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Elemental human capacities, like friendship and love in its many forms, teaching and learning,

have tremendous constant practical force.

We don't think of these in terms of what has given our species the grit to endure through hard times and even evolve in the long run.

They're lived social intelligence, part of the everyday, and so can be hard to see as serious amidst the high tumult of our age.

But these kinds of human qualities are what Nicholas Christaucka studies from his human nature lab at Yale,

and in his life generously lived.

I spoke with him in January 2020, and this conversation shaped how I made sense of the past year, how I looked for hope within it.

His thoughts feel more immediately applicable to the world that is now upon us.

He offers a wide lens, a broad perspective that deepens and refreshes.

It's like standing on a 10,000 foot plateau and noticing that one hill is 300 feet and one hill is 900 feet,

and becoming obsessed that what is it that explains the difference between these two hills.

But if you step off the plateau and go at some distance, you see that actually those are two mountains,

and actually the forces you were previously focused on, sort of of local erosion or human action,

are trivial in comparison to the plate tectonic and volcanic forces that cause these huge mountains.

And it's those kinds of super powerful forces acting below the surface that interest me,

especially since, to my eye, those forces are primarily forces for good, and I think they've been neglected.

I'm Krista Tippett, and this is on Beying.

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