All Episodes

#786 Vassilis Saroglou: The Psychological Traits of Religious People

May 25, 2023

Dr. Vassilis Saroglou is Full Professor of Psychology at the UCL-University of Louvain, with expertise in psychology of religion, personality, social, and cross-cultural psychology, moral psychology, and psychology of positive emotions. He has developed long-term empirical research on theoretically and socially critical issues regarding religion, spirituality, fundamentalism, and atheism, in interaction with social behavior: prosociality, submission, ethnoreligious & ideological prejudice, sexism, homophobia; personality, emotions, and health: personality traits, birth order effects, awe, humor; and more. More»
#785 Agustín Fuentes: The Origins of Patriarchy

May 22, 2023

Dr. Agustín Fuentes is Professor of Anthropology at Princeton University. His research focuses on the biosocial, delving into the entanglement of biological systems with the social and cultural lives of humans, our ancestors, and a few of the other animals with whom humanity shares close relations. Dr. Fuentes was awarded the Inaugural Communication & Outreach Award from the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, the President’s Award from the American Anthropological Association, and elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is the author of books like Race, Monogamy, and Other Lies They Told You: Busting Myths about Human Nature, and Why We Believe: Evolution and the Human Way of Being. More»
#784 Paul Russell: Free Will and Moral Responsibility

May 19, 2023

Dr. Paul Russell is Professor of Philosophy at Lund University (half-time appointment since 2018). He also serves as Director of the Lund|Gothenburg Responsibility Project (LGRP). Dr. Russell's interests cover the areas of free will and moral responsibility along with various topics in early modern philosophy. Within the area of free will and moral responsibility he is particularly interested in the challenge of skepticism and theories of responsibility that appeal to reactive attitudes or moral sentiments. On the subject of early modern philosophy, he is especially concerned with the philosophy of David Hume and how his philosophy relates to problems of religion and atheism. More»
#783 Kevin Dorst: Epistemology, Justified Beliefs, and Epistemic Modesty

May 18, 2023

Dr. Kevin Dorst is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at MIT. He works on epistemology, logic, language, and their intersections. In epistemology he’s interested in what we should think (the belief-credence connection), why we should think it (foundations), and how we should think about what we should think (higher-order uncertainty). In logic, he’s interested in various models of these things; in language, he’s interested the semantics of various statements about them. More recently, he’s been thinking about the connection between epistemology and cognitive science and psychology—and, in particular, how our idealized models and theories of rationality can help inform our understanding of our non-ideal selves. More»
#782 Gillian Forrester: The Evolution of Handedness, Cerebral Lateralization, and Language

May 15, 2023

Dr. Gillian Forrester is a Professor of Comparative Cognition in the School of Psychology at the University of Sussex. She is the director of the Comparative Cognition Group investigating the behaviors and brain organization of children, gorillas and chimpanzees focusing on how cognitive abilities evolve and develop over time and across species. More»
#781 R. Brian Ferguson - Chimpanzees, War, and History: Are Men Born to Kill?

May 12, 2023

Dr. R. Brian Ferguson is Professor of Anthropology at Rutgers University Newark. His expertise lies in cultural anthropology, the anthropology of war, ethnic conflict, state-tribe interaction, policing, and Puerto Rico. Dr. Ferguson has published many papers critical of biological perspectives in anthropology, especially explanations of war. His latest book is “Chimpanzees, War, and History: Are Men Born to Kill?”. More»
#780 Deborah Carr: Obesity, Disability, Healthcare, and Aging in America

May 11, 2023

Dr. Deborah Carr is a Professor of Sociology and inaugural director of the Center of Innovation in Social Science at Boston University. Her research interests include aging and the life course, psychosocial factors influences on health over the life course, and end-of-life issues. Her latest book is Aging in America. More»
#779 Keelah Williams: Stereotypes, Perceptions of Criminal Behavior, and Friendships

May 8, 2023

Dr. Keelah Williams is an Assistant Professor of Psychology and Director of Jurisprudence of Law and Justice Studies at Hamilton College. Her current research explores how the perception of threats and opportunities in the environment may shape stereotype content, punishment strategies, and legal decision-making. Her work has been published in journals such as Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. More»
#778 Carles Lalueza-Fox - Inequality: A Genetic History

May 5, 2023

Dr. Carles Lalueza-Fox is Director of the Natural Science Museum in Barcelona. He participated in the Neanderthal Genome Project and led the first retrieval of the genome of an 8,000-year-old European hunter-gatherer. He is the author of Inequality: A Genetic History. More»
#777 Gil Greengross: The (Evolutionary) Psychology of Humor, Laughter, and Comedians

May 4, 2023

Dr. Gil Greengross is a Lecturer in Psychology at Aberystwyth University. He is an evolutionary psychologist, studying the evolutionary roots of everyday behaviors and emotions. His main area of research focuses on the evolution of humor and laughter, what makes people laugh, and how humor is used in mating and mate choice. He also has a strong interest in studying people with extreme creative abilities, such as stand-up comedians, magicians, and other artists. More»