In this stunningly original book, Richard Wrangham argues that it was cooking that caused the extraordinary transformation of our ancestors from apelike beings to Homo erectus. At the heart of Catching Fire lies an explosive new idea: the habit of eating cooked rather than raw food permitted the digestive tract to shrink and the human brain to grow, helped structure human society, and created the male-female division of labour. As our ancestors adapted to using fire, humans emerged as "the cooking apes".

Covering everything from food-labelling and overweight pets to raw-food faddists, Catching Fire offers a startlingly original argument about how we came to be the social, intelligent, and sexual species we are today.

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About Wiser Pod

Nico and Sam set out to read the world's best books, from philosophy to sci-fi, economics to who knows what.

Sam Webster Harris

👋 LinkedIn - Sam Harris

🧠 Psychology Pod - Growth Mindset Psychology

🚀 New Pod - How to Change the World

Nicolas Vereecke

👋 LinkedIn - Nico Vereecke

🤖 AI world domination - Evil Plan Inc

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How to Change the World: The History and Future of Innovation

Available on all podcast players:

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Chapters

00:00 The Role of Fire in Civilization

02:20 Introduction: Who is in control

03:55 Fire's Impact on Predators and Prey

05:59 First Fire - 500 million years ago

09:24 Humans and fire - ~2 million years ago

11:36 The Discovery of Fire

13:07 When did we discover Fire

13:48 Stadium of Grandmothers

14:51 Fire's Influence on Human Biology

17:22 Fire and Human Digestion

19:43 Light and Campfires

21:52 Mealtimes

23:00 Fire's Role in Human Birth and Survival

24:51 Why Only Humans Mastered Fire

27:22 Fire, Social Structures & Gender Roles

32:42 Role Change in the Information Age

34:45 Fire's Role in Human Expansion - 70,000 years ago

35:11 Second half of the episode on the new show

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