The Evolutionary Psychology Of Anxiety & Depression - Ed Hagen - #632

Modern Wisdom

Chris Williamson

Society & Culture, Health & Fitness

4.6 • 5.9K Ratings

🗓️ 25 May 2023

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ed Hagen is an evolutionary anthropologist, Professor at Washington State University, a researcher and an author. Low mood, depression and anxiety are states we will all become familiar with at some point in our lives. But why did evolution create a creature that is able to contemplate so much complexity that sometimes it suffers psychologically? Why are we wired to feel this way and how are we able to pull ourselves out? Expect to learn the evolutionary reason why humans get depressed, how postpartum depression is adaptive, why being strong can lower your chances of depression, how evolutionary theory can improve all of medicine, why women are so much more depressed on average than men, why humans are even capable of suicide and much more... Sponsors: Get the Whoop 4.0 for free and get your first month for free at http://join.whoop.com/modernwisdom (discount automatically applied) Get a Free Sample Pack of all LMNT Flavours with your first box at https://www.drinklmnt.com/modernwisdom (automatically applied at checkout) Get 83% discount & 3 months free from Surfshark VPN at https://surfshark.deals/MODERNWISDOM (use code MODERNWISDOM) Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (00:38) Why Has Depression Survived Evolution? (05:42) Explaining Depressive Symptoms (15:00) The Sex Difference in Depression (19:23) Can You Become Less Depressed by Becoming Stronger? (23:30) Why Men Commit Suicide More Than Women (29:41) Why Natural Selection Hasn’t Made Suicide Impossible (35:14) Age as a Factor in Suicide Statistics (41:06) The Cause of Post-Partum Depression (47:31) Is Evolutionary Psychology Racist? (53:38) Critiques of Evolutionary Psychology (56:28) Music’s Role in Evolution (1:02:50) Where to Find Ed Extra Stuff: Follow Ed on Twitter - https://twitter.com/ed_hagen Get my free Reading List of 100 books to read before you die → https://chriswillx.com/books/ To support me on Patreon (thank you): https://www.patreon.com/modernwisdom - Episodes You Might Enjoy: This Is How To Master Your Life - David Goggins - #577: ⁠⁠⁠lnkfi.re/SN-Goggins⁠⁠⁠ How To Destroy Your Negative Beliefs - Dr Jordan Peterson - #712: ⁠⁠⁠lnkfi.re/SN-Peterson⁠⁠⁠ The Secret Tools To Hack Your Brain - Dr Andrew Huberman - #700: ⁠⁠⁠lnkfi.re/SN-Huberman⁠⁠ Get in touch. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/modernwisdompodcast Email: https://chriswillx.com/contact/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello friends, welcome back to the show. My guest today is Ed Hagen. He's an evolutionary anthropologist,
0:06.2	professor at Washington State University, a researcher, and an author.
0:10.8	Low mood, depression and anxiety are states we will all become familiar with at some point in our lives.
0:16.4	But why did evolution create a creature that is able to contemplate so much complexity that
0:22.2	sometimes it suffers psychologically? Why are we wired to feel this way? And how are we able to pull
0:28.3	ourselves out? Expect to learn the evolutionary reason why humans get depressed, how postpartum
0:33.5	depression is adaptive, why being strong can lower your chances of low mood, how evolutionary theory
0:40.1	can improve all of medicine, why women are so much more depressed on average than men,
0:44.8	why humans are even capable of suicide, and much more.
0:50.5	For the people who enjoyed the Randy Nessie episode about evolutionary psychiatry a couple of
0:56.4	months ago, this is a great primer as well. It's really lovely to look at mental states that we
1:04.2	are all very familiar with through an evolutionary lens. Why are they here? Why do we feel the things
1:08.6	that we do? How are they useful? How were they adaptive and how are they mismatched with our
1:13.4	modern world? I really find this stuff fascinating and I hope that you take turns away from today.
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	...

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