The relationship between genetics and the environment is incredibly complex.

The term "heritability" refers to the proportion of variation in a population that is due to genetic differences. But people misinterpret the word to mean "genetically determined," "unmodifiable," or "innate" — but it doesn't mean any of these things.

Just because a version of a gene might be linked to a particular outcome in one group of people does not mean it is linked to the same outcome in another group of people.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

About Kathryn Paige Harden:

Dr. Kathryn Paige Harden is a tenured professor in the Department of Psychology at UT, where she leads the Developmental Behavior Genetics lab and co-directs the Texas Twin Project. She is the author of The Genetic Lottery: Why DNA Matters for Social Equality (Princeton). Dr. Harden received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Virginia and completed her clinical internship at McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School.

--------------------------------------------------

This interview is an episode from The Well, our new publication about ideas that inspire a life well-lived, created with the John Templeton Foundation.

About The Well

Do we inhabit a multiverse? Do we have free will? What is love? Is evolution directional? There are no simple answers to life’s biggest questions, and that’s why they’re the questions occupying the world’s brightest minds.

So what do they think?

How is the power of science advancing understanding? How are philosophers and theologians tackling these fascinating questions?

Let’s dive into The Well.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Watch Kathryn Paige Harden's next interview ► Schools ignore genetics—and that’s actually a bad thing   • Schools ignore genetics—and that’s ac...  

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There are 38 kinds of secrets. The average person has 13 at any given moment. Michael Slepian explains how that can affect your health.

We all have secrets. The average person has as many as 13 secrets at any given time.

Usually, we hold secrets to protect something, such as our reputation or someone we care about. But this doesn't always protect what we hope to protect.

Additionally, secrets can lead to loneliness and shame, which are particularly toxic to our health and wellbeing.

---------------------------------------------------------------

About Michael Slepian:

Michael Slepian is the Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Associate Professor of Leadership and Ethics at Columbia Business School. He previously was a visiting scholar at Stanford University, and received his Ph.D. from Tufts University. He is an elected fellow of the Society of Experimental Social Psychology, has received the Rising Star Award from the Association for Psychological Science, and received the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship

------------------------------------------------------

About Big Think | Smarter Faster™

► Big Think

The leading source of expert-driven, educational content. With thousands of videos, featuring experts ranging from Bill Clinton to Bill Nye, Big Think helps you get smarter, faster by exploring the big ideas and core skills that define knowledge in the 21st century.

Go Deeper with Big Think:

►Become a Big Think Member

Get exclusive access to full interviews, early access to new releases, Big Think merch and more

►Get Big Think+ for Business

Guide, inspire and accelerate leaders at all levels of your company with the biggest minds in business

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This interview is an episode from The Well, our new publication about ideas that inspire a life well-lived, created with the John Templeton Foundation.

What is fairness? According to geneticist Paige Harden, "Fair is not everyone getting the same thing. Fair is everyone getting what they need to succeed."

As an analogy, we have eyeglasses for people who have a genetic predisposition for bad eyesight. This intervention is provided to them for their entire lives.

Genetics is a tool for understanding what people need. We cannot achieve fairness simply by treating everyone the same.

----------------------------------------------------------------

About Kathryn Paige Harden:

Dr. Kathryn Paige Harden is a tenured professor in the Department of Psychology at UT, where she leads the Developmental Behavior Genetics lab and co-directs the Texas Twin Project. She is the author of The Genetic Lottery: Why DNA Matters for Social Equality (Princeton). Dr. Harden received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Virginia and completed her clinical internship at McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School.

-----------------------------------------------------------

About The Well

Do we inhabit a multiverse? Do we have free will? What is love? Is evolution directional? There are no simple answers to life’s biggest questions, and that’s why they’re the questions occupying the world’s brightest minds.

So what do they think?

How is the power of science advancing understanding? How are philosophers and theologians tackling these fascinating questions?

Let’s dive into The Well.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Watch Kathryn Paige Harden's next interview ► Would a society based on genetics be… good?   • Would a society based on genetics be…...  

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This interview is an episode from @The-Well, our publication about ideas that inspire a life well-lived, created with the @JohnTempletonFoundation. Neuroscientist Patrick McNamara emphasizes the importance of REM sleep, during which we dream, in fueling human creativity and cultural progression. He explains that during REM sleep, our brains cultivate an atmosphere conducive to fostering connections between unrelated concepts, leading to uniquely human, innovative outcomes. A notable feature of REM sleep is its ability to merge disparate ideas to generate inventive solutions to problems. Despite the modern world’s diminished appreciation for dreams, McNamara points out that traditional societies have always respected their transformative abilities. By effectively utilizing REM sleep, we can potentially unlock hidden creative abilities and address significant challenges that humanity confronts. Given the significant value we place on innovation, McNamara’s insights regarding the power of the dream state could revolutionize our strategies toward problem-solving. He posits that by reassessing our engagement with the dream state, we could discover novel solutions to global issues, thereby facilitating cultural evolution.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Chapters:

0:00 “REM sleep is what has made us special.”

1:15 22% of our sleep time is in REM state

2:04 Why did we evolve for REM sleep?

3:17 3 ways to harness REM sleep

4:09 Reverence for the dream state

Listen To This Next:

Adam Grant's #1 phrase to unlock potential

The science of super longevity

Beat anxiety with the most addictive experience on Earth

---------

About Patrick McNamara: Patrick McNamara is Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Northcentral University. He also holds appointments in the departments of Neurology at the University of Minnesota and Boston University School of Medicine. He is a founding editor of Religion, Brain & Behavior, the flagship journal for the emerging field of neuroscience of religion. McNamara's current research centers on the evolution of the frontal lobes, the evolution of the two mammalian sleep states (REM and NREM), and the evolution of religion in human cultures.

---------

Go Deeper with Big Think:

►Become a Big Think Member

Get exclusive access to full interviews, early access to new releases, Big Think merch and more

►Get Big Think+ for Business

Guide, inspire and accelerate leaders at all levels of your company with the biggest minds in business

-----

Discover Big Think | Smarter Faster™

Your top destination for expert-driven, educational content. Featuring thousands of episodes and insights from renowned figures like Bill Clinton to Bill Nye, Big Think accelerates your learning by delving into the pivotal concepts and essential skills shaping knowledge in the 21st century...

Unlock Knowledge, Faster....

With Insights from the World's Leading Minds

Remember to Follow the Podcast and Enable Notifications

If you found this episode valuable, Share It

Leave a 5-Star Review!!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This interview is an episode from The Well, our new publication about ideas that inspire a life well-lived, created with the John Templeton Foundation.

Eugenics is the practice of using "planned breeding" for "racial improvement."

Because this idea is repulsive, the predominant response has been "genome blindness” — that is, avoiding any study or discussion of genetic differences between people.

But according to geneticist Paige Harden, this is the wrong solution. Instead, we should identify genetic differences between people — including those that might affect social outcomes — so that we can help provide people with the resources they need to be successful.

--------------------------------------------------------

About Kathryn Paige Harden:

Dr. Kathryn Paige Harden is a tenured professor in the Department of Psychology at UT, where she leads the Developmental Behavior Genetics lab and co-directs the Texas Twin Project. She is the author of The Genetic Lottery: Why DNA Matters for Social Equality (Princeton). Dr. Harden received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Virginia and completed her clinical internship at McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School.

-----------------------------------------------

About The Well

Do we inhabit a multiverse? Do we have free will? What is love? Is evolution directional? There are no simple answers to life’s biggest questions, and that’s why they’re the questions occupying the world’s brightest minds.

So what do they think?

How is the power of science advancing understanding? How are philosophers and theologians tackling these fascinating questions?

Let’s dive into The Well.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This interview is an episode from @The-Well, our publication about ideas that inspire a life well-lived, created with the @JohnTempletonFoundation. Our world id filled with an abundance of data.Albert- László Barabási , a network scientist, beleives that understanding the underlying structure and relations of complex systems is crucial. Barabási' s research has challanged the notation of random connections amd led to the discovery of more accurate representation of these systems are organized. Barabási’s exploration began with the vast internet. Surprisingly, he found that the intricate web of connections did not follow random patterns but instead followed a power load distribution. He named these networks “scale-free networks.” Barabási’s groundbreaking work reveals that new connections in our networks tend to form with already well-connected elements. Scale-free networks exist in various complex systems, such as cellular interactions and social networks. This discovery is an important step toward comprehending the remarkable complexity that arises from countless interactions among the world’s many components.

Chapters

0:00 Networks: How the world works

1:23 The theory of random graphs

3:15 What is network science?

6:49 Complex systems

Listen To This Next:

Adam Grant's #1 phrase to unlock potential

The science of super longevity

Beat anxiety with the most addictive experience on Earth

------------------------------------------------------

About Albert-László Barabási: Albert-László Barabási is a network scientist, fascinated with a wide range of topics, from unveiling the structure of the brain and treating diseases using network medicine to the emergence of success in art and how science really works. His research has helped unveil the hidden order behind various complex systems using the quantitative tools of network science, a research field that he pioneered, and has led to the discovery of scale-free networks, helping explain the emergence of many natural, technological, and social networks. Barabási is a Fellow of the American Physical Society. He is the author of The Formula (Little Brown), Network Science (Cambridge), Bursts (Dutton), and Linked (Penguin). He co-edited Network Medicine (Harvard, 2017) and The Structure and Dynamics of Networks (Princeton, 2005). His books have been translated into over twenty languages. Get Smarter Faster, With Daily Episodes From The Worlds Biggest Thinkers.

--------------------------------------------------------

Go Deeper with Big Think

►Become a Big Think Member

Get exclusive access to full interviews, early access to new releases, Big Think merch and more

►Get Big Think+ for Business

Guide, inspire and accelerate leaders at all levels of your company with the biggest minds in business

-----

Discover Big Think | Smarter Faster™

Your top destination for expert-driven, educational content. Featuring thousands of episodes and insights from renowned figures like Bill Clinton to Bill Nye, Big Think accelerates your learning by delving into the pivotal concepts and essential skills shaping knowledge in the 21st century...

Unlock Knowledge, Faster....

With Insights from the World's Leading Minds

Remember to Follow the Podcast and Enable Notifications

If you found this episode valuable, Share It

Leave a 5-Star Review!!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A life without suffering is a life without meaning.

But this is a paradox. We spend most of our life trying to avoid things like pain, fear, and grief — yet, sometimes, we seek them out. We watch sad movies. We push our bodies to the limit with extreme exercise. Why?

There are two reasons:

(1) There is a difference between chosen and unchosen suffering.

(2) The good things in life only make sense if there are also bad things. Without the bad, the good loses meaning.

Chapters For Easier Navigation:

0:00 intro

1:14 Unchosen suffering

1:46 Alan Watts

2:54 Darwinian Perspective

3:43 Meaning And Suffering

4:38 Conclusion

--------------------------------------------------

About Paul Bloom:

Paul Bloom is the Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor of Psychology at Yale University. An internationally recognized expert on the psychology of child development, social reasoning, and morality, he has won numerous awards for his research, writing, and teaching. Bloom’s previous books include Just Babies: The Origins of Good and Evil and How Pleasure Works: The New Science of Why We Like What We Like, and he has written for Science, Nature, The New York Times, and The New Yorker.

---------------------------------------------------------

About The Well

Do we inhabit a multiverse? Do we have free will? What is love? Is evolution directional? There are no simple answers to life’s biggest questions, and that’s why they’re the questions occupying the world’s brightest minds.

So what do they think?

How is the power of science advancing understanding? How are philosophers and theologians tackling these fascinating questions?

Let’s dive into The Well.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Watch Paul Bloom's next interview ► Kids don’t always make you happier. Here’s why people have them anyway.   • Kids don’t always make you happier. H...  

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Catfish taste with their whole bodies - and that’s just one way animals sense the world totally differently than us.

Up Next ► How to enter ‘flow state’ on command | Steven Kotler for - BIGTHINK+

Every animal has its own thin slice of the fullness of reality that it can detect, known as "umwelt."

Even though we all inhabit the same planet, each species experiences it very differently.

No animal can sense everything. There is so much sensory information in the world, that detecting all of it would be overwhelming. It's also unnecessary for survival.

--------------------------------

About Ed Yong:

Ed Yong is a Pulitzer Prize–winning science writer on the staff of The Atlantic, where he also won the George Polk Award for science reporting, among other honors. His first book, I Contain Multitudes, was a New York Times bestseller and won numerous awards. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, National Geographic, Wired, The New York Times, Scientific American, and more. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Liz Neeley, and their corgi, Typo.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Go Deeper with Big Think:

►Become a Big Think Member

Get exclusive access to full interviews, early access to new releases, Big Think merch and more

►Get Big Think+ for Business

Guide, inspire and accelerate leaders at all levels of your company with the biggest minds in business

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We have a biological impulse to produce and nurture children.

But the negatives of having children are obvious: cost, anxiety, sleepless nights. Research even shows that children don't make our lives happier, overall. So, why do we continue to have them?

The answer may be about something far deeper than happiness: meaning. Parents tend to report having more meaningful lives than non-parents. Indeed, very few parents regret having children.

------------------------------------

About Paul Bloom:

Paul Bloom is the Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor of Psychology at Yale University. An internationally recognized expert on the psychology of child development, social reasoning, and morality, he has won numerous awards for his research, writing, and teaching. Bloom’s previous books include Just Babies: The Origins of Good and Evil and How Pleasure Works: The New Science of Why We Like What We Like, and he has written for Science, Nature, The New York Times, and The New Yorker.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

About Big Think | Smarter Faster™

► Big Think

The leading source of expert-driven, educational content. With thousands of videos, featuring experts ranging from Bill Clinton to Bill Nye, Big Think helps you get smarter, faster by exploring the big ideas and core skills that define knowledge in the 21st century.

Go Deeper with Big Think:

►Become a Big Think Member

Get exclusive access to full interviews, early access to new releases, Big Think merch and more

►Get Big Think+ for Business

Guide, inspire and accelerate leaders at all levels of your company with the biggest minds in business

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Up Next ► Why you should want to suffer — just a little bit   • Why you should want to suffer — just ...  

This interview is an episode from The Well, our new publication about ideas that inspire a life well-lived, created with the John Templeton Foundation.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There are several misperceptions about evolution, one of which is that it would drive animals toward being selfish, uncaring, and unloving toward others.

But there are several ways in which kindness and altruism can evolve through natural selection.

Two ways are kin selection (helping those who share our genes, like family members) and reciprocal altruism (helping those with whom we are in regular contact). In this way, a system of universal morals can develop.

-----------------------------------------------

About Paul Bloom:

Paul Bloom is the Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor of Psychology at Yale University. An internationally recognized expert on the psychology of child development, social reasoning, and morality, he has won numerous awards for his research, writing, and teaching. Bloom’s previous books include Just Babies: The Origins of Good and Evil and How Pleasure Works: The New Science of Why We Like What We Like, and he has written for Science, Nature, The New York Times, and The New Yorker.

----------------------------------------------

This interview is an episode from The Well, our new publication about ideas that inspire a life well-lived, created with the John Templeton Foundation.

About The Well

Do we inhabit a multiverse? Do we have free will? What is love? Is evolution directional? There are no simple answers to life’s biggest questions, and that’s why they’re the questions occupying the world’s brightest minds.

So what do they think?

How is the power of science advancing understanding? How are philosophers and theologians tackling these fascinating questions?

Let’s dive into The Well.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Watch Paul Bloom's next interview, Why I’m against empathy ►   • Why I’m against empathy | Paul Bloom  

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices