#13 - Paul Turke: modern parenting, evolutionary medicine and darwinism

Paul Turke is a physician and evolutionary biologist. He’s a pioneer in evolutionary medicine and has written widely on parenting, cooperation, and how evolutionary theory reshapes how we think about human health and behavior, follow Paul on Twitter

We talk about how modern lifestyles diverge from ancestral ones, how kin networks shaped child development, why evolution still matters in medicine, and what it means to parent well in a mismatched world. Topics are outlined in the timestamps below.

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Timestamps

00:00 – Intro

02:37 – Working with Randy Nesse and framing sickness evolutionarily

05:15 – How childrearing worked in ancestral environments

07:53 – The hidden role of kin in development

10:31 – What modern families are missing

13:09 – Antibiotic resistance and selection pressure

15:47 – Mismatch theory and chronic disease

18:25 – Are modern immune systems overreacting?

21:03 – Exposure, allergens, and immune calibration

23:41 – Evolutionary roots of emotion

26:18 – Emotions as adaptations for coordination

28:56 – Phones, feedback loops, and behavioral hijacking

31:20 – The smoke detector principle and anxiety

34:12 – Adolescence and the modern identity crisis

36:50 – Monitoring, tech, and tribal perception

39:28 – Genetics, ethics, and the future of parenting

42:06 – Why aging exists from an evolutionary view

44:44 – What med school misses about human nature

47:22 – Final thoughts on bringing evolution into healthcare

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