129: They Started It: Children and Language Evolution (with 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

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129: They Started It: Children and Language Evolution (with Madeleine Beekman) is an episode from Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the science of language. by Daniel Midgley.

This episode is 02:25:50 long.

This episode was published on Nov 19, 2025.

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