This program is sponsored by the Covley Foundation based in Los Angeles, California.

The Covley Foundation is dedicated to advancing science for the benefit of humanity.

I'm Alan Ulta and this is Clear In Vivit, conversations about connecting and communicating.

I'm sure you're familiar with a phrase that's very popular, which I despise, called Nature versus Nurture.

And I despise this phrase for two reasons.

The main one is that the word nurture means how your parents raised you and how they took care of you or failed to take care of you or even abused you in some cases.

Really, that's a very narrow type of something that's much broader. I would replace it with the word experience.

The other part that I hate about nature versus nurture is the versus.

The idea that these things must always be an opposition.

Whereas in reality, they interact or even in some cases reinforce each other.

That's Nuro's scientist and author, David Linden.

He's written highly readable books about the human brain and his latest is on the topic of what makes each of us unique.

It turns out that's a question that began to intrigue him for a very personal reason.

I found it fascinating and I think you'll see why.

Our conversation began by exploring the roots of our specialness but then it took a sharp turn.

Again, for a very personal reason.

This is going to be great because you're such a good communicator.

Everybody gets the same question to start with when they have a book and they're talking to an interviewer.

What made you write this book? What made you think of the subject matter?

You've got a really charming story.

It is charming. The story is that I was thinking about this book as a result of internet dating, the process by which I met the woman who is now my wife.

What I realized was that when you go online and you are listing the things you like and trying to describe yourself and listing the qualities of the person that you hope to meet,

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