The Nicolas Procel Podcast

Dr. Joseph Sirgy is a management psychologist, professor emeritus of marketing at Virginia Tech, and author of over 40 academic books and 300 scientific papers. Dr. Sirgy has extensively researched and written about the science of quality of life, wellbeing, and happiness over the course of his decades-long career. 0:00 Intro 0:25 Introduction to the Most Important Science 8:44 The 3 Faces of Happ...

Dr. Lionel Page is a professor of economics at the University of Queensland. Lionel is also the author of the Substack "Optimally Irrational," where he writes about various topics including psychology, the science of happiness, human nature, politics, evolutionary psychology, irrationality, and various other topics. In this episode, Dr. Page and I talk about how happiness can be understo...

Dr. Robert Kurzban is a former professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and an evolutionary psychologist. Dr. Kurzban was mentored and trained by Dr. John Tooby and Dr. Leda Cosmides, both founders of the field of modern evolutionary psychology. In this episode, I converse with Dr. Kurzban about evolutionary psychology, the science of self-discipline, and the theory of the modular...

Dr. Juan Carlos Marvizón, (pseudonym Hermes Solenzol) is a retired neuroscientist and expert in pain physiology, as well as a former member of the UCLA Brain Research Institute. He is also an author of various... romance books, and has a blog about various topics including science, philosophy, and more. In this episode, Dr. Solenzol and I talk about some of the mistakes and oversimplifications mad...

Dr. Robin Hanson is a polymath, a well-known rationalist, and an associate professor of economics at George Mason University. In this conversation, Dr. Hanson speaks with me about the underlying motivations behind much of human behavior, and how the pretexts (the reasons we give) for our behavior don’t often match the subtexts (the real reasons). In this episode, Dr. Hanson and I talk about evolut...

Named "one of the 50 most influential psychologists in the world," Dr. Kent Berridge is a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Michigan as well as an award-winning researcher in the field of affective neuroscience, studying topics such as pleasure, reward, and addiction. Dr. Berridge is the recipient of various awards, among them the APA Distinguished Scientific...

Dr. David Pinsof is the co-creator of Cards Against Humanity, as well as a social scientist at UCLA and author of Everything is Bullshit on Substack, where he explores the evolutionary forces behind self-deception, belief, and human behavior. 0:00 Intro 0:35 Why We Evolved to Self-Deceive 4:42 People Are Bad At Spotting Deception 5:20 Why We Bullshit Ourselves & Others 7:37 The Use of Self-Dec...

Dr. Alexander Swan holds a Ph. D. in Psychological and Brain Sciences and is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Eureka College. His research focuses on cognitive psychology, particularly judgment and decision-making, with an emphasis on cognitive biases. 0:00 Intro 0:19 What Biases Are & Why We Have Them 3:04 The Evolutionary Function of Biases 8:22 The Most Common & Pervasive Biases...

What if a single mutation millions of years ago is the reason you're here reading this right now? Richard Anderson is the author of Nautilus Award winner “The Evolution of Life: Big Bang to Space Colonies,” which details the history of the universe and life, as well as the present and future of humanity, life, and the planet. Richard holds a master’s degree in microbiology from San Jose State Univ...

What if everything you’ve been told about finding meaning in life is only scratching the surface? My guest in this episode is Jerry Pannone, a former philosophy teacher and author of the book "Survive: Why We Do What We Do." Jerry has spent a large portion of his life studying philosophy, the humanities, psychology, neuroscience, and more, and synthesizes that information into insights about the h...

In this episode, Gary Arnell talks about the lessons we've learned from philosophy over the last 2,350 years on how to create a happy life and flourishing society. My guest in this episode is Gary Arnell, a scholar who studies various fields including the philosophy of happiness, political philosophy, history, and much more. In this conversation, Nicolas and Gary talk about the philosophy of happi...

I talk to Greg Denning about the most important things he's learned after 30 years of study on how to make life better. My guest in this episode is Greg Denning, who has spent his life since the age of 16 reading all kinds of books to make him a more effective and successful human. Greg coaches thousands of people all around the world on how to improve their lives and businesses. He is also my fir...

An introduction to myself and the podcast.