You Almost Never Existed

For almost all of human history, you were not alone. There were other kinds of human — short ones, powerful ones, a ghost species we've only ever found from a finger bone. They were real. They buried their dead. And then, one by one, every one of them vanished, until only we were left. This is the story of the humans we lost, the times we were the prey, the moment we may have crashed to barely a thousand people — and the strange fact that pieces of those other humans are still hiding inside your DNA right now. Chapters: 0:00 You were not alone 0:43 The other humans (Neanderthals, Denisovans, "hobbits") 1:52 When we were the prey 2:54 The night we almost blinked out 4:18 You carry them 5:25 So why us? 6:23 You almost never existed 7:11 Sources Everything here is real and sourced (see the end card), and where a claim is debated — like the near-extinction bottleneck — I say so. If we got something wrong, tell us in the comments. 🔔 Subscribe for a new piece of strange, true history every week. #humanevolution #neanderthal #denisovan #anthropology #history #dna #doodlehistory