Evolutionary Psychology (the podcast)
- Episodes
- 70
- Released
- weekly
- Latest episode
- Nov 10, 2026
About the podcast
Actual evolutionary psychology by actual evolutionary psychologists. Hosted by Dave Pietraszewski and David Pinsof. Every week, Dave and David bring cutting-edge work in the evolutionary behavioral sciences to you. patreon.com/epthepod
Episodes 70
"What are the tradeoffs?" with Oliver Sng
Oliver Sng (UC Irvine) is an evolutionary social psychologist who studies the tradeoffs inherent in limited time and energy. Topics included life history theory and its controversies, irrationality, growth …
Show notes
Oliver Sng (UC Irvine) is an evolutionary social psychologist who studies the tradeoffs inherent in limited time and energy. Topics included life history theory and its controversies, irrationality, growth mindsets and self-help, niches, competition, investment, kinship, and future discounting. A (surprisingly) light-hearted episode.
More about Oliver Sng:
https://faculty.sites.uci.edu/olisng/
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ari10nYAAAAJ&hl=en
Applied Evolutionary Anthropology with David Lawson
How can we better understand practices like polygamy and child marriage? In this episode, we talk to David Lawson (UCSB) about the need to understand why practices seen as harmful are happening--including …
Show notes
How can we better understand practices like polygamy and child marriage? In this episode, we talk to David Lawson (UCSB) about the need to understand why practices seen as harmful are happening--including teasing apart moralizing them from understanding them, and how doing so is crucial if we want to actually help people.
More about David Lawson:
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Kr6-a3oAAAAJ&hl=en
The Psychology of Cultural Evolution with Olivier Morin
Is cultural evolution a blind process, or one intrinsically impacted by individual cognition and insight? Olivier Morin (CNRS Jean Nicod) simultaneously pulls no punches while remaining distinctly nonpartisan …
Show notes
Is cultural evolution a blind process, or one intrinsically impacted by individual cognition and insight? Olivier Morin (CNRS Jean Nicod) simultaneously pulls no punches while remaining distinctly nonpartisan as we traverse these and other murky waters. Topics include the shape of violin sound holes, the cultural evolution of writing, rituals, economic assumptions, linguistic streamlining, and the cultural evolution of intellectuals.
More about Olivier Morin:
Ecology and Social Connections with Kathrine Starkweather
How do we remain resilient and flexible under difficult conditions? In this episode, we talk to Katie Starkweather (UCSB) about her work with the Shodagor, who spend appreciable amounts of life living on small …
Show notes
How do we remain resilient and flexible under difficult conditions? In this episode, we talk to Katie Starkweather (UCSB) about her work with the Shodagor, who spend appreciable amounts of life living on small boats in rural Bangladesh. Topics include: what is life like living on a small boat?, loneliness, social roles, division of labor, and how things like weather and ecology create and also put up barriers to social connection. Oh, and we talk about Coase and transaction costs (for all you Ronald Coase fans out there).
More about Katie Starkweather:
https://kathrinestarkweather.com/
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ftzkN60AAAAJ&hl=en
The Extended, Cooperative Phenotype with Athena Aktipis
They say that if you do what you love you never have to work a day in your life. In this episode, polymath Athena Aktipis (ASU) shares her enthusiasm and love for all things cooperative. Topics include music …
Show notes
They say that if you do what you love you never have to work a day in your life. In this episode, polymath Athena Aktipis (ASU) shares her enthusiasm and love for all things cooperative. Topics include music, Zombies, borderline personality, vibeing, alignment, cooperative energy, how not to build an institution, and how to capture the magic of musicians jamming together. We dare you to not feel inspired!
More about Athena Atkipis:
https://www.athenaaktipis.org/
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=8abR970AAAAJ&hl=en
More about Pickin' in the Pines:
Moral Progress with Hanno Sauer
Philosopher of Ethics and Politics Hanno Sauer (Utrecht) examines whether moral progress is all its cracked up to be. Topics include social class, being slightly more moral than others, rationalization costs …
Show notes
Philosopher of Ethics and Politics Hanno Sauer (Utrecht) examines whether moral progress is all its cracked up to be. Topics include social class, being slightly more moral than others, rationalization costs, the relationship between intellectuals and power, and the tolerated scrounging of morality.
https://www.uu.nl/staff/HCSauer
https://philpeople.org/profiles/hanno-sauer
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=n0djnuAAAAAJ&hl=de
Magic, Shamanism, and the Scale of Cooperation with Manvir Singh
This week, we talk about ice-age megafauna, Shamansim, magic, and the scale of ancestral cooperation with Manvir Singh (UC Davis). More about Manvir: https://www.manvir.org/ …
Show notes
This week, we talk about ice-age megafauna, Shamansim, magic, and the scale of ancestral cooperation with Manvir Singh (UC Davis).
More about Manvir:
https://www.manvir.org/https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ZHpmcFYAAAAJ&hl=en
Politics with Antoine Marie
We're Back! This week, we (well, David) talks with Antoine Marie (Paris) about all things politics. More about Antoine: https://www.antoinemariesci.com/ …
Show notes
We're Back! This week, we (well, David) talks with Antoine Marie (Paris) about all things politics.
More about Antoine:
https://www.antoinemariesci.com/
https://www.sciencespo.fr/cevipof/en/directory/marie-antoine/
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=immG3K4AAAAJ&hl=en
Summer Break!
We will be on a much-needed summer break for the next four weeks; returning on August 18th with a slew of fresh, new episodes. Thank you all for listening!
Stories with Michelle Sugiyama
Sit back and relax as we tell you a story about....well....stories. In this episode, we talk with Michelle Sugiyama (U Oregon), who explores human nature through the lens of understanding how, when, and why we …
Show notes
Sit back and relax as we tell you a story about....well....stories. In this episode, we talk with Michelle Sugiyama (U Oregon), who explores human nature through the lens of understanding how, when, and why we decide to tell each other stories. Other topics include the function of name labels, whether enjoying fiction is a byproduct or adaptation, history, propaganda, and how songs help us learn.
More about Michelle Sugiyama:
https://talkingstories.uoregon.edu/https://blogs.uoregon.edu/humananimallab/
https://cas.uoregon.edu/directory/social-sciences/all/mscalise
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=_7XnIB0AAAAJ&hl=en
Mechanism, Function, and Philsophy of Science with Lauren Ross
What is a mechanism? Are claims about function doomed to fail? And why are explanations in psychology and human behavior so fraught and contested? We pose these and other mysteries to one the shining stars in …
Show notes
What is a mechanism? Are claims about function doomed to fail? And why are explanations in psychology and human behavior so fraught and contested? We pose these and other mysteries to one the shining stars in modern philosophy of science, Lauren Ross (UC Irvine). Other topics include how philosophers are kind of like therapists, how modern philosophy of science thinks about grand explanations of everything, reductionism, and why what's happening in psychology is reassuringly not new under the scientific sun.
More about Lauren Ross:
https://sites.socsci.uci.edu/~rossl/
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=MR__Y0AAAAAJ&hl=en
Producing Belief with Pascal Boyer
Pascal Boyer (St. Louis) is one of the greats! We talk about his shifting thinking in terms of belief selection to belief production, and why this is a subversive idea. Other topics include birthdays, shamanism …
Show notes
Pascal Boyer (St. Louis) is one of the greats! We talk about his shifting thinking in terms of belief selection to belief production, and why this is a subversive idea. Other topics include birthdays, shamanism and magic, and why we should remain optimistic about the future of science.
More about Pascal Boyer:
http://www.pascalboyer.net/https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=7OaZg10AAAAJ&hl=en
Health and the Shuar Project with Josh Snodgrass
Is leaving a hunter horticultural lifestyle for a more westernized, market economy good or bad for one's health? And what does it take to run a field site? In this episode we talk to Josh Snodgrass (Oregon) …
Show notes
Is leaving a hunter horticultural lifestyle for a more westernized, market economy good or bad for one's health? And what does it take to run a field site? In this episode we talk to Josh Snodgrass (Oregon), one of the co-directors of the Shuar Project, and an expert on the consequences of transitioning from a more traditional to market subsistence on one's existence and health. Turns out: it's complicated!
More about Josh Snodgrass:
https://www.pinniped.net/snodgrass.html
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=EADPtvQAAAAJ&hl=en
Cooperation in the field with Kris Smith
Do we choose how we choose others? Kris Smith gives us a tour of his fieldwork in across Tanzania, from the arid plains of Hadza Land to the shores of village fisheries, Kris explains what he's learned about …
Show notes
Do we choose how we choose others? Kris Smith gives us a tour of his fieldwork in across Tanzania, from the arid plains of Hadza Land to the shores of village fisheries, Kris explains what he's learned about understand partner choice, levels of cooperation, and how the local way of making a living. Kris also explains what mistakes new students often make in the field, the effects of social mobility, the difficulties of abstract measures across cultures, and how not to avoid mosquitos in the field.
More about Kris Smith:
https://anthro.wsu.edu/faculty/wsu-profile/kristopher.m.smith/
https://www.kristophermsmith.com/
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=AXOcqSIAAAAJ&hl=en
Pathogens with Josh Ackerman
How does our evolved psychology deal with pathogens? Can other people tell when you're sick? What's the relationship between worrying about sickness and your social network? Do you stay in or go out when you're …
Show notes
How does our evolved psychology deal with pathogens? Can other people tell when you're sick? What's the relationship between worrying about sickness and your social network? Do you stay in or go out when you're sick? Love 'em or hate 'em, pathogens are a part of life and an extreme selection pressure, and our guest Josh Ackerman (UMichigan) gives us the in's and out's of how our minds deal with and are dealt with by this tiny microscopic critters.
More about Josh Ackerman:
https://lsa.umich.edu/psych/people/faculty/joshack.html
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=w3nbv6UAAAAJ&hl=en
Design with Dave & David
We are all still recovering from the HBES conference in Morocco. So, in this half-length episode the David's discuss a listener comment about whether natural selection "designs" anything, and whether it is a …
Show notes
We are all still recovering from the HBES conference in Morocco. So, in this half-length episode the David's discuss a listener comment about whether natural selection "designs" anything, and whether it is a mistake to talk and think in that way. We also hear from previous guest Greg Bryant in a mini-interview from HBES. Have a great week!
CES & HBES 2026 mini-episode
This week features a special mini-episode, fresh off the presses from our trip to the Human Behavior and Evolution Society (HBES) conference in Rabat, Morocco. We (briefly) talk with Bret Beheim (Max Planck …
Show notes
This week features a special mini-episode, fresh off the presses from our trip to the Human Behavior and Evolution Society (HBES) conference in Rabat, Morocco. We (briefly) talk with Bret Beheim (Max Planck Leipzig), Cristina Moya (UC Davis), and Brian Wood (UCLA). Also, this episode marks one year of the podcast!
More about Brian Wood:
https://anthro.ucla.edu/person/brian-wood/
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=oRH6SiEAAAAJ&hl=en
Evolutionary Social Psychology with Steve Neuberg
Steve Neuberg (ASU) takes us on a professional and personal journey, explaining what it means to straddle two different sub-disciplines with grace, tact, and not a little bit of success. Topics include: the …
Show notes
Steve Neuberg (ASU) takes us on a professional and personal journey, explaining what it means to straddle two different sub-disciplines with grace, tact, and not a little bit of success. Topics include: the specificity of discrimination and stereotyping, the difference between going phenomenon vs. adaptive problem first in one's approach, why it's useful to give the benefit of the doubt, and what Steve's newest venture is. A fun, thoughtful, and wide-ranging conversation.
More about Steve:
https://psychology.asu.edu/research/labs/evolution-ecology-social-behavior
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=98Zaz2MAAAAJ&hl=en
The Yanamamo and Nap Chagnon with Ray Hames
Ray Hames, along with guest-host Zach Garfield, discusses his time with the Yanamamo, being a student of Napoleon Chagnon, and what it was like to be in the early, 2nd generation of anthropologists applying …
Show notes
Ray Hames, along with guest-host Zach Garfield, discusses his time with the Yanamamo, being a student of Napoleon Chagnon, and what it was like to be in the early, 2nd generation of anthropologists applying evolution to human behavior. Topics include hunting, the history of sociobiology, human behavioral ecology, and evolutionary psychology, attitudes about indigenous populations, the elderly, sexual orientation, and the darkness in Eldorado hoax.
More about Ray Hames:
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=BZ98oywAAAAJ&hl=en
https://www.nasonline.org/directory-entry/raymond-b-hames-srcedw/
Sex and Gender with Dan Conroy-Beam
What is sex? What is gender? These are big, weighty questions with not a few societal and political tensions involved. Who better to guide us through this morass than Dan Conroy-Beam (UCSB)? Get ready for a …
Show notes
What is sex? What is gender? These are big, weighty questions with not a few societal and political tensions involved. Who better to guide us through this morass than Dan Conroy-Beam (UCSB)? Get ready for a clear-minded, derived-from-first-principles tour of the evolution of sex, sex roles, and gender. Other topics include the culture vs. biology distinction, mentors, friends, what agent based modeling is, and why it's not self-indulgent to model the evolution of sex.
More about Dan Conroy-Beam:
https://www.danconroybeam.com/
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ifQUQssAAAAJ&hl=en
Revenge and Forgiveness with Mike McCullough
Revenge, forgiveness, morality. Join us and our guest Mike McCullough (UC San Diego) as we navigate the deep cost/benefit structure of the social world. Topics include what punishment really is, why we should …
Show notes
Revenge, forgiveness, morality. Join us and our guest Mike McCullough (UC San Diego) as we navigate the deep cost/benefit structure of the social world. Topics include what punishment really is, why we should respect revenge, why victims may sometimes not seek help, and why times heals all wounds.
More about Mike McCullough:
https://www.michael-mccullough.com/
https://psychology.ucsd.edu/people/profiles/mmccullough.html
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ZyAttkAAAAAJ&hl=en
Causality with Tadeg Quillien
Causality is....well...causality...it's hard to explain. And that's exactly what Tadeg Quillien (Edinburgh) does: figure out what the heck causality is, and how our mind does it. Other topics include domain …
Show notes
Causality is....well...causality...it's hard to explain. And that's exactly what Tadeg Quillien (Edinburgh) does: figure out what the heck causality is, and how our mind does it. Other topics include domain generality vs. specificity, counterfactuals, relevance, morality, beliefs and theory of mind, and what it means to be computational, and how David Hume was pretty cool.
More about Tadeg Quillien:
https://quillienlab.github.io/people/
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=7h0VM_kAAAAJ&hl=fr
Founding Evolutionary Psychology with Leda Cosmides
A guest who needs no introduction. Leda Cosmides (UCSB) talks about how she and John Tooby co-founded the enterprise "evolutionary psychology"---including the how's, when's and why's---and what she thinks about …
Show notes
A guest who needs no introduction. Leda Cosmides (UCSB) talks about how she and John Tooby co-founded the enterprise "evolutionary psychology"---including the how's, when's and why's---and what she thinks about current work. Other topics include why it's good for science to not be a jerk, and how she's come to understand what the heck behavioral and experimental economists are up to.
More about Leda Cosmides:
https://psych.ucsb.edu/people/faculty/leda-cosmideshttps://scholar.google.com/citations?user=V1vCfTYAAAAJ&hl=en
The Origins of evolutionary psychology with Martin Daly
Along with Margo Wilson, Martin Daly (McMaster) is one the founding pioneers of evolutionary psychology. In this episode, we get Martin's take on the history and the field. Topics include studying real-world …
Show notes
Along with Margo Wilson, Martin Daly (McMaster) is one the founding pioneers of evolutionary psychology. In this episode, we get Martin's take on the history and the field. Topics include studying real-world phenomena (like homicide), inequality, and how evolutionary biologists like Williams and Hamilton supported the upstart approach (and whether it's really a different approach at all), and what happens when you give a lab-reared rat the kind of plant that it evolved to eat out in the wild, but has never seen before.
More about Martin Daly:
https://www.martindaly.ca/Music and Acoustics with Greg Bryant
What's up with music? Why do vibrating strings tug on our emotions? And why can't most animals keep a beat? In this episode, we talk to Greg Bryant (UCLA) all about things acoustic and musical. Other topics …
Show notes
What's up with music? Why do vibrating strings tug on our emotions? And why can't most animals keep a beat? In this episode, we talk to Greg Bryant (UCLA) all about things acoustic and musical. Other topics include: the evolutionary logic of distortion in rock, laughter (including in rats!), and the psychology of perfect pitch and jamming.
More about Greg Bryant:
https://gabryant.scholar.ss.ucla.edu/
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=urz-QfkAAAAJ&hl=en
Greg's music:
https://gbryant.bandcamp.com/album/soft-assembly-of-a-die-hard
Stress with Jen Byrd-Craven
What is stress? Is it useful? What is the endocrine system? Why do we need it (and why isn't a brain enough)? In this episode, we talk to Jen Byrd-Craven (Oklahoma State) about all things stress and endocrine …
Show notes
What is stress? Is it useful? What is the endocrine system? Why do we need it (and why isn't a brain enough)? In this episode, we talk to Jen Byrd-Craven (Oklahoma State) about all things stress and endocrine. Other topics include development, supposedly "over-active" stress responses, rage-bait, chilling out, obesity, parenting, status, teaching history, and much more.
More about Jen Byrd-Craven:
https://byrd-cravenpsychobiologylab.mystrikingly.com/
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=MYyZEL4AAAAJ&hl=en
Cultural Evolution with Rob Boyd
Along with Pete Richerson, Rob Boyd (ASU) is one of *the* founders of cultural evolution, and one of the key figures in connecting human behavior with evolution. A very special episode with one of the greats! …
Show notes
Along with Pete Richerson, Rob Boyd (ASU) is one of *the* founders of cultural evolution, and one of the key figures in connecting human behavior with evolution. A very special episode with one of the greats! To top it off, we have Rob's former PhD student (and previous guest) Cristina Moya, in the role of guest host.
More about Rob Boyd:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Boyd_(anthropologist)
https://search.asu.edu/profile/1952328
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=YucHqSsAAAAJ&hl=en
Microchimerism with Amy Boddy
Are we one, or do we contain multitudes? In this episode, we explore the bizarre and fascinating world of microchimerism with Amy Boddy (UCSB). More about Amy Boddy: https://www.anth.ucsb.edu/people/amy-boddy …
Show notes
Are we one, or do we contain multitudes? In this episode, we explore the bizarre and fascinating world of microchimerism with Amy Boddy (UCSB).
More about Amy Boddy:
https://www.anth.ucsb.edu/people/amy-boddy
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=jnNIBc4AAAAJ&hl=en
Status and Personality with Patrick Durkee
What is status? What is inspiration? What is personality? It all sounds simple and obvious, but in this episode with Patrick Durkee (CSU Fresno), we make "the familiar strange" and think through how an evolved …
Show notes
What is status? What is inspiration? What is personality? It all sounds simple and obvious, but in this episode with Patrick Durkee (CSU Fresno), we make "the familiar strange" and think through how an evolved mind may figure out how to invest our time and energy, what inspiration means, and what personality really is.
More about Patrick Durkee:
https://www.pdurkee.com/https://csm.fresnostate.edu/about/directory/psych/durkee-patrick.html
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=uj4K4rQAAAAJ&hl=en
The Microbiome with Katrine Whiteson
In this episode, we talk with Katrine Whiteson (UC Irvine) about her amazing work studying the human microbiome. We cannot stress enough how much we learned from this episode, from how to prevent your gut …
Show notes
In this episode, we talk with Katrine Whiteson (UC Irvine) about her amazing work studying the human microbiome. We cannot stress enough how much we learned from this episode, from how to prevent your gut bacteria from becoming trashed by antibiotics, how to shop for food that will feed your healthy microbes and prevent blood sugar spikes. Other topics include: what's missing form our modern gut bacteria, the relationship between eating, cancer, and immune function, hunting for phages, and much more. A great example of using evolution to better understand our health.
More about Katrine Whiteson:
https://www.faculty.uci.edu/profile/?facultyId=6103
https://kwhiteson.bio.uci.edu/
These are the latest 40 of 70 episodes. You’ll find older episodes in the podcast’s feed.
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