Full Episode

Alan Alda confronts the puzzle of why our ancestors got the Spark and evolved into us, while the first humans to leave Africa for Europe--the Neanderthals--never did.

Alan Alda vists the rock shelter of Abri Castanet in Southwest France where he is shocked to learn about some of our ancestors’ early behaviors.

Alan Alda joins John Shea for a lesson on Primitive Technology. Alan makes hand axes like a Neanderthal, but throws a pretty mean spear at an unsuspecting doe.

Where and when did the Human Spark first ignite? In the caves of France, where 30,000-year-old paintings adorn the walls, as archeologists have long believed? Or at a much earlier time – and on another continent?