Steve Stewart-Williams || How the Mind and Culture Evolve

The Psychology Podcast

iHeartPodcasts

Social Sciences, Science

4.4 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 15 November 2018

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

"It's going to be Okay."-- Steve Stewart-Williams Today I’m delighted to have Steve Stewart-Williams on the podcast. Dr. Stewart-Williams is a New Zealander who moved to Canada, then to Wales, and then to Malaysia, where he is now an associate professor of psychology at the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus. His first book, Darwin, God, and the Meaning of Life, was published in 2010 and his latest book is The Ape That Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve. In this episode we cover the following topics: What would the human species look like from the perspective of an alien? Are humans just evolved fish? How far does evolutionary psychology take us in understanding human nature? What are some common myths about the evolutionary process? How we can be evolutionary “losers” and still be human success stories The distinction between altruism and selfishness Why the evolutionary psychology perspective is not enough to understand human nature How culture evolved among humans The link between human creativity and cultural evolution The potential human conflict between passing on genes vs. passing on memes How culture can amplify our nature Steve answers questions from Twitter --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-psychology-podcast/support

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Psychology Podcast, where we give you insights into the mind, brain, behavior, and creativity.
0:13.0	I'm Dr. Scott Barry Kaufman,
0:15.0	and in each episode I have a conversation with a guest
0:18.0	who will stimulate your mind and give you a greater understanding of yourself,
0:21.0	others, and the world we live in. Hopefully we'll also
0:24.4	provide a glimpse into human possibility. Thanks for listening and enjoy the
0:29.2	podcast.
0:39.0	Dr. Stuart Williams is a New Zealander who moved to Canada, then to Wales, and then to Malaysia,
0:44.8	where he is now an associate professor of psychology at the University of Nottingham Malaysia campus.
0:50.1	His first book, Darwin, God, and the Meaning of Life was published in 2010, and his latest book is called The Aape that Understood the Universe, how the mind and culture evolved.
1:00.0	Steve, great to chat with you today.
1:02.0	Hi Scott, how you doing?
1:04.0	I'm pretty good. How are you?
1:06.0	Yeah, I'm good, thanks man.
1:08.0	So I have been following your Twitter feed for a couple of years now.
1:13.2	Oh great.
1:14.2	Yeah, and I've watched this sort of rise of Dr. Steve Stewart Williams and the popularity.
1:19.6	You've noticed that too, right?
1:21.2	You've noticed that, you know, over the past couple of years, you get a lot more likes than your post, yeah?
1:26.0	Yeah, yeah, it's sort of, it's grown exponentially, yeah.
1:30.0	What do you attribute that to?
1:32.0	Uh, my good looks.
	...

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