The Universal Currency: Energy and Civilization by Vaclav Smil Made You Think

From a fundamental biophysical perspective, both prehistoric human evolution and the course of history can be seen as the quest for controlling greater stores and flows of more concentrated and more versatile forms of energy and converting them, in more affordable ways at lower costs and with higher efficiencies, into heat, light, and motion.
Energy and Civilization by Vaclav Smil provides an explanation of energy in its relation to society. Smil dives deeply into the history of energy. From scavenging and foraging to the modern uses of water, wind, and solar power, energy drives every existing thing in today's world. Interestingly enough, it's difficult to place what exactly energy is, as it's not as tangible as other forms of measurement. Nat and Neil discuss their key takeaways from this book in today's episode of Made You Think.
We cover a wide range of topics including:
Survival features that are unique to humans  Energy density of different foods, and how diet has adapted over time  Pre-historic methods of gathering food efficiently Renewable and non-renewable resources  Technological advancements in transportation  And much more. Please enjoy, and make sure to follow Nat and Neil on Twitter to hear which book will be the topic of the next episode!
Links from the episode
Mentioned in the show
Nat's Youtube channel (1:27) Bitcoin episode with Taylor Pearson (8:24)  Only humans sweat(18:32)  Flood Myth (28:59) Protein Poisoning (36:40)  Crime hypothesis (1:07:25)  Traffic and infant health(1:08:47)  China air quality in COVID (1:17:17)  Hiroshima (1:20:07)  List of Nuclear Disasters  (1:20:49)  Medical errors (1:27:35)  Boom unveils its first prototype (1:38:56)  Books mentioned
The Prize by Daniel Yergin (6:15) The Fish That Ate the Whale by Rich Cohen (7:03) (Nat's Book Notes) Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari (9:44) (Nat's Book Notes) (Book Episode pt. 1) (Book Episode pt. 2) Scale by Geoffrey West (9:45) (Nat's Book Notes) (Book Episode) The Story of Philosophy by Will Durant (12:15) (Nat's Book Notes) The Lessons of History by Will and Ariel Durant (14:06) (Nat's Book Notes) Smoke Signals by Martin A. Lee (1:29:51) (Nat's Book Notes) (Book Episode) The Riddle of the Gun by Sam Harris (1:33:43) (Book Episode) People mentioned
Bill Gates (8:07) Richard Feynman (17:05) Show notes
0:16 - Thank you for the support of the Made You Think podcast! Nat and Neil dive into discussion on the book Energy and Civilization by Vaclav Smil this week. If you’re curious to pick up a copy, you can do so here.
8:33 - Energy and Civilization discusses how energy has shaped the progress of humanity and the history of civilization as humans harness more and more energy. Energy drives everything in today’s world from basic human activity to the technological advances throughout time.
13:06 - Is growth limited by the energy that could be harnessed? The author uses energy as his lens to viewing the growth and history.
14:58 - Energy and Pre-history. By nature, humans are made to conserve energy. It’s shown in many everyday tasks such as walking on two legs rather than four and regulating our body heat by sweating. Energy is essential to everything, however it’s hard to place what exactly energy is, as it’s not as tangible as other forms of measurement.
18:13 - Ability to exercise and sweat. Humans are the only species that sweats. While many animals lose water to cool down in the form of panting, humans can do so at a much higher rate through sweating. The idea of a panting threshold in running, and how training can increase how long you can run without panting. Different factors in exercise such as physique, body weight, and training style.
24:09 - Temporary dehydration. Humans can function being dehydrated better than animals, and that ultimately benefits our species from a survival standpoint. Humans’ ability to live in different climates as compared to animals who may only li