Why the Nature paper drew attention

The full episode is available here: https://www.razibkhan.com/p/10000-years-of-selection-in-western

Despite the preprint being out for two years, Akbari et al.'s Ancient DNA reveals pervasive directional selection across West Eurasia publication in Nature this week has resulted in a massive media response. Though Razib has discussed this work before, he thought it would be useful to review it, and put it in context in a new monologue.