All Episodes

#719 Dimitris Xygalatas - Ritual: How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living

Dec 19, 2022

Dr. Dimitris Xygalatas is Associate Professor in Anthropology and Psychological Sciences and head of the Experimental Anthropology Lab at the University of Connecticut. He has also served as President of the International Association for the Cognitive and Evolutionary Sciences of Religion. His interests include ritual, sports, cooperation, the interaction between cognition and culture, and the impact of cultural practices on psychophysiological wellbeing. He is the author of The Burning Saints: Cognition and Culture in the Fire-walking Rituals of the Anastenaria, and, more recently, Ritual: How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living. More»
#718 Moshe Hoffman & Erez Yoeli - Hidden Games; Game Theory and Irrational Human Behavior (Pt. 2)

Dec 16, 2022

Dr. Moshe Hoffman is a Research Scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology and Lecturer at Harvard's Department of Economics. He applies game theory, models of learning and evolution, and experimental methods, to try to decipher the (often subconscious and subtle) incentives that shape our social behavior, preferences, and ideologies. More»
#717 Allan Horwitz - DSM: A History of Psychiatry's Bible

Dec 15, 2022

Dr. Allan Horwitz is Board of Governors Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Rutgers University. He has also chaired the Mental Health and Medical Sociology Sections of the American Sociological Association, as well as the Psychiatric Sociology Section of the Society for the Study of Social Problems. His research has focused on the sociology of mental health and illness. In 2006, he received the Leonard I. Pearlin Award for Distinguished Contributions to the Sociological Study of Mental Health from the American Sociological Association's Section on Sociology of Mental Health. In addition, he has published several books, the most recent one being DSM: A History of Psychiatry's Bible. More»
#716 Azar Gat - Ideological Fixation: From the Stone Age to Today’s Culture Wars

Dec 12, 2022

Dr. Azar Gat is the Ezer Weizman Professor of National Security at Tel Aviv University, in Israel. He is the founder and head of the University's International Program in Security and Diplomacy Executive Master’s Program in Diplomacy and Security. He’s also the author of books like A History of Military Thought, War in Human Civilization, and Nations: The Long History and Deep Roots of Political Ethnicity and Nationalism. His most recent book is Ideological Fixation: From the Stone Age to Today’s Culture Wars. More»
#715 Lee Edelman - No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive

Dec 9, 2022

Dr. Lee Edelman is Fletcher Professor of English Literature at Tufts University. Dr. Edelman began his academic career as a scholar of twentieth-century American poetry. He has since become a central figure in the development, dissemination, and rethinking of queer theory. His current work explores the intersections of sexuality, rhetorical theory, cultural politics, and film. He is the author of books like No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive; and Sex, or the Unbearable. More»
#714 Robert Cialdini - Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

Dec 8, 2022

Dr. Robert Cialdini is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Arizona State University. He has spent his entire career researching the science of influence, earning him an international reputation as an expert in the fields of persuasion, compliance and prosocial behavior. He is the author of Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, a New York Times No. 1 bestseller, now in its third edition with over 5 million copies sold worldwide, and in over 40 languages. More»
#713 Lucy Cooke - Bitch: On the Female of the Species

Dec 5, 2022

Lucy Cooke is a New York Times best-selling author, award-winning documentary filmmaker and broadcaster, National Geographic explorer and TED talker with a Masters in Zoology from the University of Oxford. Her latest book is Bitch: On the Female of the Species. More»
#712 Lionel Page - Optimally Irrational: The Good Reasons We Behave the Way We Do

Dec 2, 2022

Dr. Lionel Page is a Professor of Economics and Director of the Behavioural and Economic Science Cluster at the University of Queensland. He is interested in understanding how people make decisions, alone or in groups. His research links insights from economic theory (theory of decision and game theory) and from other behavioral sciences such as psychology. He is the author of Optimally Irrational: The Good Reasons We Behave the Way We Do. More»
#711 Daniel Williams: Beliefs, Rationalization Markets, Misinformation, and Motivated Cognition

Dec 1, 2022

Dr. Daniel Williams is a Research Fellow at Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge, and an Associate Fellow at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (CFI). He works mostly in the philosophy of mind and psychology. His primary research interest at the moment is on how various forms of irrationality and bias are socially adaptive, enabling individuals to achieve social goals that are in conflict with epistemic goals. More»
#710 Batja Mesquita - Between Us: How Cultures Create Emotions

Nov 28, 2022

Dr. Batja Mesquita is Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of Leuven, Belgium, where she studies the role of culture in emotions, and of emotions in culture and society. She is director of the Center for Social and Cultural Psychology in Leuven. She is the author of Between Us: How Cultures Create Emotions. More»