Civilization: an updated history

This podcast has altered a lot of my perceptions on the history & nature of civilization.

E.g. do we farm wheat over potatoes because they are conducive to taxation?

Were cities reliant on importing (or capturing) populations until that last few hundred years?

I’d like to see this guy debate Steve Pinker, since he makes the contrary point that civilization has driven down homicide rates over time. But that is just one metric of improvement.