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
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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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