If you're reading this, you are most likely a WEIRD person. So are Dave & Ryan.

But why is a Western Educated Industrial Rich Democratic person odd? Only because 95% of psychological research is conducted on WEIRD populations. When trying to understand humans, it's tricky to use a subset of humanity as a baseline. Yet, here we are...

Thanks to Joe Henrich for his great article which led RDQI down this path.

Find his work here:

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20201231-how-the-way-you-think-was-shaped-centuries-ago

Did you know that if you had won the Olympic Gold Medal for the marathon in 1920 that you wouldn't qualify for the Boston Marathon today?

Crazy, right?

But why is this the case? Are we bigger, faster, stronger humans today?

Anthropology brought a new way of looking at the world. Of course, with it came some interesting side effects. One of those side effects is the launching point for Ryan&Dave as they navigate how mythology shapes who we are today.

Teamwork is everywhere. Almost every interaction involves networks of people acting together to reach some goal. Erik is back on the show to give his take on how to build a team and what keeps a team together. We all know the frustrations of a bad team, but how do you make it better?

Grab a plate of (uncharred) meatballs and enjoy.

Dave&Ryan found a cocktail recipe based on herbal remedies to ward off the plague, in the 14th century. That got them thinking, how do humans currently connect with remedies which aren't 100% verified via the scientific method? Whether or not you take ginseng regularly, you've almost certainly used an herbal remedy of some sort.

So if you have taken a remedy, did it work? Ryan and Dave think the answer is usually yes, depending on what the true goal is.

We made it through. 2020 is over. Not that 2021 is magically better, but we always hope so. In line with that hope is an annual tradition: New Years Resolutions.

Do they work? And if they do work, are they any good?

Dave and Ryan take a look at the Bronze Age collapse. Not that any historian knows exactly what happened of course. There is an eerily similar arc to what we do know. Dependence on limited natural resources, a globally intertwined economy, massive migration movements disturbing a tentative peace... sound familiar?

Do music and animation connect? Yes. You could even say they are tethered. Laura, a video game animator, takes Ryan and Dave through everyday life in animation.

Ryan and Dave are joined by Garret. Bringing science communication, education, and musical backgrounds together in one person, Garret represents himself as the dynamic catalyst he is. Value-systems are the topic of debate, but a good prompt never slows these three from a winding walk of a conversation. In the end, how do we define our value-systems?