A short YouTube podcast clip (uploaded by Jeffrey Jaime) featuring Ben Greenfield arguing that adolescence is a novel life phase in modern societies—absent in many traditional cultures—and that it can be a beneficial, purposeful developmental period rather than merely an extended childhood. The clip frames adolescence roughly between ages 13–16 and proposes the Western world should leverage adolescence’s opportunities.
Hey, this is Ben Greenfield. I thought you'd like this little clip of my latest podcast.
I think what's important to recognize is that here in our modern world, we actually have a new phase of life that our earth based ancestors did not have. And that, of course, is adolescence. You know, if you look back to the old cultures, the kids would transition from childhood to adulthood. Somewhere between 13 to 16, there was no adolescence. It just they went from childhood to adulthood. I think it's easy to look at that and say, oh, you know, poor us, you know, we've screwed up culturally speaking, and now we have to extend childhood unnecessarily. But I believe there's actually a gift in adolescence. And when we talk about purpose, I think part of our greater, the greater purpose of the Western world is to really leverage the possibility of fully harnessing the opportunity that adolescence is providing us.
If you enjoyed this clip, you should check out the whole episode and a host of other topics over at bengreenfieldfitness. Com. Have an amazing day.
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