Alcohol and the Drug Epidemic

Paul: I interviewed Ed Slingerland who wrote a wonderful book about why is it that alcohol persists throughout global society notwithstanding its overwhelming harms. He says the benefits of alcohol consumption in terms of human evolution civilization exceeded the harms but then he puts a caveat at the end where he said maybe the emergence of distilled alcohol first in Asia in I think the 13th 14th century and then in Europe around the 1600s maybe changes the calculus right? Paul: The drugs were really important in early humans not just alcohol but other types of plant based drugs mushrooms psychedelics of all kinds tobacco and that they were important in creating a great deal of our socialization in groups  and drugs brought people together.