About this episode

Daniel Lieberman discusses the evolution of the human diet and its implications for health with Robinson Erhardt.

Daniel Lieberman is the Edwin M. Lerner II Professor of Biological Sciences and Professor of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, where he studies the evolution of the human body and its relevance to health. In this episode, Robinson and Dan discuss the evolution of the human diet. More particularly, they talk about our last common ancestors with chimpanzees, how changes in the gut shaped human evolution, what Homo sapiens actually ate during the Paleolithic, and the transformative role of cooking. They also discuss whether there is such a thing as a natural human diet, why junk food is so appealing, and what an evolutionary perspective can teach us about weight loss and eating well. Dan’s latest book is Fed Up: What Evolution Reveals About Food, Diet, Health, and Eating Well (Knopf, 2026). Fed Up: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0593537998 OUTLINE 00:00 Dan’s Interest in Human Evolution 04:43 Why Our Heads Don’t Topple Over When We Run 07:41 Human Evolution and “Fed Up” 10:40 Understanding the Evolution of the Human Diet 19:12 Our Last Common Ancestors with Chimpanzees 30:05 Evolutionary Changes in the Gut 38:51 Homo Sapiens and the Paleolithic Diet 48:18 The…

People in this episode

Host: Robinson Erhardt

Guest: Daniel Lieberman

Topics covered

• human evolution
• human diet
• Paleolithic diet
• cooking
• weight loss
• junk food

Keywords

• human evolution
• diet
• Paleolithic
• cooking
• weight loss
• junk food
• evolutionary biology

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Harvard University, Knopf

Books & works: Fed Up: What Evolution Reveals About Food, Diet, Health, and Eating Well

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