Converging Dialogues

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Daniel Lieberman about the evolutionary history of exercise. They discuss why evolution and adaptation are important to understand the human body, use of energy, myths of sitting, and how much sleep do we really need. They talk about why speed and endurance are important for humans, aggression, walking and running, the active grandparent hypothesis, and many other topics. Daniel Lieberman is a paleoanthropologist and is a Professor in the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, and the Edwin M. Lerner II Professor of Biological Sciences at Harvard University. He is also a member of Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology. He has spent his career researching the evolutionary history of the human body, walking and running, and the evolution of the human head. His most recent book, Exercised: Why Something We Never evolved to Do is Healthy and Rewarding, can be found here. You can find his research here.  Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Jonathan Losos about convergent evolution. They begin by defining convergent evolution and what the role of the environment is for convergent evolution. They discuss the importance of phenotypes and behaviors, speciation, and adaptive radiation. They mention how evolution can work fast using examples from nature. They also talk about evolution in the lab, the LTEE, and E. Coli. They also discuss the future of evolution, life on other planets, and many other topics. Jonathan Losos is an evolutionary ecologist who studies rapid evolution, ecology, and phylogenetics. He has his PhD from the University of California and taught at Harvard University for over 10 years. Currently, he is a professor at Washington University (St. Louis) and is the founder of the Living Earth Collaborative. He is the recipient of the Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal, the Theodosius Dobzhansky Prize, the Edward O. Wilson Naturalist Award, and the David Starr Jordan Prize. His book, Improbable Destinies: Fate, Chance, and the Future of Evolution, can be found here. You can find his work here.  Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Jennifer Raff about the genetic history of the Americas. They discuss why respect and care for the histories and cultures of indigenous groups should be respected when doing research. They talk about the Clovis peoples, diversification of early people groups, and coastal migration. They outline the earliest evidence of humans in the Americas, Indigenous groups in Latin America, and past and present Inuit peoples. They discuss the ethics of genetics for studying various people groups and the future of population groups. Jennifer Raff is an anthropological geneticist and assistant professor in the anthropology department at the University of Kansas. Her interests are concerned with North American pre-history and the peopling of the Americas. Her first book, Origin: A Genetic History of the Americas, can be found here. You can find her work here and here. Twitter: @jenniferRaff Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a discussion with John Macready about many figures and concepts in continental philosophy. They begin the conversation by talking about the two camps of analytic and continental philosophy. They talk about Plato and his conception of reality, allegory of the cave, and the logos. They discuss Descartes' methodology, cogito, and free will. They mention Hume and his epistemology, sentiments, free will, and racial naturalism. They discuss Kant and his concepts of apriori, aposteriori knowledge. They talk about Nietzsche as a philosopher of difference, his ideas around self-knowledge and self-education, culture, and many challenges to culture. They also dialogue about Hannah Arendt and her ideas about the political life as authentic living, plurality, intersubjectivity, human dignity ,and human rights. John Macready is a professor of philosophy at Collin College. His main interests are in ethics, logic, social, and political philosophy. He has heavily researched Hannah Arendt and writes on ethics and  political theory. He is the author of two books, Hannah Arendt and the the Fragility of Human Dignity and A Continental Guide to Philosophy. You can find his website here. Twitter: @jdmacready Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Raghuveer Parthasarathy about four basic principles of the living world. They define what is the hybrid discipline of biophysics and why he chose the four physical laws he lays out in his book. They discuss the mechanics of self-assembly, regulatory circuits, browning motion, predictive randomness, and scale. They provide an overview of genes and discuss sheaths, helices, histones and how they contribute to humans genetic makeup. They also discuss lipids, gut microbiome, CRISPR, and many other topics. Raghuveer Parthasarathy is a physics professor at the University of Oregon where he studies biophysics, lipid membranes, and multicellular structures. He holds a PhD in Physics from the University of Chicago and is the Senior Research Scientist at the University of Oregon. His book, So Simple a Beginning: How Four Physical Principles Shape Our Living World, can be purchased here. You can find his website here and his blog here.         Twitter: @rparthasarathy7 Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Geoffrey West about scale and sustainability. They begin by discussing scale and how it is typically defined. They give an overview of the major relevant scaling laws including the logarithmic scale. They discuss the importance of metabolic rate and the magic number four. They talk about growth and scale and how these concepts are applied with aging along with the role of temperature on metabolism. They discuss fractals and how they work with scale in cities. They talk about the social connectedness of cities, rural areas, and a grand unified theory of sustainability. Geoffrey West is the Shannan Distinguished Professor and past President at the Santa Fe Institute. He is a theoretical physicist and has done extensive research in elementary particles and general scaling phenomena. He is Fellow of the American Physical Society and was one of their Centenary Speakers in 2003. He has won the Mercer Award from the Ecological Society of America, the Weldon Memorial Prize (2005), and the APS Szilard Award (2013). He was named Time magazine's "100 Most Influential People in the World" in 2006 and is the author of several books. His most recent book, Scale: The Universal Laws of Growth, Innovation, Sustainability, and the Pace of Life IN Organisms, Cities, Economies, and Companies, can be found here. You can also find his work at his website.  Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Michael McCullough on cooperation and kindness with humans. They discuss his professional background and why he wrote his most recent book along with how one can understand kindness and cooperation. They discuss the four instincts of care, reciprocity, judgments, intentions, and character evaluation. They also discuss a taxonomy of emotions, compassion, empathy, and other emotions. They talk about the axial age and development of the golden rule. They also mention humanitarianism in the modern age, effective altruism and the future of compassion. Michael McCullough is a Professor of Psychology and Director of the Evolution and Human Behavior Laboratory at the University of California, San Diego. He is an experimental psychologist whose work has been on forgiveness, revenge, empathy, and prosocial behavior. He has over 150 scientific papers to have appeared in publication such as the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Journal of Experimental Psychology, and Psychological Bulletin. He is the author of numerous books including his most recent, The Kindness of Strangers: How a Selfish Ape Invented A New Moral Code, which can be found here. You can also find his work at his website. Twitter: @me_mccullough Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Benjamin Lipscomb about four women philosophers in the early 20th century who revolutionized ethical studies. They discuss how he came to write this book and how these four women came to know each other and discuss ethics. They talk about how facts and values are different and the towering presence of Aristotle's philosophy. They describe the environment of Oxford in the 1920s and how much misogyny and sexism played a part in academia during this period. They discuss the life and philosophy of Iris Murdoch, Anscombe's philosophy and the impact of Wittgenstein, the philosophy of Philippa Foot, and contributions of Mary Midgley to philosophy and other fields of study. They also mention whether these women saw themselves as feminists and their legacy within philosophy. Benjamin Lipscomb is a professor of philosophy and Director of the Honors Program at Houghton College where he specializes in ethical theory and history of philosophy. He has his PhD from the University of Notre Dame and is active in his religious community. His book, The women are up to something: How Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot, Mary Midgley, and Iris Murdoch Revolutionize Ethics can be found here.  Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Marie Favereau about the Horde and the Mongol empire. They discuss the Horde and the distinction between the Mongol empire and Mongol exchange. They talk about common misconceptions of the Mongols and the legacy and impact of the powerful figure in Chinggis Khan. They discuss the golden lineage and how the Mongols continued to be very organized after the death of Chinggis Khan with the hierarchy of the blue and white horde. They explain the concept of the moving city and how their social and economic issues were revolutionary. They discuss the Pax Mongolica period, expansion to Russia, black death, and the legacy of the Mongols. Marie Favereau is Associate Professor of History at Paris Nanterre University. She is a member of the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology, visiting scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study, and research associate at the University of Oxford for Nomadic Empires. She has her PhD in history from the University of La Sorbonne-Paris IV and the Universita Degli Studi Di San Marino. Her research interests are in the Golden Horde and Asian and European history from the 13th to 16th century. Her recent book, The Horde: How the Mongols Changed the World, is available here. You can find her work here.  Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Bill Sullivan about genes and how they impact various aspects of humanity.  They define genes and DNA and the roles of genes within the environment. They also discuss the complicated dynamics of epigenetics. They talk about the genetics of taste and caffeine and how some genes are implicated in addictions to various substances. They also talk about the genetics of appetite and the gut microbiome, emotional states, and beliefs. They also discuss CRISPR, the ethical landscape of genetics, and many more topics. William J. Sullivan is the Showalter Professor of Pharmacology & Toxicology and Microbiology & Immunology at the Indiana University School of Medicine. He has his PhD in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of Pennsylvania and researches genes and some parasites. He is the author of Pleased to Meet me: Genes, Germs, and the Curious Forces That Make Us Who We Are, which can be purchased here. You can find his work on his website. Twitter: @wjsullivan Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe