Why Do We Do That? An anthropologist's guide to the modern world.
There are lots of everyday things which, when you think about them, are pretty weird. Like kissing, doomscrolling and sitting down to go to the loo. Social media may tell you to blame the latest influencer who went viral. Your therapist might tell you to blame your parents. But palaeoanthropologist Ella Al-Shamahi is here to tell you to blame your great, great, great, great, great, etc. grandparents. For some stuff at least. In this series, Ella is joined by some wonderful guests to dive into the cultural, historical and evolutionary story of everyday human habits and behaviour.
Photo: Sarah Cresswell / The Times / News Licensing
Why Do We Do That? An anthropologist's guide to the modern world.
There are lots of everyday things which, when you think about them, are pretty weird. Like kissing, doomscrolling and sitting down to go to the loo. Social media may tell you to blame the latest influencer who went viral. Your therapist might tell you to blame your parents. But palaeoanthropologist Ella Al-Shamahi is here to tell you to blame your great, great, great, great, great, etc. grandparents. For some stuff at least. In this series, Ella is joined by some wonderful guests to dive into the cultural, historical and evolutionary story of everyday human habits and behaviour.
Photo: Sarah Cresswell / The Times / News Licensing
Paleoanthropologist Ella Al-Shamahi looks at the evidence for what people want in a partner and how it changes as they get older. Psychologist Julia Stern from the University of Bremen shares the results of a study which recruited people from a singles night in a Berlin club and followed them for 13 years. Novelist Adele Parks explains why writing about bad boys is so much fun, and on the Bridget Jones scale of bad boys think more Hugh Grant and less Colin Firth.