Have you ever wondered what a sandwich sounds like?

Not much to it, is there?

Unless, of course, it's a Walker's sandwich.

Mmm, that is good.

Now that's what Asani should sound like.

Go all crisp in with walkers.

Delicious.

Hi there, I'm Jason Gottz and you're listening to Think Again, a Big Think podcast.

Why can't we all just get along?

And conversely, why do we sometimes get along so well, building cathedrals, inventing democracy, symphonies, and stuff like that?

According to my guest today, the answer is as old as life itself.

In the behaviors of the most ancient forms of bacteria, single-celled organisms without a nucleus, we can see the seeds of civilization as we know it for better and worse.

They form collectives, they go to war.

The key is homeostasis, the imperative of all life to avoid harm and seek to flourish.

I'm delighted to be speaking today with neuroscientist and philosopher Antonio Demosio.

He heads the Brain and Creativity Institute at the

University of Southern California, and he's the author of Descartes' Error and many other books,

including his newest, The Strange Order of Things, Life, Feeling, and the Making of Cultures.

Welcome to Think Again. My pleasure to be here. I think Daniel

Dennett once told me that Richard Feynman said that if you want to understand a complex

scientific concept, even if you're a scientist, if you want to make sure you understand it,

it's a good idea to either find an actual eight-year-old

...