meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
The Good Fight

Robert Sapolsky on Free Will

The Good Fight

Yascha Mounk

News

4.6907 Ratings

🗓️ 11 November 2023

⏱️ 71 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Yascha Mounk and Robert Sapolsky debate whether there is free will and if it would matter if there weren't. Robert Sapolsky, a neuroscientist and primatologist, is the John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn Professor and professor of biology, neurology and neurosurgery at Stanford University. Sapolsky is the author of Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst. His latest book is Determined: A Science of Life without Free Will. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Robert Sapolsky discuss whether, as Sapolsky argues, there is no such thing as free will; and what follows for everything from criminal law to the possibility of love and friendship if we were to agree that it doesn't. This transcript has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity. Please do listen and spread the word about The Good Fight. If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by following this link on your phone. Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.persuasion.community Podcast production by Jack Shields, and Brendan Ruberry Connect with us! Spotify | Apple | Google Twitter: @Yascha_Mounk & @joinpersuasion Youtube: Yascha Mounk LinkedIn: Persuasion Community Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

The Virgin Atlantic Holiday's sale, it's a big deal.

0:04.3

Whether you swim with turtles and crystal keys, experience carnival music to the max,

0:10.4

or scale new heights with an active volcano hike.

0:14.0

Go big in St Vincent and the Grenitines.

0:17.0

And the biggest deal of all,

0:19.0

you can book in store and online right now.

0:22.0

The Virgin Atlantic Holiday Sale. in store and online right now.

0:22.8

The Virgin Atlantic Holiday sale.

0:25.1

See the world differently.

0:28.0

Teases and sees the Virgin Holidays.

0:29.2

Kowdok UK.

0:31.0

Somebody has an epileptic seizure while they're driving a car comes from out of nowhere.

0:37.0

They lose control of the car as a result and strike somebody.

0:41.0

And a hundred years ago, we would be able to say yeah this person's

0:46.2

demonically possessed they welcomed Satan into them and the appropriate thing

0:50.6

to do now is burn him at the stake and what we've learned since

0:54.5

then is this is an arena where none of that stuff is relevant because we're not

1:00.4

looking at a rotten soul we're looking at somebody screwed up potassium channels in their brain,

1:05.8

and we instead come up with something that is completely free of retribution.

1:12.0

We say, okay, take these meds and the law in our state is you got to be seizure

1:17.4

free now for X number of months on these meds before we can give you a driver's license

1:21.6

back. It's a better world in which we don't burn people at the stake

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Yascha Mounk, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Yascha Mounk and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.