Writing alumna Cat Bohannon ’09 (GSAS ’22, '13, '10) is slated to publish her new book, Eve: How The Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Evolution, on October 3, 2023 with Knopf.
Eve dips into 200 million years of biological history to dispel male-centered evolution myths, postulating that modern human wombs may have originated from a species of long-legged “weasel-squirrel,” that breast milk possibly evolved from pre-rodent mammals coating their eggs with “moistening mucus,” and that women likely walked on two legs before men did. Wielding humorous prose, Bohannan raises questions about sexism, whether or not women are more likely to be diagnosed with Alzheimers, and the mechanics of menopause.
“We need a kind of user’s manual for the female mammal,” Bohannon said. “Modern medicine, neurobiology, paleoanthropology, even evolutionary biology all take a hit when we ignore the fact that half of us have breasts. So it’s time we talk about breasts. Breasts, and blood, and fat, and vaginas, and wombs—all of it. How they came to be and how we live with them now, no matter how weird or hilarious the truth is.”
Award-winning paleontologist and best-selling author of Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body, Neil Shubin, lauded Eve as, “A refreshing new view on the origin of humanity.”
Eve is available for pre-order here.
Cat Bohannon's works of nonfiction and poetry can be found in Mind, Science Magazine, The Scientific American, The Best American Nonrequired Reading, The Story Collider, The Georgia Review, and Poets Against the War.
