All Episodes

#161 Ian Gilligan: The Evolution of Clothing and Agriculture

Apr 8, 2019

Dr. Ian Gilligan is Honorary Associate Professor in the Department of Archaeology of the University of Sydney. He graduated in psychology (UNSW) and medicine (Sydney University) before studying prehistoric archaeology (Sydney University) and biological anthropology (PhD ANU). He specializes in the origin of clothing and the role of textiles in the transition to agriculture. He also has an interest in traditional clothing in Aboriginal Australia, particularly in Tasmania during the last ice age. In addition, he explores the wider psychological and philosophical aspects of wearing clothes. He’s also the author of the recent book Climate, Clothing, and Agriculture in Prehistory: Linking Evidence, Causes, and Effects (2018). More»
#160 Richard Haier: The Neuroscience of Intelligence, Group Differences, And AI

Apr 5, 2019

Dr. Richard Haier is Professor Emeritus in the Pediatric Neurology Division of the School of Medicine at University of California, Irvine. He is also the editor-in-chief of the journal Intelligence since 2016. In 1994, he was one of 52 signatories on "Mainstream Science on Intelligence," an editorial written by the American psychologist Linda Gottfredson and published in the Wall Street Journal, which summarized findings from intelligence research. His work on the parieto-frontal integration theory (P-FIT) with Rex Jung examines the neuroanatomy of intelligence based on neuro-imaging research. He’s also the author of the book “The Neuroscience of Intelligence” (2016). More»
#159 Ian Crawford: Astrobiology, Space Exploration, and Big History

Apr 4, 2019

Dr. Ian Crawford is Professor of Planetary Science and Astrobiology at Birkbeck College, University of London. His research activities mostly lie in the fields of space exploration (especially lunar science and exploration), and the science of astrobiology (the search for life in the Universe). More»
#158 Jay Belsky: Attachment, Child Development, and Child Maltreatment

Apr 1, 2019

Dr. Jay Belsky is Robert and Natalie Read Dorne Professor of Human Development in the Department of Human Ecology and Program in Human Development at the University of California, Davis. Professor Belsky is an internationally recognized expert in the field of child development and family studies. His areas of expertise include the effects of day care, parent-child relations during the infancy and early childhood years (including attachment), the transition to parenthood, the etiology of child maltreatment and the evolutionary basis of parent and child functioning. Dr. Belsky's research is marked by a focus upon fathers as well as mothers, marriages as well as parent-child relations, and naturalistic home observations of family interaction patterns. He is a founding and collaborating investigator on the NICHD Study of Child Care and Youth Development (US) and The National Evaluation of Sure Start (UK). He is the author of more than 300 scientific articles and chapters and the author/editor of several books. More»
#157 Gerard Saucier: Personality, The Big Five, The Big Six, and The Big Two

Mar 29, 2019

Dr. Gerard Saucier is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Oregon. He won the 1999 Cattell Early Career Research Award from the Society of Multivariate Experimental Psychology. His research focuses on Personality Psychology, Values, Cultural Psychology, Moral Psychology, and Political Psychology. Dr. Saucier has been a leader in developing and refining dimensional models for personality (the Big Five, and upgrading from the Big Five to a more comprehensive Big Six model and a broader, more universal 'Big Two') and beliefs and values (e.g., dimensions of ‘isms’). More»
#156 Samuel Andreyev: Innate and Acquired Aesthetic and Artistic Tastes

Mar 28, 2019

Samuel Andreyev is a Canadian music composer and writer residing in France. He also has a YouTube channel with his name. More»
#155 Glenn Geher: Evolutionary Psych, Mating, Attachment, And The PsychTable

Mar 25, 2019

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. More»
#154 Robert McCauley: Cognitive Science of Religion, Culture, Cognition, Evolution, and Ritual

Mar 22, 2019

Dr. Robert McCauley is the William Rand Kenan Jr. University Professor of Philosophy at the Center for Mind, Brain, and Culture, at Emory University. Dr. McCauley is a professor of philosophy, psychology, religion, and anthropology who is a pioneer in the cognitive science of religion. He is also the author of Why Religion Is Natural and Science Is Not and of Philosophical Foundations of the Cognitive Science of Religion as well as the co-author with E. Thomas Lawson of both Bringing Ritual to Mind: Psychological Foundations of Cultural Forms and Rethinking Religion: Connecting Cognition and Culture. Dr. McCauley is also the editor of The Churchlands and Their Critics and the co-editor with Harvey Whitehouse of Mind and Religion. More»
#153 Jessica Pierce: Animal Morality, Animal Ethics, and Veganism

Mar 21, 2019

Dr. Jessica Pierce is an American bioethicist, philosopher, and writer. She currently has a loose affiliation with the Center for Bioethics and Humanities, University of Colorado Denver, but considers herself mostly independent. She has previously worked variously at the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Nebraska Medical Center, and Randolph-Macon Women's College, having studied at the University of Virginia, Harvard Divinity School and Scripps College. Early in her career, she focused on questions of human health and the environment, co-authoring Environmentalism and the New Logic of Business (Oxford, 2000) and The Ethics of Environmentally Responsible Health Care (Oxford, 2004). Since the 2000s, much of her work has focused on human relationships with animals. She collaborated with Marc Bekoff for Wild Justice (Chicago, 2010), and authored The Last Walk (Chicago, 2012), Run, Spot, Run (Chicago, 2016), and The Animals' Agenda: Freedom, Compassion, and Coexistence in the Human Age (2017). More»
#152 Erica van de Waal: Social Cognition and Culture in Primates

Mar 18, 2019

Dr. Erica van de Waal is Professor of Primatology at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. She is also Director of the Inkawu Vervet Project, at the Mawana Game Reserve, in South Africa, an experimental field site with a study population of over 200 wild vervet monkeys, and a Branco Weiss Fellow of the Society in Science at the University of Zurich. She is interested in the evolution of primate social behaviors with a main focus on cultural transmission and cognition. More»