Nicolas Brown

Both humans and wildlife depend on water for survival. This episode explores how a misuse of water can lead to unparalleled destruction; however, sharing our water with wildlife does not only benefit the wild, it may also be a crucial step in our own survival. In Africa, big wildlife including elephants only survive because of the wells that humans dig to bring water to the surface in a parched land. And the Samburu who dig the wells need the wildlife-especially...

About this episode: Tanzania Sanjayan meets the most famous chimpanzees on Earth, but he also finds they're stranded and, penned in by people. The chimps are genetically doomed, unable to mate with other populations and what's worse, their proximity to villagers means they've even been known to hunt human babies. As a result, Dr. Jane Goodall has worked out a plan that may resolve the problem. Bangladesh In Bangladesh, solutions are harder to...

About this episode: The plains are home to the greatest gatherings of animal life on the planet. But today these wild grasslands - along with the iconic species that live here - are among the most endangered places on Earth. As we humans continue to fight for space with wildlife, Sanjayan makes it his mission to find a solution to the battle over the plains. The front line is in Africa, where Sanjayan joins an action packed elephant rescue. Elephants...

When Homo sapiens turned up in prehistoric Europe, they ran into the Neanderthals. The two types of human were similar enough to interbreed — and both created artifacts of similar complexity. But as more and more Homo sapiens moved into Europe, the balance of power shifted. Neanderthals were overwhelmed. Ever since, we’ve had Europe and the rest of the world to ourselves.

What happened when early humans ventured out of Africa and into Asia? Where did they go and whom did they meet along the way? The latest evidence suggests they left far earlier than previously thought and interbred with other types of ancient human - Homo erectus, Neanderthals and also the Denisovans, whose existence was established only five years ago when geneticists extracted DNA from a tiny fragment of finger bone. Because these ancient humans...

Around 200,000 years ago, a new species, Homo sapiens, appeared on the African landscape. While scientists have imagined eastern Africa as a real-life Garden of Eden, the latest research suggests humans evolved in many places across the continent at the same time. DNA from a 19th-century African-American slave is forcing geneticists to re-think the origins of our species. The theory is that our ancestors met, mated and hybridized with other human...

What’s it like to live in a world without access to water? Investigate global changes in storms across America, the over-use of aquifers around the world, the “mining” of underground water for profit, and more.

There’s an inseparable bond between water and life. But the world is changing and the pulse between the two is faltering. See how the flow of water is driven by its relationship with life.