Pocket Casts Plus
Podcasts
Playlists
Discover
New Releases
In Progress
Starred
Bookmarks
History
Create account
Sign in
Pocket Casts Plus
Get the app

Create accountLog in
If Books Could Kill

Sapiens

Nov 20, 2025
1h 38m

Episode Description

How do you tell the entire history of humanity in a single book? Whatever you do, do not open a browser window. 

Thanks to Dorsa Amir, Duncan Stibbard Hawkes and David Perry for help researching and fact-checking this episode!

Where to find us: 

  • Our Patreon
  • Our merch!
  • Peter's newsletter
  • Peter's other podcast, 5-4
  • Mike's other podcast, Maintenance Phase

Sources:

  • A Response to Yuval Harari
  • Yuval Noah Harari’s History of Everyone, Ever
  • How Humankind Conquered the World
  • The revolution that wasn't
  • Advances In The Study Of The Origin Of Humanness
  • 21 Lessons for the 21st Century is a banal and risible self-help book
  • Are Human Rights Western? 
  • Bonaparte in Egypt
  • Ship of Fools
  • The Dangerous Populist Science of Yuval Noah Harari
  • A Reductionist History of Humankind
  • Harari, Sapiens and historical accuracy
  • The Broad Spectrum Revolution at 40
  • The Neolithic Revolution in the Middle East
  • Was the Agricultural Revolution a Terrible Mistake?
  • The Darker Side of the "Original Affluent Society"
  • Harari's world history
  • Compassion with Justice: Harari’s Assault on Human Rights
  • Reconsidering the link between past material culture and cognition 

Thanks to Mindseye for our theme song!

See all episodes

Never lose your place, on any device

Create a free account to sync, back up, and get personal recommendations.

Create account

Chapters

0 Chapters

Up Next

Nothing in Up Next

You can queue episodes to play next using the dot menu on an episode row.

Press spacebar to reorder.