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In the fifth and final episode, Lise reveals her own timeline — our modern world, once a network of diverse human streams, now a single overwhelming torrent threatening to drown the planet. What follows is collapse, near-extinction, and thousands of years of silence, until three new civilizations emerge as careful custodians of Earth, sea, and energy, each carrying a hard-won consciousness revolution of their own.

Archaic Humans was created and written by Jason Hepola and produced and written by Charles Conley.

Recorded by Paul Fonfara. Sound design and audio mixing by Jaxon Vesely.

Voice work by:

• Kristen Froebel
• Lisa Weiland
• Julia Nickerson
• Chesa Greene
• Isabelle Hopewell
• Christa Rubsam

Original music written Chris Hepola and performed by Chris Hepola and Anthony Afful, with audio engineering by Eric Struve.

Illustration and media by Kamau Kokayi-Taylor.

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The Plateau Nation, represented here by Del, built their entire civilization within a shared dream consciousness — a vast symbolic landscape tethered to human minds through ritual, memory, and genetic inheritance. In waking life they were minimalists; in dreams, architects of entire cities of thought where conflict, planning, and even grief unfolded in collective vision.

Archaic Humans was created and written by Jason Hepola and produced and written by Charles Conley.

Recorded by Paul Fonfara. Sound design and audio mixing by Jaxon Vesely

Voice work by:

• Kristen Froebel
• Lisa Weiland
• Julia Nickerson
• Chesa Greene
• Isabelle Hopewell
• Christa Rubsam

Original music written Chris Hepola and performed by Chris Hepola and Anthony Afful, with audio engineering by Eric Struve.

Illustration and media by Kamau Kokayi-Taylor.

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To help explain the revolution in consciousness of the Trident Nation, Lise introduces Avet.

The Trident cultivated a shared symbolic-language shaped by gesture, sound, and deep attention — guided by the Wise Ones who held memory for the many. Through archetypal constellations etched into the stars, they charted unconscious terrain and linked their waking lives to ancient, symbolic powers moving beneath the mind’s surface.

Archaic Humans was created and written by Jason Hepola and produced and written by Charles Conley.

Recorded by Paul Fonfara. Sound design and audio mixing by Jaxon Vesely.

Voice work by:

• Kristen Froebel
• Lisa Weiland
• Julia Nickerson
• Chesa Greene
• Isabelle Hopewell
• Christa Rubsam

Original music written Chris Hepola and performed by Chris Hepola and Anthony Afful, with audio engineering by Eric Struve.

Illustration and media by Kamau Kokayi-Taylor.

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To help explain the second consciousness revolution, Lise brings in Lonna, a representative of the Hidden Hearth.

The Hidden Hearth shaped their world in harmony with the forest, where saplings are tended like kin and light is a shared inheritance. Their story is one of quiet strength, deep memory, and a culture rooted in cooperation—a consciousness built through care, ritual, and unbroken trust between people and place.

Archaic Humans was created and written by Jason Hepola and produced and written by Charles Conley.

Recorded by Paul Fonfara. Sound design and audio mixing by Jaxon Vesely.

Voice work by:

• Kristen Froebel
• Lisa Weiland
• Julia Nickerson
• Chesa Greene
• Isabelle Hopewell
• Christa Rubsam

Original music written Chris Hepola and performed by Chris Hepola and Anthony Afful, with audio engineering by Eric Struve.

Illustration and media by Kamau Kokayi-Taylor.

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In Episode One, our host for this series, Lise, brings in Kat, a representative of the Forever Lands from over 200,000 years ago, to help us understand the first revolution in consciousness.

Consciousness in the Forever Lands developed hand in hand with awareness of the Leviathan – the single-celled organisms from which all life emerged and which humanity continues to evolve alongside. Their whole society centered around serving the Leviathan, from how they prepared their food to the meditation techniques they developed that allowed them to communicate with this life form rooted in the earth and in their guts.

Archaic Humans was created and written by Jason Hepola and produced and written by Charles Conley.

Recorded by Paul Fonfara. Sound design and audio mixing by Jaxon Vesely.

Voice work by:

• Kristen Froebel
• Lisa Weiland
• Julia Nickerson
• Chesa Greene
• Isabelle Hopewell
• Christa Rubsam

Original music written by Chris Hepola and performed by Chris Hepola and Anthony Afful, with audio engineering by Eric Struve.

Illustration and media by Kamau Kokayi-Taylor.

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Civilization has ended before…

Archaic Humans is a five-part fiction podcast that journeys back through deep time to imagine ancient minds, vanished societies, and the quiet revolutions that have shaped and reshaped human consciousness.

Twenty thousand years from now, descendants of survivors of the end of our civilization gather for an orientation into human consciousness given by voices from the ancient past. Each episode features the spokesperson from a different group of archaic humans, who describes their unique revolution in consciousness and explains the factors that led to their collapse.

Archaic Humans was created and written by Jason Hepola and produced and written by Charles Conley.

Recorded by Paul Fonfara.

Sound design and audio mixing by Jaxon Vesely.

Voice work by:

• Kristen Froebel
• Lisa Weiland
• Julia Nickerson
• Chesa Greene
• Isabelle Hopewell
• Christa Rubsam

Original music written by Chris Hepola and performed by Chris Hepola and Anthony Afful, with audio engineering by Eric Struve.

Illustration and media by Kamau Kokayi-Taylor.