Polymath

Crucifixions, feudalism, caste systems, torture, slavery: all centralised states, from the beginning of civilisation in the 4th millennium BCE until very, very recently, saw all of these as totally normal. There's a reason why 'Horrible Histories' wasn't called 'Really Quite Pleasant, Actually, Histories.' But why? How did these societies- our ancestors- view morality, what...

The USA has many differences: Republican and Democrat, rural and urban, religious and atheist, FOX News and CNN, tradition and modernity, poor and rich. And it seems as if a lot of these differences seem to correspond to the historic contrast between the U.S. North and South. And it's not a coincidence. These are two extremely different societies grafted together into one state. As we'll p...

CW: Both this video and this video's description contain graphic descriptions of violence, abuse, and non-consensual sex. This content is disturbing. This is a video investigating and explaining a genre of pornography called 'painal'. It is partially an amateur investigative journalism piece of the painal subreddit, an online community dedicating to sharing and viewing videos of this k...

This video is a narration of an article I wrote about the statistical frequency of rape, as reported by scientific studies. You can find it on my Medium here https://medium.com/@danielaaronlevy05 This description box isn't large enough for me to paste all the references in, so please check out the source page or my YouTube channel @Daniel Aaron Levy. Content Warning: This video discusses rape,...

This is a narration of an article I wrote about the ideology of materialism for The Skeptic- but you can find it online at https://medium.com/@danielaaronlevy05/the-myth-of-materialism-745c2f95f37e ! I reference some sources throughout the article, which I've copy-pasted for the original article over here: References 1. Oh GE. Social class, social self-esteem, and conspicuous consumption.  Hel...

This is a narration of an article I wrote for the University of Bristol, currently available online here https://medium.com/@danielaaronlevy05/how-to-get-yourself-to-exercise-69655d0d4ca9 ! You'll notice I've been mentioning numbers throughout this voice clip, which pertain to both sources and footnotes. They're all available on the Medium page, but I've also included them here: 1....

When states break down and societies fall in anarchy, or see military coups, or endure civil wars: people suffer. But why does this happen? And why does the region of Sub-Saharan Africa seem to see more of this than most? Attributing this to individuals or single-factor explanations is an inadequate and weak explanation: attributing it to simple racism is an odious one. But then what's going on? W...

Traditional masculinity! One of the most discussed and divisive topics around right now. But I want to talk to you about this topic not with an agenda to push, or based off my own opinions. I want to give you some real social science, giving you a thorough breakdown on the topic based on academic scholarship. Enjoy! Brief note: This video was recorded around 9 months before uploading

How does electricity running through meat give rise to consciousness? Science excels at explaining the physical phenomena of our universe, but it seems to run into a philosophical boundary when it tries to explain how physical, neurological processes give rise to subjective phenomena. In this episode, we explore the different scientific and philosophical positions on just how consciousness works....

Eeeeeevery rando online has a take on this, and currently we're being bombarded by manosphere influencers all dressing up their opinions as fact. But what does the actual evidence say? There's a huge amount of evidence on what really gets us ahead in life. If you want to base your worldview on actual psychology, sociology, and anthropology, this video is made for you! NB: This video was re...

Welcome back! This episodes focuses on State Formation Theory, a political-sociological theory developed by Charles Tilly and expanded by Jeffrey Herbst; these are the two main experts whose work I draw on for this video. Through the lens of this theory, we set out to answer the titular question via a structural analysis of what makes a state work. Enjoy!

Neoliberalism is a word which you may not have heard of- but its power probably affects every part of your life. Neoliberalism = liberal democracy (generally seen as good) + free market economics; but what does that really mean? What are the consequences of neoliberalism? How does it affect economies, societies, politics, and people? This is one of the single most important questions out there rig...

Stress! We all feel it as a normal part of life, and you may be feeling it right now. But what actually IS it? Where in the brain does it come from? How does it link to the body? What are the effects of it? And how can we get rid of it? We'll be looking at all this stuff and more this episode, so tune in and enjoy

How many genders are there- probably one of the most hotly debated topics right now. Everywhere you look, people bombard you with their opinions and political biases- but you deserve something better. Because the question of how many genders there are is something we've actually known already for years; it's just tucked away in the academic literatures of biology and sociology where online influen...

Anarchism! It's one of the most famous and hotly debated words out there- but what actually is it? More specifically- what do anarchists want? Is it a world with no rules? Has anarchism ever been tried? How does the economy work? Is anarchism democratic? What, essentially, does anarchism REALLY stand for? There's so much misinformation on anarchism online, but you deserve a video that isn't just s...

Is suffering built in? Is the universe a purposeless void? Or is negativity a product of human actions? Most importantly- how do we make life better for ourselves? Welcome back to Polymath! This episode explores all these deep questions; but as usual, it's not just a 'hot take' from some rando online. Rather, I want to delve into a fascinating scholarly debate on all this by two thinkers- Steven P...

You open your phone and start scrolling. What do you see? In music, media, and adverts what is it that people keep talking about? Foreign cars, designer brands, and cash; but why? Materialism is the belief that wealth and conspicuous consumption (i.e. buying things so other people can see them) will make people think better of you- and that it'll make you happy. The flipside is that people who don...

What does it mean to be an Islamist and what do they want? What distinguishes Islamism from Islam? And is Islamism inherently violent? (no) And what are jihadism or fundamentalism? In this episode, we'll be answering all these questions and much more. Islamism is currently a politically charged topic, but as always on Polymath this video is free of opinions, biases, or political agendas. The only...

What 'should' the role of religion in society be? The West and the Middle East have very different attitudes to religion and its place in society: the former generally removes it from politics, the latter doesn't. The West is more economically developed and has higher HDIs than the Middle East; despite the fact that until a few centuries ago, Western Europe was a backwater compared to the thriving...

Even the biggest NPC you know can still feel happiness, sadness, pain, disgust, and love. But why? Why have we evolved to feel things, rather than just process information and compute responses? Why is it that no matter how much you could learn about neurobiology, you could never deduce what it feels like to see the colour blue? What is a mind anyway? What is it made of? How does it relate to the...

Mental illness: what is it, who has it, and is it even real? Let's find out! Everyone is talking about mental illness these days. The transcending of stigma is good, but it's led to a massive explosion of misinformation- and in some cases, plain lies- online. You switch on a screen and get bombarded with thousands of people all giving their takes, their opinions, their guesses, their ideas. But wh...

Why are you the way that you are? No, I'm not quoting your parents, I'm asking a profound scientific question. What makes you psychologically distinct from other people? Are there meaningful personality differences caused by age, gender, nationality, politics, health, and religiosity? What are they? Let's explore! And as always with Polymath, this is not a video where I shower you with opinions or...

We've all heard of it- what is it? What do fascists want? What do they believe? What makes fascism different from other ideologies? And what makes fascism so violent? We'll be answering all these questions and more- and we'll be doing it properly . None of this episode is my opinion, or a 'hot take', or guesses. All of this is reliable, academic information from political science, political philos...

Why do female, educated US university staff rate female job applicants as less competent and less likely to get hired? It's probably not that they're misogynist: let's go a little deeper. This is a 20 minute compression of a colossal psychological and sociological journey spanning 3 hours: Episode 25 of Polymath. In this 20 minute video, we strip away our society to its core and scientifically ana...

Why did every society from the dawn of civilisation until the 1800s feel comfortable with slavery? In fact, what's the purpose of civilisation in the first place? What makes a good society? What is 'good' itself? 'Liberalism' shouldn't be conflated with being a 'liberal': this sociopolitical philosophy is in fact the foundation of Western politics/morality, and has been called the dominant ideolog...