287: Daniel Lieberman: Evolution and the Human Diet

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 Transformative Power of Cooking

54:30 The Most Important Diets

59:19 Why Are Junk Foods So Appealing?

01:03:19 Weight Loss

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where he is also a JD candidate in the Law School.