On this, our 301st Evolutionary Lens livestream, we discuss grief and mourning, and what makes us human. How many distinctly human traits will we prune away before we realize that we have gone too far, that there is too little remaining of humanity to be resurrected? From the Industrial Revolution(s) to that of AI, now we’ve got apps that threaten to keep your loved ones “alive” forever, with none of the valuable complexity that ancient grieving traditions offer. Then: bonobos show evidence of language use that is emergent—in which combinations of sounds mean more than the sum of their parts. And: all of the ostriches at Universal Ostrich Farm in British Columbia have been slaughtered, per a court order, despite there being no public or individual health justification for doing so.
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Mentioned in this episode:
Amelia Earhart: https://x.com/dnigabbard/status/1989450238923309500
2wai, the anti-grief app: https://x.com/bretweinstein/status/1989413085753577593
Berthet et al 2025. Extensive compositionality in the vocal system of bonobos. Science, 388(6742): 104-108: https://www.science.org/doi/epdf/10.1126/science.adv1170
AP on ostriches, 11-7-25: https://apnews.com/article/oshtrich-cull-bird-flu-canada-cbef6e65b570bbc91a790b4817e02777
WaPo on pet vaccinations: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/11/15/edith-pritchett-cartoon-anti-vaccine-pet-owners/
Timestamps:
00:00:00 Holding Screen
00:06:51 The Files are Released!
00:22:26 An Unholy App
01:06:18 Animal Communication
01:25:17 MAHA Ostrich Update
01:32:02 Anti-Vaccine Movement Spreads to Pet Owners
We have "cartesian blinders being put on us so that we are trying to make sense out of scraps of information and hints." - @bretweinstein
WEINSTEIN: I mean, even if you have your villains who are engaged in the behavior that motivated this war in Iran, even if that's the story, presumably most of the people in the path of these ferocious bombings that he is describing are not deserving of going back to the Stone Age.
In fact, I distinctly remember him telling us that part of what we were up to was liberating the people of Iran from their tyrannical regime.
So if it's the tyrannical regime that justifies the ferocious bombing, then it's a tragedy that other people are going to be sent back to the Stone Ages with them. Right?
HEYING: It's it's not a narrative. It's an incoherent set of talking points.
WEINSTEIN: Yeah, it's a kind of cheerleading that is completely inappropriate from the perspective of the president.
Bret Weinstein discusses the Trump administrations "back to the stone age" recent remarks in the latest episode of The Evolutionary Lens, Episode 320 "Are we back in the stone age?" on DarkHorse.
Bret Weinstein explains, "If you stop businesses from starting here, and if you drive people so that they move elsewhere—even though it's difficult to do—then the point is the tax base dries up, which then forces you to become even more predatory for the people who stayed.
And that's really the thing, right? They're setting themselves up so that they have to go after more and more people, because the people who are starting new businesses are not going to do it here."
