The bacteria that shaped history: Yersinia pestis – David Reich

[TheBulwark-]

Yersinia pestis is a powerful reminder of how fragile human civilizations can be. Studying its impact helps us prepare for modern health crises and pandemics.

[Leah-ie]

A 6th century plague might have facilitated the spread of Islam, since most of the Byzantine and Persian soldiers would have died.

[keeganmerickson]

The rate at which this man runs off all this knowledge is fairly impressive

[lproth]

What he is saying is that the step nomads brought the plague to Europe, that that killed between 1/3 and 1/2 the population, allowing the Indo Europeans to settle. The same that happened in the Americas, happened in the Australia/pacific. This was probably common when separated peoples meet up.

[DwarkeshPatel]

Excited for you all to see the full episode!!

[raven-dlxo]

Microbes have ruled the earth since life first evolved

[squamish]

Smallpox was the deadliest plague in the New World. The death the guy is referring to is of Inca emperor Huayna Capac in a massive epidemic that swept through the empire. His sons Atahualpa and Huascar then fought a civil war, right before Pizarro arrived.

[jeffreysams]

735-737 A small pox epidemic wiped out 1/3 of the Japanese population killed the rich as well as the poor. It really would take centuries to recover. It also lead the emperor to spend a lot of money (almost bankrupting the country) for creating Buddhist related buildings

[solprab]

Wow those last few minutes of what David Reich said really opens up our minds on how to think about Admixture of populations in the light of current mix of DNA in modern humans. That idea of the possibility of Neanderthal ancestors being up to 10 or 20% of the non-African humans 70, 000 years ago, and gradually being wiped out by huge waves of admixture with modern Humans because of genetic selection is really astounding and makes sense thinking about it now.

[stephenbrown]

We have been trading with other cultures for thousands of years

[raphaelvibar]

1:50 "What are you doing steppe-rodent?!"

[Eelofoppo]

When he reffers to steppe people replacing european farmers, is this the same event as the replacement of the proto-Basque, Tyrsenian, etc. by the proto-Indo-Europeans?

[TheArtInterviews]

As a quantitative person, he is very small, cause he is just 1

[celestinoramavarela]

The problem with this hypothesis is that the gene substitution occurs mainly with patrilineal genes but not with matrilineal ones, so, doesn't look like Yersinia pestis is a main factor.

[crapton]

Desperation is the mother of all necessity. May we never be that desperate again.

[ballintogher]

He talks so fast, I can't keep up!

[spawndress]

I see 2 comments and when i write it i dont see any

[cherilynnfisher]

"We are legion, we are many". And they built ships. "The dynamic duo will have the last word and the last laugh". --- Arkists

[brokenrecord]

I would have sworn this would be about TB.
"How One Germ..." while technically correct, gives the impression that it was the only germ. There were several.

[davidhoracek]

Hey, our age might not be perfect, but at least we have antibiotics.