
The Documentary Podcast
The power of nostalgia and a first kiss
4 January 2026
23 minutes
Available for over a year
Nostalgia. That sentimental feeling of the past. Memory is a powerful thing and we tend to look back on our firsts fondly. Your first phone, your first best friend, your first kiss… But it turns out you can also feel nostalgic for things you weren’t around for.
In the last few years, for Gen Z, there’s been a huge rise in things like y2k fashion, old school technology like flip phones and digital cameras, and even Kate Bush has made it back into the charts.
So why do we care so much about old things?
Speaking of the past, let’s go way back and find out about the ancient origins of kissing! Scientists at Oxford University in the UK now think that kissing evolved more than 21 million years ago, and it wasn’t humans that started it.
Victoria Gill, our Science Correspondent, tells us all about the research and what we know about if animals can be romantic like humans can.
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