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How we become unique is one of the deepest questions that we can ask. The answers, where they exist, inform how we think about morality, public policy, faith, health care, education, and the law. Although investigating the origins of individuality is not just an endeavor for biologists, many of this topic’s most important aspects involve fundamental questions about the development, genetics, and plasticity of the nervous system. The good news is that recent scientific findings are illuminating this question in ways that are exciting and sometimes counterintuitive. The better news is that it doesn’t just boil down to the same tiresome nature-versus-nurture debate that has been impeding progress and boring people for years. Genes are built to be modified by experience. That experience is not just the obvious stuff, like how your parents raised you, but more complicated and fascinating things like the diseases you’ve had (or those that your mother had while she was carrying you in utero), the foods you’ve eaten, the bacteria that reside in your body, the weather during your early development, and the long reach of culture and technology. So, let’s dig into the science together. Our sources will be not only books and articles but also visits by guest scientists and artists as well as engagement with films and stories that explore human individuality. It can be controversial stuff. Questions about the origins of human individuality challenge our concepts of nation, gender, and race. They are inherently political and incite strong passions. Given this fraught backdrop, we’ll do our best to play it straight and synthesize the current scientific consensus (where it exists), examine the controversies, and point out where the sidewalk of our understanding simply ends.