S1E2 - Cooperation

In 1867 a boy raised by wolves is discovered in the jungles of Northern India. The story which inspired Rudyard Kipling’s Mowgli shows us something profound: strip away culture, and almost nothing recognisably human remains. If feral children show us what humans are like with almost no cultural evolution at all, what does someone at the opposite end of the spectrum look like? Who are the most culturally evolved people on Earth today? And how would such a person navigate polarization and the culture wars?In this episode we surf the spiral of human cultural evolution from traditional to modern, to postmodern, and beyond. Please take a moment to save the episode, and rate and review the show wherever you are listening - it really helps me reach new listeners. Sound Design: Mark PittamMusic: Afro Celt Sound SystemArtwork: Joey Gurdon (https://joeygurdon.com/)Sign up to SIMPOL (https://simpol.org/) Thank you to Intentional Society (https://www.intentionalsociety.org/) for their support.

At the end of Voltaire's Candide, after a lifetime of catastrophe and disillusionment, the young hero arrives at a simple conclusion: we must cultivate our garden.For two centuries that line has been read as resignation, as turning away from the world’s problems. But what if the garden Candide must cultivate is not the patch of earth outside his door - but himself.In this opening episode we meet the thinkers who have stared longest and hardest at the converging crises of our time and come back with a surprising answer. The problem is not just out there, it is in here.As the Sufi poet Rumi said "Yesterday I was clever so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise so I am changing myself."Please take a moment to rate and review the show wherever you are listening - it really helps me reach new listeners.Sound Design: Mark PittamMusic: Afro Celt Sound System Artwork: Joey Gurdon (https://joeygurdon.com/)Sign up to SIMPOL: (https://simpol.org/)This series was sponsored by Intentional Society (https://www.intentionalsociety.org/)

Series 2 is almost here! To get early access to series 2 sign up to the top tier of my Patreon: patreon.com/evoconsciousI need your help! Making a series like this is a huge labour of love - literally years of research and conversations and editing. Well it turns out spreading the word with no marketing budget is just as challenging. I'm up against huge production companies, addictive tiktok reels and endless polarising noise. The one thing that moves the needle for an independent podcast with something important to say? You.A rating or review — right now, wherever you’re listening — directly helps new people find this show. Most listeners mean to do it and never quite get round to it. If this podcast has ever made you think differently, this is the moment to pay it forward.👉 Rate & review (30 seconds)👉 Share the series with one person who’d get it (10 seconds)That’s it — just one listener telling another. It’s how independent podcasts survive.Thank you!

Yesterday I was clever so I wanted to change the world, today I am wise so I am changing myself.

Do you want to know the meaning of life?

Humans find great meaning in transcending our physical and mental limitations and tapping into enhanced states of consciousness. When we do so we are expressing an impulse that has been inherent in the evolutionary process from the big bang onwards. Evolution has continually transcended its limitations, breaking free from the determinism of blind laws and mechanisms. But what does that have to do with consciousness?Start with Episode 1 — Meaning. Each episode builds on the last.

Creativity is one of the enduring mysteries of the universe. How does something more keep coming from something less?From cosmological to biological to cultural evolution the universe appears to be getting more and more creative as it evolves, and human creativity is just the latest example of that trajectory.Can this explain why humans find creativity meaningful?Start with Episode 1 — Meaning. Each episode builds on the last.

We’ve been taught that evolution is a cruel and vicious struggle in which only the ruthless survive. But if you look a little more closely, the natural world is teeming with cooperation.Not only that, but from single celled organisms right the way through to human civilisation, the scale of cooperation has been steadily increasing.Can this shed any light on why humans find cooperation meaningful?Start with Episode 1 — Meaning. Each episode builds on the last.

The pursuit of happiness is one of the founding American ideals. But evidence from psychology research points to the conclusion that pursuing happiness for its own sake doesn't actually work. What can work, however, is to cultivate a meaningful life, because in doing so, happiness tends to follow as a by-product. What do humans find meaningful? How do they differ from simple hedonism? And what does this tell us about life?

For much of human history, most people have been far too pre-occupied with the question, "How can I stay alive?" to have any time to think about the question "How should I live?"But as billions of people have been raised out of poverty, and, particularly in the Western world, living standards have improved, more and more people have found themselves confronted with the question, how should I live in order to be happy?I think it's about time we had an answer.0cCmzNjZPwliSeXDvJaG