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A Hunter-Gatherer's Guide to the 21st Century
Evolution and the Challenges of Modern Life
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 In our haste to discard outdated gender roles, we increasingly deny the flesh-and-blood realities of sex—and its ancient roots.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.
*This audiobook includes a downloadable PDF containing illustrations and charts from the book.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
September 14, 2021 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780593457665
- File size: 238886 KB
- Duration: 08:17:40
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Publisher's Weekly
August 16, 2021
Look to the evolutionary past to understand latter-day social discontents, argues this ambitious pop-sci manifesto. Husband-and-wife evolutionary biologists and Darkhorse podcast cohosts Weinstein and Heying (Antipode) contend that today’s “hyper-novel” innovations clash with human predilections that evolved long ago: casual hookups chafe against women’s innate preference for committed relationships, ubiquitous junk food overwhelms the brain’s hardwired urge to gorge on once-scarce sugar, and kids shielded from normal adversity by helicopter parents and schools become adults who can’t handle reality. The authors offer lessons on how to accommodate one’s evolved natures, from the anodyne—“Be barefoot as often as possible”—to the controversial: they frown on transgender affirmation treatments for children, writing that “much of modern ‘gender ideology’ is dangerous and contagious, and many of the interventions (hormonal, surgical) are not reversible.” The discussion of evolutionary theory is insightful, but not always germane; they encourage readers to “avoid GMOs,” for example, solely on vague claims that GMOs “are creating a new playing field” unfamiliar to evolution. Unfortunately, the sometimes sketchy arguments end up outweighing substantive rationale. Readers are likely to be left wanting. Agent: Howard Yoon, Ross Yoon Agency.
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Formats
- OverDrive Listen audiobook
subjects
Languages
- English
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