About
A Hunter-Gatherer’s Guide to the 21st Century
New York Times Bestseller
Amazon's “Best Science Books of 2021”
CHAPTER TITLES
The Human Niche
A Brief History of the Human Lineage
Ancient Bodies, Modern World
Medicine
Food
Sleep
Sex and Gender
Parenthood and Relationship
Childhood
School
Becoming Adults
Culture and Consciousness
The Fourth Frontier
Take a Look Inside
Synopsis
A bold, provocative history of our species finds the roots of civilization's success and failure in our evolutionary biology.
We are living through the most prosperous age in all of human history, yet people are more listless, divided and miserable than ever. Wealth and comfort are unparalleled, and yet our political landscape grows ever more toxic, and rates of suicide, loneliness, and chronic illness continue to skyrocket. How do we explain the gap between these two truths? What's more, what can we do to close it?
For evolutionary biologists Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein, the cause of our woes is clear: the modern world is out of sync with our ancient brains and bodies. We evolved to live in clans, but today most people don't even know their neighbors' names. Survival in our earliest societies depended on leveraging the advantages of our sex differences, but today even the concept of biological sex is increasingly dismissed as offensive. The cognitive dissonance spawned by trying to live in a society we're not built for is killing us.
In A Hunter-Gatherer’s Guide to the 21st Century, Heying and Weinstein cut through the politically fraught discourse surrounding issues like sex, gender, diet, parenting, sleep, education, and more to outline a science-based worldview that will empower you to live a better, wiser life.
They distill more than 20 years of research and first-hand accounts from the most biodiverse ecosystems on Earth into straightforward principles and guidance for confronting our culture of hyper-novelty.
Now Available in Multiple Languages
The Hunter-Gatherer’s Guide to the 21st Century is available in the following languages. Please check back soon for more language releases!
ENGLISH • SPANISH • FRENCH
“A book of wisdom”
“This is a book of wisdom written by two broad-minded biologists. It is the human story retold in beautiful language and moving metaphors. Heying and Weinstein are professorial in the best possible sense: they exemplify the intellectual humility, nuanced thinking, and love of learning that a great liberal arts education should nurture. Everyone who is raising or educating kids, or who wants to change social systems, should first read this book to understand how complex humans and human systems work.”
JONATHAN HAIDT
Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership, New York University—Stern School of Business, author of The Righteous Mind, Co-author of The Coddling of the American Mind