Evolutionary Psychology (the podcast)

They say that if you do what you love you never have to work a day in your life. In this episode, polymath Athena Aktipis (ASU) shares her enthusiasm and love for all things cooperative. Topics include music, Zombies, borderline personality, vibeing, alignment, cooperative energy, how not to build an institution, and how to capture the magic of musicians jamming together. We dare you to not feel inspired!

More about Athena Atkipis:

https://www.athenaaktipis.org/

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=8abR970AAAAJ&hl=en

More about Pickin' in the Pines:

https://pickininthepines.org/

Philosopher of Ethics and Politics Hanno Sauer (Utrecht) examines whether moral progress is all its cracked up to be. Topics include social class, being slightly more moral than others, rationalization costs, the relationship between intellectuals and power, and the tolerated scrounging of morality. 

https://www.uu.nl/staff/HCSauer

https://philpeople.org/profiles/hanno-sauer

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=n0djnuAAAAAJ&hl=de

This week, we talk about ice-age megafauna, Shamansim, magic, and the scale of ancestral cooperation with Manvir Singh (UC Davis). 

More about Manvir:

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ZHpmcFYAAAAJ&hl=en

https://anthropology.ucdavis.edu/people/manvir-singh

We're Back! This week, we (well, David) talks with Antoine Marie (Paris) about all things politics. 

More about Antoine: 

https://www.antoinemariesci.com/

https://www.sciencespo.fr/cevipof/en/directory/marie-antoine/

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=immG3K4AAAAJ&hl=en

We will be on a much-needed summer break for the next four weeks; returning on August 18th with a slew of fresh, new episodes. Thank you all for listening!

Sit back and relax as we tell you a story about....well....stories. In this episode, we talk with Michelle Sugiyama (U Oregon), who explores human nature through the lens of understanding how, when, and why we decide to tell each other stories. Other topics include the function of name labels, whether enjoying fiction is a byproduct or adaptation, history, propaganda, and how songs help us learn. 

More about Michelle Sugiyama:

https://blogs.uoregon.edu/humananimallab/

https://cas.uoregon.edu/directory/social-sciences/all/mscalise

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=_7XnIB0AAAAJ&hl=en

What is a mechanism? Are claims about function doomed to fail? And why are explanations in psychology and human behavior so fraught and contested? We pose these and other mysteries to one the shining stars in modern philosophy of science, Lauren Ross (UC Irvine). Other topics include how philosophers are kind of like therapists, how modern philosophy of science thinks about grand explanations of everything, reductionism, and why what's happening in psychology is reassuringly not new under the scientific sun. 

More about Lauren Ross:

https://sites.socsci.uci.edu/~rossl/

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=MR__Y0AAAAAJ&hl=en

Pascal Boyer (St. Louis) is one of the greats! We talk about his shifting thinking in terms of belief selection to belief production, and why this is a subversive idea. Other topics include birthdays, shamanism and magic, and why we should remain optimistic about the future of science. 

More about Pascal Boyer:

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=7OaZg10AAAAJ&hl=en

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal_Boyer

Is leaving a hunter horticultural lifestyle for a more westernized, market economy good or bad for one's health? And what does it take to run a field site? In this episode we talk to Josh Snodgrass (Oregon), one of the co-directors of the Shuar Project, and an expert on the consequences of transitioning from a more traditional to market subsistence on one's existence and health. Turns out: it's complicated!

More about Josh Snodgrass:

https://www.pinniped.net/snodgrass.html

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=EADPtvQAAAAJ&hl=en

https://cas.uoregon.edu/directory/profiles/all/jjosh

Do we choose how we choose others? Kris Smith gives us a tour of his fieldwork in across Tanzania, from the arid plains of Hadza Land to the shores of village fisheries, Kris explains what he's learned about understand partner choice, levels of cooperation, and how the local way of making a living. Kris also explains what mistakes new students often make in the field, the effects of social mobility, the difficulties of abstract measures across cultures, and how not to avoid mosquitos in the field. 

More about Kris Smith:

https://anthro.wsu.edu/faculty/wsu-profile/kristopher.m.smith/

https://www.kristophermsmith.com/

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=AXOcqSIAAAAJ&hl=en