What does all this new evidence do to some of our most entrenched, ingrained ideas about

what our species is, what our capacities are as a species, and how, looking at the past,

changes our understanding of those kinds of questions, maybe the dawn of everything

has walked into some of that void.

I'm Rufus Griskym, and this is the next big idea.

Today, a new history of humanity.

I want to tell you a story.

Once upon a time, we were hunter-gatherers living with childlike innocence in tiny egalitarian

bands, but then came the agricultural revolution, the rise of cities, and the end of our happy

carefree existence.

It's a story you've probably heard if you've read books like Guns Germs and Steel or Sapiens.

I've also told it a few times on this podcast, and my producer, Caleb, is here to remind

me of those times.

Here you are, last April, talking to Amanda Little about her book, The Fate of Food, What

Will Eat in a Bigger, Hotter, Smarter World.

I'm sure you're aware of the growing camp that thinks about the dawn of farming as

a Faustian bargain.

And here you are again, in July, when you spoke to Edward Slingerland about his book Drunk,

how we sipped, danced, and stumbled our way to civilization.

I think a lot of us would agree that there's more and more prevalent view that farming was

a Faustian bargain and had a negative impact on most human experience for many thousands

of years.

...