The questions of where and why the human spark emerged are closely intertwined. Alan Alda sat down with Curtis Marean of Arizona State University to learn why he thinks the coast of South Africa is an important place to look for those first glimmerings of the human spark.

In this video Marean explains how that unique landscape and its natural resources would have been important to early humans – and allowed new cultural innovations.

What do you think of Marean’s hypothesis that South Africa was an important refugium in tough climatic times?

You can see also some behind-the-scenes footage and photos from our campfire shoot.