A Hunter-Gatherer's Guide to the 21st Century: Evolution and the Challenges of Modern Life

A provocative exploration of the tension between our evolutionary history and our modern woes--and what we can do about it.

We are living through the most prosperous age in all of human history, yet we are listless, divided, and miserable. Wealth and comfort are unparalleled, but our political landscape is unmoored, and rates of suicide, lone­liness, and chronic illness continue to skyrocket. How do we explain the gap between these truths? And how should we respond?

For evolutionary biologists Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein, the cause of our troubles is clear: the accelerat­ing rate of change in the modern world has outstripped the capacity of our brains and bodies to adapt. We evolved to live in clans, but today many people don't even know their neighbors' names. In our haste to discard outdated gender roles, we increasingly deny the flesh-and-blood realities of sex--and its ancient roots. The cognitive dissonance spawned by trying to live in a society we are not built for is killing us.

In this book, Heying and Weinstein draw on decades of their work teaching in college classrooms and explor­ing Earth's most biodiverse ecosystems to confront today's pressing social ills--from widespread sleep deprivation and dangerous diets to damaging parenting styles and back­ward education practices. Asking the questions many mod­ern people are afraid to ask, A Hunter-Gatherer's Guide to the 21st Century outlines a science-based worldview that will empower you to live a better, wiser life.

ISBN-13: 9780593086889

Media Type: Hardcover

Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group

Publication Date: 09-14-2021

Pages: 320

Product Dimensions: 5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.20(d)

Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein are evolutionary biologists who have been invited to ad­dress the US Congress, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Education, and have spoken before audi­ences across the globe. They both earned PhDs in Biology from the University of Michigan, where their research on evolution and adaptation earned awards for its quality and innovation. They have been visiting fellows at Princeton University, and before that were professors at the Ever­green State College for fifteen years. They resigned from Evergreen in the wake of 2017 campus riots that focused in part on their opposition to a day of racial segregation and other college “equity” proposals. They cohost weekly livestreams of the DarkHorse podcast.

Table of Contents

Introduction ix

1 The Human Niche 1

2 A Brief History of the Human Lineage 19

3 Ancient Bodies, Modern World 39

4 Medicine 69

5 Food 75

6 Sleep 91

7 Sex and Gender 103

8 Parenthood and Relationship 123

9 Childhood 145

10 School 165

11 Becoming Adults 187

12 Culture and Consciousness 209

13 The Fourth Frontier 223

Epilogue 245

Afterword 247

Acknowledgments 251

Glossary 255

Recommended Further Reading 261

Notes 265

Index 291

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