Christopher McDougall: Are we born to run?

http://www.ted.com Christopher McDougall explores the mysteries of the human desire to run. How did running help early humans survive -- and what urges from our ancient ancestors spur us on today? At TEDxPennQuarter, McDougall tells the story of the marathoner with a heart of gold, the unlikely ultra-runner, and the hidden tribe in Mexico that runs to live.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the "Sixth Sense" wearable tech, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at http://www.ted.com/translate.

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  Science & Technology

[Dax Idol]

No, early humans would of been meat eaters, we would have to in order to support our large brains.

[workstation419]

He didn't claim it as a fact. It is his hypothesis, he never said it was right. He said it could explain the time gap between having such a huge brain which required so much energy and the first appearance of weapons millions of years later...

[goldensunchild]

early americans were not running around catching animals. i'm really angry he just claimed that as a fact. it's much much more believable that early humans were surviving on fruit.

[goldensunchild]

um, they run hundreds of miles all the time, of course running is a factor. vitamin d is also a factor

[torbs37]

Running isn't the reason the Tarhumara have less cancer. Vitamin D is.

All equatorial countries have lower cancer rates.

[jeterisbossman]

for shits and gigs i think i'll run barefoot tomorrow

[jimberrrrrr]

has anybody got the links for the research papers?

[shmudi1]

The current theory is that Homo-Sapiens is around 200,000 years old.

However, Hominids exist for a few million years, and they used fire for at least 800,000 years, and stone tools for about two million years.

[shmudi1]

I've seen a documentary where two Bushmen outran a few antelopes, until one antelope just stopped from exhaustion, and they killed it.

I took them something like 4-5 hours, in the burning Savanna sun.

However, they were not a pack, just two men. The rest of the group stayed behind.

[liviocolnago]

What if the only natural advantage we have is that we can digest starch? What if? Then the premise of his theory is wrong.

I don't dispute human's ability to run distance, dissipate heat and make tools, I just don't like jumping to a neat, tidy conclusion ignoring science that contradicts. Having said that, the book was a fun story.