About this episode

Razib Khan interviews physicist Gregory Cochran about his work in human evolution and the themes of his book, The 10,000 Year Explosion.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.razibkhan.com On this episode of Unsupervised Learning , Razib talks to physicist Gregory Cochran . Cochran is best known for his work in human evolution, often at the intersection of biology, anthropology, and history. Trained in physics, he later turned to population genetics and became widely known through collaborations with researchers like Henry Harpending , producing influential but controversial work on recent human evolution, including the idea that natural selection has accelerated in the Holocene. Cochran has also been a prominent public intellectual, co-authoring the book The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution . He writes at the blog West Hunter . First, Razib and Cochran examine the controversy surrounding Ancient DNA reveals pervasive directional selection across West Eurasia , including Davide Piffer’s complaint that the authors did not cite his work. Then, they review chapter-by-chapter the arguments in The 10,000 Year Explosion , from Cochran and John Hawks’ prediction that Neanderthals likely admixed with modern humans, to the importance of agriculture in driving…

People in this episode

Host: Razib Khan

Guest: Gregory Cochran

Topics covered

• human evolution
• population genetics
• natural selection
• ancient DNA
• Neanderthals
• agriculture
• Ashkenazi intelligence

Keywords

• human evolution
• population genetics
• natural selection
• Neanderthals
• agriculture
• Ashkenazi intelligence
• ancient DNA
• controversy

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: West Hunter

Books & works: The 10,000 Year Explosion

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