All Episodes

#538 Stephen Gaukroger - The Failures of Philosophy: A Historical Essay

Oct 22, 2021

Dr. Stephen Gaukroger is Emeritus Professor of History of Philosophy and History of Science at the University of Sydney. Dr. Gaukroger has completed a long-term project on the emergence and consolidation of a scientific culture in the West from 1210 to 1935: The Emergence of a Scientific Culture (Oxford, 2006),The Collapse of Mechanism and the Rise of Sensibility(Oxford, 2010),The Natural and the Human (Oxford, 2016), Civilization and the Culture of Science (Oxford, 2020). His re-working of the history of philosophy, The Failures of Philosophy (Princeton), was published in 2020. His current project is ‘The Uniqueness of the West: Classical Antiquity, the Orient, and the Construction of a European Cultural Identity, 1550-1914’. His new book is The Failures of Philosophy: A Historical Essay. More»
#537 Christopher Kuzawa: Developmental Plasticity, Life History, and Epigenetics

Oct 21, 2021

Dr. Christopher Kuzawa is Professor of Anthropology and Faculty Fellow at the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University. He uses principles from anthropology and evolutionary biology to gain insights into the biological and health impacts of human developmental plasticity. His primary field research is conducted in Cebu, the Philippines, where he works with a large birth cohort study that enrolled more than 3,000 pregnant women in 1983 and has since followed their offspring into adulthood (now 30 years old). He uses the nearly 3 decades of data available for each study participant, and recruitment of generation 3 (the grandoffspring of the original mothers), to gain a better understanding of the long-term and intergenerational impacts of early life environments on adult biology, life history, reproduction, and health. A theme of much of his work is the application of principles of developmental plasticity and evolutionary biology to issues of health. More»
#536 James Pennebaker: Language Use, Writing, Personality, and Stories

Oct 18, 2021

Dr. James Pennebaker is the Regents Centennial Professor of Liberal Arts and Professor of Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. He and his students are exploring natural language use, group dynamics, and personality in both laboratory and real-world settings. His earlier work on expressive writing found that physical health and work performance can improve by simple writing and/or talking exercises. His cross-disciplinary research is related to linguistics, clinical and cognitive psychology, communications, medicine, and computer science. Author or editor of 12 books and over 300 articles, Pennebaker has received numerous research and teaching awards and honors. More»
#535 Glenn Geher: Politics and Academic Values in Higher Education

Oct 15, 2021

Dr. Glenn Geher is Professor of Psychology at the State University of New York at New Paltz where he has been awarded SUNY Chancellor Awards for Excellence for both Teaching and Research. In addition to teaching various courses and directing the New Paltz Evolutionary Psychology Lab, Dr. Geher serves as founding director of the campus’ Evolutionary Studies (EvoS) program. He is also credited as the founder of the NorthEastern Evolutionary Psychology Society (NEEPS). He has also published several books including Evolutionary Psychology 101, Mating Intelligence Unleashed: The Role of the Mind in Sex, Dating, and Love, and Straightforward Statistics. In Darwin's Subterranean World: Evolution, Mind, and Mating Intelligence, his Psychology Today blog, Dr. Geher addresses various topics related to the human condition. His most recent book is Positive Evolutionary Psychology: Darwin's Guide to Living a Richer Life. More»
#534 Michael Huemer: Moral Realism, Ethical Intuitionism, and Veganism

Oct 14, 2021

Dr. Michael Huemer is a professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado. He is the author of more than seventy academic articles in epistemology, ethics, metaethics, metaphysics, and political philosophy, as well as several books, like Skepticism and the Veil of Perception, Ethical Intuitionism, The Problem of Political Authority, Approaching Infinity, Paradox Lost, and Dialogues on Ethical Vegetarianism. More»
#533 Alexander Rosenberg: Scientism, Nihilism, and Atheism

Oct 11, 2021

Dr. Alexander Rosenberg is the R. Taylor Cole Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Duke University. He has been a visiting professor and fellow at the Center for the Philosophy of Science, at the University of Minnesota, as well as the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Oxford University, and a visiting fellow of the Philosophy Department at the Research School of Social Science, of the Australian National University. In 2016 he was the Benjamin Meaker Visiting Professor at the University of Bristol. He has held fellowships from the National Science Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. In 1993, Dr. Rosenberg received the Lakatos Award in the philosophy of science. In 2006-2007 he held a fellowship at the National Humanities Center. He was also the Phi Beta Kappa-Romanell Lecturer for 2006-2007. He’s the author of both fictional and non-fictional literature, including The Atheist’s Guide to Reality, The Girl from Krakow, and How History Gets Things Wrong. More»
#532 Robert Paarlberg - Resetting the Table: Straight Talk About the Food We Grow and Eat

Oct 8, 2021

Dr. Robert Paarlberg is Betty Freyhof Johnson ’44 Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Wellesley College, and an Associate in the Sustainability Science Program at Harvard University. His research focuses on the international agricultural and environmental policy, regulation of modern technology, including biotechnology. He is the author of many books, including C More»
#531 Kyle Thomas: The Psychology of Common Knowledge

Oct 7, 2021

Dr. Kyle Thomas recently received his Ph.D. in experimental psychology from Harvard University, where he developed his research program on the psychology of common knowledge under his advisor, Steven Pinker. He is currently the Chief Scientist at MotiveMetrics, where they turn cutting-edge psychological science into software tools that can accurately reveal true motivations from publicly available data. In short, they help marketers understand why people buy—or don’t—at the click of a button. Software hasn’t eaten marketing research yet, but they’re working very hard to change that. More»
#530 Jeremy DeSilva - A Most Interesting Problem; Darwin’s Descent of Man (150th anniversary)

Oct 4, 2021

Dr. Jeremy DeSilva is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Dartmouth College. He is a paleoanthropologist, specializing in the locomotion of the first apes (hominoids) and early human ancestors (hominins). His particular anatomical expertise-- the human foot and ankle-- has contributed to our understanding of the origins and evolution of upright walking in the human lineage. He has studied wild chimpanzees in Western Uganda and early human fossils in Museums throughout Eastern and South Africa. From 1998-2003, Dr. DeSilva worked as an educator at the Boston Museum of Science and continues to be passionate about science education. He is the author of A Most Interesting Problem: What Darwin’s Descent of Man Got Right and Wrong about Human Evolution. More»
#529 David Pietraszewski: Modularity of Mind, Coalitional Psychology, and Politics

Oct 1, 2021

Dr. David Pietraszewski is Research Scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. He is an experimental psychologist who applies evolutionary theorizing to Social, Cognitive, and Developmental questions. He is particularly interested in characterizing the psychology of multi-agent conflict and cooperation ("coalitional psychology"). The goal of his research is to not simply describe behavior, but rather to use behavior to make inferences about the mind---described at the level of mechanisms (or functions). He also does theoretical work to address common confusions surrounding this approach. More»