Why I started StoneAgeMan

Over the summer of 2019 I started to feel like I needed an outlet for my media skills that was just my voice. For over ten years I had been building the content of UntamedScience in a collaborative way. I’d raise funds and then hire people to make content and fulfill our educational needs. But, I never had one thing that was made in my voice entirely.

So, I decided that I wanted to make a channel, that resonated with how I was seeing the world at the moment. That was the concept. But first, I needed to figure out what was troubling me.

I felt emotional distress at my current situation – living in a digital age that was causing huge amounts of stress. But why was I stressed? Was it called for? Through my understanding of history and advancements in medicine, I knew we were living in the best time in history. It didn’t feel that way though.

It seemed to me that I could use my understanding of biology, learn more things about human psychology, and start trying to figure out more of our human past to figure out why it seemed like I was more stressed than I should have been. I came to the conclusion that since we evolved as a species in what we commonly refer to as the Stone Age, I was essentially a Stone Age Man! If I could learn more about the circumstances that I evolved in, maybe, just maybe, things would get better.

I learned these main things:

1. Our stress is an adaptation to help us survive. But, it only works when the threat is immediate, and needed to get us out of the situation. Like fighting a saber tooth cat or wooly mammoth.
2. We evolved in small groups of maybe as many as 300, but not much more.
3. Seeing stressful things on social media, which is pulling from nearly 8 billion people, is telling our body that we need to fight, yet the threat isn’t immediately around us. And, it’s all the time.
4. Most people have lost a connection to nature, something that has grounded us our entire evolutionary history.

So, I decided I wanted to tackle a couple of these problems. Mainly, I’d teach people more about the wild places, so that they could slowly learn to disconnect. I’d also start running trips with small groups – mini-trips as a way for people to reconnect with their StoneAge selfs, but it a modern, safe way. I hope this brings the best of both worlds.

Here is a short trailer about it:

Here are some of the things I’ve been doing on StoneAgeMan’s Youtube Channel

• Rope and Cordage Basics
• Rule of 3’s: Basic Survival Knowledge
• What is the best survival Knife
• How to tie the taut-line: The Best Camping Knot

AND, I have many more, if you just go visit the learning pages at StoneAgeMan.com!

May learning and education make us healthier and happier!

-Rob Nelson