All Episodes

#104 Michael Ruse: Darwinism, Species, Race, Gene Editing, and Religion

Nov 26, 2018

Dr. Michael Ruse is a philosopher of science who specializes in the philosophy of biology and works on the relationship between science and religion, the creation–evolution controversy, and the demarcation problem within science. He currently teaches at Florida State University, where he is Lucyle T. Werkmeister Professor and Director of HPS Program. He’s also a very prolific writer, author of books like The Darwinian Revolution, Darwin and Design, and On Purpose. More»
#102 Valerie Curtis: Disgust and Hygiene Behavior

Nov 22, 2018

Dr. Valerie Curtis is Director of the Environmental Health Group, a multidisciplinary group researching hygiene, sanitation and water (WASH), at the London School Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She is trained in engineering, epidemiology and anthropology and studies human behavior from an evolutionary perspective. She’s also the author of the book Don’t Look, Don’t Touch, Don’t Eat: The Science Behind Revulsion. More»
#101 Todd Shackelford: Evolution and Family Conflict, Sperm Competition, Stepparenting

Nov 19, 2018

Dr. Todd Shackelford is a Distinguished Professor and Chair of Psychology at the University of Oakland, as well as the Co-Director of the Evolutionary Psychology Lab there. He is the editor in chief of the academic journals Evolutionary Psychology and Evolutionary Psychological Science. He is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Association for Psychological Science. More»
#100 Phoebe Ellsworth: Emotions, Eyewitness Accuracy, Juries, and the Death Penalty

Nov 16, 2018

THIS TIME, IT’S AUDIO-ONLY. SORRY ABOUT THAT, BUT I HAD SOME SORT OF TECHNICAL ISSUE, AND I COULDN’T RECORD VIDEO. More»
#99 Hal Arkes: Biases, Heuritics, and Decision-Making

Nov 15, 2018

Dr. Hal Arkes is Emeritus Professor of Psychology at Ohio State University. His research focuses primarily on areas like judgement/decision-making, medical decision-making, and economic decision making. He’s received several honors and awards over the years, such as President of the Society for Judgment and Decision Making (1996-1997); Elected "Fellow" of the American Psychological Society in 1997; College of Arts & Sciences Outstanding Teacher Award (Ohio University) in 1987; and Provost's Teaching Recognition Award (Ohio University) in 1989 and 1990. More»
#98 Carin Perilloux: Perceiving Sexual Interest, Physical Attractiveness, Parent-Offspring Conflict

Nov 12, 2018

Dr. Carin Perilloux is Assistant Professor of Psychology at Southwestern University, US. She uses cognitive science to study social phenomena from an evolutionary perspective. In particular, she applies an adaptationist lens to human mating. Her main research interests include sexual intent perception, physical attractiveness, sexual victimization and parent-offspring conflict. More»
#97 Jennifer Vonk: Comparing Humans and Other Species, and Primate Cognition

Nov 9, 2018

Dr. Jennifer Vonk is Professor of comparative/cognitive psychology at Oakland University. Her primary research interests are in two overlapping areas: animal cognition, and cognitive development. The underlying goal of her work is to examine cognitive continuities and discontinuities between humans and both closely and distantly related species. More»
#96 Heather Montgomery: Social Anthropology of Childhood and Child Labor

Nov 8, 2018

Dr. Heather Montgomery is a social anthropologist who studied for her PhD at Trinity College, Cambridge, which she wrote on child prostitution in Thailand. She has had jobs and research positions in Sussex, Norway, Texas and at Oxford. Her research interests are within Childhood Studies, especially the history and anthropology of childhood and children’s rights. More»
#95 Robert Kurzban: The Hidden Agenda of Our Minds, Modularity, and Politics

Nov 5, 2018

Dr. Robert Kurzban is a former Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on the nature of evolved cognitive adaptations for social life. Dr. Kurzban has served as both the editor-in-chief of the journal Evolution & Human Behavior and President of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society. He’s also the author of the books Why Everyone (Else) Is a Hypocrite, and The Hidden Agenda of the Political Mind. More»
#94 Athena Aktipis: Cooperation and Conflict, From Cells to Human Societies

Nov 2, 2018

Dr. Athena Aktipis is Assistant Professor in the Psychology Department at Arizona State University, co-Director of the Human Generosity Project and Director of Human and Social Evolution, and co-founder of the Center for Evolution and Cancer at the University of California, San Francisco. She is a cooperation theorist, theoretical evolutionary biologist, and cancer biologist who now works at the intersection of these fields. She will be having a book coming out in the near future, Evolution in the Flesh: Cancer and the Transformation of Life. More»