Go Wild

Go Wild Plot Summary

Introduction

Picture this: a group of hunter-gatherers sitting around a fire under the vast African sky, sharing stories and laughter, their bodies lean and strong from daily movement, their minds sharp and present in the moment. This isn't a romanticized fantasy, but a glimpse into our evolutionary past—the environment that shaped our bodies and minds for millennia before modern civilization arrived on the scene. For most of human history, we lived in harmony with our biological design. We moved constantly, ate varied natural foods, slept according to natural light cycles, maintained close social bonds, and stayed deeply connected to the natural world. Yet in just a few generations, we've dramatically altered this ancestral template. Today we find ourselves increasingly disconnected from the conditions that shaped our species—stuck in chairs, bathed in artificial light, consuming processed foods, and suffering epidemics of chronic disease and psychological distress. The authors present a compelling case that this mismatch between our ancient biology and modern lifestyle lies at the root of our contemporary health crisis. By understanding the blueprint evolution created for human thriving and reclaiming key elements of our wild heritage, we can restore the physical vitality and mental wellbeing that is our birthright.

Chapter 1: Our Ancestral Roots: How Evolution Shaped Human Health

Meet David Carrier, a biologist at the University of Utah whose office houses a well-worn pair of trail running shoes. These aren't just any athletic footwear—they represent a scientific journey that challenged conventional wisdom about human evolution. For years, medical professionals told injured runners, "The human body wasn't designed for running." But Carrier's research revealed something remarkable: humans are actually exceptional endurance runners—perhaps the best on the planet. Working with colleagues Dennis Bramble and Daniel Lieberman, Carrier analyzed the human skeleton and identified twenty-six distinct adaptations specific to running, not walking. Unlike our closest ape relatives who can only run awkwardly for short distances, humans evolved springy arched feet, elongated Achilles tendons, and upper body stabilization features that enable efficient long-distance running. These adaptations appeared suddenly about two million years ago, marking a watershed in human evolution. To test his theory that these adaptations evolved for "persistence hunting"—chasing prey until it collapses from exhaustion—Carrier attempted to run down antelopes in Wyoming. While his initial attempts failed, he later traveled to Africa and learned from indigenous hunters who still practice this method. The key wasn't just physical endurance but also deep knowledge of prey behavior—a perfect marriage of physical capability and cognitive skill. What fascinated Carrier most was that human bodies don't display a single specialization but rather remarkable versatility. Unlike horses optimized for galloping or cheetahs for sprinting, humans evolved as movement generalists—the "Swiss Army knives of motion." We can run, climb, throw, jump, and perform countless movement patterns with reasonable proficiency. This adaptability required an outsize brain to control such diverse locomotion, creating a positive feedback loop: our need to move shaped our brains, and our growing brains enabled more sophisticated movement. This evolutionary insight reveals something profound about human health: movement isn't just exercise—it's fundamental to our design. The human body evolved expecting regular, varied physical activity. Our muscles, bones, cardiovascular system, and especially our brains developed in response to movement challenges. When we adopt sedentary lifestyles, we're not just missing exercise; we're depriving our bodies and minds of the very stimulation they evolved to require for optimal function.

Chapter 2: The Modern Dilemma: Diseases of Civilization and Their Causes

George Armelagos wasn't always skeptical about the benefits of civilization. As a young anthropologist in the 1970s, he set out to study the Dickson Mounds, ancient Native American burial sites in Illinois that recorded a critical transition from hunting-gathering to agriculture. The prevailing narrative was that agriculture represented progress—humans had grown too numerous for hunting to sustain them, so they turned to farming and prospered. Armelagos expected to find evidence of improved health after this transition. What he discovered shocked him. Examining the skeletal remains, he found that the farmers were significantly less healthy than their hunter-gatherer predecessors—shorter, more diseased, and showing clear signs of nutritional deficiencies. "We expected to find an increase in infectious disease rates with agriculture, but we didn't expect to find an increase in nutritional deficiencies. That was really counterintuitive," Armelagos recalled. This pattern has since been confirmed at similar sites worldwide. The revelation sparked what researchers now call "diseases of civilization"—a growing recognition that many modern ailments are directly linked to our departure from ancestral lifestyles. The concept traces back to the 1840s when French physician Stanislas Tanchou noticed cancer was far more prevalent in cities than rural areas. By the early 20th century, physicians documented that indigenous people worldwide rarely suffered from cancer, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, dental cavities, arthritis, or even acne—until they adopted Western diets and lifestyles. Today, these diseases dominate global health statistics. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Global Burden of Disease" study identified that the world's leading health problems—heart disease, stroke, diabetes, depression, and many cancers—stem primarily from lifestyle factors like diet, inactivity, and stress. Epidemiologists call this the "carbovore's dilemma": we've become creatures that primarily eat carbohydrates, especially refined ones, which our bodies treat as toxins. The modern environment has swamped our bodies' natural balancing mechanisms. Our systems evolved to handle occasional stresses and periodic food shortages, not constant streams of processed carbohydrates, sedentary behavior, artificial light, and chronic psychological stress. The result is an epidemic of metabolic dysfunction, with insulin resistance at its core—the body's adaptive but ultimately harmful response to consistent overloading of its regulatory systems. What's particularly revealing is how these health challenges emerge even when traditional peoples merely adopt Western foods while maintaining other aspects of their traditional lifestyle. This pattern underscores that while civilization brought many benefits, we need not accept its health costs as inevitable. By understanding how our bodies evolved to function, we can make targeted lifestyle adjustments that honor our biology while enjoying modern advantages.

Chapter 3: Nourishing the Primal Body: The Food Connection

Mary Beth Stutzman's health was spiraling out of control. At just 34, this once-active woman suffered from debilitating stomach pain, digestive paralysis, insomnia, seizures, weight gain resistant to exercise, and severe constipation. "I would go seven times in one day, and then I wouldn't go for a week," she recalled. Despite visiting numerous specialists with a two-page list of symptoms, doctors dismissed her concerns. One physician even walked out saying, "Have you ever seen a therapist for your problems?" while his nurse complained, "We'll be here all night with this girl." Emergency room visits followed as her symptoms worsened. During one particularly frightening episode, doctors discovered her intestines were paralyzed in three areas with waste backed up to her small intestine. "You're one sandwich away from a ruptured bowel, which can be deadly," they warned. After several enemas and weeks of surviving on liquid nutrition, she returned to specialists who still offered no solutions—one gastroenterologist simply walked out after telling her to "just eat potatoes" if that's all she could tolerate. The turning point came unexpectedly. A friend brought her cupcakes to cheer her up—along with a book about the paleo diet that he himself followed. Mary Beth read about "leaky gut syndrome" and recognized her symptoms immediately. "In all those years of seeing doctors and delivering long lists of symptoms, no one suggested this to me, let alone asked what I was eating," she explained. She adopted a diet eliminating dense carbohydrates and sugar, focusing instead on natural proteins, fats, and vegetables. The improvement was dramatic and immediate. "I can't even describe how great I felt. It was like being born again. It was a feeling of how great it is to be alive. It was out of this world," she told the authors. Today, Mary Beth is vibrant and active, promoting fitness in her community and fully engaged with her family. While she describes her approach as "trending toward paleo" rather than strictly following any particular regimen, the core principle—avoiding the refined carbohydrates that agriculture introduced to the human diet—proved transformative. Mary Beth's story illuminates the central nutritional insight that emerges from evolutionary biology: humans evolved primarily as meat-eaters supplemented by gathered plants, not as consumers of dense carbohydrates. For millions of years, our ancestors thrived on diets that never included sugar-dense foods or grains. Agriculture arrived only about 10,000 years ago—a mere instant in evolutionary time—introducing concentrated carbohydrates that convert rapidly to glucose in our bloodstream. The body treats blood glucose as toxic at high levels, triggering insulin to remove it quickly. When this system faces chronic overloading from modern diets rich in refined carbohydrates and sugars, insulin resistance develops—the root of metabolic syndrome, which connects obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and many other modern ailments. Meanwhile, industrial food processing introduced novel substances like trans fats that our bodies have no evolutionary experience handling. The nutritional wisdom that emerges isn't about calorie restriction or nutritional perfectionism—it's about reconnecting with the dietary patterns that align with our evolutionary design. By prioritizing whole foods, especially quality proteins and fats, minimizing refined carbohydrates, and embracing dietary variety, we can support our bodies' natural regulation systems rather than constantly overwhelming them.

Chapter 4: Movement as Medicine: The Brain-Body Partnership

Neuroscientist Daniel Wolpert begins his lectures with a provocative question: Why do we have a brain? Most people answer "to think," but Wolpert offers a completely different perspective: "We have a brain for one reason only: to produce adaptable and complex movements. There is no other plausible explanation." This insight turns conventional wisdom on its head. Our brains didn't evolve primarily for abstract thinking but for coordinating physical movement—a task far more computationally demanding than we realize. Even a simple act like picking up a pencil requires calculating countless variables of force, angle, and timing. This connection between movement and brain development is so fundamental that primitive sea squirts, which anchor themselves permanently after finding a suitable spot, actually digest their own brains once they stop moving—they simply don't need them anymore. The evolutionary relationship between movement and cognition gained scientific validation through groundbreaking neuroscience research in the 1990s. Scientists discovered neuroplasticity (the brain's ability to rewire itself) and neurogenesis (the growth of new brain cells)—both directly stimulated by physical activity. Exercise triggers the release of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which John Ratey calls "Miracle-Gro for the brain," along with other growth factors that promote neural development across the entire brain. These discoveries explain why exercise benefits extend far beyond physical fitness. In a comprehensive review, researchers at the Mayo Clinic analyzed 1,603 scientific papers on exercise and cognition, finding that regular physical activity both prevents and treats cognitive impairment. The benefits are particularly striking in the elderly—exercise increases hippocampal volume and preserves gray matter, directly counteracting age-related cognitive decline. But the effects aren't limited to the elderly. Studies of children show a direct relationship between fitness and academic performance—the more fitness standards students meet, the better their test scores. Even more remarkably, a massive Swedish study of 1.2 million young men found that cardiovascular fitness was a better predictor of cognitive ability and IQ than family relationships—even among identical twins. This suggests that physical activity can actually override genetic predispositions when it comes to brain development. The transformative potential of movement extends beyond cognition to mental health. Exercise is now recognized by the American Psychiatric Association as an effective treatment for depression, with studies showing it works as well as medication—but with longer-lasting effects. Psychologist James Blumenthal's landmark research demonstrated that after ten months, depressed patients who exercised regularly fared better than those taking antidepressants alone. What's particularly important is that the most beneficial movement isn't monotonous exercise on gym machines. Our bodies evolved for varied, complex movement patterns in natural settings. Trail running, dance, martial arts, and group activities that challenge the entire body in diverse ways provide the richest neural stimulation. The most effective movement engages not just muscles but perception, balance, coordination, and social awareness—all fundamental capacities that enabled our ancestors to survive and thrive in challenging environments.

Chapter 5: The Social Animal: How Connection Heals

Sue Carter's fascination with prairie voles began in the 1970s, but the implications of her research would eventually revolutionize our understanding of human social bonds. While studying these small rodents in North American grasslands, she noticed something remarkable: unlike their close relatives, meadow voles, prairie voles formed lifelong monogamous partnerships. Male prairie voles actively participated in raising young and maintaining family structures—social behaviors strikingly similar to humans. What could explain this difference between such closely related species? Carter discovered the answer in a single molecule: oxytocin. This neuropeptide, along with its close relative vasopressin, triggered profound behavioral transformations in these animals. When young prairie voles encountered a potential mate, these chemicals flooded their systems, transforming them from solitary individuals into deeply attached partners within hours. The finding was so significant that researchers began experimenting with other species. When they administered oxytocin to typically non-monogamous rats, the males adopted uncharacteristic nurturing behaviors. Even more remarkably, genetically modifying meadow voles to enhance their oxytocin receptors caused them to develop prairie vole-like social attachments. This single molecule appeared to be a master regulator of social bonding across species. Human research soon followed, revealing oxytocin's crucial role in our social connections. Simple nasal administration of oxytocin enhanced people's ability to recognize emotional states in others' faces, improved trust in social interactions, and increased empathy and altruism in controlled experiments. Business transactions that triggered oxytocin release created lasting trust between partners. Even interactions between humans and dogs increased oxytocin levels in both species, with dogs showing even larger increases than their human companions. Yet oxytocin's effects reveal something more profound about our evolutionary heritage. Carter's research demonstrated that social bonding wasn't just a cultural development but a biological adaptation written into our very chemistry. Anthropologist Sarah Blaffer Hrdy takes this insight further, arguing that cooperative child-rearing—what she calls "shared care and provisioning"—was the prerequisite for human evolution. Unlike any other species, human infants require years of intensive care from multiple adults. This extended dependency period necessitated unprecedented social cooperation. "What I want to stress," Hrdy writes, "is that cooperative breeding was the preexisting condition that permitted the evolution of these traits in the hominin line. Creatures may not need big brains to evolve cooperative breeding, but hominins needed shared care and provisioning to evolve big brains. Cooperative breeding had to come first." This biological foundation for human connection reveals why social relationships are not luxury items but essential components of health. Studies consistently show that social isolation increases mortality risk as much as smoking 15 cigarettes daily. Conversely, strong social bonds improve immune function, accelerate healing, reduce stress hormones, and even alter gene expression in ways that promote longevity. Our nervous systems are literally designed to regulate through connection with others—we cannot reach optimal health in isolation. The implications extend beyond personal relationships to our broader social structures. Our modern emphasis on independence and self-sufficiency runs counter to our biological design for interdependence. By recognizing connection as a biological necessity rather than a cultural nicety, we can better understand why loneliness and social fragmentation exact such a severe toll on physical and mental health in contemporary society.

Chapter 6: Nature's Therapy: Biophilia and Environmental Wellbeing

The Japanese government has invested millions of dollars in "forest bathing" research and developed over one hundred forest therapy centers nationwide. What do they know that the rest of the world is just beginning to discover? The answer lies in a concept called biophilia, what E.O. Wilson describes as "the innately emotional affiliation of human beings to other living organisms." This innate connection to nature isn't just poetic sentiment—it's encoded in our genes through evolution. Consider a simple thought experiment: imagine hiking up a mountain trail to a ridgetop with a sweeping panoramic view. If you pause to observe the ground, you might notice it's littered with animal droppings. This isn't coincidence—elk and deer also prefer these vantage points, bedding down precisely where humans instinctively stop to rest. Both species share an evolutionary preference for places offering safety and situational awareness. Japanese researchers have documented the physiological effects of natural environments through a practice called shinrin-yoku, or forest bathing. Their studies show remarkable results: people spending time in forests experience decreased cortisol (stress hormone) levels, lowered blood pressure, improved immune function, and enhanced mood. One particularly striking study found that Japanese businessmen who spent just two days in forests showed a 40% increase in natural killer cells—immune system components that fight viruses and cancer. Remarkably, this immune enhancement persisted at 15% above baseline even a month later. The mechanisms behind these effects are fascinating. Trees release compounds called phytoncides—airborne chemicals that protect them from insects and disease. When humans inhale these compounds, our bodies respond with reduced stress hormones and enhanced immune function. Additionally, natural environments contain beneficial microbes that support our internal microbiome and help regulate our immune system. Even the full-spectrum sunlight in natural settings triggers vitamin D production and helps regulate our circadian rhythms. Research in the Netherlands examined medical records of 345,143 patients and found significantly lower disease rates for people living within a kilometer of green space. The protective effect was strongest for anxiety disorders and depression, and most pronounced among lower-income populations. In Taiwan, researchers using EEGs and other physiological measures documented therapeutic effects when subjects viewed streams, valleys, orchards, and farms. Hospital patients recover faster when their rooms have windows overlooking nature, and office workers with views of trees take 40% fewer sick days. Even more compelling is evidence that our brains process natural environments differently than built environments. Using fMRI scans, Korean researchers found that urban scenes activated brain regions associated with stress and depression, while natural scenes activated the anterior cingulate and insula—regions associated with empathy and emotional regulation. The effect is so pronounced that researchers describe nature as "a little drop of morphine for the brain." Evolutionary psychologists have identified what they call "biologically prepared learning"—we learn to fear environmental threats like snakes and heights much more quickly than modern dangers like electrical wires or traffic, despite the latter being far more dangerous today. Our brains evolved in natural environments and remain attuned to natural patterns, rhythms, and stimuli even in our modern built world. The implications extend beyond individual wellbeing to public health. Research demonstrates that incorporating green spaces, natural light, and biophilic design elements into schools, workplaces, and healthcare facilities significantly improves outcomes at relatively low cost. What's remarkable is that most people underestimate these benefits—study participants consistently report feeling better after nature exposure than they predicted, suggesting we've lost touch with our innate connection to the natural world.

Chapter 7: Mindful Existence: Awareness in a Distracted World

Richard Nelson, an anthropologist who spent years living among the Koyukon people of Alaska's interior, once invited some of his Koyukon friends to visit him at his new coastal home. He expected joyful reunion and conversation, but when they arrived, they fell silent. For days, they wandered his island, absorbing every detail of this unfamiliar environment. When they finally spoke, they described Nelson's island home in far greater detail and with more insight than he could after years of living there. This is the hunter-gatherer state of mind—a level of awareness, presence, and observation that modern humans can scarcely imagine. It's not mystical but practical—a heightened attention that was essential for survival in wild environments. This mindfulness was the default state of human consciousness for most of our evolutionary history. Richard Davidson, a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has spent decades studying this type of awareness through his research on meditation. In the 1990s, he accepted a challenge from the Dalai Lama to apply rigorous scientific methods to understanding meditation's effects on the brain. Davidson began by studying experienced Tibetan Buddhist monks, each with over 10,000 hours of meditation practice. Using advanced brain imaging techniques, his team made a stunning discovery: when monks heard distressing sounds like a woman screaming, their brains showed dramatically stronger activation in regions associated with empathy compared to control subjects. "We were absolutely stunned because the changes were so robust and so dramatic that we were able to observe them with the naked eye, which is almost never the case in this kind of research," Davidson reported. "We can literally see the signal in front of us." These findings led to studies with ordinary people learning basic meditation techniques. The results were compelling: even short-term meditation practice improved attention, reduced anxiety, enhanced immune function, and increased empathy and altruism in controlled experiments. One study showed volunteers who received meditation training performed better on tests of attention, showing less "attentional blink"—the brief mental blindness that occurs after focusing on one target. Another demonstrated that meditation practitioners healed from psoriasis about four times faster than control groups. The neurological signature of meditation is remarkable: synchronized gamma waves throughout the brain. Normally, brain activity resembles chaotic street noise, but meditation creates a harmonious pattern like musicians playing in unison. Davidson calls it "phase-locking," and it allows the brain to process information more efficiently: "A calm brain is like a still lake. When a rock lands in a perfectly still lake, the ripples stand out like a walrus in a desert." Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer has demonstrated similar effects through what she calls "mindfulness"—simply paying attention to new things. In one famous study, she told hotel chambermaids that their work activities constituted good exercise. A month later, these women showed decreased blood pressure, weight, and waist-to-hip ratios compared to a control group who performed identical work but weren't told it was exercise. In another experiment, elderly men housed in quarters decorated as if it were twenty years earlier began to look and act younger. What connects these findings is that attention itself—whether cultivated through formal meditation or simply by noticing new things—creates measurable changes in our bodies and brains. Our ancestors lived in a state of awareness not by choice but by necessity. Their survival depended on noticing subtle environmental cues, from animal tracks to changing weather patterns. This constant attentiveness wasn't stressful but engaging, allowing them to respond appropriately to their environment. The modern mind, by contrast, is chronically distracted and fragmented. We divide our attention between screens, notifications, and endless streams of information while rarely fully engaging with our immediate experience. The cost is not just reduced performance but diminished wellbeing. When researchers showed participants a video of people passing basketballs and asked them to count the passes, most failed to notice a person in a gorilla suit walking through the scene—a demonstration of how focusing narrowly blinds us to the wider context.

Summary

Throughout human history, our bodies and minds evolved in perfect harmony with specific environmental conditions: varied movement, whole foods, natural light cycles, close social bonds, and deep connection with nature. This wasn't just our habitat—it was the operating system that allowed our biology to function optimally. The stunning insight that emerges from integrating evolutionary biology with modern health science is that these conditions aren't optional luxuries but essential requirements for human thriving. The beauty of this evolutionary perspective is that it offers practical wisdom for addressing our modern health crisis. Rather than viewing our wellbeing as a collection of isolated problems requiring separate interventions, we can recognize the interconnected nature of human health. The same interventions that strengthen our muscles also enhance brain function. The dietary patterns that regulate blood sugar also improve mood. The natural environments that lower stress hormones also boost immune function. The social connections that make us happy also extend our lives. By reclaiming key elements of our ancestral lifestyle—not as a rejection of modernity but as a conscious integration of evolutionary wisdom—we can access our innate capacity for physical vitality and psychological wellbeing. We don't need to abandon civilization to go wild; we simply need to reconnect with the fundamental conditions that allow our bodies and minds to function as they were designed—moving frequently, eating naturally, connecting deeply, and living mindfully in harmony with our evolutionary blueprint.

About Author

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John J. Ratey

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