The Nature & Nurture Podcast

In this episode, we talk about all things narcissism: from its manifestations (grandiose vs. vulnerable), behavioral patterns, personality traits, status and reward seeking, genetic and social determinants of narcissism, the role of technology and social media use in fueling narcissism, and narcissism as an evolutionary adaptation to certain ecological niches. We also discuss Dr. Campbell’s resear...

Dr. Mark Ho is a Cognitive Scientist and Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Princeton University. His research provides insights into human planning and social cognition by developing computational theories (e.g., using probabilistic models, reinforcement learning, neural networks) and testing those theories experimentally with people. Learn more about Mark’s work at: https://markkho.github.io/ In th...

Dr. Isabelle Brocas is an economist, neuroscientist, Professor at the University of Southern California, and co-director of the Los Angeles Behavioral Economics Laboratory and the Theoretical Research in Neuroeconomic Decision Making Institute. In this episode we discuss, broadly, how neuroeconomics emerged as an interdisciplinary field combining economics and neuroscience in order to better expla...

Dr. Andy Norman is a philosopher, Director of the Humanism Initiative at Carnegie Mellon University, Founder of the Cognitive Immunology Research Collaborative, and author of Mental Immunity: Infectious Ideas, Mind-Parasites, and the Search for a Better Way to Think. In this episode we discuss Andy’s book and the concept of mental immunity, the evolved system in our mind used to combat mind-parasi...

Dr. Iris Berent is a Professor of Psychology and Director of the Language & Mind Lab at Northeastern University. She is also the author of several books including The Blind Storyteller: How We Reason About Human Nature. In this episode we discuss Iris’ early work on language development, and how innate capacities for language inspired Iris to study our beliefs about innate parts of human natur...

Dr. Gary Laderman is the Goodrich C. White Professor of American Religious History and Cultures at Emory University, and the author of numerous books on death, spirituality, and culture, including Don’t Think About Death. In this episode we talk about Gary’s research on cultural perspectives on death throughout American history, including throughout the Civil War and after the development of the f...

Dr. Fiery Cushman is a Professor of Psychology and Director of the Moral Psychology Research Lab at Harvard University. In this episode, we talk about the distinction and overlap between moral psychology and experimental moral philosophy research, universalist vs. relativist moral values, the evolution of cooperation, whether individuals look to themselves or the state to punish moral transgressor...

Dr. Erik Nook is a clinical psychologist, neuroscientist, and Assistant Professor of Psychology at Princeton University.  In this episode we discuss the philosophy and early history behind the study of emotions, and outline several schools of thought including constructivism. Erik and I talk about individual differences in emotion processing, how language influences the way we represent and r...

Dr. Christian Nawroth is an applied ethologist and a postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute of Behavioral Physiology in the Research Institute for Farm Animal Biology.   In this episode, we discuss Christian's research on farm animals, including goats and pigs, and what this research tells us about their intelligence, social cognition, memory, and decision making. We also talk more bro...

Dr. Sami Yousif is a cognitive psychologist and MindCORE postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. In this episode we dive deep into two topics among Sami's wide range of research experiences: spatial cognition and teleological belief.  We discuss spatial cognition, imagistic vs. propositional vs. coordinate representations of space and navigation, the development of spa...

Dr. Adam Green is a cognitive neuroscientist and the Provost's Distinguished Associate Professor of Psychology at Georgetown University, where he directs the Lab for Relational Cognition. He is the Founder and President of the Society for the Neuroscience of Creativity, and Editor-In-Chief of the Creativity Research Journal.  In this episode we discuss Adam's expertise in creativity research,...

Dr. Megan Peters is a cognitive neuroscientist and an Assistant Professor of Cognitive Sciences at the University of California, Irvine, where she directs the Cognitive & Neural Computation Lab.  In this episode we discuss Megan's background in cognitive science, and a research path which allowed her to combine interests in computation with philosophical questions about human subjective e...

Dr. Bill von Hippel is an evolutionarily social psychologist and a Professor of Psychology at the University of Queensland, Australia. He is also the author of The Social Leap: The New Evolutionary Science of Who We Are, Where We Come From, and What Makes Us Happy.  In this episode we discuss The Social Leap, a journey through over 6 million years of human evolution: from our moderately intel...

Dr. Nilam Ram is a Professor of Psychology and Communication at Stanford University, and one of the founders of the field of screenomics: the new interdisciplinary field of research based on the time-series analysis of screens and digital behavior.  In this episode, we discuss Nilam's background in finance and quantitative psychology, the use of longitudinal research methods to examine change...

Dr. Abigail Marsh is a Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Georgetown University, where she directs the Laboratory on Social and Affective Neuroscience. She is also the author of The Fear Factor: How One Emotion Connects Altruists, Psychopaths, and Everyone In-Between . In this episode, we discuss Abby's background in social psychology, and a life-changing experience of hers that motivated...

Dr. Glenn Fox is a faculty member at the University of Southern California's Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, in the Marshall School of Business. His current projects focus on neural systems for emotion regulation, high stakes training, and developing entrepreneurial mindset skills in founders and business leaders. Glenn is also the Director and Founder of the USC Found Well Initiat...

Dr. Aaron Sell is an evolutionary psychologist and Assistant Professor of Psychology & Criminology at Heidelberg University with expertise in the evolution of anger, aggression, and hatred. In this episode we discuss how these different emotions are psychologically distinct, their evolutionary adaptiveness, and the "mismatch" between experiencing these emotions in tribal settings and in our mo...

Dr. Cedric Boeckx is a biolinguist and Research Professor at the Catalan Institute for Advanced Studies at the University of Barcelona. In this episode we discuss Cedric's research background, talk about what language is, from a scientific perspective, how it evolved in humans, and how it can be studied through cognitive psychology, computational modeling, and the human fossil record.

Dr. Robert Barton is a Professor of Anthropology at Durham University who studies primate brain evolution and cognition.

Dr. Edward Slingerland is a Distinguished University Scholar and Professor of Philosophy at the University of British Columbia and author of Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization. In this episode we talk about his book Drunk and dive into the history of alcohol, its health and societal benefits and costs, competing evolutionary theories as to why humans like alcohol, a...

Dr. Andrew Knoll is the Fisher Professor of Natural History at Harvard University, and author of A Brief History of Earth: Four Billion Years in Eight Chapters. In this episode, we further condense those four billion years into one introductory-level conversation. Dr. Knoll walks us through Earth's early history and the evolution of life on Earth, his background in geology, and research examining...

Dr. Nicholas Christakis is a physician, sociologist, network scientist, and Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science, Internal Medicine & Biomedical Engineering at Yale University. He is also the author of numerous books including Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society, and Apollo’s Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live.  In this...

Dr. Mark Solms is a neuropsychologist, Professor at the University of Cape Town, and author of The Hidden Spring: A Journey to the Source of Consciousness. In this episode we discuss Dr. Solms' background in neuropsychology, the overlap between modern neuropsychology and psychoanalysis, and Dr. Solms' early research on dreaming. We then discuss the illusive nature of consciousness, Dr. Sol...

Dr. Jeremy DeSilva is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Dartmouth College, and author of the book First Steps: How Walking Upright Made Us Human. He is a paleoanthropologist, specializing in the locomotion of the first apes (hominoids) and early human ancestors (hominins). His particular anatomical expertise-- the human foot and ankle-- has contributed to our understanding of the origins a...

Dr. Randy Thornhill is an evolutionary biologist and a Distinguished Professor of Biology Emeritus at the University of New Mexico. He is a pioneering researcher of parasite-stress theory, which describes how pathogens have throughout history shaped our behavior and values.  In this episode we discuss parasite-stress theory and the behavioral immune system, and how conservative values are cro...