WildFed Podcast — Hunt Fish Forage Food · Daniel Vitalis

40,000 Generations of Hunters with Dan Flores — WildFed Podcast #165

·1 hr 40 min·5 clips

The APOE gene that risks Alzheimer's evolved to let humans eat decaying meat from predator kills.

This episode features host Daniel Vitalis interviewing Dan Flores, an environmental historian and author of "Wild New World: The Epic Story of Animals and People in America." Flores is a professor emeritus and bestselling author known for works like "Coyote America" and "American Serengeti." The conversation begins with the Chicxulub asteroid impact 66 million years ago, which reset evolution in North America and led to the age of mammals. Flores discusses the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, which preserve late Pleistocene animals like dire wolves and saber-toothed cats that early humans encountered. He traces human migration from Africa to the Americas, highlighting archaeological sites like the Folsom site in New Mexico, which proved humans lived alongside extinct megafauna. Flores describes the "scavenger gene" (APOE), which allowed early humans to eat decaying meat and still exists in modern humans, linking it to traits like runner's high. He explains how hunting large game required group cooperation, shaping human culture and brain development. The discussion covers Neanderthals, whose bones show they were even more carnivorous than wolves, and notes that many people today carry Neanderthal DNA. A key insight is that humans have undergone 40,000 generations of hunting, making them highly skilled predators upon arriving in North America. Flores connects the human shoulder's adaptation for arboreal locomotion to the ability to throw weapons, a critical hunting advancement. He argues there was no "big leap" separating humans from other animals, just gradual refinement of innate traits. The tone is educational and conversational, blending deep historical narrative with personal anecdotes from Flores's research travels. Listeners interested in paleontology, human evolution, and environmental history will find this episode compelling. Those seeking purely practical hunting or foraging advice might find the academic scope less directly applicable.

As heard by us

A deep-time hunting argument that links human identity to a long history of big-game hunting.

Dan Flores and WildFed frame hunting in deep time, tying extinction, coastal archaeology, and human evolution into an argument that big game has never been a side note.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

For when you want deep time, hunting history, and a hard look at what made us human.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from WildFed Podcast — Hunt Fish Forage Food