How studying evolution in college made one creationist reevaluate her beliefs

November 03, 2025 / 8:51 am

Ella al-Shamahi is a palaeoanthropologist and evolutionary biologist who grew up as a creationist. She talks to Here & Now ‘s Scott Tong about how, when she went to college, she thought she’d be able to prove Darwin’s theory of evolution was wrong.

Instead, she was convinced the science was right, and that led to major, sometimes painful, changes in her beliefs and her life. She wrote about that change in The Washington Post.

Al-Shamahi is the host of the PBS Nova series “Human,” which follows how homo sapiens became the dominant human species.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

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