://forms.gle/h5wcmefuwvD6asos8⁠⁠

⁠⁠CARTA symposium⁠⁠

The Moreno lab⁠⁠


KEYWORDS

Human population history | Human origins | Anthropogeny | Anthropology | Ancient Migration | Out of Africa | Homo sapiens | Ancient DNA | Comparative genetics | Austronesian expansion | Taiwan | Admixture | Archaeogenetics | Archaeology | Polynesia | Easter Islands | Rapa Nui | Hawai'i | Aotearoa New Zealand | Tonga Fiji | Native American origins | Latino genetics | Latinx genetics | Hispanic genetics | Indegenous genetics |

All episodes of On Humans

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