87. Heather Heying on What Makes Us Human: Culture, Consciousness, Campfire, and Chesterton’s Fences

Today’s guest is very meaningful to me and probably requires no introduction. Dr. Heather Heying is the reason I know about detransitioners and am doing half the things I’m doing. An evolutionary biologist and animal behaviorist, world traveler, podcast co-host, writer, mentor to many, mother of two, agreeable contrarian, and all-around interesting person, Dr. Heying can easily be considered one of the greatest thinkers of our time.It was tough to narrow down what to focus on in a conversation with someone so influential, so I selected a few of the recurring themes that form the foundational principles for much of her work. We discuss the concepts of culture and consciousness, and how they shape our understandings of progress and tradition, liberalism and conservatism. We delve into the metaphorical idea of Chesterton's fence, which represents the importance of understanding the purpose and value of something before discarding it. And we examine several “Chesterton’s fences” in modern life that have been impacted by what Heather often calls “hyper-novelty.” What do we lose when we stop sitting around a campfire together, telling stories and making music?Heather Heying is an evolutionary biologist who earned her PhD in Biology from the University of Michigan, has been a visiting Fellow at Princeton University, and was a tenured professor at The Evergreen State College. She has been invited to speak about science, higher ed, the evolution of sex and consciousness, and the culture wars, in venues as varied as the U.S. Department of Justice, the Krishnamurti Institute, Joe Rogan, and Oxford University. Her first book, Antipode, is based on her life in Madagascar while studying the sex lives of poison frogs. Her second book, co-authored with husband Bret Weinstein, is A Hunter-Gatherer’s Guide to the 21st Century: Evolution and the Challenges of Modern Life. A New York Times best-seller, the book provides an evolutionary toolkit for living a good and honorable life as a modern ape. She also writes Natural Selections on Substack, the Field Notes column for County Highway, and co-hosts with Bret a popular weekly livestream on the DarkHorse podcast.Natural Selections blogDarkHorse PodcastX @HeatherEHeyingHeather's books are available in my bookshop or via the embedded Amazon affiliate links. Thank you for purchases that support the show!Bands mentioned:Blanco White Dead Can Dance 00:00 Start02:10 Detransitioners04:46 Detransitioners and cognitive dissonance07:39 Losing friends, gaining friends11:10 Consciousness and culture17:38 Seeking a mix19:05 New ideas and adaptation24:39 Chesterton's fence28:13 Chesterton's breast milk32:21 The role of fire in our humanity36:40 Music around the campfire40:34 Participating in a foreign culture44:58 Cultural appreciation vs. cultural appropriation49:05 Online culture and low context communication52:19 Writing a book57:39 What is actually real01:00:23 Human interactions behind barriers01:04:29 Mentorship and its changing dynamics01:07:43 Mentorship in the trades01:11:40 Changing the culture and connection01:16:24 Cats as pets and toxoplasmosis01:22:05 The crazy cat lady trope01:24:38 Endocrine-disrupting chemicals and gender dysphoria01:30:05 Endocrine disruption in water supply01:32:21 Fixing exposures and finding answers01:37:02 Transhumanism and its subsets01:41:33 Wrap up To support this show, please leave a rating & review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe, like, comment & share via my YouTube channel. Or recommend this to a friend!Learn more about Do No Harm.Take $200 off your EightSleep Pod Pro Cover with code SOMETHERAPIST at EightSleep.com.Take 20% off all superfood beverages with code SOMETHERAPIST at Organifi.Check out my shop for book recommendations + wellness products.Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI.Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission.Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care (our medical ethics documentary, formerly known as Affirmation Generation). Stream the film or purchase a DVD. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order. Follow us on X @2022affirmation or Instagram at @affirmationgeneration.Have a question for me? Looking to go deeper and discuss these ideas with other listeners? Join my Locals community! Members get to ask questions I will respond to in exclusive, members-only livestreams, post questions for upcoming guests to answer, plus other perks TBD. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★