Converging Dialogues

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Charles Murray about statistics, cognitive abilities, and social-political issues. They begin by providing a statistical overview of the bell curve, standard deviations, and the overlap of group mean averages. They discuss meta analyses and factor analyses and why they are important for IQ data. They also mention g and its importance for cognitive abilities. They provide definitions of terms such as race, ethnicity, and populations along with genetic concepts such as SNPs, Alleles, and Polygenetic Index scores. They outline the data on race and IQ and question whether it is important to even study group differences between races. They talk about the current social ideology and contributions to these conversations. They also mention the gene-environment interactions, how some groups use data for nefarious reasons, and many other topics.

Charles Murray is the F.A. Hayek Chair Emeritus in Cultural Studies at the American Enterprise Institute. He holds a BA in History from Harvard University and a PhD in Political Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He has been involved with the Peace Corps and United States Agency for International Development (USAID). He is the author of numerous books, including, The Bell Curve, Coming Apart, Human Diversity, and Facing Reality. You can find some of his work at his website.          Twitter: @charlesmurray

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Kyle Harper about the history of plague and disease on the planet. They begin by talking about his reasons for writing his latest book and the two main theses of the book. They talk about the five taxa of pathology and the importance of globalization on disease. They discuss the three components of parasitism and how the evolution of disease evolves alongside hominoids. They talk about the importance of hunter-gatherers in the Pleistocene period along with the key aspect of vector borne transmission diseases. They move to the Agrarian period and the importance of fecal-oral transmission for disease history. They talk about examples of typhoid disease and measles and how density and domesticates are implicated in respiratory diseases. 

They also talk about the plague and its complicated history while also mentioning zoonotic leaps from bats and rats. They also discuss the Colombian exchange the impact this period had on the spread of disease in the world. They talk about the impact of the mosquito and how modernity has continued to work on the evolution of diseases. They mention public healthy innovations in the modern ages, vaccines, and where COVID-19 sits in the history of disease.

Kyle Harper is a Professor of Classics and Letters and Provost Emeritus and Senior Advisor to the President at the University of Oklahoma. He is a historian of ancient Rome and his interests are disease history, economic history, and environmental history. He is the author of four books, including his most recent book, Plagues Upon The Earth: Disease and the Course of Human History. You can purchase this book here. You can find much of his research at his website. Twitter: @oklahomaharper

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Kat Rosenfield about women, men, feminism, metoo, cancel culture, and free speech issues. They begin the conversation by discussing why Kat writes about cultural issues and the current state of feminism. They explore why dissent from other women is not always accepted within many women's rights groups. They discuss women in the workplace, the patriarchy, metoo, and women in film. They talk about whether one can separate the art from the artist and if it is possible to forgive and rehabilitate people for wrong acts they do. They also talk about cancel culture and free speech and many other topics.

Kat Rosenfield is a freelance pop culture writer. She is a former reporter for MTV News and has written articles for Entertainment Weekly, Unherd, Vulture, Wired, and many other places. She is the author of many books including Alliances: A Trick of Light with Stan Lee. Her newest novel is No One Will Miss Her and can be purchased here. You can find her at her website. Twitter: @katrosenfield

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Dominic Packer about group identities. They start the conversation by discussing his partnership with Jay Van Bavel and their reasons for writing the book. The define identity and why it is an important construct. They discuss the delineation between self and personality and discuss in-group vs. out-group constructs. They mention the concept of cooperation with group identities and mention some of the classic social psychology experiments. They talk about group identity with political polarization, optimal distinctiveness, and the importance of dissent. They also talk about the need for healthy group identities and many other topics. 

Dominic Packer is a Social Psychologist, Professor and Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Programs in Arts and Sciences at Lehigh University. His main focus areas are on dissent, cooperation, and group identities. His book, with co-author Jay Van Bavel, is The Power of Us: Harnessing Our Shared Identities to Improve Performance, Increase Cooperation, and Promote Social Harmony, which can be purchased here. Their book also has a website. Twitter: @dominicpacker_

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Nicole Barbaro about higher education. They discuss Nicole's work in higher education and the importance of mentorship for professional development. They provide a definition of education and its boundaries. They also talk about the role of the federal government (Department of Education in the USA) in overseeing and regulating education. They mention merit vs. meritocracy along with the role of standardized tests and entrance exams. They talk about the challenges of scale for a large country's education system and a public option for education. They spend some time discussing the importance of good, quality teaching in higher education. They mention the variables of synchronous and asynchronous learning/teaching. They talk about the process of formal training and education and why information gathering alone is half of the process. They discuss the alternatives of improving teaching in the classroom, DIY and "education influencers," woke activism, Critical Race Theory (CRT) curriculums, and homeschooling. They also talk about options for improving the future of education and many other topics. 

Nicole Barbaro holds a PhD in psychology with an emphasis on evolution and human development. She is currently a research scientist at WGU labs and continues to publish in academia on attachment. You can find all of her publications at her website. Subscribe to her substack to have weekly content on current trends within higher education. Twitter: @Nicolebarbaro 

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Kathryn Paige Harden about genetics and their interactions with the environment. She explains her background and reasoning for writing her book. They lay the groundwork for the conversation by considering why it is important to study human variation at all and give the framing for why genes can be seen as luck or a lottery. They discuss the differences between genetic variance vs. genetic shift and why this can be contentious at times. They discuss Genome Wide Association Studies (GWAS) and explain the many aspects surrounding this tool and some of the opinions people have about them. They dialogue about how to separate the tools from the scientist and how this could be done appropriately. She discusses her agreements and disagreements with various camps in the genetic research world and why understanding author’s intent is important. They also talk about equality and impact the environmental interaction has on genetic data.

Kathryn Paige Harden is a tenured professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Texas, Austin where she heads the Developmental Behavior Genetics lab and co-directs the Texas Twin project. She obtained her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Virginia and has published over 100 scientific publications on child cognitive development, academic achievement and other familiar topics. She is the author of the book, The Genetic Lottery: Why DNA Matters for Social Equality, which can be found here. You can find her various publications at her website. Twitter: @kph3k

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Nick Pyenson about whales and their environment. They begin the conversation by talking about the importance of science communication and Nick's role in science communication with his research and book. They discuss the various ways in which scientists obtain whale data and talk about the evolution of whales. They talk about the two phases of whale evolution from land to water and provide a natural history of whales through different periods of the earth. They discuss the challenges with whaling and explain the taxonomy of whales. They engage about the diet of whales and how their dietary habits contribute to the ecosystems of the oceans. They talk about the impact of increased carbon dioxide and ocean acidification on the future of whale along with many other topics. 

Nick Pyenson is a Paleontologist, Research Geologist, and curator of fossil marine mammals at the Smithsonian's Institution's National Museum of Natural History. His scientific research has focused on the convergent evolution of marine life, including whales. He is the author of the book, Spying on Whales: The Past, Present, and Future of Earth's Most Awesome Creatures, which can be found here. You can find his work at his website. Twitter: @pyensonlab

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Richard Prum about aesthetics, birds, and the evolution of beauty. They provide an overview of sexual selection and the aspects of sexual ornamentation and mate choice. They discuss Fisher’s two-factor model of evolution and use the example of the great Argus pheasant to describe Richard’s idea that beauty happens. They discuss the co-evolution of beauty and how sexual selection is not only about adaptation. They mention the subjective experience of animals and theory of mind. They also discuss aesthetic radiation, phylogeny of birds, and the sound production in the wings of Manakins. They briefly discuss the colorful feathers of dinosaurs, duck sex, and aesthetic remodeling. Richard provides some of his critiques of evolutionary psychology and makes the distinction between beauty happening and pleasure happening.

Richard Prum is an Evolutionary Ornithologist at Yale University. His research interests are avian biology, behavioral evolution, sexual selection, and mate choice. He has been a main contributor to the theropod dinosaur origins of birds and the evolution of avian plumage coloration. He is the Curator of Ornithology and Head Curator of Vertebrate Zoology at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. Previously, he was the Chair of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale. He is the author of, The Evolution of Beauty: How Darwin’s Forgotten Theory of mate Choice Shapes the Animal World—and Us, which can be purchased here. You can find his scholarly publications here.

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Courtney Crosby about sexual arousal, desire, and disgust. Courtney provides some of her background and how she became interested in evolutionary psychology and studying sexual disgust. They define disgust, seeing it as its own emotional system and discuss how disgust fits with other emotions. They discuss the different elements of core disgust and some of the associations between disgust and norms, judgments, and attributions. They also discuss sexuality and discuss the distinctions between sexual desire and sexual arousal. They talk about sexual disgust, its various dimensions, cross-cultural findings, and some remarks on moral disgust.

Courtney Crosby is a Doctoral Candidate at the University of Texas at Austin whose research is in evolutionary psychology and sexual disgust. She has published empirical research on sexual disgust and has written for Psychology Today. Find all of her scholarly research and popular pieces at her website. Twitter: @evocourtney

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Amity Shlaes about the 30th President of the United States, Calvin Coolidge. They discuss Coolidge’s background and environment raised to be frugal and fiscally conservative. They talk about his path to the presidency and his state vs national views on progressivism. They focus on how Coolidge’s emphasis as president was on a balanced budget and reducing the debt. They talk about his handling of the Mississippi floods and why he did not involve the national government for aid. They also discuss Coolidge’s weakness on foreign affairs and his overall legacy as president.

Amity Shlaes is the chairwoman of the board of the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation. She has written four New York Times bestsellers, including Coolidge. She is the winner of the Hayek Prize and has served on the Council on Foreign Relations and the George W. Bush Presidential Center. She is the Presidential Scholar at King’s College and has previously taught at New York University’s Stern School of business. You can find all of her work at her website. Twitter: @Amityshlaes