American Anthropological Association, Harvard Club of Washington, and Slow Foods DC members $15. Student tickets are also available for $10 (student ID will be requested). Please call (202) 633-3030 to purchase tickets.

Craving a home-cooked meal is only human. In fact, cooking may be closer to your core than you think. Primatologist Richard Wrangham presents a new theory of human evolution that singles out cooked food as the main ingredient in the making of the human species and society. His research indicates that the energy saved by eating cooked food instead of raw caused the digestive tract to shrink and the human brain to grow, and may have led to the development of families.

Wrangham goes beyond fossil evidence to spark a new debate about what it means to be human. His theory stirs up scientists, intrigues food enthusiasts, shakes up the raw-foods movement, and examines today’s obesity epidemic.

Wrangham is a professor of biological anthropology at Harvard University, curator at its Peabody Museum, and director of the Kibale Chimpanzee Project in Uganda. His latest book, Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human (Basic Books), is available for signing after the program.