The Nature & Nurture Podcast

Dr. Edward Slingerland is a Distinguished University Scholar and Professor of Philosophy at the University of British Columbia and author of Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization. In this episode we talk about his book Drunk and dive into the history of alcohol, its health and societal benefits and costs, competing evolutionary theories as to why humans like alcohol, and how alcohol use changed with the rise of modern distillation technologies. Learn more about Edward's work and find his book at: https://www.edwardslingerland.com/drunk

Dr. Andrew Knoll is the Fisher Professor of Natural History at Harvard University, and author of A Brief History of Earth: Four Billion Years in Eight Chapters. In this episode, we further condense those four billion years into one introductory-level conversation. Dr. Knoll walks us through Earth's early history and the evolution of life on Earth, his background in geology, and research examining what Earth's early history can tell us about how life evolved. For more in-depth coverage of these topics, see Dr. Knoll's book: https://www.amazon.com/Brief-History-Earth-Billion-Chapters/dp/0062853910

Dr. Nicholas Christakis is a physician, sociologist, network scientist, and Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science, Internal Medicine & Biomedical Engineering at Yale University. He is also the author of numerous books including Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society, and Apollo’s Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live.  In this episode we discuss Dr. Christakis' background in medicine, and his transition into network science: the study of social networks, how they form, change, and interact to shape our behavior. We discuss how network science can be understood both from an evolutionary perspective, as in Blueprint, and in public health, as in Apollo's Arrow. Pandemics are nothing new to humans, and Dr. Christakis argues that we can learn from our evolutionary and historical past in facing COVID-19 and other potential pandemics, and respond to them better than ever if we put such knowledge and our technological advancements to good use. 

Dr. Mark Solms is a neuropsychologist, Professor at the University of Cape Town, and author of The Hidden Spring: A Journey to the Source of Consciousness. In this episode we discuss Dr. Solms' background in neuropsychology, the overlap between modern neuropsychology and psychoanalysis, and Dr. Solms' early research on dreaming. We then discuss the illusive nature of consciousness, Dr. Solms' central arguments in The Hidden Spring that consciousness is evolutionarily ancient and grounded in feeling, and modern attempts of using quantitative methods to tackle the mystery of consciousness.  0:00:04 Introduction to Dr. Mark Solms and his interest in consciousness 0:03:22 Dr. Solms' background in psychoanalysis and its influence on his research 0:06:56 The importance of studying subjective states in neuroscience 0:10:48 The shift towards appreciating subjectivity in the field of neuroscience 0:15:20 The study of dreams and their connection to emotion and memory 0:18:58 The transition from studying dreams to studying consciousness 0:22:48 The relationship between feeling and consciousness 0:30:56 Collaboration with Karl Friston and the exploration of consciousness 0:39:27 The emergence of feeling from non-feeling and the study of artificial consciousness 0:46:33 The discussion on panpsychism and the limits of consciousness 1:00:14 The connection between free will, feeling, and probabilistic choices

Dr. Jeremy DeSilva is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Dartmouth College, and author of the book First Steps: How Walking Upright Made Us Human. He is a paleoanthropologist, specializing in the locomotion of the first apes (hominoids) and early human ancestors (hominins). His particular anatomical expertise-- the human foot and ankle-- has contributed to our understanding of the origins and evolution of upright walking in the human lineage. In this episode we discuss Jeremy's book First Steps and his research on the evolution of human locomotion: from quadruped apes to upright humans. We additionally discuss how paleoanthropologists identify and date fossils, and how the fossil record can be used to understand our evolutionary past. 

Dr. Randy Thornhill is an evolutionary biologist and a Distinguished Professor of Biology Emeritus at the University of New Mexico. He is a pioneering researcher of parasite-stress theory, which describes how pathogens have throughout history shaped our behavior and values.  In this episode we discuss parasite-stress theory and the behavioral immune system, and how conservative values are cross-culturally associated with regional parasite prevalence. Additionally, we discuss these findings in the context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and how advancements in sanitation throughout history may have given rise to more liberal ideals. 

Dr. Beth Smith is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Southern California where she directs the Infant Neuromotor Control Laboratory. Dr. Smith's research focuses on the development of neural control of movement during infancy and evaluates interventions for neural and functional development in infants with or at risk for developmental delay.

Dr. Katie Bottenhorn is a neuroscientist and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Southern California. In this episode we talk about Katie's background in neuropsychology, the methodological aspect of neuroinformatics, and Katie's dissertation research focusing on how hormonal fluctuations during the menstrual cycle impact women's brains. Additionally, we discuss gender imbalances in STEM fields such as neuroscience, and compare large sample neuroimaging studies to deep phenotyping approaches featuring a large number of scans within a small sample.  Timestamps: 0:00 - Introduction 0:46 - Pursuing psychology and chemistry as an undergrad 3:33 - Neuroimaging vs wet lab neuroscience research 5:47 - Plans for neuroscience grad school 9:13 - STEM gender imbalance and the "leaky pipeline" 11:11 - Katie's transition into methodological research 15:52 - Pursuing data science without a math or computer science background 18:33 - Applying deep phenotyping methodology to studying women's health 20:55 - Dense sampling methods in neuroimaging: more scans, not more participants 24:14 - The replication crisis in neuroimaging 26:11 - Big data neuroscience via large samples vs. deep phenotyping 28:25 - Katie's dissertation work looking at how hormonal fluctuations change women's brains 32:00 - Determining causality in brain and behavior 34:59 - How hormones change brains during puberty 36:46 - Katie's plans for postdoctoral research

Dr. Babak Hemmatian is a cognitive scientist and postdoctoral research fellow at the Beckman Institute of the University of Illinois. His research focuses on using natural language processing techniques to analyze natural discourse, such as social media posts, as they relate to personal and political beliefs. In this episode we discuss Babak's background in computational cognitive science, his PhD research analyzing how Reddit and Twitter users' perspectives on the legalization of gay marriage and marijuana use changed over time, and the ethics of collecting data from social media users. 

Dr. David Geary is a cognitive developmental and evolutionary psychologist and Curators' Distinguished Professor and a Thomas Jefferson Fellow at the University of Missouri. He is an expert in children's mathematical development and the evolution of human sex differences.