The Evolved Apprentice: Kim Sterelny on How Cooperation Made Us Human

What makes humans so good at learning from one another? And how did cooperation, childhood and culture shape our evolution?

In this episode of Originally Human, I speak with philosopher of science and evolutionary theorist Professor Kim Sterelny about how humans became such extraordinary learners — and what our evolutionary history might teach us about childhood and education today.

Professor Sterelny argues that human uniqueness cannot be explained by a single breakthrough in brainpower. Instead, our abilities emerged through feedback loops between cooperation, social learning, technology and the environments in which children grow up.

We explore how early humans learned to cooperate to find food and stay safe, why sharing knowledge became advantageous, and how generations of learners built on one another’s discoveries. Sterelny also challenges the idea that human intelligence evolved mainly to outsmart and manipulate others: solving the practical problems of surviving together was an enormous cognitive challenge in its own right.

We discuss how children in foraging societies often learn through mixed-age groups, experimentation, play and observing others — with considerable freedom to direct their own learning. How does this compare with modern Western schooling? Could children benefit from more autonomy, collaboration and opportunities to learn across age groups?

We also explore why giving children more freedom is difficult when they have no group of other children to explore with, how cooperation creates time and space for innovation, and what the relationship between biology and culture tells us about human adaptability.

In this episode:

• How cooperation and social learning helped make us human
• Why our evolutionary success depends on learning environments, not just brains
• How children learn in foraging societies
• What modern education might learn from mixed-age, self-directed childhoods
• Why cumulative culture involves experimentation and trial and error, not just imitation
• How cooperation and innovation reinforce one another
• Why human intelligence may owe more to solving shared practical problems than to outsmarting rivals
• The limits of what we know about human adaptability

Professor Sterelny's challenge for listeners? Try making a stone tool. It’s a humbling way to appreciate the extraordinary knowledge and skill required to survive as a forager.

Resources mentioned

• Kim Sterelny’s newest book: Evolution and Human Uniqueness (Oxford University Press, 2026)
• The Evolved Apprentice: How Evolution Made Humans Unique
• The Pleistocene Social Contract: Culture and Cooperation in Human Evolution
• Google Scholar — recommended for finding Professor Sterelny's academic papers.
• John Bock, “Learning, Life History, and Productivity: Children’s Lives in the Okavango Delta of Botswana” — research relevant to the discussion of children learning foraging skills.