Episode · Stuff They Don't Want You To Know · 2025-12-10
Books mentioned on Rapa Nui: The Mystery of Easter Island
Located in the eastern Pacific ocean, thousands of miles from other civilizations, Rapa Nui is home to an enduring mystery: hundreds of giant, stone sculptures called maoi. For centuries, outsiders had no idea how these were built, when, why or -- most importantly -- what happened to make the construction stop.
Ben Bowlin discussed Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Guns, Germs and Steel
Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond is an expansive historical non-fiction work that explores why Eurasian civilizations survived and conquered other societies, attributing these outcomes to geographical and environmental advantages rather than biological differences.
Discussed“Instead, it seems to be what Jared Diamond, the author of Guns, Germs, and Steel, would later describe as ecoside, which is a phrase I wasn't familiar with, but yeah, not nor I that's a much better term than I had said resource extraction, which isn't exactly right.”
Where to get it
