#960 - Dr Jerry Coyne - The Spiciest Ideas Of Evolutionary Biology

Modern Wisdom

Chris Williamson

Society & Culture, Health & Fitness

4.7 • 4.6K Ratings

🗓️ 28 June 2025

⏱️ 82 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Dr Jerry Coyne is an evolutionary biologist, professor at the University of Chicago, and an author. Has ideology hijacked academia? In fields like evolutionary biology, the data should speak for itself, but what happens when scientific findings clash with cultural taboos? How do researchers navigate this minefield, and what can be done to protect science from political pressure moving forward? Expect to learn how Dr Coyne views evolution from a different lens, how biologists view biological sex and gender, why science communicators became too afraid of backlash to speak plainly about data, what worries Dr Coyne most about the ideological pressures in academia today, if biology has been subverted by ideology, what Dr Coyne has learned about human nature from engaging with critics of his work, & much more… Sponsors: See discounts for all the products I use and recommend: https://chriswillx.com/deals Get up to $50 off the RP Hypertrophy App at https://rpstrength.com/modernwisdom Get 15% off any Saily data plan at https://saily.com/modernwisdom Get 5 Free Travel Packs, Free Liquid Vitamin D, and more from AG1 at https://ag1.info/modernwisdom Timestamps: (00:00) Dr. Coyne’s Take On Evolution (15:34) The Impact Of Woke Culture On The Sciences (26:36) How Humans Developed Into The Conscious Animals We Are Today (35:08) Why Human Adaptations Vary Around The World (48:03) Sex, Gender & What The Science Actually Says (1:04:55) How To Deal With Controversial Topics In Science (1:16:07) Learn More About Dr Coyne Extra Stuff: Get my free reading list of 100 books to read before you die: https://chriswillx.com/books Try my productivity energy drink Neutonic: https://neutonic.com/modernwisdom Episodes You Might Enjoy: #577 - David Goggins - This Is How To Master Your Life: https://tinyurl.com/43hv6y59 #712 - Dr Jordan Peterson - How To Destroy Your Negative Beliefs: https://tinyurl.com/2rtz7avf #700 - Dr Andrew Huberman - The Secret Tools To Hack Your Brain: https://tinyurl.com/3ccn5vkp - Get In Touch: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/modernwisdompodcast Email: https://chriswillx.com/contact - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	How do you describe the central thread of your work over the years?
0:06.2	Well, I'm retired now, so the thread has sort of changed direction. But when I was a scientist,
0:13.0	I call myself a superannuated scientist now. But when I was working in the lab, I worked on the
0:19.9	problem of speciation or the origin of species,
0:23.5	which is, of course, the title of Darwin's 1859 book.
0:28.0	And it's a problem that Darwin didn't solve.
0:31.1	So that's why I took it up when I was a graduate student.
0:34.5	I think we know a lot more now.
0:36.1	We certainly, Darwin knew almost nothing about
0:38.7	species. So it calls the origin of species. He's a bit of a misnomer. He could call it the
0:44.7	origin of adaptations, which might be a natural selection. But in terms of species, that is the
0:51.6	lumpiness of nature, the fact that creatures are not a spectrum,
0:56.5	but they're discrete, more or less discrete entities.
0:59.6	That's the problem with Darwin to solve, and that's the problem I was working on.
1:03.9	Right.
1:04.4	How do you, what's the layman's description of speciation?
1:08.6	Well, are you talking about how it happens or how I define it? Give us both.
1:14.7	Well, the definition is simply the species as the origin of species. If you look at nature,
1:22.6	as I said, you don't find that it's a continuum all the way from bacteria to, you know, humans.
1:29.6	But that's not a hierarchy.
1:31.4	That's just what people perceive as a hierarchy.
1:34.6	It's lumpy.
	...

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