Ladies and gentlemen, Aziz Ansari.

This is Hidden Brain, I'm Shankar Vedanta.

Last year I was asked a host in event in Washington DC

with a comedian Aziz Ansari.

You might know him as Tom Havifert from Parks and Recreation,

or you might be binge watching his original series on Netflix, Master of None.

What you might not know is that Aziz is also interested in human behavior.

He's thought about how social norms have changed the way people get together.

He studied how romantic preferences have changed over time.

And he's examined how online dating is linked to the psychological phenomenon

known as the paradox of choice.

Like there's too much goddamn jam out there.

There's iPhone apps that literally tell you if there's jam nearby

that wants to get eaten at that very moment.

I mean, what can you do?

Aziz has core it in the book with the sociologist Eric Kleinenberg.

It's called Modern Romance.

We taped a live conversation at George Washington University's listener auditorium

and we played an excerpt for you in the fall.

We're working on new podcasts this week

and we thought you might enjoy this encore presentation.

If you know anything about Aziz, we don't need to tell you

...