This lecture provides an overview of the evolution of hominids, from our first bipedal steps through to the development of language. Along the way, we will consider the importance of fire and the impact of expanding brain size, along with the consequences these had for the social and cultural behaviours of early (archaic) humans. As an excursus, we will also explain why new fathers are often told their infants look just like them!

Different phenotypical features are illustrated here (teeth) and here (skeletal structure). The book by Robin Dunbar referenced in the lecture is The Science of Love and Betrayal. The PTBD hypothesis mentioned in the lecture was devised by Dean Falk in her 2004 paper “Prelinguistic evolution in early hominins: Whence motherese?” A good book on the role of fire in driving human evolution is Richard Wrangham’s Catching fire: how cooking made us human.

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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rolfstromolsen.substack.com

This is the second half of the introductory lecture to my Markets & Society course. You can read more about Pigovian taxes here (Wikipedia). The Arctic death spiral can be viewed here. Bjorn Lomborg’s “7 Myths about Climate Change” can be watched here (the excerpt played in class is “myth” #2). The Keeling Curve can be viewed here (Wikipedia). Data on global energy use is taken from Our World in Data.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rolfstromolsen.substack.com

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rolfstromolsen.substack.com

This is the opening part of the introductory lecture to my Markets & Society course. The excerpt from Hans Rosling’s “200 Countries in 200 Years” can be watched in full here. (The music featured in the class is from Bruckner’s Symphony no. 7.)

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rolfstromolsen.substack.com

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rolfstromolsen.substack.com