Main content

9. Why do we go to the pub?

Paleoanthropologist Ella Al-Shamahi asks why do we go to the pub?

Humans have evolved to drink alcohol, or at least to be able to metabolise it. And we share this ability with our closest living relatives, the chimpanzees and gorillas, who are also able to convert alcohol into sugar.

It gave our ancestors an advantage because we could eat rotting fruit from the forest floor and convert the alcohol into sugars, providing a source of nutrients that not all species could digest. This is also known as the drunken monkey hypothesis. But paleoanthropologist Ella Al-Shamahi asks Professor Robin Dunbar if alcohol is why we go to the pub today.

Release date:

Available now

15 minutes

Broadcast

  • Fri 21 Mar 2025 14:45

Featured in...

Podcast