If Books Could Kill – "Sapiens" (Nov 20, 2025)

Episode Overview

Michael Hobbes and Peter Shamshiri take on Yuval Noah Harari's mega-bestseller Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, deconstructing its popularity among the powerful, its sweeping theories, and its parade of controversial—and, at times, outdated—ideas about human evolution, society, and the future. They question why "airport books" like Sapiens capture the progressive imagination, while revealing how much of Harari's take is out of date, overconfident, or just plain wrong.

Main Themes and Purpose

• Deconstructing "Big History": The hosts interrogate the seductive narrative structures of books like Sapiens that promise a single, sweeping story of humanity—while often glossing over complexity, current research, and meaningful nuance.
• Calling Out Misinformation: Michael and Peter systematically identify where Harari presents outdated or factually incorrect information yet continues to peddle it in newer editions without correction.
• Davos Appeal: They examine why global elites—think Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Davos attendees—love this type of narrative and what it does for their self-image.
• Danger of Grand Narratives: The dangers of pseudo-philosophical, "30,000-foot" claims, especially in the hands of those with power or influence, are examined in depth.

Episode Breakdown

1. Cultural Phenomenon & High-Altitude Nonsense (00:53–04:31)

• Sapiens is described as THE Davos-set book: beloved by the tech elite, cited by Obama and Bill Gates, and hot in CEO book clubs.
• The hosts play a seminal Harari TED talk quote about humanity's unique ability to believe in fictions—a theme running through Sapiens.

Key Quote:

"We can cooperate flexibly with countless numbers of strangers because we...can create and believe fictions..."
—Yuval Noah Harari (04:31)

• Michael pokes holes immediately: It's impossible to claim one single trait is what makes us dominant, and Harari is fundamentally unfalsifiable.

2. The Myth of the Cognitive Revolution (08:02–12:24)

• Harari claims a "Cognitive Revolution" 70,000 years ago caused a sudden leap in human culture, which Michael explains is 30 years out of date.
• Archaeological findings (Sally McBrearty & Allison Brooks, 2002) show that tool use, art, and social behaviors evolved slowly, mostly in Africa, not "overnight in Europe," as Harari suggests.
• The hosts deride how popular authors echo (and dumb down) previous "big idea" writers (like Jared Diamond), spawning generations of self-replicating, oversimplified takes.

Memorable Moment:

"We're like a second generation airport book author...and that means in another five years or so, we're going to get another even dumber book just like this."
—Michael (14:35)

3. Agriculture — "History's Biggest Fraud"? (15:13–27:51)

• Sapiens advances the "agriculture was a mistake" argument, celebrating forager lifestyles as healthier, happier, and richer in leisure and diet.
• Michael systematically debunks:
  • The "affluent forager" concept from Marshall Sahlins (1960s) is wildly overstated;
  • More comprehensive ethnography shows foragers worked at least as hard as (if not harder than) subsistence farmers, often with more risk.
  • Infants' mortality in forager societies: sometimes 50%.
• Debunked claims:
  • Foragers worked "only" 2 hours/day—nope, that's selective data.
  • Agricultural societies instantly meant hierarchy, disease, and misery—reality: the picture is far more complex.

Notable Quote:

"If you gave me a foraging society in 2020, by 2025, I would’ve turned it into an agricultural society."
—Peter (29:59)

4. Social Construction & The Nature of Law (31:03–40:49)

• Harari's line: religions, states, human rights are all "shared fictions."
• Deliberate pseudo-cynicism: He equates the idea of human equality in the Declaration of Independence with fiction, since "biology" is difference.
• Peter's response: pointed frustration at the freshman-dorm-room quality of this line of argument.

Key Segment:
[32:16–34:39]
Peter reads and mocks Harari's assertion that "Created equal should therefore be translated as evolved differently," condemning it as "rambling nonsense."

5. "Everything's a Religion" – Weak Abstractions (37:33–41:23)

• Harari's conceit: ideologies (liberalism, communism, capitalism, even Nazism) are all "religions" because they offer shared myths and social rules.
• The hosts ridicule this as a semantic, adolescent dodge to avoid the real discussion about the functions (and dangers) of religion vs. ideology.

Quote:

"You could use this formulation to say that archaeology is a religion."
—Michael (39:13)

• Michael notes a scholarly critique (Mike W. Martin) highlighting how this approach "assaults human rights" by reducing everything to a "belief system."

6. The TED Talk Industrial Complex & Davos Appeal (41:41–47:15)

• The hosts dissect how Harari's non-answers—and preference for abstract, philosophical statements—are designed to sound smart while saying nothing.
• "He's selling a feeling, not knowledge," says Michael, analyzing why the powerful love this kind of empty wisdom.

Memorable Analogy:

"You know that dream where you're standing at a podium and you have to give a 45-minute talk about the Ming Dynasty or something? That’s what every Harari interview is like."
—Michael (43:54)

7. Harari on "Fake News" and the Danger of Empty Equivalencies (46:00–53:46)

• Harari's Post Truth essay repackages the tired trope that "there's always been fake news"—implicitly undermining the seriousness of the modern problem.
• Rather than solutions, Harari offers platitudes ("pay for your news"; "read scientific literature"), missing the systemic and social aspects of disinformation.
• Peter and Michael lampoon his suggestion that "scientists should write more science fiction" as an answer to the crisis of misinformation.

"He's just glancing around the room like, advertising is fake. He sees a tv. He’s like, TV shows are fake news."
—Peter (49:24)

8. The Scientific Revolution, Europe, and (Very) Dubious History (55:15–67:47)

• Harari claims science didn't exist before 1500 and only emerged in Europe, thanks to a uniquely curious "mindset" driven by the "discovery" of America.
• Medieval historian David Perry tells Michael the supposed opposition between science and religion is highly modern and historically false.
• Harari credits European imperial conquest with knowledge-seeking, in contrast to "parochial" Asians and "uninterested" Aztecs—an analysis the hosts dismiss as Eurocentric and borderline racist.
• The review from Charles Mann (author of 1491) and Chinese history highlight how non-European civilizations investigated, catalogued, and explored the world long before Columbus.

Quote:

"Mr. Columbus, please find us knowledge in the New World."
—Peter (60:30)

9. Relativism, Colonialism, and the Refusal to Take a Stand (73:30–78:39)

• Harari's position on colonialism: yes, it was violent and exploitative, but modern India "benefits" from tea, cricket, democracy, etc.—so, who can really say if it's good or bad?
• The hosts call out the fallacy and offensiveness of this argument, pointing out India's own traditions of human rights and democratic systems, and how Britain absolutely did not practice those values on its colonial subjects.

Key Analysis:

"Brits were not practicing human rights in India. Like, I'm beating my wife and I'm like, well, from me, she learned the principle of nonviolence."
—Michael (77:20)

10. Playing Oracle—Harari’s Predictive Record (81:37–91:11)

• Harari predicts the death of nationalism and the end of epidemic threats—two whoppers handily disproved by the 2016–2025 period.
• The hosts analyze why elite audiences embrace future-porn speculation: it's progressive, "above-the-fray," but ultimately gives powerful people a license for inaction.
• Critique of Harari's favorite obsession: biometric surveillance. Real experts confirm such technology is nowhere near able to determine people's sexuality or moods; the closest thing we have is internet browsing history.

11. Happiness, Buddhism, and Escaping Material Needs (93:59–97:52)

• Harari concludes Sapiens and his worldview with a Buddhist-flavored disengagement prescription: to be happy, desire nothing—including happiness.
• Michael and Peter note the irony in a supposedly world-changing book ending with a "just stop caring" philosophy, one that both flatters and defangs the privileged.

"All of humanity, tens of thousands of years, and the only way he can think to end the story is with an individual prescription to disengage."
—Michael (96:16)

Notable Quotes & Timestamps

| Timestamp | Quote | Speaker | |-------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------| | 04:31 | "We can cooperate flexibly with countless numbers of strangers because we...can create and believe fictions..." | Yuval Harari | | 14:35 | "We're like a second generation airport book author...and that means in another five years...another even dumber book." | Michael | | 32:16–34:39 | "Created equal should therefore be translated into evolved differently...Shut your fucking mouth." | Peter | | 39:13 | "You could use this formulation to say that archaeology is a religion." | Michael | | 43:54 | "You know that dream where you're standing at a podium and you have to give a 45-minute talk about the Ming Dynasty...? That’s what every Harari interview is like." | Michael | | 49:24 | "He's just glancing around the room like, advertising is fake...TV shows are fake news." | Peter | | 60:30 | "Mr. Columbus, please find us knowledge in the New World." | Peter | | 77:20 | "Brits were not practicing human rights in India. Like, I'm beating my wife and I'm like, well, from me, she learned the principle of nonviolence." | Michael | | 96:16 | "All of humanity...and the only way he can think to end the story is with an individual prescription to disengage." | Michael |

Running Gags and Tone

• The hosts’ style is sarcastic, critical, and irreverent, with frequent asides and bits (e.g., "If you gave me a forager society in 2020, by 2025, I’d have agriculture").
• Repeated lampooning of Harari’s unsupported assertions and fondness for "deep," TED-Talk soundbites.
• Ongoing bemusement at the appeal of Sapiens to millionaires—a “feeling of progressive thought without the work.”

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:53–04:31: Sapiens' summary, Harari's TED talk
• 08:02–12:24: Archaeological debunking of the "Cognitive Revolution"
• 15:13–27:51: Farming as "history's biggest fraud" argument and counter-debunk
• 31:03–40:49: Social fictions, law, and Declaration of Independence
• 37:33–41:23: The "ideologies as religions" detour
• 41:41–47:15: Why the Davos set loves these books
• 46:00–53:46: Post-truth, fake news, and non-solutions
• 55:15–67:47: Science in Europe (or, dubious Eurocentrism)
• 73:30–78:39: Harari, colonialism, and the perils of neutrality
• 81:37–91:11: His future-of-humanity predictions and why elites love them
• 93:59–97:52: Buddhism, happiness, and the book's disengaged ending

Final Takeaways

• The episode is a thorough (and often hilarious) demolition of Sapiens as both popular science and pop philosophy. The hosts demonstrate how the book’s high-altitude claims collapse under scrutiny from basic research and specialist knowledge.
• Harari's biggest "innovation" may be to offer the world's rich and powerful a way to feel smart, progressive, and above politics—while ultimately doing nothing.
• As Peter summarizes, it’s “rambling moron nonsense” that’s “made it to mainstream discourse”—but rarely survives a close reading.

For listeners: this episode is a must if you’ve ever been recommended Sapiens, felt the allure of airport bestsellers, or just want to equip yourself with strong counter-arguments to the next tech bro TED talk.