It's the equivalent of having a state in the United States that speaks whatever Apache Native American language entirely. And it's because they just somehow managed to not get overtaken by the Neolithic farmers and who had wagons. There's a massive historical advantages to being a really big pain in the ass to either invade conquer or travel through right. If you live on the edge of something and you're really high up or really far down it's like I'm not going all the way up there just to oppress people. You know if you go to Rome you can still see evidence of the baths and the aqueducts that brought kind of this enormous amount of fresh water flowing into the city
Pathogenesis: A History of the World in Eight Plagues author Jonathan Kennedy joins us to discuss how microscopic pathogens have shaped our world.
What We Discuss with Jonathan Kennedy:
- If we were to weigh all the bacteria on Earth, their mass would be about 1,000 times more than all humans. If all of the viruses on the planet were laid end to end, they would stretch for 100 million light years.
- About eight percent of the human genome's DNA comes from retroviral infections we've endured over our evolution. From them, we've inherited memory and the ability to give birth to live young.
- Our gut microbiota communicates with our brains and can directly affect our mood and influence our behavior.
- We modern humans have our ancestors' romantic soirees with Neanderthals to thank for genetic defenses against countless viral diseases.
- How the transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture was a double-edged sword that brought us innovative progress and population-decimating pandemics.
- And much more...
Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/875
This Episode Is Brought To You By Our Fine Sponsors: jordanharbinger.com/deals
Sign up for Six-Minute Networking — our free networking and relationship development mini course — at jordanharbinger.com/course!
Like this show? Please leave us a review here — even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!