Molly Webster

I asked him if we could say something more fun, and he said no.

No.

Anyway, the point is, it's the living for a long time after you can no longer reproduce.

That's the weird part.

And if you're not having babies, you're not sending your genes into the next generation.

And is natural selection really that cut and dry that it's if you're not contributing to the genetic pool, you should be out?

Like, think about it this way.

If there were a human woman who could keep having babies for her whole life until she dies, she would genetically at least outcompete the women who can't.

So it sort of seems like there should be some evolutionary genetic reason for the reproductive system to kind of peter out before the human person does.

Now, one of the most common things people say when they hear about this is that in humans, this is kind of like a fluke of modern life.

So the idea being that in olden times, we used to die around menopause.

And so this long post-reproductive life is just because now we live longer than we used to.

Right.

But it turns out, actually, that's not the case.

Which part?

All of that is not true.

None of that is true.

In ancient times, people also lived to be about 70.

Really?

Yeah.