What makes us us? Is there a feature that unites humans as a species while setting us apart from every other animal? Tool use, perhaps, or language or consciousness? This episode is about the hunt for a biological trait that would pull us all together and why that trait is so hard to find. Even if we do discover a single attribute that is hardwired into our collective brains—like our obsession with the color red—it will always dissolve into difference in the end.

Hosted and written by Sophus Helle. Sound editing by Simone Nystrup-Larsen. Edited by Andreas Lindinger Saxild.

Find out more at sophushelle.com/monkeymind.

Monkey Mind

Combining wit and wisdom, silliness and seriousness, the podcast Monkey Mind by Sophus Helle takes the audience on a weekly jaunt through the jungle of the mind. Each episode throws a new and unusual light on the issues of everyday life—trees, typos, taxes, and much more besides—making the audience look again at a world they thought they knew. It tells stories that are designed to make the listener chuckle, then reflect, drawn from both the host’s own life and from the deep well of history.

Sophus Helle is a writer, translator, and cultural historian. He is an expert in the Babylonian epic Gilgamesh and the ancient poet Enheduana.