Explore every episode of the podcast Evolutionary Psychology (the podcast)

Is cultural evolution a blind process, or one intrinsically impacted by individual cognition and insight? Olivier Morin (CNRS Jean Nicod) simultaneously pulls no punches while remaining distinctly nonpartisan as we traverse these and other murky waters. Topics include the shape of violin sound holes, the cultural evolution of writing, rituals, economic assumptions, linguistic streamlining, and the cultural evolution of intellectuals. 

More about Olivier Morin:

https://sites.google.com/site/sitedoliviermorin/

How do we remain resilient and flexible under difficult conditions? In this episode, we talk to Katie Starkweather (UCSB) about her work with the Shodagor, who spend appreciable amounts of life living on small boats in rural Bangladesh. Topics include: what is life like living on a small boat?, loneliness, social roles, division of labor, and how things like weather and ecology create and also put up barriers to social connection. Oh, and we talk about Coase and transaction costs (for all you Ronald Coase fans out there). 

More about Katie Starkweather:

https://kathrinestarkweather.com/

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ftzkN60AAAAJ&hl=en

They say that if you do what you love you never have to work a day in your life. In this episode, polymath Athena Aktipis (ASU) shares her enthusiasm and love for all things cooperative. Topics include music, Zombies, borderline personality, vibeing, alignment, cooperative energy, how not to build an institution, and how to capture the magic of musicians jamming together. We dare you to not feel inspired!

More about Athena Atkipis:

https://www.athenaaktipis.org/

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=8abR970AAAAJ&hl=en

More about Pickin' in the Pines:

https://pickininthepines.org/

Philosopher of Ethics and Politics Hanno Sauer (Utrecht) examines whether moral progress is all its cracked up to be. Topics include social class, being slightly more moral than others, rationalization costs, the relationship between intellectuals and power, and the tolerated scrounging of morality. 

https://www.uu.nl/staff/HCSauer

https://philpeople.org/profiles/hanno-sauer

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=n0djnuAAAAAJ&hl=de

This week, we talk about ice-age megafauna, Shamansim, magic, and the scale of ancestral cooperation with Manvir Singh (UC Davis). 

More about Manvir: https://www.manvir.org/

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ZHpmcFYAAAAJ&hl=en

https://anthropology.ucdavis.edu/people/manvir-singh

We're Back! This week, we (well, David) talks with Antoine Marie (Paris) about all things politics. 

More about Antoine: 

https://www.antoinemariesci.com/

https://www.sciencespo.fr/cevipof/en/directory/marie-antoine/

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=immG3K4AAAAJ&hl=en

We will be on a much-needed summer break for the next four weeks; returning on August 18th with a slew of fresh, new episodes. Thank you all for listening!

Sit back and relax as we tell you a story about....well....stories. In this episode, we talk with Michelle Sugiyama (U Oregon), who explores human nature through the lens of understanding how, when, and why we decide to tell each other stories. Other topics include the function of name labels, whether enjoying fiction is a byproduct or adaptation, history, propaganda, and how songs help us learn. 

More about Michelle Sugiyama: https://talkingstories.uoregon.edu/

https://blogs.uoregon.edu/humananimallab/

https://cas.uoregon.edu/directory/social-sciences/all/mscalise

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=_7XnIB0AAAAJ&hl=en

What is a mechanism? Are claims about function doomed to fail? And why are explanations in psychology and human behavior so fraught and contested? We pose these and other mysteries to one the shining stars in modern philosophy of science, Lauren Ross (UC Irvine). Other topics include how philosophers are kind of like therapists, how modern philosophy of science thinks about grand explanations of everything, reductionism, and why what's happening in psychology is reassuringly not new under the scientific sun. 

More about Lauren Ross:

https://sites.socsci.uci.edu/~rossl/

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=MR__Y0AAAAAJ&hl=en

Pascal Boyer (St. Louis) is one of the greats! We talk about his shifting thinking in terms of belief selection to belief production, and why this is a subversive idea. Other topics include birthdays, shamanism and magic, and why we should remain optimistic about the future of science. 

More about Pascal Boyer: http://www.pascalboyer.net/

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=7OaZg10AAAAJ&hl=en

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal_Boyer

Is leaving a hunter horticultural lifestyle for a more westernized, market economy good or bad for one's health? And what does it take to run a field site? In this episode we talk to Josh Snodgrass (Oregon), one of the co-directors of the Shuar Project, and an expert on the consequences of transitioning from a more traditional to market subsistence on one's existence and health. Turns out: it's complicated!

More about Josh Snodgrass:

https://www.pinniped.net/snodgrass.html

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=EADPtvQAAAAJ&hl=en

https://cas.uoregon.edu/directory/profiles/all/jjosh

Do we choose how we choose others? Kris Smith gives us a tour of his fieldwork in across Tanzania, from the arid plains of Hadza Land to the shores of village fisheries, Kris explains what he's learned about understand partner choice, levels of cooperation, and how the local way of making a living. Kris also explains what mistakes new students often make in the field, the effects of social mobility, the difficulties of abstract measures across cultures, and how not to avoid mosquitos in the field. 

More about Kris Smith:

https://anthro.wsu.edu/faculty/wsu-profile/kristopher.m.smith/

https://www.kristophermsmith.com/

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=AXOcqSIAAAAJ&hl=en

How does our evolved psychology deal with pathogens? Can other people tell when you're sick? What's the relationship between worrying about sickness and your social network? Do you stay in or go out when you're sick? Love 'em or hate 'em, pathogens are a part of life and an extreme selection pressure, and our guest Josh Ackerman (UMichigan) gives us the in's and out's of how our minds deal with and are dealt with by this tiny microscopic critters. 

More about Josh Ackerman:

https://lsa.umich.edu/psych/people/faculty/joshack.html

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=w3nbv6UAAAAJ&hl=en

We are all still recovering from the HBES conference in Morocco. So, in this half-length episode the David's discuss a listener comment about whether natural selection "designs" anything, and whether it is a mistake to talk and think in that way. We also hear from previous guest Greg Bryant in a mini-interview from HBES. Have a great week!

This week features a special mini-episode, fresh off the presses from our trip to the Human Behavior and Evolution Society (HBES) conference in Rabat, Morocco. We (briefly) talk with Bret Beheim (Max Planck Leipzig), Cristina Moya (UC Davis), and Brian Wood (UCLA). Also, this episode marks one year of the podcast!

More about Brian Wood:

https://anthro.ucla.edu/person/brian-wood/

http://brianwoodresearch.com/

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=oRH6SiEAAAAJ&hl=en

Steve Neuberg (ASU) takes us on a professional and personal journey, explaining what it means to straddle two different sub-disciplines with grace, tact, and not a little bit of success. Topics include: the specificity of discrimination and stereotyping, the difference between going phenomenon vs. adaptive problem first in one's approach, why it's useful to give the benefit of the doubt, and what Steve's newest venture is. A fun, thoughtful, and wide-ranging conversation. 

More about Steve:

https://psychology.asu.edu/research/labs/evolution-ecology-social-behavior

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=98Zaz2MAAAAJ&hl=en

https://search.asu.edu/profile/11074

Ray Hames, along with guest-host Zach Garfield, discusses his time with the Yanamamo, being a student of Napoleon Chagnon, and what it was like to be in the early, 2nd generation of anthropologists applying evolution to human behavior. Topics include hunting, the history of sociobiology, human behavioral ecology, and evolutionary psychology, attitudes about indigenous populations, the elderly, sexual orientation, and the darkness in Eldorado hoax. 

More about Ray Hames:

https://rhames.unl.edu/

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=BZ98oywAAAAJ&hl=en

https://www.nasonline.org/directory-entry/raymond-b-hames-srcedw/

What is sex? What is gender? These are big, weighty questions with not a few societal and political tensions involved. Who better to guide us through this morass than Dan Conroy-Beam (UCSB)? Get ready for a clear-minded, derived-from-first-principles tour of the evolution of sex, sex roles, and gender. Other topics include the culture vs. biology distinction, mentors, friends, what agent based modeling is, and why it's not self-indulgent to model the evolution of sex. 

More about Dan Conroy-Beam:

https://www.danconroybeam.com/

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ifQUQssAAAAJ&hl=en

https://psych.ucsb.edu/people/faculty/daniel-conroy-beam

Revenge, forgiveness, morality. Join us and our guest Mike McCullough (UC San Diego) as we navigate the deep cost/benefit structure of the social world. Topics include what punishment really is, why we should respect revenge, why victims may sometimes not seek help, and why times heals all wounds. 

More about Mike McCullough:

https://www.michael-mccullough.com/

https://psychology.ucsd.edu/people/profiles/mmccullough.html

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ZyAttkAAAAAJ&hl=en

Causality is....well...causality...it's hard to explain. And that's exactly what Tadeg Quillien (Edinburgh) does: figure out what the heck causality is, and how our mind does it. Other topics include domain generality vs. specificity, counterfactuals, relevance, morality, beliefs and theory of mind, and what it means to be computational, and how David Hume was pretty cool. 

More about Tadeg Quillien:

https://quillienlab.github.io/people/

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=7h0VM_kAAAAJ&hl=fr

A guest who needs no introduction. Leda Cosmides (UCSB) talks about how she and John Tooby co-founded the enterprise "evolutionary psychology"---including the how's, when's and why's---and what she thinks about current work. Other topics include why it's good for science to not be a jerk, and how she's come to understand what the heck behavioral and experimental economists are up to.  More about Leda Cosmides: https://psych.ucsb.edu/people/faculty/leda-cosmides

https://www.cep.ucsb.edu/

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=V1vCfTYAAAAJ&hl=en

Along with Margo Wilson, Martin Daly (McMaster) is one the founding pioneers of evolutionary psychology. In this episode, we get Martin's take on the history and the field. Topics include studying real-world phenomena (like homicide), inequality, and how evolutionary biologists like Williams and Hamilton supported the upstart approach (and whether it's really a different approach at all), and what happens when you give a lab-reared rat the kind of plant that it evolved to eat out in the wild, but has never seen before. 

More about Martin Daly: https://www.martindaly.ca/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Daly_(professor)

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=1BUIq-UAAAAJ

What's up with music? Why do vibrating strings tug on our emotions? And why can't most animals keep a beat? In this episode, we talk to Greg Bryant (UCLA) all about things acoustic and musical. Other topics include: the evolutionary logic of distortion in rock, laughter (including in rats!), and the psychology of perfect pitch and jamming. 

More about Greg Bryant:

https://gabryant.scholar.ss.ucla.edu/

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=urz-QfkAAAAJ&hl=en

Greg's music:

/gbryant.bandzoogle.com/home

https://gbryant.bandcamp.com/album/soft-assembly-of-a-die-hard

What is stress? Is it useful? What is the endocrine system? Why do we need it (and why isn't a brain enough)? In this episode, we talk to Jen Byrd-Craven (Oklahoma State) about all things stress and endocrine. Other topics include development, supposedly "over-active" stress responses, rage-bait, chilling out, obesity, parenting, status, teaching history, and much more.  

More about Jen Byrd-Craven:

https://byrd-cravenpsychobiologylab.mystrikingly.com/

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=MYyZEL4AAAAJ&hl=en

Along with Pete Richerson, Rob Boyd (ASU) is one of *the* founders of cultural evolution, and one of the key figures in connecting human behavior with evolution. A very special episode with one of the greats! To top it off, we have Rob's former PhD student (and previous guest) Cristina Moya, in the role of guest host. 

More about Rob Boyd:

https://www.robboyd.net/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Boyd_(anthropologist)

https://search.asu.edu/profile/1952328

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=YucHqSsAAAAJ&hl=en

Are we one, or do we contain multitudes? In this episode, we explore the bizarre and fascinating world of microchimerism with Amy Boddy (UCSB). 

More about Amy Boddy:

https://www.anth.ucsb.edu/people/amy-boddy

https://boddylab.com/

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=jnNIBc4AAAAJ&hl=en

What is status? What is inspiration? What is personality? It all sounds simple and obvious, but in this episode with Patrick Durkee (CSU Fresno), we make "the familiar strange" and think through how an evolved mind may figure out how to invest our time and energy, what inspiration means, and what personality really is. 

More about Patrick Durkee:  https://www.pdurkee.com/

https://csm.fresnostate.edu/about/directory/psych/durkee-patrick.html

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=uj4K4rQAAAAJ&hl=en

In this episode, we talk with Katrine Whiteson (UC Irvine) about her amazing work studying the human microbiome. We cannot stress enough how much we learned from this episode, from how to prevent your gut bacteria from becoming trashed by antibiotics, how to shop for food that will feed your healthy microbes and prevent blood sugar spikes. Other topics include: what's missing form our modern gut bacteria, the relationship between eating, cancer, and immune function, hunting for phages, and much more. A great example of using evolution to better understand our health. 

More about Katrine Whiteson: https://www.faculty.uci.edu/profile/?facultyId=6103 https://kwhiteson.bio.uci.edu/

In this episode, we talk to Clark Barrett (UCLA) about all the ways we understand the mind, and all the ways that that understanding may be weirder and wider that our intellectual inheritance would have it. Topics include: lies, hunting magic, predicting the future, spirituality, dreams, Freud, fish with two jaws, embodiment, art, physical intelligence, not discounting other views of the mind, Konrad Lorenz, and the music of the Shuar. 

http://www.hclarkbarrett.com/

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=vIovbyUAAAAJ&hl=en

https://www.geographyofphilosophy.com/

It stinks to be sick. Our guest, Josh Tybur (VU Amsterdam), is the one of the foremost experts on how our brain--or better yet, our "behavioral immune system"--helps us avoid pathogens while still navigating the necessities of social and physical life: eating, hugging, parenting, mating, and so on. Topics include whether pathogen avoidance actually drives attitudes towards social outgroups, how disgust, sex, and morality all interact (including David's pet theory of kinky sexual practices), and whether evolutionary mismatch is over-used and under-specified (or not). Oh, that whole world-wide pandemic thing. 

More about Josh Tybur:

https://www.joshtybur.com/

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Ash8oRMAAAAJ&hl=en

Intentions be damned! Whats matter is selection! In this episode, Paul Smaldino (UC Merced) takes us on a tour of his work on social signals, social identities, the perverse incentives of science, the stupidity and yet usefulness of models, and so much else. (Paul also shows us his small model of the solar system in the background). 

More about Paul Smaldino:

https://smaldino.com/wp/

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=AwHfbP0AAAAJ&hl=en

https://smalldinosaurs.bandcamp.com/album/dad-songs

Consciousness: is it really that hard of a problem? In this episode, we talk to our favorite mechanistically-minded (and possibly clearest) thinker about consciousness we've had the pleasure to stumble across, Michael Graziano (Princeton). Topics include why consciousness has been so hard to study, what it is, and what future (evolutionary) work on consciousness would look like. 

More about Michael Graziano: https://grazianolab.princeton.edu/

https://pni.princeton.edu/people/michael-graziano

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Graziano

https://www.press53.com/michael-s-a-graziano

https://www.amazon.com/stores/B.-B.-Wurge/author/B001JS4X0U?

The evolution of war has occupied science. But what about the evolution of peace? In this episode, we talk to Luke Glowacki about his framing of peace as requiring just as much, if not more, explanation, than the evolution of war, and how it comes about via cultural technology interacting with our evolved psychology. Other topics include the distribution of conflict, the Omo valley research project, and how to think about our own species through the lens of other species--including mongeese (mongooses?) 

More about Luke Glowacki:

https://www.hsb-lab.org/

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=DaCQ-UIAAAAJ&hl=en

https://www.bu.edu/anthrop/profile/luke-glowacki/

Free will: Do we really have it? And what is it, exactly?  In this episode, co-host David Pietraszewski takes the role of guest and explains his recent evolutionary, adaptationist approach to the problem of free will, explaining what people are talking about when they talk about free will, why different people have different opinions about whether it really exists in light of science, and what an evolutionary approach has to say about how to study it in the first place. If you love or hate the study of free will--or think it is a forever-unsolvable mystery-- then this episode is for you!

More about David Pietraszewski:

https://cal.psych.ucsb.edu/david-pietraszewski

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=rGFYm8AAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

Why do we care about delaying gratification? Why do we judge others for moral failings that have no apparent consequences on us? In this episode, we talk to Lêo Fitouchi (IAST Toulouse) about all things moral, including guzzling french fries. 

More about Léo Fitouchi:  https://sites.google.com/view/leofitouchi/home

Poverty? Universal basic income? Do we really crave sugar because of evolutionary mismatch? How do you train for an 800meter and a 100K running race? We cover this and much more with Dan Nettle (Jean Nicod). 

More about Dan Nettle:

https://www.danielnettle.eu/

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=rl3kkv4AAAAJ&hl=en

How do evolutionary behavioral scientists think about the interplay between our psychology and culture? What causes some cultural norms to persist and spread? Do non-Western combatants in war have something like PTSD? In this episode, we explore all of these questions and more with Sarah Mathew (ASU), who talks about her work with the Turkana, and her long-term interest in the interplay between our evolved psychology of cooperation and violence, and the social norms and institutions that push and pull on our evolved psychology. 

More about Sarah Mathew:

https://search.asu.edu/profile/2208359

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=FqTZawEAAAAJ&hl=en

Is the evolved mind prone to believing misinformation? Are people gullible? What is reasoning, anyway? And what is it for? In this episode, we talk all things reasoning with Hugo Mercier (Institute Jean Nicod). If you have an opinion about whether people are reasonable (or not) this episode is for you. 

More about Hugo Mercier:

https://sites.google.com/site/hugomercier/

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=b3o24EEAAAAJ&hl=en

What is love? What is regret? What are we missing in our understanding of mating? In this episode we talk to Cari Goetz (Cal State San Bernardino) about the (still largely unexplored) emotions surrounding romance, sex, commitment, and parenting. Topics include: the field's current overemphasis on the early stages of mating, the cultural propaganda surrounding love and related emotions, deliberate ignorance about infidelity, the rehearsal of the social consequences of dating earlier in development, mate ejection strategies, and what love might be at a functional/software level. 

More about Cari Goetz: https://www.csusb.edu/profile/cgoetz

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=BIKau3cAAAAJ&hl=en

What is exploitation? Why does it happen? And how can we better understand what makes it more or less likely? In this episode, we talk to Hannes Rusch (Max Planck Crime, Security, & Law) about all things exploitation and group-y. Other topics include jobs, mopping, scapegoating, bravery, and how much people care about their group identities. 

More about Hannes Rusch: 

https://hrusch.de/

https://csl.mpg.de/en/hannes-rusch

Shownotes:

Metallica "Man Unkind":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUVr2xnGIEo

Exploitation: Theory and Practice

https://pure.mpg.de/rest/items/item_3655768_1/component/file_3655769/content

Are humans designed to be monogamous? Polygamous? In this episode, we talk to Brooke Scelza (UCLA) about her work with the Himba and the complex web of social norms at play in that society and what it can teach us about our evolved psychology. Other topics include parental investment, the state of cross-talk between evolutionary anthropology and psychology, and the sometimes perverse incentives in science and the resulting replication crisis. If you think you do (or do not) understand mating markets and social norms, then this episode is for you. 

More about Brooke Schelza:

https://bscelza.weebly.com/

https://anthro.ucla.edu/person/brooke-scelza/

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=v8E5934AAAAJ&hl=en

Are mothers the evolutionary crucible of leadership psychology? And is leadership more misunderstood and cryptic than we might think? In this episode, we talk to Zach Garfield (UM6P, Morocco) about all things lead-y and follow-y, and the new and amazing Omo Valley Research Project. 

More about Zach Garfield: https://zhgarfield.github.io/

The Omo Valley Research Project (with Luke Glowacki) https://www.omovalleyresearchproject.org/

What is cultural diffusion, why do need models of cultural change and distance, and what is on Bret's whiteboard? In this episode, we do a deep on how cultural change and distance are measured and studied with Bret Beheim (Max Planck for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig). Other topics include the local norms surrounding red lights and the evergreen game of "go". 

More about Bret Beheim:

https://babeheim.com/

https://www.eva.mpg.de/ecology/staff/bret-beheim/

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=V6Ea-MkAAAAJ&hl=en

Are group boundaries solid, impermeable, and red in tooth-and-claw? Is animosity between groups inevitable? In this episode, we talk to Anne Pisor ( Penn State) about all things inter-group from an evolutionary perspective, including the forging of relationships across group boundaries as a way to deal with uncertainty and risk, and the circumstances that increase or decrease inter-group antagonism. 

More about Anne Pisor: https://www.socialitylab.org/

https://anth.la.psu.edu/people/anne-pisor/

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Qav4JJ4AAAAJ&hl=en

Why do we feel shame? Is it a useless emotion? Our guest, Daniel Sznycer (Oklahoma State) has been studying "self-conscious" emotions from a functional/evolutionary perspective. If you're curious about why we feel things like shame, pride, guilt, or how an evolutionary approach can she light on understanding our emotions, this episode is for you.  

More about Daniel Sznycer: 

https://sites.google.com/view/sznycerlab/sznycer-lab

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=AKHl_vwAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

Other links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate_the_Positive#:~:text=For%20other%20uses%2C%20see%20Accentuate,film%20Here%20Come%20the%20Waves.

Motive? Intent? Case closed! In this episode, Keelah Williams (JD, PhD, Hamilton) runs us through our bar exam prelims, explaining how our evolved psychology influences legal decision-making, and what consequences this may have on truth, justice, and much else... If you are interested in how evolutionary approaches inform legal issues, this episode is for you. Bonus: Keelah also discusses her ground-breaking work on ecology stereotypes. 

More about Keelah Williams: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=42lmiPwAAAAJ

https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/evolution-and-human-behavior/vol/44/issue/3

Grab some candy (or brains): Halloween is here! This week, we talk to Coltan Scrivner about why we can't look away from the macabre, what exactly the "horror" genre is, and why a self-dose of fear and horror may be good for anxiety. If you are curious about horror, true crime, cobwebs, zombies, great white sharks, Jurassic Park, or whether its good for kids to experience gross or scary things, this episode is for you! 

Also, today, Coltan's book, Morbidly Curious, comes out:

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/705578/morbidly-curious-by-coltan-scrivner-phd/

More about Coltan Scrivner:

https://www.coltanscrivner.com/

https://www.morbidlycuriousthoughts.com/

How are humans able to sustain large families? What is our "true" reproductive strategy as a species? Are kids designed to raise younger children? And is it unnatural for us to live in such strongly age-segregated societies? In this episode, we talk to Karen Kramer (U of Utah) where we discuss our (possibly unique) ability to live with and raise one another. 

More about Karen Kramer:

https://www.sapiens.org/authors/karen-l-kramer/

https://profiles.faculty.utah.edu/u0839608/about

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=2tP1330AAAAJ&hl=en

Why do we believe what we believe? And our we aware of why we believe what we believe? And what is a belief anyway? And what should we think of people like Jordan Peterson? We tackle these questions and more in this episode with Dan Williams (Sussex): our first guest representing evolutionary approaches to philosophy. 

More about Dan Williams:

https://danwilliamsphilosophy.com/

https://www.conspicuouscognition.com/

Did we evolve to live long lives? Is heart disease a human universal? In this episode, we talk to Mike Gurven (UCSB), who has run a number of large-scale studies on the life and health of non-Western populations (among much, much more). And now, he has a new book out (Seven Decades: How We Evolved to Live Longer) summarizing the big picture of what we've learned so far! 

More about Mike Gurven:

https://www.anth.ucsb.edu/people/michael-gurven

https://gurven.anth.ucsb.edu/

More about the book (Mike is the real deal, so we are happy to plug his book!):

https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691231990/seven-decades

Enter code (PUP30 for a discount)

https://www.target.com/p/seven-decades-by-michael-d-gurven-hardcover/-/A-94306245

https://www.amazon.com/Seven-Decades-Evolved-Live-Longer/dp/0691231990/ref=sr_1_1