I haven't listened to the podcast but from the summary I disagree that there is any 'evolutionary metaphor' that can be applied to Proof of Work.

Evolution, per Charles Darwin, works through "survival of the fittest". Being 'fit' has almost nothing to do with doing work. It just means you have a good fit for a certain environment.

Work is a human concept; it doesn't exist in nature. (Leaving aside the physical definition of force * distance).

We defined what work was in Bitcoin too. You can't do *any* work; it has been defined very precisely and exactly and with the careful motivation of requiring computational cost (and with it, energy use). This is completely *outside* evolution and the natural world. It is very artificial (and I don't use this word in any derogatory sense). So I would be very dubious about anyone making 'evolutionay metaphors ' about PoW in Bitcoin.