#497 - The Sleepless Ape: A Dialogue with David Samson

from Converging Dialogues · host Converging Dialogues

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Davis Samson on the evolution of sleep. They discuss various sleep misconceptions, why we need sleep, stages of sleep, and the physiological and social aspects of sleep. They also talk about the evolution of circadian rhythms, napping, evolutionary differences, dreams, paleo sleep, and many more topics. David R. Samson is associate professor of evolutionary anthropology at the University of Toronto and the author of Our Tribal Future: How to Channel Our Foundational Human Instincts into a Force for Good. His pioneering research has been featured in National Geographic, Time, and The New York Times and on NPR and the BBC. He is the author of the latest book, The Sleepless Ape: The story of sleep in human evolution. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

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This episode is 1 hour and 45 minutes long.

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This episode was published on June 21, 2026.

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