Imagine spotting a fossil poking out of the ground, taking a closer look, and realising it belongs to the oldest human ancestor ever known, who lived more than 5 million years ago. That’s what happened to Yohannes Haile-Selassie in the desert of northern Ethiopia, his homeland. He was a graduate student at the time, “still looking for a topic for my dissertation”.

On the 50th anniversary of another famous find in Ethiopia – the ancient hominin “Lucy”, dubbed the world’s first “paleo-rock star” and named after a Beatles song – I’ve interviewed Yohannes about his life exploring the deep origins of humanity for the latest Conversation Weekly podcast and a special Insights longform Q&A. He talks powerfully about the challenges he faced as an Ethiopian scientist in this field: “For a long time, African scholars were never part of telling the human story. Up to the 1990s, long after Lucy was found, we were only present in the form of labourers and fossil hunters.” Now his mission is to transform the future as well as the past, by helping to “decolonise paleoanthropology”.

“The glue that held New Labour together” is how Thomas Caygill describes John Prescott in our obituary for the political giant. The UK’s longest-serving deputy prime minister spent no fewer than 54 years in parliament, remaining an active peer even after a stroke in 2019.

The smash-hit musical Wicked is coming to a cinema screen near you – well, the first act is. And according to our reviewer Julian Woolford, it’s likely to be received as well as the theatrical version – in part because of a “casting masterstroke”.

As we look forward to 2025, The Conversation UK is on a mission to boost the number of people that back us with a regular monthly donation. We don’t know what the new year will bring, but if you value the expert analysis we publish please do consider signing up, if you have not already. Your support makes a huge difference.

Many thanks,