Life before the Industrial Revolution was not simpler, slower, or more humane. It was short, violent, filthy, and saturated with grief, and almost nobody alive today can picture it accurately. That gap is not harmless. It shapes how people respond to economic growth, to AI, and to every technology that promises to change how we live.

Chelsea Follett, research fellow at the Cato Institute and the mind behind HumanProgress.org, returns to the show with a new book, The Grim Old Days: An Introduction to the Preindustrial Past. The argument is blunt: we have not only solved many of the problems our ancestors faced, we have erased the memory of them. Nostalgia fills the vacuum, and nostalgia is a terrible guide to policy. What follows takes the romantic version of the past apart and argues that gratitude for what we have is the first step toward keeping it.

Chapters:
0:22 Introduction to the Grim Old Days
1:56 Why Progress Matters
5:40 Why We Romanticize the Past
8:45 Harsh Realities of Family Life
13:54 Child Labor and Daily Work
16:24 Violence and Social Progress
20:55 Defining the Pre-Industrial Era
25:12 Fragile Paths to Progress
29:06 Sources and Historical Skepticism
32:13 The Darkest Anecdotes
34:07 Child Loss and Modern Medicine
38:27 Debunking Medieval Myths
40:46 Why the Past Still Matters

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