Elle Russ chats with Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein - 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 cohost the Dark Horse Podcast and are authors of a fascinating new book A Hunter-Gatherer’s Guide to the 21st Century: Evolution and the Challenges of Modern Life. Heying and Weinstein argue that the problem is clear: our world has become so hypernovel that the pace of change has outstripped our ability to keep up. Humans are an evolutionary phenomenon, and while we are designed to adapt to change, it took hundreds of millions of years for humans to become who we are today. We may live in a modern world, but our brains, bodies, and social systems are ancient. They are now perpetually out of sync with the modern world, and it’s making us sick—physically, psychologically, socially, and environmentally. If we don’t figure out how to grapple with the problem of accelerating novelty, humanity will perish, a victim of its own success.

In the book, they distill more than 20 years of research and first-hand accounts from the most biodiverse ecosystems on Earth to offer a robust scientific framework for understanding ourselves– both as individuals and in relationships with others – and why the novelty of the modern era is killing us. To learn more about the authors visit HeatherHeying.com and BretWeinstein.net.

SELECTED LINKS:

HeatherHeying.com

BretWeinstein.net

ElleRuss.com