The Interplay Between Evolution and Culture

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Our appetites have been wired up through natural selection. That's why we have sexual desires that are very sort of circumscribed and kind of predictable. But then we also live in cultures, and the cultures manifest these things in very different ways. In siinc is more complicated. Like we all want status, but what status is in a hunter gatherer society versus an academic university department versus a baseball team is very different. You see these variations. And for what i'm interested in suffering and the use of suffering for pleasure to find meaning.

Paul Bloom is a professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto. He was also the Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science at Yale University . Paul studies how children and adults make sense of the world, with a focus on pleasure, morality, religion, fiction, and art.

Paul's newest book is The Sweet Spot: The Pleasures of Suffering and the Search for Meaning.

Read more about Paul at his website: paulbloom.net.

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