Bohannon watches Prometheus and is outraged that the film's medical pod only treats male patients, inspiring her to study female evolution.

Bohannon proposes that humanity has not one Eve but many, each responsible for a distinct trait in the female body.

Morgie, a weasel-like creature living in a burrow, sweats milk from her torso to feed her pups, becoming the Eve of lactation.

Bohannon reveals that breast milk functions primarily as a prebiotic to build babies' immune systems, not merely as a source of nutrition.

Donna, a small survivor of the Chicxulub ecological disaster, develops a uterus and becomes the first mammal to give birth to live young.

Bohannon reveals that menstruation evolved not as preparation for pregnancy but as a survival mechanism for a turbulent and dangerous reproductive system.

Purgi, the first primate Eve, develops heightened hearing, smell, and sight while living in forest trees to protect her babies and find safe food.

Ardi becomes the first hominin to walk upright, a breakthrough that also creates lasting foot, knee, and lower back vulnerabilities in female bodies.

Habilis invents stone tools to cut food, but her most important invention is gynecology — female cooperation enabling reproductive choice and safer birth.

Homo erectus leaves Africa and colonizes the Earth, developing far more complex tools and a significantly larger brain than any hominin before her.

Bohannon reveals that the female brain undergoes unique developmental changes during late pregnancy, giving mothers capabilities that no other humans possess.

Bohannon argues that female voices evolved for precise close-range communication with babies, making the mother-infant bond the likely origin of human language.

A grandmother in Jericho reaches inside her granddaughter during a dangerous breech birth, manually turns the baby, and successfully delivers her great-grandson.

Bohannon theorizes that menopause exists so older female individuals can provide communities with wisdom and memories that younger members do not possess.

Bohannon concludes that sexism, once an evolutionary compromise to protect babies, now harms human health and prosperity and must be dismantled.

Cat Bohannon opens by arguing that science defaults to male bodies, then introduces a lineage of female ancestors who shaped human evolution from the ground up. From Morgie's invention of lactation to Donna's development of the uterus and Purgi's sharpened primate senses, each Eve contributed a critical biological innovation. Ardi's bipedalism and Habilis's gynecology moved hominins closer to modern humanity, while Homo erectus's global expansion and growing brain set the stage for Homo sapiens. Bohannon then examines the female brain, voice, menopause, and love to show how female biology continued driving human evolution into the present. She concludes that sexism, once a biological compromise female hominins made to protect their children, now actively threatens the progress that millions of years of female evolution built.

The seven Eves who drove 200 million years of female human evolution.

Bohannon argues that male individuals have nipples because female mammals have nipples, directly rejecting the idea of the male body as evolutionary default.

Bohannon debunks the medieval belief that colostrum is harmful, revealing it is packed with immunoglobins essential for building newborns' immune systems.

Bohannon reveals that babies' saliva absorbed into the breast during nursing allows a mother's body to detect pathogens and adjust her milk to fight them.

Bohannon explains that cortisol levels in a mother's breast milk shape whether her child grows up cautious and risk-averse or bold and adventurous.

Bohannon connects a Sumerian flood myth's invention of wet nurses and birth control to the rise of human cities and urbanization.

Bohannon explains that the eutherian body plan, with three separate orifices, evolved to protect offspring from urinary and fecal bacteria during birth.

Bohannon recalls an undertrained teacher claiming menstruation is punishment for not being pregnant, exposing how poorly female biology is taught and understood.

While working as an art school model, Bohannon notices that male artists initially draw her breasts far larger than they actually are.

A study placing a male pheromone on participants' upper lips reveals that gay men and transgender women respond similarly to heterosexual women.

Captain Griest completes her Army Ranger assessment, earning her teammates' respect and demonstrating that female endurance rivals male physical performance.

Bohannon reimagines the opening of 2001: A Space Odyssey to show female hominins developing gynecology rather than wielding weapons as humanity's defining invention.

A female chimpanzee in Senegal is observed killing a bush baby with a spear, suggesting female hominins likely invented the first hominin weapons.

Bohannon describes bonobos gathering to observe and assist a wild birth, arguing that early female hominins cooperated in childbirth in a similar way.

Bohannon compares Bill Clinton's and Hillary Clinton's voices, arguing that Hillary's smaller lungs forced speaking patterns that audiences perceived as shouting.

Bohannon recalls donating eggs to a middle-aged professor couple, launching her investigation into why female fertility ends so much earlier than male fertility.

This pool follows the narrative threads and supporting evidence woven throughout Bohannon's scientific argument. It begins with key revelations about breast milk — from the immunological power of colostrum to the cortisol shaping children's risk-taking personalities — and traces how a Sumerian flood myth links lactation to the rise of cities. It moves through Bohannon's personal experiences as an art school model and her vivid observations of primate behavior, including bonobos assisting a wild birth and a chimpanzee using a spear. Captain Griest's Army Ranger triumph anchors the argument for female endurance, while the vocal comparison between the Clintons exposes how female anatomy shapes public perception of authority. The pool closes with Bohannon donating her eggs to a professor couple, the personal act that sets her on the path to understanding menopause.

Supporting discoveries, personal stories, and cultural arguments woven through female evolution.

Bohannon reveals that female patients wake from anesthesia sooner than expected because medical drug dosages are calibrated primarily for male bodies.

Bohannon disproves the belief that breast size determines milk production, explaining that breasts evolved upward positioning to allow nursing in multiple positions.

Bohannon reveals that placental mammals evolved separate reproductive and waste orifices specifically to prevent offspring from being exposed to fecal bacteria at birth.

Bohannon concludes that pregnancy is inherently risky, stating that from a health standpoint the safest outcome for a female body is never being pregnant.

Bohannon reveals that female humans developed stronger color vision than males because primate ancestors needed to identify ripe, safe fruit by color.

Bohannon reveals that female individuals hear higher pitches more acutely than males because primate mothers needed to detect their babies' cries instantly.

Bohannon rejects the theory that bipedalism arose from females trading sex for food, arguing that female foraging endurance was the real evolutionary driver.

Bohannon argues that gynecology — using plants and female cooperation to control reproduction — was the most transformative tool in all of hominin history.

Bohannon shows that societal pressure and family income, not biology, explain why female IQ scores tend to drop relative to males after puberty.

Bohannon challenges the belief that women talk more than men, showing females are called on less and actually speak less in classrooms and workplaces.

Bohannon argues that Motherese — the distinctive speech mothers use with babies — is likely the origin of all human language and storytelling.

Bohannon reveals that menopause occurs because eggs require far more biological material than sperm, making them increasingly defective as a female individual ages.

Bohannon theorizes that hominin societies were originally matriarchal, and female hominins permitted patriarchy in exchange for male protection of their children.

Bohannon uses the economic contrast between a prosperous region with high female education and a poorer one to show that sexism reduces community wealth.

Bohannon asserts to her female readers that women originally gave men their power over them, and they have the collective ability to take it back.

This pool collects the moments when Bohannon overturns long-held assumptions about female biology, moving from the opening revelation that medicine's male default actively harms female patients to late conclusions about the true origins of patriarchy. Early turning points expose how breast and reproductive myths have persisted for centuries without scientific basis, including the dangerous belief that pregnancy is inherently safe. The middle of the pool reveals hidden female advantages in color vision, acute hearing, physical endurance, and bipedalism that mainstream science has systematically overlooked. Later revelations challenge popular beliefs about female intelligence and communication, demonstrating that societal forces rather than biology drive many apparent gaps between the sexes. The pool ends by dismantling the myth that patriarchy is a natural biological state, revealing it instead as a conscious historical choice that women have the power to reverse.