Evolutionary Psychology (the podcast)

Oliver Sng (UC Irvine) is an evolutionary social psychologist who studies the tradeoffs inherent in limited time and energy. Topics included life history theory and its controversies, irrationality, growth mindsets and self-help, niches, competition, investment, kinship, and future discounting. A (surprisingly) light-hearted episode.  More about Oliver Sng: https://faculty.sites.uci.edu/olisng/ https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ari10nYAAAAJ&hl=en https://www.evocslab.com/people  

How can we better understand practices like polygamy and child marriage?  In this episode, we talk to David Lawson (UCSB) about the need to understand why practices seen as harmful are happening--including teasing apart moralizing them from understanding them, and how doing so is crucial if we want to actually help people.  More about David Lawson:  https://aea-lab.com/ https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Kr6-a3oAAAAJ&hl=en  

Is cultural evolution a blind process, or one intrinsically impacted by individual cognition and insight? Olivier Morin (CNRS Jean Nicod) simultaneously pulls no punches while remaining distinctly nonpartisan as we traverse these and other murky waters. Topics include the shape of violin sound holes, the cultural evolution of writing, rituals, economic assumptions, linguistic streamlining, and the cultural evolution of intellectuals.    More about Olivier Morin: https://sites.google.com/site/sitedoliviermorin/  

How do we remain resilient and flexible under difficult conditions? In this episode, we talk to Katie Starkweather (UCSB) about her work with the Shodagor, who spend appreciable amounts of life living on small boats in rural Bangladesh. Topics include: what is life like living on a small boat?, loneliness, social roles, division of labor, and how things like weather and ecology create and also put up barriers to social connection. Oh, and we talk about Coase and transaction costs (for all you Ronald Coase fans out there).    More about Katie Starkweather: https://kathrinestarkweather.com/ https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ftzkN60AAAAJ&hl=en    

They say that if you do what you love you never have to work a day in your life. In this episode, polymath Athena Aktipis (ASU) shares her enthusiasm and love for all things cooperative. Topics include music, Zombies, borderline personality, vibeing, alignment, cooperative energy, how not to build an institution, and how to capture the magic of musicians jamming together. We dare you to not feel inspired!   More about Athena Atkipis: https://www.athenaaktipis.org/ https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=8abR970AAAAJ&hl=en More about Pickin' in the Pines: https://pickininthepines.org/  

Philosopher of Ethics and Politics Hanno Sauer (Utrecht) examines whether moral progress is all its cracked up to be. Topics include social class, being slightly more moral than others, rationalization costs, the relationship between intellectuals and power, and the tolerated scrounging of morality.  https://www.uu.nl/staff/HCSauer https://philpeople.org/profiles/hanno-sauer https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=n0djnuAAAAAJ&hl=de  

This week, we talk about ice-age megafauna, Shamansim, magic, and the scale of ancestral cooperation with Manvir Singh (UC Davis).  More about Manvir: https://www.manvir.org/ https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ZHpmcFYAAAAJ&hl=en https://anthropology.ucdavis.edu/people/manvir-singh  

We're Back! This week, we (well, David) talks with Antoine Marie (Paris) about all things politics.    More about Antoine:  https://www.antoinemariesci.com/ https://www.sciencespo.fr/cevipof/en/directory/marie-antoine/ https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=immG3K4AAAAJ&hl=en

We will be on a much-needed summer break for the next four weeks; returning on August 18th with a slew of fresh, new episodes. Thank you all for listening!

Sit back and relax as we tell you a story about....well....stories. In this episode, we talk with Michelle Sugiyama (U Oregon), who explores human nature through the lens of understanding how, when, and why we decide to tell each other stories. Other topics include the function of name labels, whether enjoying fiction is a byproduct or adaptation, history, propaganda, and how songs help us learn.  More about Michelle Sugiyama: https://talkingstories.uoregon.edu/ https://blogs.uoregon.edu/humananimallab/ https://cas.uoregon.edu/directory/social-sciences/all/mscalise https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=_7XnIB0AAAAJ&hl=en