Converging Dialogues

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Steven Mithen about the evolutionary history of language. They discuss the language puzzle, provide an overview of human evolution, importance of bipedalism, and fossil record gaps. They discuss different human species, how language works, origins and spread of different languages, and the physiology of speech. They also talk about the neurology of language, language evolving over time, language connected with thinking and emotions, future of language, and many other topics. Steven Mithen is a Professor of Early Prehistory in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Reading. He has previously been Pro Vice Chancellor and Deputy Vice Chancellor at the University of Reading. He has a BA (hons) in Prehistory & Archaeology from Sheffield University, an MSc in Biological Computation from York University, and a PhD in Archaeology from Cambridge University. He has been a Fellow of the British Academy since 2004. His main research areas are in Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene hunter-gatherers and evolution of the human mind. He is the author of numerous books including the most recent, The Language Puzzle: Piecing Together the Six-Million-Year Story of How Words Evolved. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Benjamin Nathans about the Soviet dissident movement. They discuss how he complied all of the narratives together, why the Soviet dissident movement matters and how the Soviet legal system was used. They discuss civil disobedience vs. civil obedience, Alexander Volpin, Sinyavsky-Daniel affair, and what rights looked like in the Soviet Union. They talked about the makeup of the dissident movement, the Red Square demonstration, Initiative group, fifth directorate, Solzhenitsyn, other civil rights movements, legacy, and many more topics. Benjamin Nathans is Associate Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania. His main focus areas are on Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union, modern European Jewish history, history of human rights. He is the author of numerous books including the most recent, To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Brett Loyd on political polling. They discuss what polls can and cannot tell us, sample size, random sampling, flex quotas, weighting variables, and sample characteristics. They talk about question order and wording on polling surveys, phone and online polling, internal vs. external polling and national vs. state polls. They talk about how pollsters got the 2016 election wrong, characteristics of a Trump voter, and education level. They talk about the 2020 and 2022 elections, why there was no red wave in 2022, and reproductive rights. They discuss the 2024 election, battleground states, Harris’s challenges, contrast between Republican and Democratic tickets, and VP picks. They also talk about the 2024 Senate outlook, the House, how to read polls, and many more topics. Brett Loyd is President and CEO of The Bullfinch Group and is leading researcher and campaign strategist. He has degrees in statistics and political science from Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa. He has worked on presidential, senatorial, congressional, and gubernatorial campaigns; national political committees; and corporate and issue campaigns. Website: https://www.thebullfinchgroup.com/ Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Isaac Nakhimovsky about the holy alliance. They discuss understanding current events through historical events, what is the holy alliance, “friend of mankind,” debates around the holy alliance, La Harpe and Czartoryski, Krug, Kant, and history of religion, league of nations, and the holy alliance today. Isaac Nakhimovsky is Associate Professor of History and Humanities at Yale University. Previously, he was research fellow at Emmanuel College and the Faculty of History in the University of Cambridge. He received his PhD in Political Science from Harvard University. His research focuses on the history of political thought and on European debates about economic competition and international relations in the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries. He is the author of numerous books including the most recent, The Holy Alliance: Liberalism and the Politics of Federation. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Elizabeth Saunders on elites dictating foreign policy. They discuss negative public opinion, the elites comprised of military, administration, and legislators, and the differences with hawks and doves. They talk about McNamara and LBJ in Vietnam, Truman, Korea, and Taiwan, and Bush in Afghanistan and Iraq. They also discuss Obama on Syria, future insider’s games, and many more topics. Elizabeth Saunders is Professor of Political Science at Columbia University. She previously taught in the School of Foreign Service and the Director of the Mortara Center for International Studies, as well as a core faculty member in the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University. She is also a non-resident senior fellow at Brookings Institution. Her main interests focus on the domestic politics of international relations and US foreign policy, especially the role of leaders, the presidency, and the politics of using force. She is the author of two books, including the most recent book, The Insiders’ Game: How Elites Make War and Peace. Website: https://profsaunders.com/ Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Arik Kershenbaum about why and how animals communicate with each other. They discuss the differences between language and communication in animals, respectfully communicating with animals, and the six animals he studied for communication. They talk about howling in wolves, clicks in dolphins, comprehension in parrots, singing in the hyrax and gibbons, chimps, humans, and many more topics. Arik Kershenbaum is a zoologist and College Lecturer at Girton College, University of Cambridge and is formerly Herchel Smith Research Fellow in Zoology at the University of Cambridge. He has his Bachelors in Natural Sciences from University of Cambridge and his PhD in Evolutionary Biology and Ecology from the University of Haifa, Israel. His main research interests are in the acoustic communication systems in different animals. He is the author of the latest book, Why Animals Talk: The New Science of Animal Communication. Website: https://arikkershenbaum.wixsite.com/arikkershenbaum Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Nick Romeo on different and alternative economies. They talked about reimagining capitalism, improving economic pedagogy in academia, True Price, a living wage, and Job Guarantee program. They discuss the gig economy, purpose economy, scaling alternative economies, and many more topics. Nick Romeo is a Journalist and Author who has focused his writing on economics, policy, and culture. Currently, he is a writer for The New Yorker and has written pieces in outlets such as The Atlantic, The New York Times, and The New Republic. He is the author of the latest book, The Alternative: How To Build A Just Economy.Website: https://www.nickromeowriter.com/ Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with B. Rosemary Grant on her life and work on genetics and evolutionary change. They discuss an overview of her life and research, her childhood and being raised in England in WWII, her interest in genetics, and moving to Canada and meeting her husband. They discuss how she balanced raising a family and her career, her work over 40 years in the Galapagos Islands, retirement and continued research, her legacy, and many other topics. B. Rosemary Grant is an evolutionary biologist and Emeritus Professor at Princeton University. Her research focuses on phenotypic variation and the process of speciation in natural environments. She is well-known for the research done with her husband (Peter Grant) on Darwin’s Finches on the Galapagos Islands for over 40 years. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society and received many awards for her research. She is the author numerous books, including her recent memoir, One Step Sideways, Three Steps Forward: One Woman’s Path to Becoming a Biologist. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Anthony Sattin about the history of Nomads on our planet. They discuss humans as naturally nomadic, Göbekli Tepe, Çatalhöyük and early settlements, Uruk and the epic of Gilgamesh, and domestication of horses. They talk about the Persian empire, Scythian empire, and nomadic identity. They discuss the impact of Islam, Chinggis Khan and the Mongol empire, Ottoman empire, Native Americans, future of nomads, and many more topics.Anthony Sattin is a writer and broadcaster who has written a fiction and non-fiction works. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, editorial advisor on Geographical Magazine, founder-member of Travel Intelligence and ASTENE (the Association for the Study of Travel in Egypt and the Near East). He is the author of the latest book, Nomads: The Wanderers who Shaped our World. Website: https://www.anthonysattin.com/ Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Adam Forrest Kay about the history and current state of quantum mechanics. They discuss the current state of quantum mechanics, overview of modern physics, and the impact of Niels Bohr. They also talk about light and vision, double slit experiment, Fourier analysis, Schrödinger’s equation, Bell’s theorem, and many other topics. Adam Forrest Kay is a postdoctoral associate in mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has two PhDs, one in literature from the University of Cambridge and the other in Mathematics from the University of Oxford. His interests and research have centered around Hydrodynamic Quantum Analogies (HQA), quantum mechanics, relativity theory, and variable coefficient wave equations. He is the author of, Escape From Shadow Physics: The quest to end the dark ages of quantum theory. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe