All Episodes

#184 Hector Garcia: Sex, Power, And Partisanship

May 31, 2019

Dr. Hector A. Garcia is a clinical psychologist specializing in the treatment of combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). He’s Assistant Professor at the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. He has published extensively on the treatment of PTSD in combat veterans, masculine psychology in the aftermath of war, the evolutionary roots of political partisanship, and the interplay between religious practice and psychopathology. He’s also the author of Alpha God: The Psychology of Religious Violence and Oppression, and Sex, Power, and Partisanship: How Evolutionary Science Makes Sense of Our Political Divide. More»
#183 Charles Lineweaver: Astrobiology, And What Is Life

May 30, 2019

Dr. Charles H. Lineweaver is the convener of the Australian National University's Planetary Science Institute and holds a joint appointment as an associate professor in the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics and the Research School of Earth Sciences. He was a member of the COBE satellite team that discovered the temperature fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background. Before his appointment at ANU, he held post-doctoral positions at Strasbourg Observatory and the University of New South Wales where he taught one of the most popular general studies courses "Are We Alone?". His research areas include cosmology, exoplanetology, and astrobiology and evolutionary biology. More»
#182 David Bjorklund: Evolution, Child Development, And Modern Environments

May 27, 2019

Dr. David F. Bjorklund is a Professor of Psychology at Florida Atlantic University where he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in developmental and evolutionary psychology. He served as Associate Editor of Child Development (1997-2001) and is currently serving as Editor of the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. His books include The Origins of Human Nature: Evolutionary Developmental Psychology (with Anthony Pellegrini), Origins of the Social Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and Child Development (edited with Bruce Ellis), Why Youth is Not Wasted on the Young: Immaturity in Human Development, Child and Adolescent Development: An Integrative Approach (with Carlos Hernández Blasi), and Children's Thinking: Cognitive Development and Individual Differences, now in its fifth edition. His current research interests include children's cognitive development and evolutionary developmental psychology. More»
#181 Cory Clark: The Psychology of Moral Judgment And Political Bias

May 24, 2019

Dr. Cory Clark is an Assistant Professor of Quantitative Social Psychology at Durham University, UK. Dr. Clark does research in Moral Psychology, Political Psychology, Experimental Philosophy, and Motivated Cognition. She’s also the cohost of Psyphilopod. More»
#180 Joseph Bulbulia: Religion, Cognition, Ritual, Morality, And Meaning

May 23, 2019

Dr. Joseph A. Bulbulia is a Professor in the School of Humanities, Faculty of Arts at the University of Auckland, where he was appointed the Maclaurin Goodfellow Chair in Theological and Religious Studies in 2018. Dr. Bulbulia is regarded as one of the founders of the contemporary evolutionary religious studies. He is a past President of the International Association for the Cognitive Science of Religion and is currently co-editor of Religion, Brain & Behavior. Dr. Bulbulia is one of four on the Senior Management Team of the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study, a 20-year longitudinal study tracking over 15,000 New Zealanders each year. He is an associate investigator for Pulotu, a database of 116 Pacific cultures purpose-built to investigate the evolutionary dynamics of religion. In 2016, Dr. Bulbulia won a Research Excellence Award at Victoria University. More»
#179 Justin Barrett: Cognition And Development In Religion

May 20, 2019

Dr. Justin L. Barrett is Professor of Psychology at Fuller Graduate School of Psychology and Chief Project Developer for the Office for Science, Theology and Religion Iniciatives at Fuller Theological Seminary. Professor Barrett is regarded as one of the founders of the cognitive science of religion field. He’s also the author of books like Why Would Anyone Believe in God?, Cognitive Science, Religion, and Theology: From Human Minds to Divine Minds, and Born Believers: The Science of Children's Religious Belief. More»
#178 Stephen Shennan: Darwinian Archaeology, Culture, and The Origins of Agriculture

May 17, 2019

Dr. Stephen Shennan is Professor of Theoretical Archaeology in the Institute of Archaeology at University College London. Dr. Shennan focuses on cultural evolution and Darwinian archaeology, applying theories from evolutionary ecology and cladistics to archaeology. In July 2006, he was elected Fellow of the British Academy. He’s the author of several books, including Genes, Memes and Human History: Darwinian Archaeology and Cultural Evolution, Mapping Our Ancestors: Phylogenetic Approaches in Anthropology and Prehistory, and The First Farmers of Europe: An Evolutionary Perspective. More»
#177 Azim Shariff: The Science of Religion, Morality, And Self-Driving Cars

May 16, 2019

Dr. Azim Shariff is Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair at the University of British Columbia, Canada. He is a social psychologist whose research focuses on where morality intersects with religion, cultural attitudes and economics. Another rapidly expanding part of his research looks at human-technology interactions and the ethics of automation, including self-driving cars. More»
#176 John Brooke: Environmental History, And The Anthropocene

May 13, 2019

Dr. John Brooke is Arts & Sciences Distinguished Professor of History, Professor of Anthropology, and Director of the Ohio State University Center for Historical Research. He is also the co-chair of the 2011-2012 Program: Disease, Health, and Environment in Global History. In 2007-2008 he served as the president of the Society of Historians of the Early American Republic. His teaching areas include Early American History and Environmental History. His most recent book, Climate Change and the Course of Global History: A Rough Journey, published in 2014, examines the long material and natural history of the human condition. More»
#175 Nicole Barbaro: Mating, Life History, Attachment, And Mate Guarding

May 10, 2019

Nicole Barbaro is currently a PhD student in evolutionary psychology at Oakland University, studying under the advisement of Todd K. Shackelford. She serves as the Student Representative of the Executive Council for the Human Behavior and Evolution Society. She also serves on the Editorial Board as a Review Editor for Frontiers in Psychology, Evolutionary Psychology, as well as a Section Editor for the Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Her interests are in human sexual psychology and behavior, including application of life history theory and sperm competition theory. More»