People I (Mostly) Admire

55. Jared Diamond on the Downfall of Civilizations — and His Optimism for Ours

Dec 11, 2021

47:34

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Highlights

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Episode notes

Greenland Vikings - What Are They Going to Get From Norway?

01:40

Why Societies Destroy the Environment

03:22

Sustainable Forestry in a World of Scarcity

01:49

Introduction

2min

How Did You Become a Gor Bladder Expert?

3min

How Did You Get Yourself Into Trouble?

2min

What Is the Best Way to Write for a Wide Audience?

3min

What's the Meaning of Wet Years?

2min

The Norse Greenland Settlement

3min

Greenland Vikings - What Are They Going to Get From Norway?

2min

Why Societies Destroy the Environment

3min

Sustainable Forestry in a World of Scarcity

2min

10.

New Swag for the Freconomics Radio Network

4min

11.

Baseball Cheating

2min

12.

Is There a Web Sigt?

2min

13.

I've Been in a Lot of Crazy Places in the Highlands of New Guinea.

2min

14.

Getting Lost in the Jungle

3min

15.

New Guinea - The Most Interesting Place in the World

2min

16.

How Much Like People Are in Prisons?

2min

17.

Cannibalism in Africa

2min

18.

Global Cooperation

4min

19.

How Did You Start Writing Popular Books?

3min

20.

Is Your Best Decade Your 84?

2min

21.

The Hidden Sid of Everything Stitchernational Geographics, Welcome to Earth, Starring Will Smith

3min

He’s the award-winning author of hugely popular books like Guns, Germs, and Steel; Collapse; and Upheaval. But Jared actually started his varied career as an expert on gallbladders and birds. The physiologist turned geographer talks with Steve about his brushes with death, why the Norse Greenlanders wouldn’t eat fish, and why he has never been invited to a cannibal ceremony.