Polymath

Have you been watching the news recently and been thinking 'what the hell is happening here?' This episode is for you!

We're exploring how intelligence has changed in people over time- and why. What kinds of intelligence is this change mostly happening in? How does cognition and intelligence work, anyway? Where in the brain does it come from? What's the difference between intelligence and wisdom? Is social media making us less wise?

We're back, and now with a brand new microphone! In Polymath, we don't take questions like these and answer them based on 'hot takes': we use statistics and science. This episode is a massive journey through how the human mind works, what human nature is, what makes it wiser, and what humanity has been doing wrong- or right!

To break down this chonky episode into some more manageable segments, remember that all episodes and different parts of episodes can be found on my youtube channel under 'Daniel Aaron Levy' 🤓

Enjoy!

Has real communism ever been tried? What do communists want? What did Karl Marx want? Is communism democratic- or is communist democracy an oxymoron? How does the economy work in communism and what are the means of production? Who's in charge? What drugs does Dan take before recording?

We'll be answering all these questions and more. This is the biggest episode on Polymath so far and my personal favourite. This episode is MASSIVE: in length, in scope, in relevance. We're taking one of the most controversial, messiest subjects in the world, sweeping away all the bullshit, and extracting just the real unbiased truth.

And we're not just listing definitions: this beast of an episode runs through political science, political philosophy, political theory, a ton of economics, history spanning three centuries, and a little seasoning of psychology. All because I wanna give you guys as comprehensive an understanding as possible.

This is the fifth episode on a multi-part series on this channel: An Objective Guide to Political Ideologies. But don't worry, you don't need to listen to any previous episodes to understand this one- it all makes complete sense by itself and with no prior knowledge about this kinda stuff. Enjoy!

Why do we keep worrying about fitting in and being liked? What actually is social status? Why do men care so much about 'honour' or 'pride' and fight each other when they feel disrespected? What does testosterone actually do?

We're back, and we're taking a little break from the politics special to explore something that affects everybody. Humans are social animals, men fight, and we all hate being lonely: but why? We explore all these questions with some evolutionary psychology, anthropology, history, and biology.

After a long wait, it's a pleasure getting back on Polymath. I had a great time making this, and I hope you enjoy!

PS: I say in this video that a certain individual committed crimes of a sexual nature (rather than saying they have been accused of committing multiple crimes). However, I formally retract all statements to that nature because ✨libel✨. Don't sue me ok cheers

Has 'real' socialism ever been tried? What do socialists want? Who owns the 'means of production' and what are they? How does the economy work in socialism? Who's in charge? What's the difference between socialism in theory and socialism as has been practised?

Today, we'll be answering all these questions and more as we use political science (+ some economics, history, and political philosophy) to cut through all the bias, partisanship, and confusion to identify what socialism REALLY is. There's so much conflicting and biased information on socialism out there that it's incredibly difficult to gather up all the scattered strands of real information and put them all together. Luckily, that's exactly what we've done here!

This episode is part of a multipart special on this channel about different political ideologies, providing an objective guide to all of them. You'll get the most out of it by watching the preceding episodes in the series, but every episode on Polymath is designed to be 100% understandable and enjoyable by itself. Tune in, kick back, and enjoy!

What actually is capitalism anyway? What distinguishes the different kinds? What was the Golden Age of Capitalism and what caused it? What's laissez-faire capitalism, neoliberalism, the Nordic model, social capitalism, a mixed economy, state capitalism, the East Asian model, or economic planning?

There's so many different models and variants of capitalism that it's easy to get lost, and difficult to pick out which ones really work. Today, we break down some important economics terms and explore what all these types of capitalism are in a concise but informative way.

This is the third episode in a multi-part series on political ideologies, starting from Episode 09- but don't worry, you don't need to watch any other episodes to enjoy this one! All you need to do is tune in, kick back, and enjoy.

What does 'capitalism' really mean? What does it try and achieve? What actually are the means of production and what is a market? Does capitalism mean freedom and democracy? Is it left or right wing?

In today's episode, we'll be answering all these questions and more. Today's episode is in fact the second part of a multi-episode special on this channel on political ideologies- but don't worry, you don't need to watch any other episodes to enjoy this one! All episodes in this series are designed to be completely understandable on their own.

Tune in and enjoy!

What actually is a political ideology and where do they come from? What's the current left-right polarisation all about? What is a liberal and what is liberalism? Where do modern democracy, politics, and morality come from? Why were historical societies so brutal and unfair? What is the purpose of civilisation?

Welcome to the first episode in the first ever special on this show! This episode begins a multiple part series- but each episode can be enjoyed by itself- about different political ideologies and political ideology in general.

As always on Polymath, we'll be using lots of different academic disciplines to be breaking down some complex questions. To answer this episode's question, we'll be using political science and philosophy, history, and economics.

But this episode goes a bit deeper than just definitions. We'll be exploring some of the foundational pillars of human civilisation throughout history, and in doing so throw some light on our own.

Enjoy!

They're terms we've all heard, but what actually are they? Where do they come from, how should we use them, what do they stand for, and how can we break them down and understand them?

In today's episode, we'll be answering all these questions and more using political science, history, economics, and political philosophy.

Although the intro for this episode says that we'll also be exploring whether historical figures can be judged by the standards of today, we did in fact run out of time. But that just means that we can give that question the time and attention it deserves in its own episode later! For now, tune in and enjoy!

Hello everybody, today we're gonna be exploring the underlying causes behind the Industrial Revolution and why the West did it first- and came to rule the globe.

We'll be answering questions like what actually was the Industrial Revolution, how did Western history lead up to it, why Britain in particular started it, and why didn't it happen/rapidly spread elsewhere outside the West?

As always on Polymath, we'll be using lots of different fields to answer these big questions, including history, political philosophy and psychology, and economics. Enjoy!

Excuse the brief lapse in sound quality at the start!

In today's episode, we use evolutionary psychology (and some other important disciplines) to explore attractiveness: what determines what we find attractive, and why is attractiveness even a thing?

We're gonna be exploring some key questions, like how do men and women differ in what they find attractive and why, what have humans evolved to find attractive, why are beauty standards what they are, and even why has love itself evolved.

Tune in and enjoy!