Mapping the roots of humanity

World traveler, writer says we’re alike, not different

Susan Schell

of the Gateway

Steve Olson has always been a deep thinker. He ponders things now, as he did in high school, when it sometimes got in the way of his athletic abilities.

“He was a basketball enthusiast,” said his mother, Diane Olson of Gig Harbor. “But in sports, you have to respond instinctually and not think about things. “He spent a little too much time thinking about it — so he became a referee.”

She also recalled her son once worried about getting a “B” in physical education, when his cerebral tendencies tended to get in the way.

Thinking deeply about things has taken Olson on a high-profile career since graduating from Peninsula High School in 1974.

It took him to Yale University, where he earned a degree in physics and studied English, and then went on to become an award-winning writer and editor of books specializing in science and technology.

It took him to the White House, where he worked as a special assistant in the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and to Botswana, where he lived with the Bushmen.

It drove him to write about humanity’s roots and ask profound questions about the existence of racism, as he did in his latest book, “Mapping Human History,” which won him awards and accolades, including a nomination as a National Book Award finalist.

These days, he’s thinking deeply about astronomy, the subject of his next book, while he coaches the middle school math team with his daughter in Bethesda, Md.

Melissa McNeish, a former classmate of Olson’s who is now the assistant principal at Peninsula High School, remembers him as a popular and respected student.

“He was not just a brainiac, but a really great guy,” she said. “He was athletic, fun and a great debater.”

Olson grew up in Othello and entered Peninsula High School as a junior, when the family moved to Gig Harbor.

“He did not have much of a problem adjusting to the new high school,” she said. “He always kind of marched to his own drummer.”

He once told his Othello teacher and the school’s librarian that he had read every book in the library. His mother recalled that nobody believed him.

“So as they would take books off the shelf, he would tell them what was in them until they realized that he had indeed read every book in the library,” she said.

Books have been at the center of Olson’s life. He has authored several himself, including “Shaping the Future: Biology and Human Values,” “Biotechnology: An Industry Comes of Age,” and “Alcohol in America: Taking Action to Prevent Abuse.”

Olson is particularly proud of his work on the book: “Count Down: Six Kids Vie for Glory at the World’s Toughest Math Competition.”

His most well-known book, “Mapping Human History,” won the Science in Society Award from the National Association of Science Writers.

“This was an award we especially like to get because you are voted on by your peers,” he said.

The National Book Foundation also honored him as one of five nominees for the National Book Award.

Olson said his mother was a big influence on his writing success. She nurtured his interests from an early age, even before school.

“I’m really a science writer because of her,” Olson said. “She became the president of the school board and was always involved in child care. She really is an educator.”

His mother recalled with humor something he said when he spoke at his high school graduation ceremony.

“One thing he said was that he thought the Peninsula School District needed to re-think the responsibility they gave to their high school students,” she said. “He said that in third grade, he could come home for lunch, and in high school, he couldn’t.”

In later years, while Olson embarked on writing “Mapping Human History,” he devoured the knowledge and experiences of traveling the world to gather information for his project.

“While doing that book, I got to travel all around the world,” he said. “I went to South Africa, Botswana, Hawaii, China, the Middle East and Israel,” he said.

“I would describe this book as a journey of discovery,” he added. “We notice the differences in people, but I don’t think we are clear about where they come from and what they mean. It taught me to look a lot more closely at faces — you can look at their physical characteristics.

“What this book also shows you is that these faces are sometimes accidents in history. Biologically, they are insignificant.”

During his travels, Olson was struck not by the differences in people throughout various regions and cultures but by their similarities.

“My thinking changed as I traveled throughout the world,” he said. “I lived with the Bushmen in Botswana, and when I showed them pictures of people who lived hundreds of miles away, they knew a lot of them.

“People have always expanded into new regions if they could figure a way to do it. People tend to be restless; naturally, they want to see what’s over the next hillside.”

As Olson’s book began to materialize, it switched courses from being about tracing humanity’s roots to questioning why racism exists when humans are so much alike. He pointed out the subtitle that appears on the paperback version of his book: “Genes, race and our common origins.”

“That’s really what the book is about,” he said. “People are very much mutts.

“There has been such a tremendous amount of mixing of race throughout history. One thing you learn is that people are remarkably similar despite their superficial differences; maybe in skin color, the way they look, or the way they live,” he added. “We’re much closer related biologically. Although there are big differences in culture, you see people are very similar in the way they think and behave.”

Olson is considering astronomy as the subject of his next book.

“One of the great things about being a science writer is that, with science, there is so much happening every day. There’s never a shortage of things to write about.”

What is appealing about astronomy, Olson said, is that it is very “open and democratic” — anyone with a telescope can go out in the backyard and look skyward.

“It’s a subject anyone can contribute to,” he said. “There’s a great value in having a lot of people looking at the sky. It’s exciting, because there are big, mysterious things going on right now that we need people to think about — things we need to find out the answers to.”

Alumni of Distinction

This is the third in a series of four profiles for the inaugural Alumni of Distinction program.

The four Alumni of Distinction will be honored as part of the sixth annual Students of Distinction banquet, which will be held at 6:30 p.m. May 19 at Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church, 7700 Skansie Ave. NW in Gig Harbor.

Tickets, which won’t be available at the door, can be purchased now at The Peninsula Gateway, 3555 Erickson St. in Gig Harbor.

Here’s a look at the scheduled alumni profiles:

April 23: Theresa Malich

April 30: Lute Jerstad

Today: Steve Olson

May 14: Doris Heritage