
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


Why can’t we all just get along?
And conversely, why do we sometimes get along so well, building cathedrals, inventing Democracy, symphonies, and stuff that that?
According to my guest today, the answer is as old as life itself. In the behaviors of the most ancient forms of bacteria, single-celled organisms without a nucleus, we can see the seeds of civilization as we know it, for better and for worse. They form collectives. They go to war. The key is homeostasis—the imperative of all life to avoid harm and seek to flourish.
I’m delighted to be speaking today with neuroscientist and philosopher Antonio Damasio. He heads the Brain and Creativity Institute at the University of Southern California and is the author of DESCARTES’ ERROR and the new book THE STRANGE ORDER OF THINGS: Life, Feeling, and the Making of Cultures.
Surprise conversation-starter clips in this episode:
Max Tegmark on consciousness
Maya Szalavitz on addiction
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
By Big Think / Panoply4.5
551551 ratings
Why can’t we all just get along?
And conversely, why do we sometimes get along so well, building cathedrals, inventing Democracy, symphonies, and stuff that that?
According to my guest today, the answer is as old as life itself. In the behaviors of the most ancient forms of bacteria, single-celled organisms without a nucleus, we can see the seeds of civilization as we know it, for better and for worse. They form collectives. They go to war. The key is homeostasis—the imperative of all life to avoid harm and seek to flourish.
I’m delighted to be speaking today with neuroscientist and philosopher Antonio Damasio. He heads the Brain and Creativity Institute at the University of Southern California and is the author of DESCARTES’ ERROR and the new book THE STRANGE ORDER OF THINGS: Life, Feeling, and the Making of Cultures.
Surprise conversation-starter clips in this episode:
Max Tegmark on consciousness
Maya Szalavitz on addiction
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

90,920 Listeners

43,838 Listeners

38,482 Listeners

37,526 Listeners

43,548 Listeners

578 Listeners

469 Listeners

1,548 Listeners

1,412 Listeners

33 Listeners

112,277 Listeners

937 Listeners

397 Listeners

2,474 Listeners

515 Listeners