Bratmicae here and welcome to another edition of the Art of Manliness Podcasts.

War has always been a catalyst for technological innovations.

I mean, there's nothing that will spur human creativity and ingenuity, quite light figuring

out how to kill your enemies more effectively and to keep them from killing you.

Besides refining the techniques of killing and defending against human combatants,

militaries across time and culture have been lots of money and energy trying to figure

out ways to make their soldiers more physically and psychologically robust to other kind of

battlefield perils like panic, exhaustion and heat exposure.

And many of these discoveries that military science have made in this quest to make

soldiers' sturdier have benefited the civilian world as well.

When my guest day on the podcast did a first-hand investigation of the fascinating history

of military research and shared her findings in a highly readable and entertaining book,

her name is Mary Roach and she's the author of Grunt of the Curious Science of Humans at War.

And today on the show, Mary gives us a look inside a whole bunch of cool stuff.

It goes on in military research.

For example, inside military-fashioned apartments that create uniforms that keep soldiers

cool, comfortable and protected from chemical weapons, all while still looking good.

She unpacks why diarrhea has always been one of the biggest threats in war and then discusses

why conquering the need to sleep has been a goal of militaries around the world for ages.

A really fascinating show.

I think it gives you behind the scenes to look at the military you probably haven't seen

before.

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