Episode · The Jordan Harbinger Show · 2026-09-17
Books mentioned on 1383: Christopher Ryan | The Dark Side of Civilization and Progress
We're apes stuck in a zoo of our own design. Christopher Ryan, author of Civilized to Death, reveals what modern life is really doing to us.
Jordan Harbinger discussed Civilized to Death by Christopher Ryan. Christopher Ryan recommended A Paradise Built in Hell by Rebecca Solnit, Cannibals and Kings by Marvin Harris, A Short History of Progress by Ronald Wright, and The End of the World is Just the Beginning by Peter Zeihan, and discussed Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes, The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley, Sex at Dawn by Christopher Ryan and others, The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell, and The Odyssey.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Civilized to Death
Civilized to Death by Christopher Ryan is a critical examination of modern human progress that argues civilization has left people sicker, lonelier, and more anxious than their hunter-gatherer ancestors.
Discussed“And your book argues that this may be the foundational lie of modern life, right? Because the system that became richer and more powerful while the humans inside it were sicker, lonelier, more anxious, less free in many ways.”
Where to get it
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Leviathan
Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes is a foundational 1651 political treatise arguing that human life in a state of nature is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short, and that peace requires absolute submission to a strong central authority.
Discussed“So I call it the neo-Hobzian narrative. As you refer to Hobbes' line from Leviathan, before the advent of the state, human life was solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”
Where to get it
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The Rational Optimist
The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley is a bold exploration of human history that argues prosperity and rising living standards are driven by trade, innovation, and the free exchange of ideas.
Discussed“But what I was trying to do in the book was just say, look, you know, I quoted from a book called The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley, who's a very well-known writer.”
Where to get it
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A Paradise Built in Hell
A Paradise Built in Hell by Rebecca Solnit is a striking non-fiction book examining disaster sociology that argues communities naturally respond to crises with extraordinary generosity, cooperation, and mutual aid rather than descending into panic or selfishness.
Recommended“And what the scientists have actually found in decades of studying human behavior in disaster is that's precisely when people are the most generous and the most compassionate and the most kind to strangers, to the point where there's a fantastic book written by Rebecca Solnit about this called A Paradise Built in Hell.”
Where to get it
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Cannibals and Kings
Cannibals and Kings by Marvin Harris is an anthropological exploration of the environmental, economic, and cultural pressures that have driven human societies toward war, hierarchy, and even cannibalism throughout history.
Recommended“I'm an adherent of what's called cultural materialism in anthropology. It's a school of anthropology started by a guy named Marvin Harris, who was the head of the anthropology department at Columbia. Really interesting guy. Anyone who wants to read about this, I'd highly recommend his popular books, Cannibals and Kings, as a great place to start.”
Where to get it
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Sex at Dawn
Sex at Dawn by Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jethá is an exploration of human sexuality that challenges conventional ideas about monogamy by examining evolutionary biology and primate behavior.
Discussed“I talked about this in my previous book, Sex at Dawn, as well. One that I think I talked about in Civilized to Death was he mentions the Kung San people of Botswana, of the Kalahari.”
Where to get it
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A Short History of Progress
A Short History of Progress by Ronald Wright is a survey of human civilizations that examines how societies follow a similar lifecycle of organic rise and eventual decline.
Recommended“I don't know the point of no return, but you can definitely tell when civilizations are on the downslope. There's a fantastic book called A Brief History of Progress by Canadian writer Ronald Wright. I think his name is W-R-I-G-H-T.”
Where to get it
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The End of the World is Just the Beginning
The End of the World is Just the Beginning by Peter Zeihan is a geopolitical analysis that forecasts the impending collapse of globalization, demographic decline, and the fragmentation of international trade systems.
Recommended“I think he's fantastic. His book, The End is Just the Beginning, you know, he's been predicting the collapse of globalization for quite a while, and we see it happening before our eyes right now.”
Where to get it
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The Hero with a Thousand Faces
Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces examines the universal structure of comparative mythology and the hero's journey.
Discussed“But at the end of the book, I did try to land the plane on a hopeful note because I referred to Joseph Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces, and he is the mythologist who showed that almost all societies around the world have the same central myth.”
Where to get it
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The Odyssey
The Odyssey by Homer is an epic ancient Greek poem that follows Odysseus on his long, perilous journey home after the Trojan War, remaining one of history's most influential foundational narratives.
Discussed“You know, as we're talking, The Odyssey is a huge film, right? Oh, yeah. That's the oldest story in the Western world, but it turns out it's the same story in many other worlds. It's about the young person who goes out and has adventures, searching for something, right?”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (2) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
“Chris Ryan is the author of Civilized to Death and Sex at Dawn, and if civilization does collapse, apparently he's got a garden, a sprinter van, friends with livestock, and a yak ranch nearby, so be nice to the guy.”
“Chris Ryan is the author of Civilized to Death and Sex at Dawn, and if civilization does collapse, apparently he's got a garden, a sprinter van, friends with livestock, and a yak ranch nearby, so be nice to the guy.”