#3615

Mentioned in 8 episodes

Wonderful Life

The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History

Book • 1989

Stephen Jay Gould

In *Wonderful Life*, Stephen Jay Gould delves into the Cambrian period's explosion of life forms, using the Burgess Shale as a case study to argue that evolution is shaped by contingency rather than a linear progression towards complexity.

He highlights the diversity of ancient life and how chance events influenced the survival of certain species over others.

Mentioned by

Richard Dawkins

Michael Shermer

Thomas Moynihan

Peter Godfrey-Smith

Sean B. Carroll

Mentioned in 8 episodes

Mentioned by

Robert Greene

as the author of a book about the Cambrian explosion.

E503 Robert Greene

Mentioned by

Peter Godfrey-Smith

when discussing the contingency of evolutionary processes.

#203 – Peter Godfrey-Smith on interfering with wild nature, accepting death, and the origin of complex civilisation

Mentioned by

Peter Godfrey-Smith

when discussing Cambrian fossils.

249 | Peter Godfrey-Smith on Sentience and Octopus Minds

Mentioned by

Byrd Pinkerton

when introducing the central question of the episode about the predictability of evolution.

Mentioned by

Richard Dawkins

when discussing his disagreements with Stephen Jay Gould on punctuated equilibrium and multi-level selection.

I Sympathize with Trans People, but... | Richard Dawkins in Conversation with Colin Wright

Mentioned by

Michael Shermer

in relation to the movie 'Wonderful Life'.

What Einstein Meant by God: Science, Spirituality, and the Search for Meaning

Mentioned by

Sean B. Carroll

in a discussion about the repeatability of evolution.

117 | Sean B. Carroll on Randomness and the Course of Evolution

Mentioned by

Thomas Moynihan

as a book his dad used to read to him when he was a child.

How We Discovered Our Own Extinction (with Thomas Moynihan and Benjamin Bratton)

Mentioned by

Jonathan Losos

when describing Gould's idea about replaying the tape of life to see if the same outcomes would occur.

#1127 Jonathan Losos - Improbable Destinies: Fate, Chance, and the Future of Evolution

Mentioned by

Patrick Moore

while discussing the Cambrian explosion and early life forms.

#373 - Patrick Moore - Greenpeace's Ex-President - Is Climate Change A Hoax?

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