Summary: I am so excited to bring you this interview with one of my favorite guests to date: Herman Pontzer, a biological anthropologist at Duke University whose paleontological and biological field work across Eurasia and Africa have upended much of what we in the modern world thought we knew about diet, exercise, metabolism and human health. Here, Herman reveals what it’s like to live and work with the Hadza hunter-gatherers of Tanzania, the paradox of calorie expenditure (hint: you can’t burn off that Shake Shack), and why we as humans must move to survive. (Don’t miss his brilliantly written recent feature for Scientific American, along with this episode!) Here’s the run-down: -Growing up in the woods of Pennsylvania and finding his evolutionary calling in college -A day in the life of a Hadza hunter-gatherer -Why everything we thought we knew about human energy expenditure is wrong -The connection between sedentary lifestyles, inflammation and our modern-day epidemic of chronic disease -Misinterpretation of scientific studies in the media -How humans evolved to require high levels of physical activity -Evolutionary mismatch -What does the future hold for the human species? -How to live a more evolutionarily aligned life Music by Paul Damian Hogan.
