Season 2 · Episode 365
Why Every Baby Says Mama: The Science of First Words
Why do babies across the globe sound the same? Explore the "universal toolkit" of the infant brain and how anatomy shapes our first words.
My Weird Prompts · Daniel Rosehill
January 30, 202627m 3s
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Show Notes
Have you ever wondered why "Mama" and "Dada" are nearly universal across cultures? In this episode, Herman and Corn dive into the fascinating world of infant development, exploring how six-month-olds transition from a blur of sensations to recognizing the permanent people in their lives. From the "physics of the tongue" to the "linguistic statistics" babies use to prune their brains, we uncover how anatomy and evolution shape the very first sounds of human speech.