All Episodes

#473 George Yancey: Racism in the US, and Anti-Christian Hostility

May 24, 2021

Dr. George Yancey is a Professor of Sociology at the Baylor University. He has published several research articles on the topics of institutional racial diversity, racial identity, academic bias, progressive Christians and anti-Christian hostility. His books include Compromising Scholarship, What Motivates Cultural Progressives, There is no God, So Many Christians, So Few Lions (Rowman and Littlefield) a book that assess Christianophobia in the United States. More»
#472 Aiyana Koka Willard: Religion, Cognition, Culture, and Human Universals

May 21, 2021

Dr. Aiyana Koka Willard is a Lecturer in the Centre for Culture and Evolution at Brunel University London. Her research focuses around the culture and cognitive origins of supernatural and religious beliefs. She is particularly interested in how thinking about minds and causal reasoning is related to supernatural beliefs. Her current research focuses on witchcraft, karma, and evil eye beliefs. More»
#471 Darcia Narvaez: Moral Development, and Flourishing

May 20, 2021

Dr. Darcia Narvaez is a Professor of Psychology Emerita at the University of Notre Dame. She has written extensively on issues of character and moral development. Dr. Narvaez’ research explores questions of species-typical and species-atypical development in terms of wellbeing, morality, and sustainable wisdom. She examines how early life experience (the evolved nest) influences moral functioning and wellbeing in children and adults. She integrates evolutionary, anthropological, neurobiological, clinical, developmental and education sciences in her work. Her 2014 book - Neurobiology and the Development of Human Morality - won the 2015 William James Book Award from the APA and the 2017 Expanded Reason Award for research. She also writes a popular blog for Psychology Today called “Moral Landscapes.” More»
#470 Olivier Sibony - Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment

May 17, 2021

Dr. Olivier Sibony is Associate Professor at HEC Paris. He is a writer, educator and consultant specializing in strategy, strategic decision making and the organization of decision processes. His research interests center on the effect of heuristics and biases in strategic decision making and procedures to improve the quality of decisions. He is the author of Cracked It!, You're About to Make a Terrible Mistake, and, more recently, Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment. More»
#469 Tim Maudlin: Philosophy of Physics, Quantum Mechanics, and Metaphysics

May 14, 2021

Dr. Tim Maudlin is Professor of Philosophy at New York University. Her has interests primarily focused in the foundations of physics, metaphysics, and logic. His books include Quantum Non-Locality and Relativity, Truth and Paradox and The Metaphysics Within Physics. He is a member of the Academie Internationale de Philosophie des Sciences and the Foundational Questions Institute (FQXi). He has been a Guggenheim Fellow. More»
#468 Andreas Elpidorou: How Boredom, Frustration, and Anticipation Lead us to the Good Life

May 13, 2021

Dr. Andreas Elpidorou is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Louisville. He specializes in the philosophical study of the mind and has published extensively on the nature of emotions (especially, boredom), consciousness, and cognition. He is best known for his work on the function and value of boredom. He is the co-author of Consciousness and Physicalism: A Defense of a Research Program (Routledge, 2018), the co-editor of Philosophy of Mind and Phenomenology: Conceptual and Empirical Approaches (Routledge, 2016), and the author of the recent book, Propelled: How Boredom, Frustration, and Anticipation Lead us to the Good Life. More»
#467 David Barash - Threats: Intimidation and Its Discontents; Nuclear Deterrence

May 10, 2021

Dr. David P. Barash is Professor of Psychology Emeritus at the University of Washington. He has written, edited or co-authored 40 books, including ones on human aggression, peace studies, and the sexual behavior of animals and people. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and has been the recipient of several honors. His books include “Homo Mysterious – Evolutionary Puzzles of Human Nature”, “Buddhist Biology: Ancient Eastern Wisdom Meets Modern Western Science”, “Approaches to Peace: A Reader in Peace Studies”, and “Through a Glass Brightly: using science to see our species as we really are”. His most recent book is “Threats: Intimidation and Its Discontents”. More»
#466 Bart Wilson - The Property Species: Mine, Yours, and the Human Mind

May 7, 2021

Dr. Bart J. Wilson is the Donald P. Kennedy Endowed Chair in Economics and Law at Chapman University. He is a founding member of the Economic Science Institute and founding member and Director of the Smith Institute for Political Economy and Philosophy. His research uses experimental economics to explore the foundations of exchange and specialization and the origins of property. Another of his research programs compares decision making in humans, apes, and monkeys. In 2019 he co-authored with Vernon Smith a Cambridge University Press book entitled, "Humanomics: Moral Sentiments and the Wealth of Nations for the Twenty-First Century." He is the author of The Property Species: Mine, Yours, and the Human Mind. More»
#465 Gabrielle Principe: Memory Development, False Memories, and Eyewitnesses

May 6, 2021

Dr. Gabrielle Principe is Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychology at the College of Charleston. Her research has been federally funded by the National Institutes of Health and she has published her research in numerous scientific journals including Psychological Science, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, and Cognition and Development. She has a lifelong fascination with the implications of evolutionary ideas on cognitive development and a serious interest in translating the latest scientific research about human development into information that parents and teachers can use to better rear and educate children. She is the author of Your Brain on Childhood: The Unexpected Side Effects of Classrooms, Ballparks, Family Rooms, and the Minivan (Prometheus, 2011). More»
#464 Brent Roberts: Continuity and Change in Personality, Conscientiousness, and Narcissism

May 3, 2021

Dr. Brent W. Roberts is a Professor of Psychology and Director of the Center for Social and Behavioral Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Roberts's research has focused on determining the replicable patterns of continuity and change in personality traits across adulthood, the life experiences associated with changes in personality traits over time, and the significance of these changes for individual functioning. Dr. Roberts also conducts research on psychometric issues, in particular how to measure the traits of conscientiousness and narcissism, and more recently, how to best assess socio-emotional skills. More»