Converging Dialogues

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Yuval Levin about the importance of reforming our institutions. They discuss why institutions are important, individuals and institutions, slow change with institutions, and the mistrust and dislike of institutions. They also make the case for elites, building broad political coalitions, Trump’s 2nd first 100 days, reforming journalism, family in the 21st century, and many more topics. Yuval Levin is the director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he also holds the Beth and Ravenel Curry Chair in Public Policy. The founder and editor of National Affairs, he is also a senior editor at The New Atlantis, a contributing editor at National Review, and a contributing opinion writer at New York Times. He has his MA and PhD from the committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. Dr. Levin served as a member of the White House domestic policy staff under President George W. Bush. He was also executive director of the President’s Council on Bioethics and a congressional staffer at the member, committee, and leadership levels.In addition to being interviewed frequently on radio and television, Dr. Levin has published essays and articles in numerous publications, including Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, The Atlantic, and Commentary. He is the author of several books on political theory and public policy, including the title, A Time to Build. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Olga Khazan on whether one could change their personality. They discuss why someone would want to change their personality, constancy over the lifespan, and why she used the BIG-5. They talk about extroversion and connection, neuroticism and mindfulness, openness to experience, conscientiousness, agreeableness, values, and many more topics. Olga Khazan is a staff writer for The Atlantic. Prior to that, she was The Atlantic’s Global editor. She has also written for the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, Forbes, and other publications. She is the author of Me, But Better: The Science and Promise of Personality Change and Weird: The Power of Being an Outsider in an Insider World. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Robert Plomin on behavioral genetics. They discuss why behavioral genetics has explanatory power, heritability, genetics and psychological research, SNPs, GWAS, and epigenetics. They also talk about shared and non-shared environments, twin models and adoption models, heritability and cognitive abilities, heritability and personality, psychopathology, and many other topics. Robert Plomin is MRC Research Professor in Behavioral Genetics at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London. He helped launch the Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Research Centre, which brings together genetic and environmental strategies to understand individual differences in behavioral development. In 1995, Professor Plomin began the Twins Early Development Study (TEDS), which has followed 10,000 pairs of UK twins from infancy through early adulthood and has been continuously funded for 25 years as a program grant from the Medical Research Council. He was the youngest elected President of the international Behavior Genetics Association and has received lifetime research achievement awards from the major associations related to his field (Behavior Genetics Association, Association of Psychological Science, Society for Research in Child Development, International Society for Intelligence Research), as well as being made Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, British Academy, American Academy of Political and Social Science, and Academy of Medical Sciences (UK). He has published more than 800 papers and is the author of the best-selling textbook in the field as well as a dozen other books, including, Blueprint: How DNA Makes Us Who We Are. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Hugo Shakeshaft about ancient greeks ideas about beauty and the gods. They discuss beauty in ancient Greece and its impact on modern times, architecture and beauty, beauty and aesthetics, and the gods and beauty. They talk about the relationship between humans and the gods, superficial and deeper beauty, beauty and nature, beauty as power, role of religion, and many more topics. Hugo Shakeshaft is a classicist, art historian, and artist. He is a specialist in the cultural history of ancient Greece and its legacy. His research ranges across ancient literature, history, philosophy, art, and archaeology. At the heart of his work is a fascination with aesthetics, with how people in antiquity perceived the world. The place of beauty in ancient Greek culture has been a focus of his research to date.He has a degree in Classics from Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge. After a year at Harvard as a Herchel Smith Scholar, he completed a Masters in Classical Archaeology and then a doctorate in Ancient History at Lincoln College, University of Oxford. Since 2018 he has held research fellowships at Christ Church College, Oxford, and the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence. He is currently A.W. Mellon postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. He is the author of the book, Beauty and the Gods: A History from Homer to Plato. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Daniel Mendelsohn on his new English translation of Homer’s The Odyssey. They discuss the massive impact of The Odyssey, major themes in the Odyssey, authorship, and translation for our time. They talk about the lines and meter of the Odyssey in English, oral to written form, adapting the Odyssey, relevance for the 21st century, and many more topics. Daniel Mendelsohn is an internationally bestselling author, critic, essayist, and translator. He is a professor of literature at Bard College. He has degrees in Classics from the University of Virginia and Princeton. He has been a prolific contributor of essays, reviews, and articles in many publications, most frequently The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books. He has also been a contributing editor at Travel + Leisure and a columnist for The New York Times Book Review, Harper’s, and New York magazine, where he was the weekly book critic. In February 2019, he was named Editor-at-Large of the New York Review of Books and the Director of the Robert B. Silvers Foundation, a charitable trust that supports writers of nonfiction, essay, and criticism.He has received many honors including the American Academy of Arts and Letters Harry Vursell Prize for Prose Style, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Barnes and Noble Discover Prize, the NBCC Citation for Excellence in Book Reviewing, the George Jean Nathan Prize for Drama Criticism, and Princeton University’s James Madison Medal. In 2022, he was made a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters by the Republic of France, and received the Premio Malaparte, Italy’s highest honor for foreign writers. He is a member of both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Association. He is also the author of many books including the new translation of, Homer’s The Odyssey. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Jenara Nerenberg about the importance of nuance thinking and healthy dialogue with others. They discuss self-censoring, groupthink, rise of gurus, podcasters, and influencer culture. They also talk about heterodox thinking, ethics of speaking to a larger audience, healthy dialogue with others, and many other topics. Jenara Nerenberg is a journalist, author, and founder of The Neurodiversity Project. She has interdisciplinary training from Harvard in public health, business, and government. She is the author of the latest book, Trust Your Mind: Embracing Nuance in a World of Self-silencing. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Agustín Fuentes about biological sex. They talk about the history of sex evolution, the importance of gametes, intersex individuals, and history of sex binary. They talk about gonads and hormones, sex variation in the animal kingdom, spectrum question, gender, gender and sports, gender and bathrooms, and many other topics. Agustín Fuentes is an anthropologist and professor of anthropology at Princeton University. His research focuses on the entanglement of biological systems with the social and cultural lives of humans, our ancestors, and a few of the other animals with whom humanity shares close relations. He has his BA/BS in Anthropology and Zoology and his MA and PhD in Anthropology from UC Berkeley. He has conducted research across four continents, multiple species, and two-million years of human history. His current projects include exploring cooperation, creativity, and belief in human evolution, multispecies anthropologies, evolutionary theory and processes, and engaging race and racism. Fuentes is an active public scientist, a well-known blogger, lecturer, tweeter, and an explorer for National Geographic. Fuentes was recently awarded the Inaugural Communication & Outreach Award from the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, the President’s Award from the American Anthropological Association, and elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is the author of numerous books including the most recent, Sex Is A Spectrum: The Biological Limits of the Binary. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with William Dalrymple about India and the Golden Road. They define the Golden Road of ancient India, discuss evidence other cultures interacted with India, and discuss the spread of Buddhism out of India. They talk about similarities and differences with the Silk Road, Kushans and Scythians, Hinduism, Islam, the Golden Road’s impact on modern India, and many more topics. William Dalrymple is a Historian, Journalist, and Broadcaster. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, the Royal Asiatic Society and the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and has held visiting fellowships at Princeton, Brown and Oxford. In 2018, he was the recipient of the prestigious President’s Medal by the British Academy for his outstanding literary achievement. He is the author of numerous award-winning books including, The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire and his latest book, The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Greg Grandin about a new history of the Americas. They discuss the term “American,” landscape of the Americas in pre-colonial years, Spanish colonialism, British colonialism, and the American and French Revolutions. They talk about Bolívar and Gran Colombia, the Monroe Doctrine, FDR’s new deal in Latin America, the future of America, and many other topics. Greg Grandin is a historian and professor of history at Yale University. He has his Bachelors from Brooklyn College and PhD from Yale University. He has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 2010. He is an expert on Latin American politics, the Cold War, and U.S. Foreign Policy. He is the author of numerous books including the Pulitzer prize winning, The End of the Myth, and his latest book, America, América. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Gina Rippon about autism in females. They discuss the increase in autism cases, defining autism, and origins of autism. They also talk about the history of the autism diagnosis, identity, current diagnostic criteria, specific presentations in females, neurological features, eating disorders, future of autism research, and many more topics. Gina Rippon is Professor Emeritus of Cognitive NeuroImaging at Aston University in the UK. Her research involves the use of state-of-the-art brain imaging techniques to investigate developmental disorders such as autism, profiling different patterns of brain activity in autistic children and adults. Her current research explores the under-recognition of autism in women and girls, especially in neuroscience research. She is the author of the latest book, Off the Spectrum. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe