Your number of ancestors double every generation. Two parents, four grandparents, and so on. If we compare these numbers to the total number of people alive on the planet as we go back in time, what do we find? And what do researchers say on the subject?

Sources for this episode:

Bell, S., Phys (2013), Researcher uses DNA to demonstrate just how closely everyone on Earth is related to everyone else (online) (Accessed 05/07/2024).
Berger, B. M. (1960), How Long Is a Generation? The British Journal of Sociology 11(1): 10-23.
Hershberger, S., Scientific American (2020), Humans Are All More Closely Related Than We Commonly Think (online) (Accessed 05/07/2024).
Matsamura, S. and Forster, P. (2008), Generation time and effective population size in Polar Eskimos. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 275: 1501-1508.
Murdock, N. H. (1998), Teenage Pregnancy. Journal of the National Medical Association 90(3): 135.
Author unknown, Guiness World Records (date unknown), Oldest person to give birth (online) (Accessed 05/07/2024).
Author unknown, Our World in Data (date unknown), Population, 10,000 BCE to 2021 (online) (Accessed 05/07/2024).

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