Jon Stewart Author Interview: Spencer Wells On The Costs Of Civilization (VIDEO)

Geneticist Spencer Wells spoke to Jon Stewart last night about his new book, "Pandora's Seed: The Unforeseen Cost of Civilization." He explained that, as humans moved away from a hunter gatherer society and began to farm, we started down a path that has brought many unintended consequences, such as the Gulf oil spill. We have gone through major cultural shifts, and, he said, "we are still in the process of adapting" to them. One such example is our diet -- we became less healthy as soon as we started eating grain, and have eventually been launched into an obesity epidemic. Wells said that we could potentially adapt, and become less obese, but that it was likely that there would be some terrible consequences before that would happen.

Wells said that, of course, we couldn't go back to being hunter gatherers, but that "you can't have 9.5 billion people living the way we do today." Stewart responded, "Who do you think should go?" Wells: "I'm not going to say anything about the head of BP..."

WATCH: