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The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum

The WEIRD World Is Killing Us: Evolutionary Biologists Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein On Why Modern Life Feels So Unlivable

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum

Meghan Daum

Society & Culture

4.7855 Ratings

🗓️ 13 September 2021

⏱️ 123 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Husband and wife evolutionary biologists Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein are the authors of the new book A Hunter Gatherer's Guide To the 21st Century: Evolution and the Challenges of Modern Life. Former professors at Washington's Evergreen State College, their involvement in a 2017 controversy that became a touchstone "campus culture war" event led them to become major figures in the so-called "heterodox" intellectual space. They now cohost livestreams of Bret's popular Dark Horse Podcast, where they talk about social, political, scientific (and sometimes medical) issues through an evolutionary lens. In this conversation, Bret and Heather talk with Meghan about their new book, which is premised on the idea that society has become "hypernovel," meaning that the rate of change is so rapid that "our brains, bodies, and social systems are perpetually out sync." They define what they mean by the "WEIRD" world (Western, Educated, Industrialized, (relatively) Rich, and Democrat) and explain why human mating and reproductive strategies— and the community structures that are designed to support them — evolved the way they did. They also untangle mysteries such as why appendicitis is almost unknown in the non-industrialized world, why hunter-gatherer civilizations didn't need orthodonture, and why monogamy is still the best bet for the survival of the human species, despite some rumors to the contrary. Finally, they discuss recent controversial statements they've made about the COVID-19 vaccine and the drug Ivermectin. Guest Bios: 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, were professors at the Evergreen State College for fifteen years, and have more recently been visiting professors at Princeton University. They cohost the weekly livestreams of Bret's podcast the DarkHorse podcast. Heather is the author of the 2002 book Antipode: Seasons With the Extraordinary Wildlife and Culture of Madagascar and writes the Substack newsletter, Natural Selections.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome to the unspeakable podcast. I'm your host, Megan Dowm. My interview this week is with

0:06.5

evolutionary biologists Heather Heying and Brett Weinstein. They're here to talk about their brand new book,

0:12.9

as well as some other topics they've been exploring lately in the online conversosphere that you're

0:18.9

no doubt familiar with if you listen to this show. Also,

0:22.3

did I just coin that term conversosphere? I think I did. But before that, some quick announcements.

0:29.5

First, I want to let you know that on Tuesday, September 21st at 8 p.m. Eastern Time,

0:35.7

we will be doing an online hangout for Patreon supporters of this podcast. We did

0:41.0

one last month for the public, and it was fantastic, but also kind of huge. So I thought we'd do a

0:47.4

slightly cozier one just for patrons, and you can become a patron by going to patreon.com slash the unspeakable and joining at any level.

0:57.5

That also gets you ad-free, early access editions of the show, as well as lots of other perks.

1:05.2

The hangout, again, we'll be on Zoom and we'll be talking about recent episodes of the show,

1:12.5

including my conversations with Chelsea Handler, Sam Harris, Nama Kates, and no doubt this week's guests.

1:18.5

Second item, which is unrelated to the podcast, but possibly of interest. As some of you might know,

1:25.3

I teach private writing workshops, specifically in personal essay and memoir.

1:30.4

In addition to being a podcaster, I am also a writer.

1:34.8

For the last several years, I've been doing these exclusively in person, usually out of my home.

1:40.6

To my amazement and delight, people have traveled from as far away as New Zealand to attend these things.

1:48.5

And after much demand, I am finally offering an online course. It's going to be on Zoom, and if you're interested, you can apply.

1:58.9

The class will meet once a week for six weeks on Mondays from 6 to 9 p.m.

2:05.0

Eastern time and run from October 11th through November 15th. The application deadline is September 20th,

2:13.5

and you can learn more about it at daummasterclass.com.

2:18.2

Space is limited because this is a real writing workshop, not just me lecturing at you,

...

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