PBS is good that way.
The major networks think Dance with the stars and Big Brother are good entertainment. I don't see the entertainment value there.

It was a little over-produced, seemed like it was directed at a younger audience, and the music was often too loud when the narrator was talking

It was too loud for the narration.

but I missed lots of narration because of the music. I don't hear that well anyway so it was a little frustrating.

more than twice the age of current models of when we became "human" - "we" are probably hybrids of many species

Humans, modern and archaic, interbred between species as long as there was a common ancestor within the last 2 million years.

Lots of fascinating stuff, blows away all the assumptions scientists have of who we are through fossil records alone.


makes me want to send in my own DNA sample

Genographic Project Participation and DNA Ancestry Kit

https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/about/

I love this kind of stuff, so thanks for the tip. I've set the DVR.

Ended up sleeping through a lot of it, but set the DVR to record a later showing, and then to record future episodes (next time, Asia and Australia).

What I saw I enjoyed. I love learning about this kind of stuff, and it just makes me go all gooey. I once made a racist's head explode when I showed her an article about Mitochondrial Eve, which stated that we all came from the same ancestors in Africa.

Good times. Good times.

That was cool.


How Neanderthal DNA Changed Humans

People of European and Asian descent today retain Neanderthal DNA that may affect their hair, skin, fertility, predisposition to certain diseases and possibly other characteristics, a new study in the journal Nature suggests.

The genetic material inherited from Neanderthals combined with that of humans when the two species interbred 40,000 to 80,000 years ago, the study holds. The research further supports that indigenous Africans possess little or no Neanderthal DNA because their ancestors did not breed with Neanderthals, which lived in Europe and Asia.

It now appears that mating between the two species was much more prevalent than was previously suspected.

http://news.discovery.com/human/evolution/how-neanderthal-dna-changed-humans-140129.htm


and yes .....


WE ARE ALL AFRICAN NOW

Our mitochondrial DNA appears to coalesce in a single woman, who lived on the African savannah 150,000 years ago.

Our Y-chromosome survives from a single man, who lived in the Rift Valley of Kenya or Tanzania 59,000 years ago.

So Adam and Eve did exist—90,000 years apart. The discrepancy is because, unlike the biblical Adam and Eve, this couple only represent the last common Ancestors we can trace genetically.

http://moreintelligentlife.com/content/jm-ledgard/exodus?page=full