The Myth of Valhalla

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I love the Vikings. I believe Valhalla is where half the soldiers go as a reward for for a great soldiering, for being great warriors. It's like animal farm, sure, a gany mountain that is promised to you if you're a great warrior. Now, at the same time, these myths can be used to get humans to do some of the worst atrocities. So some of the violence requires us to have those myths of what is waiting for us beyond death.

David Buss is an evolutionary psychologist at UT Austin. He is one of the founders of the field of evolutionary psychology. His current research is on sex differences in mate selection, mate attraction, infidelity, and the emotions of jealousy, lust, and love. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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OUTLINE:
Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00) – Introduction
(08:04) – Sex vs Violence
(14:48) – Mating strategies
(26:44) – Social construct of beauty
(30:38) – Evolution of mating evaluation
(34:40) – Mating selection desires
(39:52) – Difficulties of monogamy
(46:16) – Importance of male appearance
(48:52) – Importance of wealth
(52:08) – Penis and breasts
(55:59) – Fashion
(58:58) – Body objectification
(1:06:33) – Wear sunscreen
(1:13:29) – Gender
(1:30:39) – What motivates humans
(1:32:29) – Dominance and submissiveness
(1:40:33) – Johnny Depp defamation trial
(1:50:24) – Jealousy
(1:58:45) – Mate poaching
(2:02:58) – Polyamory
(2:14:13) – Female vs Male sexuality
(2:23:11) – Pornography
(2:29:46) – Sex and Violence continued
(2:38:55) – Cancel culture
(2:50:38) – Elon Musk and Twitter
(2:59:02) – Serial killers
(3:04:55) – Advice for young people
(3:16:57) – Love
(3:22:57) – Mortality
(3:27:40) – Meaning of life