Aroop Mukharji
Host Aroop Mukharji interviews Dr. Steven Pinker, Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, about his new book, “Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress” (Viking 2018) and beer and mixed nuts.
For more about the show, please visit: http://www.snackbreakshow.com
Source
Pinker is exceptional…The precision of his arguments, their sophistication and his capacity to deeply consider the other side so that he can explain his counter argument in their context is inimitable.
"Sports is a benign way of indulging" tribalism. That makes me feel slightly better about them (professional sports that is), but they've always struck me as an indulgence of a less than desirable urge of the human species. I've sort of gone back and forth on it, but I think I may have settled on the position that they're best observed from afar rather than indulging in personally. I've been to games or in bars where people actually throw down and fist fight over their stupid sports teams that they don't even play for and don't have any real vested interest in, so it's really a bit uglier than the term used above would suggest. I guess if you yourself aren't succumbing to these behaviors, it's not so alarming, but I think professional sports really do feed the urges of people who crave violent conflict, which is dangerous IMO.
INCORRECT! We care about what beer Steven Pinker likes! Stocking up now.
Humans have changed very little over the last few hundred years, but the microbes the share our environment and live on us and in us have changed a great deal. It’s not just about slow evolution by natural selection, but also how viruses, bacteria and such influence our individual and group behaviour. Pinker is indeed brilliant, but I would love for him to address how normal human psychology can change rapidly through micro organisms.
Intelligence is inheritable, but y cousins have demonstrated that not all genes transferred are expressed.
A tan and sharp suit on Maher, now beer and nuts? What’s next Steven, breakdancing in the nightclubs??
A lot this makes sense, but I wonder about things like this: no one would dare hitchhike today, yet it used to be common, even for teenagers. I can remember as a kid we never locked our car doors, seldom our house doors during the day. Now, of course, everyone does. He mentions that he himself, as a child, could run out an safely play until 6 pm. As far as the decline in violence, we also have a huge number of people locked up (probably good). I also wonder how good crime stats are from 700 years ago.
two in the pink, 1 in the stink … pinker the man
Horrible idea