On this, our 333rd Evolutionary Lens livestream, we discuss how to avoid mosquitoes without DEET, whether Gen Z is really doing better than the generations before it (as some research and headlines proclaim), and what the hell happened to Wikipedia. First: catnip is as effective as DEET in dissuading mosquitoes (but you might end up attracting cats). Next: New research suggests that GenZ is doing great, financially, but dig just a little, and find the research deeply flawed. Finally: Larry Sanger named and led Wikipedia in 2001, and he has now been permanently blocked from the site. It has become an ideological racket rather than an encyclopedia, but we need an encyclopedia. How do we get it back?
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Mentioned in this episode:
Catnip as bug repellent: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/jul/07/catnip-lotion-as-effective-as-deet-at-repelling-mosquitoes-study-finds
Is GenZ earning more than millennials?: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2026/jun/22/gen-z-earning-more-millennials-same-age-resolution-foundation
Phil Harper responds: https://thedigger.co/p/gen-z-is-out-earning-millennials
The Guardian publishes a lot from the Resolution Foundation: https://www.theguardian.com/business/resolution-foundation
Larry Sanger: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/op-eds/4638304/larry-sanger-wikipedia-co-founder-banned-anonymous-mob/
Timestamps:
00:00:00 Holding Screen
00:05:14 The Numerology of 333
00:07:47 American Financing
00:10:34 Sponsor: Masa Chips
00:13:16 Sponsor: Crowdhealth
00:15:32 Catnip vs. DEET: The Mosquito Wars
00:38:17 Is Gen Z Really Doing Better?
01:01:45 Wikipedia's Broken Epistemics
01:18:03 Sanger's Ban & Wikipedia's Origin Story
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."
Bret speaks with John Cullen on the subject of the unanswered questions surrounding the assassination of Charlie Kirk and the 2017 Las Vegas shooting.
Youtube: https://youtu.be/7m31LcCTf10
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0LEGBkh2yXDTl3QqU38Qid?si=KtxnJF0IT3i4XGhE_Sm0cg
Locals: https://darkhorse.locals.com/post/8227721/the-drone-hypothesis-john-cullen-on-darkhorse
Rumble: https://rumble.com/v7g2ny2-the-drone-hypothesis-john-cullen-on-darkhorse.html
Bret and Heather discuss new cats, fat bears, and overwhelmed frogs. The tilcayo, a newly named species of cat from Bolivia, is part of a group of New World “tiger cats” that live on the outskirts of the Amazon basin. We discuss Carnivoran relationships, cats more specifically, and what is known about the history and ecology of the tilcayo in particular.
Then: it’s fat bear week at Katmai National Park in Alaska, where grizzlies are fattening themselves on salmon for the Winter ahead; we discuss hibernation, reproductive diapause, and general chonkiness in bears.
Finally: female Cope’s gray treefrogs have a harder time choosing good mates when there’s a lot of noise, and when there are too many suitors—kind of like how women often make bad choices when confronted with chaos and wingmen.
Rumble: ...
