Greg Motter

“Our brains form, strengthen, and prune synapses throughout our lives (it’s happening in your brain right now as you form new memories from reading this book) but by far the most active period is in childhood, when we’re soaking up the world around us. Work by Christopher Kuzawa and colleagues has shown that in children three to seven years old, the brain accounts for over 60 percent of BMR, three times more than in adults. So much energy is channeled to the brain during these early critical years that it actually slows down growth in the rest of the body.”
― Herman Pontzer, Burn: New Research Blows the Lid Off How We Really Burn Calories, Lose Weight, and Stay Healthy

“On February 2, 1933, for example, a leading newspaper for German Jews published an editorial expressing this mislaid trust: We do not subscribe to the view that Mr. Hitler and his friends, now finally in possession of the power they have so long desired, will implement the proposals circulating in [Nazi newspapers]; they will not suddenly deprive German Jews of their constitutional rights, nor enclose them in ghettos, nor subject them to the jealous and murderous impulses of the mob. They cannot do this because a number of crucial factors hold powers in check…and they clearly do not want to go down that road. When one acts as a European power, the whole atmosphere tends towards ethical reflection upon one’s better self and away from revisiting one’s earlier oppositional posture.”
― Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century

“Don’t gaslight me, Jesus.”
― Matt Dinniman, The Eye of the Bedlam Bride

“Like the Tsimane, the Shuar have high rates of infection. Sam found that Shuar kids five to twelve years old have BMRs that are about 200 kcal per day higher than kids in the United States and Europe, a 20 percent difference. The energy demand of fighting infection steals calories away from growth. When our immune system responds to an infection, it makes a number of molecules (immunoglobulins, antibodies, and other proteins) that circulate in the blood—telltale signs of the battles fought against bacteria, viruses, and parasites. Sam found that Shuar kids with more of these markers in their blood grew slower than those who had fewer. The cost of immune response, in terms of both calories and growth, is probably one big reason that indigenous populations like the Shuar, Tsimane, and Hadza tend to be short-statured.”
― Herman Pontzer, Burn: New Research Blows the Lid Off How We Really Burn Calories, Lose Weight, and Stay Healthy