How Modern Parenting Got it All Wrong - Dr Paul Turke (Video)
In this 8 May 2025 Modern Wisdom video, host Chris Williamson talks with Dr Paul Turke, a pediatrician, evolutionary anthropologist, and an author.
How did humans raise kids 1,000 years ago? Today’s parenting is all routines, data driven insights and what the latest research says. But what can ancient wisdom teach us about parenting, and where might it call our modern methods into question?
Expect to learn how child rearing might look different if parents were educated in evolutionary theory, what the evolutionary role of grandparents are, and why it matters for raising kids today, Where babies would have slept ancestrally, why toddlers wake up at night, throw food, or act out and why might those be smart behaviors, what parents should know about “normal” child development from an evolutionary view, what we can we learn from cultures that co-sleep, breastfeed longer, and parent together and much more…
https://youtu.be/iOkLAsNmlJ0
00:00 Evolutionary Parenting
05:40 The Evolutionary Role of Grandparents
13:33 Why Menopause Occurs
18:22 How Modern Parenting is Encouraging Anxiety
24:56 Is Leaving Kids at Daycare Beneficial?
29:39 Sleeping Habits of Ancient Children
33:47 The Evolutionary Reason for Why Kids Act Out
37:01 Advantages of Breastfeeding
42:30 The Medicalisation of Childbirth & Childcare
51:23 How Society Could Have Avoided a Rise in Food Allergies
59:50 The Growth of Obesity in Kids
1:03:32 Are We Overusing Medication?
1:06:48 What an Evolution-Focused NICU Would Look Like
1:11:20 Risks in Misapplying Evolutionary
1:14:58 Where to Find Paul
