Hello,

This mailing list were amongst the first people to read Dr. Richard Wrangham's
research on "How Cooking Made Us Human", when he was kind enough to allow list
members to read his unreleased manuscripts on the subject a few years ago.

Recently, he published his book on the subject, and a few weeks ago, by pure
chance, I caught some of his appearance on the excellent NPR radio show "Science
Friday".

That show is archived on the web, and you can listen to the show (it is about
half an hour) at:

http://podcastdownload.npr.org/anon.npr-podcasts/podcast/510221/112351483/npr_112351483.mp3

While he strongly makes the case for the benefits of cooking, and the
"paleoness" of cooking as well, he does think that a very carefully planned raw
diet can be worthwhile - for those looking to lose weight (and explains why).

For those who are unaware, Wrangham spent many years observing wild chimpanzees,
and thus is one of the foremost researchers involved in determining which human
behaviors and characteristics are genetic.   For example, he was one of those
who discovered that wild chimpanzees take part in warfare against other groups
of chimpanzees, demonstrating that war is instinctual behavior.

--
Cheers,

Ken