Dr. Nicholas Christakis is Sterling Professor of Social & Natural Science, and Professor of Internal Medicine and General Medicine at Yale University. He’s a sociologist and physician known for his research on social networks and on the socioeconomic, biosocial, and evolutionary determinants of behavior, health, and longevity. Dr. Christakis was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 2006; of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2010; and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2017. In 2009, he was named to the Time 100, Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2009 and again in 2010, he was named by Foreign Policy magazine to its list of top global thinkers. He’s the author of Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society.

In this episode, we focus on his most recent book, Blueprint. We talk about the human social suite, and human universals and variation across societies. We also refer to our tribal aspects, and how that might present some obstacles in expanding our societies further. We discuss natural experiments, focusing on intentional communities, and how important it is to respect individual variation. Finally, we talk about how we can address the current problem of political polarization.

Follow Dr. Christakis’ work:

Faculty page: http://bit.ly/2kf3EtZ

Works on ResearchGate: http://bit.ly/2lNNJTW

Human Nature Lab: http://bit.ly/32EaTfd

Amazon page: https://amzn.to/2CE2kqg

Blueprint: https://amzn.to/2kvMNU5

Twitter handle: @NAChristakis

A HUGE THANK YOU TO MY PATRONS/SUPPORTERS: KARIN LIETZCKE, ANN BLANCHETTE, SCIMED, PER HELGE HAAKSTD LARSEN, LAU GUERREIRO, RUI BELEZA, ANTÓNIO CUNHA, CHANTEL GELINAS, JERRY MULLER, FRANCIS FORDE, HANS FREDRIK SUNDE, YEVHEN BODRENKO, SERGIU CODREANU, ADAM BJERRE, AIRES ALMEIDA, BERNARDO SEIXAS, HERBERT GINTIS, RUTGER VOS, RICARDO VLADIMIRO, BO WINEGARD, VEGA GIDEY, CRAIG HEALY, OLAF ALEX, PHILIP KURIAN, JONATHAN VISSER, DAVID DIAS, ANJAN KATTA, JAKOB KLINKBY, ADAM KESSEL, MATTHEW WHITINGBIRD, ARNAUD WOLFF, TIM HOLLOSY, HENRIK AHLENIUS, JOHN CONNORS, AND PAULINA BARREN!

A SPECIAL THANKS TO MY PRODUCERS, YZAR WEHBE, ROSEY, AND JIM FRANK, AND ŁUKASZ STAFINIAK!

AND TO MY EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, MICHAL RUSIECKI!

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