All Episodes

#820 Joseph Errington: The History of Linguistics, Colonialism, and Language Ideologies

Aug 11, 2023

Dr. Joseph Errington is Professor of Anthropology at Yale University. He studies language change as a source of insight into the ways languages constitute intimate parts of our everyday lives, and at the same time are foundational for large-scale institutions, social groups, and social dynamics. He has worked mostly in Indonesia, studying Javanese (90 million speakers), Indonesian (250 million speakers) and a range of Malay dialects. He has also worked on questions of language ideology and practice: how conceptions of language can shape and reflect social interests, naturalize images of social groups, and shape everyday ways of talking. He is the author of books like Language and Social Change in Java, Shifting Languages, and Linguistics in a Colonial World. More»
#819 Geoffrey West - Scale; Laws of Life, Growth, and Death in Organisms, Cities, and Companies

Aug 10, 2023

Dr. Geoffrey West is Shannan Distinguished Professor at the Santa Fe Institute. He is a theoretical physicist whose primary interests have been in fundamental questions in physics, especially those concerning the elementary particles, their interactions and cosmological implications. His long-term fascination in general scaling phenomena evolved into a highly productive collaboration on the origin of universal scaling laws that pervade biology from the molecular genomic scale up through mitochondria and cells to whole organisms and ecosystems. He is the author of several books, including Scale: The Universal Laws of Life, Growth, and Death in Organisms, Cities, and Companies. More»
#818 Tibor Rutar: The Rise, Benefits, and Challenges of Liberal Democracies

Aug 7, 2023

Dr. Tibor Rutar is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Maribor, Slovenia, Researcher at the Center for the Study of Post-Socialist Societies in Maribor, and Researcher at the Research Center for Strategy and Governance at the University of Ljubljana. His last two books are Rational Choice and Democratic Government: A Sociological Approach (Routledge, 2021) and Capitalism for Realists: Virtues and Vices of the Modern Economy (Routledge, 2022). More»
#817 Raymond Hames: Hunting, Mating Systems, Warfare, and Evolutionary Anthropology

Aug 4, 2023

Dr. Raymond Hames is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His research interests are in behavioral ecology, food and labor exchange, human ecology, marriage, and kin and parental investment. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (anthropology section), past-president of the Evolutionary Anthropology Society of the American Anthropological Association, consulting editor for Human Nature, and for ten years he served as treasurer of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society. More»
#816 Gareth Leng - The Matter of Facts: Skepticism, Persuasion, and Evidence in Science

Aug 3, 2023

Dr. Gareth Leng was one of the founders in 1983 of the British Society for Neuroendocrinology. He was appointed as the Chair of Experimental Physiology at the University of Edinburgh in 1994, after 17 years at what is now the Babraham Institute, Cambridge. He is a former Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Neuroendocrinology, and a former President of the International Neuroendocrine Federation. He is the author of The Matter of Facts: Skepticism, Persuasion, and Evidence in Science. More»
#815 Rebecca Sear: Demography, Family Structures, National IQs, and the Evolutionary Social Sciences

Jul 31, 2023

Dr. Rebecca Sear is a demographer and anthropologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), teaching demography and researching human reproductive behavior from an evolutionary perspective. She is particularly interested in taking a comparative perspective to understanding human reproductive behavior, and exploring why such behavior varies between, as well as within, populations. More»
#814 Christopher Ferrie - Quantum Bullsh*t: How to Ruin Your Life with Advice from Quantum Physics

Jul 28, 2023

Dr. Christopher Ferrie is an Associate Professor at the University of Technology Sydney and Centre for Quantum Software and Information. His research interests include quantum estimation and control, and, in particular, the use of machine learning to solve statistical problems in quantum information science. He is the author of several books, the latest one being Quantum Bullsh*t: How to Ruin Your Life with Advice from Quantum Physics. More»
#813 Marissa Harrison - Just as Deadly: The Psychology of Female Serial Killers

Jul 27, 2023

Dr. Marissa Harrison is Associate Professor of Psychology in the School of Behavioral Sciences and Education, and Interim Chair of Social Sciences and Psychology at Penn State Harrisburg. She is a research psychologist who investigates serial murder, and interest in serial murder, from an evolutionary and other psychological perspectives. She is the author of Just as Deadly: The Psychology of Female Serial Killers. More»
#812 Mélusine Boon-Falleur: The Impact of Resources on Psychology, and Climate Change

Jul 24, 2023

Mélusine Boon-Falleur is a PhD student in cognitive sciences at the École Normale Supérieure (ENS) Paris, researching how evolution shaped our brain. She is particularly interested in studying how individuals adapt to the amount of resources available in their environment, and how our social cognition influences pro-environmental behavior. More»
#811 Elijah Millgram: Practical Reasoning and Ethics

Jul 21, 2023

Dr. Elijah Millgram is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Utah. His research focuses on rationality, theoretical reasoning, and practical reasoning. He is the author of six books, including Practical Induction, Varieties of Practical Reasoning, Ethics Done Right: Practical Reasoning as a Foundation for Moral Theory, and John Stuart Mill and the Meaning of Life. More»