There's a story you may have heard before about what the world look like before money was invented. It's a story built on the idea of barter. "It goes something like this: in the beginning, before there was money, if I had something that you needed, I would approach you with that thing and see if you had anything that I needed," says anthropologist Bill Maurer. "The problem is that when we look around the world and in the historical and archaeological record for instances of this kind of direct barter, unfortunately we don't find it." This week on Hidden Brain, we challenge established ideas about the origins of currency, and highlight the connection between money and relationships. "Society is a thing of ongoing continuous relationships. The settling and unsettling of debts, on and on and on and on and on."

Listen in, courtesy of NPR: https://www.npr.org/2020/01/10/795246685/emotional-currency-how-money-shapes-human-relationships