What I Learned in Childhood

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The Eastern forest was so big and dense that a squirrel could jump from Cape Cod to the Mississippi, you know, just on the branches of the trees. And in fact, people didn't live there like that. There was huge patches of big cleared land. But when the native people were killed off by disease, mistreatment and all the other things that we talked about, the forest grew back.

This week Adam welcomes an author whose book blew his mind more than perhaps any other. Americans are typically taught that prior to the arrival of European settlers, indigenous communities were sparsely populated, lacked technology, and did little to shape the natural landscape. But as this week’s guest Charles C. Mann’s 1491 tells Adam, the most recent research reveals that the American indigenous civilizations were sophisticated, dynamic, and massively populated. Purchase his books 1491 and 1493 at http://factuallypod.com/books. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.