I'm Alan Alder, and this is clear and vivid conversations about connecting and communicating.

Another case of this, I had a very close friend whose father was a Holocaust survivor got out and my friend was

marrying a woman whose father had been in the SS. They had to deal with each other and it turned

out they had the greatest time at the wedding like competing with each other over who had more bowel problems in the

morning and what tricks they were doing to be regular.

Prune juice?

I can't believe you're using prune juice.

They talked for hours and quetching about their rheumatoid this and their sciatica. And like, that was fantastic.

That's one of Clear and Vivid's favorite guests, Robert Sapolsky. It's always fun to chat with

Robert about what makes us who we are. The last time he was on the show, we talked about his book

Determined, which challenged the common

assumption that we have free will. In this episode, Robert tells me about the sometimes

highly personal attacks the book unleashed. And we explore the us versus them issue in an increasingly

polarized society. But we begin with a new venture of Roberts, a podcast series hosted by his

daughter. I just found out about your podcast, Robert Sapolsky, Father Offspring interviews.

It's wonderful. Well, thanks. It was our daughter's idea. She's a mixture of psychology and media type. She runs the whole thing. She just tells me what I'm supposed to learn something about each week, and we're all set.

So do you get some advance warning? Because it looks like you're getting asked questions that you come up with answers to on the spot.

Oh, good. We want that spontaneous feel when I'm giving completely incorrect answers on the fly.

Well, she's the perfect host. She's knowledgeable, curious, and charming.

Rachel, is that her name?

Yeah. She would get messages from people saying something like, I'm guessing you're his daughter.

Could you ask him this question?

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