Converging Dialogues

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Sarah Richardson about the history of maternal-fetal effects. They discuss why human developmental plasticity is important for intrauterine growth and how this impacts the evolution of post-natal growth. The talk about the importance of Weismann's philosophy of science for maternal health. They mention maternal impressions theories and the complicated history of eugenics with maternal health. They discuss the importance of animal studies to understand maternal-fetal effects and the ongoing emphasis on birth weight. They discuss the unfinished story on epigenetics and many of its challenges along with some pragmatic considerations on maternal-fetal effects. Sarah Richardson is Professor of the History of Science and of Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Harvard University. She directs the Harvard GenderSci Lab and her interests are in gender, sexuality, and reproduction. She has been published in many scientific journals and in popular media outlets. Her latest book, The Maternal Imprint: The Contested Science of Maternal-Fetal Effects can be published here. You can also find her work here.  Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Henry Gee about the history of the earth. They start by discussing Henry's background and reasons for writing the book. They discuss the big bang and origins of the earth along with how the sun and planets formed in our solar system. They talk about the importance of gravity and how early life started in the oceans. They explain how life went from unicellular to multicellular and the formation of sponges. They discuss how life formed the anus to forming a digestive tract to teeth to protective shells. They talk about the Cambrian explosion that was monumental for many lifeforms. They discuss how fish evolved into vertebrates and moved from water to land. They explain the importance of tetrapods and how plants began on the earth. They mention the importance of the Triassic and Jurassic periods on the anatomy of dinosaurs and the evolution of mammals. They talk about the importance of Homo Erectus, different human species on the earth, the future of the planet, and many other topics. Henry Gee is a Paleontologist and is the Senior Editor for the scientific journal Nature. He received his PhD from the University of Cambridge. Along with many articles, he is the author of numerous books including his most recent book, A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth: 4.6 Billion Years in 12 Pithy Chapters, which you can purchase here. You can find his blog here. Twitter: @endofthepier  Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Samantha Rose Hill about the life and philosophy of Hannah Arendt. They begin by mapping out some of Arendt's early childhood and life experiences, specifically the death of her father. They discuss her various romantic relationships including the very complicated relationship with Martin Heidegger. They explore the differences between loneliness and isolation and talk about Arendt's work on totalitarianism. They also discuss Arendt's work on private and public realms, the banality of evil, race, feminism, and many other topics. Samantha Rose Hill is a senior fellow at the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities and associate faculty at the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research. Her writing has been in Aeon, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Public Seminar, among other places. She is the author of Hannah Arendt and is currently working on Hannah Arendt's Poems, a book on loneliness, and a memoir. You can find her writing and much of work at her website. Twitter: @samantharhill Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Paul Bloom concerning suffering, pleasure, and meaning. They discuss the reasoning for Paul writing his new book on the darker side of pleasure and make the distinction between chosen and unchosen suffering. They question whether one should always finding meaning in suffering and talk about some of the illusions of reality. They talk about the notion of contrast and discuss the importance of aversive fictions and the role of imagination. They define meaning and how people aim to seek meaning and value from different types of suffering. They also discuss Paul's previous book on empathy and provide distinctions between cognitive empathy, emotional empathy, and compassion. They talk about how one can view empathy in different aspects of clinical therapeutic practice. They also discuss having more balanced ways of seeing the complexities of humanity and many other topics. Paul Bloom is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto and the Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Yale University. Paul's interests are on morality, pleasure, and development. He is the past president of the Society for Philosophy and Psychology and co-editor of Behavioral and Brain Sciences. He has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic. He is the author of numerous books such as Against Empathy and his latest book, The Sweet Spot, which you can purchase here. You can find much of his research and writing at his website. Twitter: @paulbloomatyale Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Arvid Ågren about the genetic implications of evolution. The discuss his background and reasons for writing his book. They explain the gene's-eye view of natural selection and how one can still understand evolution without genetics. They also discuss how genes are "immortal"  and "selfish" and still cooperate together. They talk about adaptation and this concept's history along with the challenges of creationism and intelligent design. They also provide some ideas about group selection and its merits. Genes, chromosomes, DNA, and proteins are introduced and discussed. They engage about "types" and "tokens" along with "replicators" and "vehicles." They talk about "memes" and how they impact cultural evolution. They spend time discussing the five difficulties of the selfish gene, Hamilton's rule, and inclusive fitness. They also mention the interaction of Hamilton's rule with cooperation, kin selection, and interdependence and many other topics.Arvid Ågren is an Evolutionary Biologist who studies the causes and consequences of genomic conflicts. He has a Bachelors in Biology from the University of Edinburgh and his PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Toronto. He completed his Postdoc in Andy Clark's lab for Molecular Biology and Genetics at Cornell University. He also did a fellowship at the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University hosted by David Haig. Currently, he conducts research at the Evolutionary Biology Centre at Uppsala University in Sweden. His new book, The Gene's-Eye View of Evolution can be purchased here. You can find his research at his website. Twitter: @arvidagren Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Batya Ungar-Sargon about journalism and the working class. They begin by discussing the history of journalism and the past emphasis of the working class being the main audience. They discuss why mass media has become highly polarized and the evolution of media being for elites. They talk about some of the incentives of media and speculate about some of the potential psychological explanations for the polarization in society. They discuss the impact of social media on media overall along with some of the differences in conservative and liberal media. They also talk about individual journalism and if institutions can be saved and many other topics.Batya Ungar-Sargon is the Deputy Opinion Editor of Newsweek. She holds a PhD  from the University of California, Berkeley. She has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Los Angeles Times. You can purchase her book here. Twitter: @bungarsargon Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Charles Murray about statistics, cognitive abilities, and social-political issues. They begin by providing a statistical overview of the bell curve, standard deviations, and the overlap of group mean averages. They discuss meta analyses and factor analyses and why they are important for IQ data. They also mention g and its importance for cognitive abilities. They provide definitions of terms such as race, ethnicity, and populations along with genetic concepts such as SNPs, Alleles, and Polygenetic Index scores. They outline the data on race and IQ and question whether it is important to even study group differences between races. They talk about the current social ideology and contributions to these conversations. They also mention the gene-environment interactions, how some groups use data for nefarious reasons, and many other topics.Charles Murray is the F.A. Hayek Chair Emeritus in Cultural Studies at the American Enterprise Institute. He holds a BA in History from Harvard University and a PhD in Political Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He has been involved with the Peace Corps and United States Agency for International Development (USAID). He is the author of numerous books, including, The Bell Curve, Coming Apart, Human Diversity, and Facing Reality. You can find some of his work at his website.          Twitter: @charlesmurray Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Kyle Harper about the history of plague and disease on the planet. They begin by talking about his reasons for writing his latest book and the two main theses of the book. They talk about the five taxa of pathology and the importance of globalization on disease. They discuss the three components of parasitism and how the evolution of disease evolves alongside hominoids. They talk about the importance of hunter-gatherers in the Pleistocene period along with the key aspect of vector borne transmission diseases. They move to the Agrarian period and the importance of fecal-oral transmission for disease history. They talk about examples of typhoid disease and measles and how density and domesticates are implicated in respiratory diseases. They also talk about the plague and its complicated history while also mentioning zoonotic leaps from bats and rats. They also discuss the Colombian exchange the impact this period had on the spread of disease in the world. They talk about the impact of the mosquito and how modernity has continued to work on the evolution of diseases. They mention public healthy innovations in the modern ages, vaccines, and where COVID-19 sits in the history of disease.Kyle Harper is a Professor of Classics and Letters and Provost Emeritus and Senior Advisor to the President at the University of Oklahoma. He is a historian of ancient Rome and his interests are disease history, economic history, and environmental history. He is the author of four books, including his most recent book, Plagues Upon The Earth: Disease and the Course of Human History. You can purchase this book here. You can find much of his research at his website. Twitter: @oklahomaharper Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Kat Rosenfield about women, men, feminism, metoo, cancel culture, and free speech issues. They begin the conversation by discussing why Kat writes about cultural issues and the current state of feminism. They explore why dissent from other women is not always accepted within many women's rights groups. They discuss women in the workplace, the patriarchy, metoo, and women in film. They talk about whether one can separate the art from the artist and if it is possible to forgive and rehabilitate people for wrong acts they do. They also talk about cancel culture and free speech and many other topics.Kat Rosenfield is a freelance pop culture writer. She is a former reporter for MTV News and has written articles for Entertainment Weekly, Unherd, Vulture, Wired, and many other places. She is the author of many books including Alliances: A Trick of Light with Stan Lee. Her newest novel is No One Will Miss Her and can be purchased here. You can find her at her website. Twitter: @katrosenfield Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Dominic Packer about group identities. They start the conversation by discussing his partnership with Jay Van Bavel and their reasons for writing the book. The define identity and why it is an important construct. They discuss the delineation between self and personality and discuss in-group vs. out-group constructs. They mention the concept of cooperation with group identities and mention some of the classic social psychology experiments. They talk about group identity with political polarization, optimal distinctiveness, and the importance of dissent. They also talk about the need for healthy group identities and many other topics. Dominic Packer is a Social Psychologist, Professor and Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Programs in Arts and Sciences at Lehigh University. His main focus areas are on dissent, cooperation, and group identities. His book, with co-author Jay Van Bavel, is The Power of Us: Harnessing Our Shared Identities to Improve Performance, Increase Cooperation, and Promote Social Harmony, which can be purchased here. Their book also has a website. Twitter: @dominicpacker_ Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe