Primal BoundBlog
Each post takes one modern life problem, traces it back to the world your brain was built for, and ends with something you can actually do. Sourced and checked.
October 20, 2026 · Environment
Old ways to keep your house warm without turning up the heatHeavy curtains, a rolled towel at the door and one warm room each have a measured number, and all are small. A heated chair kept students comfortable at 27 watts where a space heater draws up to 1,500.
Watch the film (7:18)October 15, 2026 · Mind & Body
What did people do at night before electricity?Hunter-gatherers stayed up about three hours after sunset, and the night was where their stories lived. The two-sleeps idea is contested, but one lab trial tested a paper book against a screen.
Watch the film (6:44)October 10, 2026 · Mind & Body
What ancient humans did all day (and why you're exhausted)The Hadza were inactive nearly ten hours a day, about as long as industrialized adults, but they rested squatting and kneeling. In one small trial, five minutes of walking an hour left desk sitters less tired.
Watch the film (4:26)October 10, 2026 · Attention & Dopamine
Why nothing feels interesting anymore (and a two-week test)Teen boredom kept rising after 2010, and people who could skip videos were more bored in the lab. One trial turned off phone internet for two weeks and measured what came back.
Watch the film (4:29)October 9, 2026 · Environment
Why a full building can feel so empty (Universe 25)The mouse utopia is shared as proof that crowding will end us, and tested on people it did not hold up. What did hurt in the studies was too many others, too often, in a hallway built wrong.
Watch the film (4:52)October 8, 2026 · Social Bonds
What loneliness does to your brain (and how to undo it)Being left out runs an alarm wired close to the pain system, and the alarm changes what you watch for. In one trial, short listening calls eased it within four weeks.
Watch the film (4:59)September 15, 2026 · Mind & Body
Why you're always tired, even after 8 hours of sleepOne in six adults feels exhausted most days, and most of them are sleeping enough. The cause is a kind of attention your day drains, and a walk refills it in under an hour.
Watch the film (5:23)August 5, 2026 · Mind & Body
The real reason you sleep badly isn't your phoneThree groups living without electricity sleep about 6.4 hours, less than you do, and almost none of them have insomnia. What separates them from you happens in daylight.
Watch the film (2:31)August 5, 2026 · Mind & Body
Your brain isn't broken — it's running ancient softwareScattered, tired, restless, low for no reason. Four inputs your build expects every day have gone missing, and each one has a number attached.
August 5, 2026 · Social Bonds
How to make friends as an adult (why it got so hard)You already know how to make friends; you did it effortlessly for twenty years. Then the machine that was doing it for you got dismantled, and nobody mentioned it.
Watch the film (15:17)August 5, 2026 · Attention & Dopamine
The truth about brain rot (it's not what you think)Oxford's own definition says 'supposed' deterioration. The panic is mostly wrong, but the mechanism underneath it is proven and older than your phone.
Watch the film (10:04)August 5, 2026 · Environment
How every third place died12,000 bowling alleys became 3,000. We didn't stop wanting to gather; we built a world with nowhere left to do it.
July 20, 2026 · Social Bonds
Why tribes don't get lonely (and you do)Loneliness is a signal, like hunger or thirst, from hardware built for a world of thirty faces you knew by name.