Violence and virtue. The Goodness Paradox. Why are humans capable of being the nicest, but also the nastiest, of all species? Join host Dr. Michael Gervais as he sits down with Richard Wrangham, biological anthropologist and author of "The Goodness Paradox," to discuss the intricate relationship between violence and vi

Dr Richard Wrangham is an anthropologist and primatologist, a Professor of Biological Anthropology at Harvard University and an author whose research focuses on ape behaviour, human evolution, violence, and cooking. Humans have the capacity for incredible benevolence and kindness, but also are able to be execute other

Richard Wrangham is a biological anthropologist at Harvard, specializing in the study of primates and the evolution of violence, sex, cooking, culture, and other aspects of ape and human behavior. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: - ROKA: https://roka.com/ and use code LEX to get 20% off your fi

Topics covered include primate behavior, Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, the Harvard sociobiology wars, evolutionary psychology, male violence, cooking as a cultural adaptation, Darwinian gastronomy, veganism, nomological networks of cumulative evidence, and the evolution of goodness. Note: Apologies for the audiovisual seg

Today's guest argues that it was cooking that caused the extraordinary transformation of our ancestors from apelike beings to Homo erectus. At the heart of this episode lies an explosive new idea: the habit of eating cooked rather than raw food permitted the digestive tract to shrink and the human brain to grow, helped

How is that humans can be both the nicest and the nastiest of species? Biological anthropologist RICHARD WRANGHAM wrestles with that question in The Goodness Paradox: The Strange Relationship Between Virtue and Violence in Human Evolution. Though our capacity for coolly planned and devastating violence remains unrivale