Can the internet make you sick? The 297th Evolutionary Lens with Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying

Today we discuss the experience of returning home after timeway—culture shock, social media, and seeing your home with fresh eyes. Then a difficult set of topics: anorexia, physician assisted suicide, “terminal” diagnoses, social contagions, and what people have a right to do with their own lives. Finally: AI has been used to predict potentially useful drug combinations to fight cancer. What does this mean for the future of medicine, and AI?

988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: https://988lifeline.org

Free and confidential helpline for individuals and families facing mental disorders: https://www.samhsa.gov/find-help/helplines/national-helpline

*****

Our sponsors:

Fresh Pressed Olive Oil Club: Scrumptious & freshly harvested. Go to http://www.GetFreshDarkHorse.com to get a bottle of the best olive oil you’ve ever had for $1 shipping.
Helix

Helix: Excellent, sleep-enhancing, American-made mattresses. Go to http://www.HelixSleep.com/DarkHorse to get 20% off all mattress orders.

Manukora: the most flavorful, delicious, and nutritious honey you’ll ever have. Get $25 off your starter kit at http://www.Manukora.com/DarkHorse

*****

Join us on Locals! Get access to our Discord server, exclusive live streams, live chats for all streams, and early access to many podcasts: https://darkhorse.locals.com

Heather’s newsletter, Natural Selections (subscribe to get free weekly essays in your inbox): https://naturalselections.substack.com

Our book, A Hunter-Gatherer’s Guide to the 21st Century, is available everywhere books are sold, including from Amazon: https://amzn.to/3AGANGg (commission earned)

Check out our store! Epic tabby, digital book burning, saddle up the dire wolves, and more: https://darkhorsestore.org

*****

Mentioned in this episode:

Denver Post op-ed on Jane Allen: https://www.denverpost.com/2025/10/02/assisted-suicide-was-offered-to-my-friend-jane-allen-she-had-an-eating-disorder-opinion/

Gaudiani et al 2022. Terminal anorexia nervosa: three cases and proposed clinical characteristics. Journal of Eating Disorders, 10(1): 23: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s40337-022-00548-3.pdf

Guarda et al 2022. Terminal anorexia nervosa is a dangerous term: it cannot, and should not, be defined. Journal of eating disorders, 10(1): 79: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s40337-022-00599-6.pd

Mia Hughes’ tweet thread on social contagions: https://x.com/_CryMiaRiver/status/1491065839495544837

Laura Delano on DarkHorse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18XtCdasn2Q&list=PLjQ2gC-5yHEuZwhHfjXu3KH8MomS2N3zq&index=13

Laura Delano’s book, Unshrunk, excerpted at Natural Selections: https://naturalselections.substack.com/p/informed-consent-in-the-land-of-psychiatric

How a Gemma model helped discover a new potential cancer therapy pathway: https://blog.google/technology/ai/google-gemma-ai-cancer-therapy-discovery/

*****

Timestamps:
00:00:00 Holding Screen
00:05:04 Will this episode be "off the hook?"
00:16:14 Reviewing The Three Camino Lessons from Episode 296
00:18:49 The 4th Camino Lesson: Culture Shock
00:37:54 Social Contagion: Assisted Suicide & Terminal Anorexia
01:11:55 AI: Discovering NEW Cancer Mechanism
01:27:44 Closing