This book surveys the history of humankind from the Stone Age to the 21st century, focusing on Homo sapiens. It divides human history into four major parts: the Cognitive Revolution, the Agricultural Revolution, the Unification of Humankind, and the Scientific Revolution. Harari argues that Homo sapiens dominate the world due to their unique ability to cooperate in large numbers through beliefs in imagined realities such as gods, nations, money, and human rights. The book also examines the impact of human activities on the global ecosystem and speculates on the future of humanity, including the potential for genetic engineering and non-organic life.
The Great Believers follows two intertwining storylines. The first is set in 1980s and '90s Chicago, where Yale Tishman, an art gallery acquisitions manager, navigates the devastating effects of the AIDS epidemic on his community. The second storyline takes place in Paris in 2015, where Fiona Marcus, a secondary character from the first storyline, searches for her estranged daughter and grapples with the long-term consequences of the epidemic on her life. The novel explores themes of loss, betrayal, friendship, and survival, and it is known for its detailed portrayal of the emotional and social impacts of the AIDS crisis[2][4][5].
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The connection between your psychology and your health, and how to work with it.
Ellen J. Langer is the author of eleven books, including the international bestseller
Mindfulness, which has been translated into fifteen languages, and Counterclockwise:
Mindful Health and the Power of Possibility. Most recently, she is the author of The
Mindful Body: Thinking Our Way to Chronic Health.
Langer is the recipient of, among other numerous awards and honors, a Guggenheim
Fellowship, the Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in the Public
Interest from the American Psychological Association, the Award for Distinguished
Contributions of Basic Science to the Application of Psychology from the American
Association of Applied and Preventive Psychology, and the Adult Development and
Aging Distinguished Research Achievement Award from the American Psychological
Association.
She is the author of more than 200 research articles and her trailblazing experiments in
social psychology have earned her inclusion in The New York Times Magazine’s “Year
in Ideas” issue. A member of the psychology department at Harvard University and a
painter, she lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
In this episode we talk about:
- The power of placebos
- Why she isn’t a fan of positive thinking as it is talked about in new age circles
- Her version of mindfulness, which is quite different from the version we usually talk about here on the show, which comes out of Buddhism
- Psychological treatments for chronic illness
- Smart strategies for reframing aging.
- Why the world would be boring if you knew it all
- What she means by her concept of a “mindful utopia”
- And her favorite one liners
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