Podcasts about human nature lab

Banished by Booksmart Studios

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 14, 2021 171:27

In this episode, Sam Harris speaks with Nicholas Christakis about the lessons of the COVID pandemic. They discuss our failures to coordinate an effective response, the politics surrounding vaccination, vaccine efficacy, vaccine safety, how to think about scientific controversies, the epidemiology of excess deaths, transmission among the vaccinated, natural immunity, selection pressures and new variants, the failure of institutions, the lab-leak hypothesis, the efficacy of lockdowns, vaccine mandates, boosters, what would happen in a worse pandemic, and other topics. Nicholas A. Christakis, MD, PhD, MPH, is the Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University, where he directs the Human Nature Lab and is the Co-Director of the Yale Institute for Network Science. He was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2006, the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2010, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2017. He is the author of several books—Connected: The Amazing Power of Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives, Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society, and most recently Apollo’s Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live. Website: www.humannaturelab.net Twitter: @NAChristakis Learning how to train your mind is the single greatest investment you can make in life. That’s why Sam Harris created the Waking Up app. From rational mindfulness practice to lessons on some of life’s most important topics, join Sam as he demystifies the practice of meditation and explores the theory behind it.

Fear and Scapegoating in the Time of Pandemics

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 17, 2021 33:22

Scapegoating particular communities during an epidemic — be it tuberculosis, HIV or COVID-19 — is nothing new. Outbreaks of disease are often accompanied by the demonizing of some portion of humanity that is supposedly the source of the contagion. They are to blame.Must it be this way? Why do we feel the need to point the finger at each other when threatened like this — even when the threat is ultimately not from people but from viruses or bacteria? And what does this sort of blanket indictment during a health crisis have in common with cancel culture? Host Amna Khalid discusses these pressing issues with Nicholas Christakis, the Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science, Internal Medicine & Biomedical Engineering at Yale University, and the author of Apollo’s Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live, now out in paperback.TRANSCRIPTDONALD TRUMP: Covid-19 — that name gets further and further away from China, as opposed to calling it the “Chinese virus.” [Cheers]...it’s got all different names: Wuhan…...Chinese virus......Kung flu, yes. [Cheers] Kung flu...AMNA KHALID: That was former president Donald Trump taking every opportunity to suggest that the coronavirus was spread by China — rather than by American apathy and incompetence. Of course, scapegoating particular communities during an epidemic — be it tuberculosis, HIV or Covid — is nothing new. Outbreaks of disease are often accompanied by the demonizing of some portion of humanity that is supposedly the source of the contagion. They are to blame.Must it be this way? Why do we feel the need to point the finger at each other when threatened like this — even when the threat is ultimately not from people but from viruses or bacteria? And what does this sort of blanket indictment during a health crisis have in common with cancel culture?Joining me to talk about the connection is Nicholas Christakis, the Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science, Internal Medicine & Biomedical Engineering education at Yale University. A sociologist and a physician, Christakis directs the Human Nature Lab at Yale and is the author of Apollo’s Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live. He is also a keen critic of cancel culture, especially as it's playing out on college campuses.Nicholas, thanks for being here.NICHOLAS CHRISTAKIS: Thank you so much for having me.KHALID: We’re in the middle of a pandemic. Some people think we're towards the end of it, but I believe you describe it as towards the end of the beginning of the pandemic, which I, as an historian of medicine, would very much agree with having studied how epidemics play out. But shortly after we were hit by COVID, you wrote a most phenomenal book called Apollo's Arrow, and I was struck by how quickly you were able to put together what you were seeing, both of how the virus was progressing and the kinds of ways in which it was impacting our society. So can you tell me a little bit about what led you to write that book?CHRISTAKIS: What happened was I had a long standing collaboration with some Chinese scientists. We had been studying phone data that tracks people's social interactions and their movements, doing a bunch of research on different topics. And it dawned on us in January of 2020 we could use that data to study the spread of the virus. And we scrambled, beginning January 15th, to write a paper that was eventually published in April in the journal Nature about how the flow of people through Wuhan perfectly predicted the timing, intensity, and location of the epidemic throughout China through the end of February. So as a result of this, I was paying attention to this virus very early on. And as a result of that, became aware of the fact that on January 24th the Chinese promulgated regulations that required 930 million people to stay at home. In other words, the Chinese saw in the virus an enemy of sufficient magnitude that they basically detonated a social nuclear weapon to stop it. And this really got my attention. Of course, I knew the history of epidemic disease having studied that. And I was following what Chinese, and soon after, Italian scientists were putting online. It was very clear to me this was going to be a serious epidemic. And meanwhile, our public discourse was very minimalizing. The president of the United States was saying it'll go away, which is ridiculous. Any expert knew that was false. So I began to send out Twitter threads with sort of basic EPI 101 information about here's what happens with respiratory pandemics. Here's what's going to unfold and so on. And to my amazement, several of those went viral. I think there was a hunger in the United States for sort of basic scientific information about respiratory pandemics. By the middle of March, I began to redirect all the efforts of my lab towards the pandemic — or most of the efforts, not all — March the 15th, I started writing the book and it was due July the 15th, four months later. That was Apollo's Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live. And the reason I was able to write the book so swiftly, I think, is that so much is known about respiratory pandemics. I mean, the thing to understand is that this experience so many of us are having and this way we've come to live right now, which feels so alien and unnatural, is not. Plagues are not new to our species. They're just new to us. We think this is crazy — what's happening — but that's ridiculous. Humans have been interacting with pandemic disease for centuries. I mean, they're in the Bible. They're in the Iliad. The canonical work of Western fiction begins with a plague. They’re in Shakespeare. They’re in Cervantes. This is a part of the human experience. And there is therefore expertise — both human experience and in our religious traditions, in our literary traditions and also scientific expertise, as you mentioned, in medical historians, in epidemiologists. People know. We know about these things. Therefore, pretty much everything that has happened, almost without exception, has been foreseeable.KHALID: So, as I was reading the book, Nicholas — and for our listeners, I should mention that the paperback version of the book has just come out with a new preface. And if you're listening to this episode, you should go out and get a version because there are substantive differences, I think, between the hardback and the paperback. But I want to go back to the book itself. And when I was reading it, what I was struck by was how you explain these really complicated, scientific things in a very accessible fashion. But to my heart, what speaks to me is how you bring precisely what you mentioned — the history of how humans have coped with pandemics — into the frame. Because in our own lifetimes, we've been fortunate in that we have not seen anything of this scale. We've seen, you know, the SARS-1. We've seen a few other — Ebola. But, particularly in the U.S., we've been pretty insulated, I'd say, compared to other historical times. And I just found it fascinating how you were able to weave that into a discussion of what's happening right now. One of the things that I do when I'm teaching my history of medicine course is I tell my students that historians are interested in epidemics precisely because they reveal the fault lines of society. It's like that pressure point where everything that is papering over differences kind of evaporates and you can see what's going on. And we saw that happen this time too. Particular communities get scapegoated. Can you say a little bit about that? I mean, we've heard our prior president talk about the virus as a “China virus,” as “kung flu.” There is demonization of certain peoples.CHRISTAKIS: One of the things that's so interesting about plagues is that they have a biological and epidemiological existence, but, as you're pointing out, they also have a sociological existence. They bring with them certain psychological, economic, and sociological impacts, which are pretty much invariant. For example, plagues are a time of denial and lies. We see denial and lies for thousands of years. People have said that we have accounts from bubonic plague outbreaks from, you know, 1500 years ago where observers say it's crazy. There's all this superstition around what's happening, you know. Or the emergence of quacks, you know, who sell nostrums to cure the plague that even people in real time observe doesn't work, for example. So the emergence of lies and denial is typical. Fear is typical. Grief — the grief making power of plagues, sort of depression. Marcus Aurelius writes about a plague in Rome, about how worse even than the deaths was the kind of sense of depression that had settled over the city. All of these things that we're experiencing on a psychosocial plane are things that have been observed with plagues in the past. And as you're highlighting, one further such thing is this notion of blame, because during times of plague, it is stereotypic to blame others. During, for example, the bubonic plague, the Jews were blamed, right? There was an ascendant antisemitism. Countless Jews in many cities were burned at the stake or buried alive, blamed wrongly — of course — for the plague. During HIV, for example, gays were blamed or Haitians were blamed or IV drug users were blamed. And during this epidemic, we've seen that Asians are blamed or migrants are blamed. Part of the reason, I think, psychodynamically we are so eager and willing to blame others is that the alternatives are more frightening. So another alternative is that the plague is the workings of an implacable God, right? That God is bringing annihilation to us, right? That's scary. Or another alternative is that the plague is the inexorable workings of the natural world. Well that's frightening too. Whereas if you imagine that human agency is responsible, that some other humans are causing the plague, then you might imagine, in a soothing sort of way, that human agency might cause the plague to remit, that there's something we can do to stop it. But even within the category of blame — this issue of who gets blamed and why do we blame certain other groups of humans? On the one hand, there have been voices that have said kill the other. The other is responsible. There have also always been voices that have said no, that's not the case. For example, even during the first outbreak of bubonic plague in the 1340s, Pope Clement VI, during this wave of anti-Semitism, in an astonishing set of statements for a sitting pope — by the way, he comported himself remarkably humanely during this whole episode, taking great personal risk, having real sorrow and sympathy for the plight of human beings — he observed, just very logically, he goes, it couldn't possibly be the Jews that are responsible because they're also dying. You know, just very basic reasoning, you know, like the plague is killing everyone. Why would the Jews be doing this to themselves? Or Saint Cyprian — and I'll just read this — people have often said, well, why wouldn't the emergence of a common threat — like a plague is like a shared enemy — why wouldn't it bind human beings together? So here is an observation by Saint Cyprian. During the third century of the common era, there was another plague in Rome. Rome was about a million people in those days, which is astonishing. 5,000 people a day were dying, and Saint Cyprian said, “It disturbs some that this mortality is common to us with others; and yet what is there in this world which is not common to us with others...So long as we are here in the world, we are associated with the human race in fleshly equality.” This idea that we're all together in this, facing this common threat, we shouldn't allow ourselves to be divided by these superficial differences, this tension between no, there shouldn't be a bright line between us and them, or yes, there should be a bright line between us and them is also an ancient feature of plagues.KHALID: I'm loving the fact that you're drawing out this tension because I think this tension is at the heart of how we deal with pandemics. You've got these two forces contending with each other. At one level, you've got people — even during the Black Death — who believed that this is a curse from God for not caring for the poor. But coming back to the implications of scapegoating and essentially, you know, for banishing people — people have been banished during times of pandemics and for chronic illnesses as well. There is the idea of “leper” colonies and people who were sent away who were suffering from leprosy. And it was not just a physical death that they were sent towards, but there is very distinctly a social death that takes place. Can you comment and reflect on that a little bit in light of what's happening today as well?CHRISTAKIS: If you think about it, short of killing someone or maiming them, ostracizing them is a very powerful sanction. Ostracism comes from the Greek word ostrakon, which means little shards of pottery that they would write someone's name in to ostracize. Or there are many traditional societies where a witchdoctor, a traditional healer, might sort of identify who is the person who is responsible for the woes in our group, and that person would be cast out. Or sailors' accounts, you know, of why a ship has suffered a calamity, and it must be because this person on our ship is bad, that person would be flung overboard, for example. So there are many, many ways in which this idea of purging a group of an individual might somehow represent a kind of catharsis. And be, by the way, a very serious sanction to the person that was sent out, whether guilty or innocent. Many of the examples I just gave are innocent people being sacrificed for the benefits of the group. Sometimes they are guilty parties and we don't want to execute them, but let's say we'll banish them, which was a bad, bad sanction in old days. Now, the reason it's such a bad sanction is that we are actually social animals. It is very vulnerable to be on your own. To be cast out of a group and to have to survive on your own elicits a lot of very serious anxieties in human beings because, in our ancestral past, to be on your own was risky. So banishment, whether as a punishment for a bona fide crime or as a kind of immoral, I would say, act of purification — I mean, you see this in, for example, in the Cultural Revolution, you know where people were picked from a group and everyone else got to feel good because they cast out this person. This is a perverse reflection of a very fundamental human fear and even a human tendency.KHALID: Yeah, there is a kind of in-group and outgroup, right? This kind of tribalism that suddenly can get very starkly reinforced.CHRISTAKIS: We see that also, by the way, in the suboptimal way our country has responded to the pandemic. So, for example, in my view, we have needlessly politicized things like mask wearing and vaccination. I think it's wonderful that we live in a plural democracy. We have a range of political beliefs about all kinds of topics. And we resolve our differences how? Not by force of arms, we vote. That's what we do in our society. We vote to resolve our differences. And I would rather live in the kind of heterogeneous political pluralism than in a political monoculture. So I like the fact that we have a civilized way — to the extent possible — of resolving our differences, which is terrific. But this idea that you're going to signal your political affiliation by whether you choose to get vaccinated or not is really dumb. The vaccine should be seen as a kind of technocratic, apolitical tool. If people wanted to politicize whether you got Moderna or Pfizer, I think that would still be stupid. But if they want to politicize whether you get a vaccine at all, I mean, I think that's just not only illogical but self-injurious.KHALID: We've talked about this tension and this tribalism that is present, but I would argue that the coronavirus or a disease is a historical agent in its own right in that it acts and causes change in a way that exacerbates existing tendencies and sometimes even sows the seeds — it's not just exacerbation — but sometimes even sows the seeds of new kinds of rifts within society. How would you respond to that?CHRISTAKIS: Anything that puts stress on a society, whether a war or a famine or a natural disaster like a major earthquake or a plague highlights divisions or stresses in a society. It can also elicit wonderful qualities. There's a whole literature on the communities that form in the wake of disaster, for example. So, when people are flung out of a city and they're living in a camp and how they help each other out, you know. There are, of course, criminals and thieves and others who take advantage of the situation, but people tend to bond together in these types of things. I think that the virus struck us at a particularly vulnerable moment from the point of view of the intellectual fabric of our society. So there were a number of macro trends that were happening. First of all, we were at century level highs of economic inequality. We had historically very high levels of political polarization, which political scientists have documented. Those were in the background. In addition, we had a kind of anti-elitism — partly reflecting that inequality — and swept up in that anti-elitism was a kind of anti-scientism. Scientists were seen as just another kind of elite that was feeding at the public trough, which is kind of, in my view, a wrong way to see scientists. It's like seeing judges as an elite. You know, like the judges are feeding at the public trough because they're paid by our taxes. Well no, we don't see judges as a constituency, right? We don't see judges as an interest group. Some people have come to see scientists that way. And we also, as a nation, seem to have lost the capacity for nuance, right? Like we had these conversations in which everything is black or white or you’re with me or you're against me, again reflecting the kind of politicization of so many of our disagreements, as you just said. So all of these things were happening in our society when the virus struck. And I think it really exploited that. I think many more thousands of Americans died because we were unable as a nation to come together, and, by the way, in my view, with the previous administration, were poorly led at the level of the White House. We were not well led. You could have come and you could have said, you know, the American people are being attacked by this external virus. We need to come together to rebuff this. We need to work together as a nation. There's a kind of appeal — almost a jingoistic appeal — that could have been made that I think would have been appealing to the right and the left politically that could have worked. I do fault the White House, but there were Democratic governors who also did a lousy job — and mayors. But the White House is the White House, right? I think the inability of the White House to organize an effective national response is sort of the flip side of the unwillingness of much of the citizenry to face up to the unpleasant reality. The plague struck and exploited or exacerbated a variety of ongoing problems in our society.KHALID: When you wrote your book and the hardcover came out, at that point, the lab leak theory was really pooh-poohed and wasn't really something that was being considered as a possibility. And between that and your next edition, people are thinking differently about it or new evidence has come to light. Could you reflect on where you stand right now on that?CHRISTAKIS: People early on were saying that there was no evidence that this was an engineered bioweapon. I think those people advancing that theory were seen as a little bit of like conspiracy theorists. When you make extraordinary claims, you need to have some evidence for the claim. Many people acknowledge that it was possible that this was a leak from a lab, but they thought — and I was one of them — that it was more likely that this was a zoonotic leap rather than a lab leak. So one theory is that this was a virus that was brought back from the wild into the laboratory for study and then inadvertently leaked. And that is, by the way, still possible. We don't have good evidence one way or the other. And certainly, Chinese secrecy about this raises suspicions. The other idea is that there was some unobserved natural leap from a bat to a human probably in sort of the second half of 2019. And that theory, I think, is still more likely, partly because we know there are many such zoonotic leaps. You mentioned some. Ebola is a zoonotic leap. SARS-1 in 2003 was a zoonotic leap. Influenza is a zoonotic leap. Zika virus, hantavirus, HIV. All of these things we've all lived through, these are all zoonotic leaps, well documented zoonotic leaps. It happens and it's happening increasingly. In fact, there's some evidence that the zoonotic leaps are happening increasingly partly because of climate change, if you can believe it. So there's a deep connection between climate change and pandemic disease. And so, I still think that is probably what happened in this case, but I can't be sure. There's no reason to politicize this. We'll go wherever the evidence leads us. I mean, I don't have a political dog in this fight.KHALID: But this is the part that's interesting, right? Like you said, we can wait for the evidence, but there is this tendency, again, to go down that blame route, to try and see it as maliciously intentioned and something that has a conspiracy behind it. With HIV, in your book, you were reflecting on how the gay population got scapegoated and you said it just so happens that the virus settles in a particular community and that is the one that gets stigmatized. It's not necessarily inherently anything about that community. Another kind of parallel movement in our society, particularly American society, where cancelations are on the rise, where somehow there is this fear of contagion of ideas, and therefore we can't even bear to listen to anyone who holds a viewpoint that is contrary to us, and we must banish them. You know, we must cancel them. It's happening all around us, but it's happening in institutions of higher education which should be the places where we slow down, take a step back, and like you said, wait for the evidence and think things through. But that's not what's going on. Do you see similar dynamics in our social ways of dealing with difference?CHRISTAKIS: You know, the contagion of ideas can be modeled in ways similar to the contagion of germs. And my laboratory has done a lot of work on spreading processes and social networks. We've developed a lot of data sets and mathematical models and ideas that are highly relevant to understanding such phenomena. On the issue of silencing one's opponents, the desire to silence one’s opponents is a very primitive and ancient desire as well. But I think it's a weak desire. You know, if you're so confident in the integrity and validity of your ideas, win the battle of ideas. Argue. Bring evidence and data and rhetoric and logic to the field of battle and win. It's only people who lack confidence, in my view, who actually secretly suspect that maybe their ideas are not valid, that seek to silence their opponents, to prevent their opponents from speaking.And we see this on the right and on the left. For example, on the right they don't want to fund gun research, gun epidemiology research. Why would you not want to fund basic research on how guns kill people? Well, maybe you're afraid that if we find such evidence, it might lead to new policies that you disagree with. And rather than winning the battle of ideas and arguing about the policies, you're like, well, let's just suppress the evidence. Same with climate change. On the left, things having to do with gender, the biological reality of sex, for example. People would rather suppress such evidence or contort such evidence rather than engage with the evidence in a very, you know, mature way and recognize the subtleties and the nuance in any of these topics. Or in behavior, genetics is another topic that the left doesn't want to explore — you know, the role of genetics in human behavior. This is weak minded, in my view. I would rather have a full airing of people's ideas. And I would rather try to create institutions in our societies like universities, which are special places for such airing. And incidentally, as James Mill famously said, “He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of it.”Your ideas get stronger when you test them against opponents. Why — when you fight in martial arts, why do you bow to your opponent? You're grateful to your opponent for giving you an opportunity to perfect your own skills. You couldn't do that without an opponent, right? It's the same in intellectual battle — you need to test your ideas. Whether it's scientific claims about the world or philosophical stances about the world, I think they get better in the crucible of contention. And so, this is why I am gravely concerned that there are many topics which have become taboo on university campuses, on the left and on the right. It's below a great nation like ours, and it's below our best universities to fall prey to such desires, to create a culture of censorship. What happens typically is that someone is cast out. Like someone is identified for like a minor delict and is cast out, and that has a real silencing effect on everyone else. People are oh, better not discuss that topic. The costs are too high of discussing that topic, and it's dropped.KHALID: Yeah, this is an excellent point, and I've actually had a few people push back and say well, you know, there’re not that many professors who've been canceled recently, if you count the numbers compared to the proportion. It's not about the actual numbers of people who are being canceled, but those who are subsequently silenced and who are self-censoring for fear of being canceled. There is this parallel of the fear that we're facing with the pandemic and this fear that is now being cultivated through these kinds of cancelations and scapegoating of people.CHRISTAKIS: I may bungle this example, and there may be listeners of yours who know more about it. But my understanding of training to become a SEAL — you know, an elite warrior — is that there is an exercise early on in that training where they throw all the men and women into the water and there's a little raft and everyone has been issued like a little tripod and you start treading water. And they tell them all, you will all tread water until one of you climbs up onto this raft and sets up their little tripod and rings the bell and gives up. Then we'll let the rest of you out of the water. And these soldiers tread water for 24 hours until finally one person gives up. So the SEAL — the trainers are willing to sacrifice one guy early on for the benefits of solidarity that accrue to everyone else, where everyone else feels we made it. We're good material. It's us. You know, we are now us because we have symbolically cast out a member of our erstwhile community. People get this kind of free zone, this kind of sense of solidarity by sacrificing someone. And many of these cases of cancelation that we have seen have this element. There's a case at the Yale Law School right now where a Native American student who's politically on the right sent out, innocently — we now have on record that he was unaware that his lighthearted party invitation could be seen by some other people as having racist connotations. He referred to having a party at his “trap house.” This is a slang I was previously unfamiliar with, but if you look it up, it's been used by many people with nonracial connotations for quite a long time now. Its primary definition does not have racial connotations. He mentioned the foodstuffs that would be available, which included apple pie and fried chicken at this event. Turns out he didn't even pick the fried chicken. It was a convenient fast food store near their house. One of his roommates had made that selection. He sends out an announcement, and nine people at Yale Law School — primarily African Americans — were so offended by this that they reported him to some deans who then called the student in and tried to engineer an apology from him. And then the student was denounced by this body within the university that his email was racist and pejorative, even though on record — we now have audiotapes of the conversation. It was clear he had no idea. And they told him they believed him that he had no idea. Nevertheless, they denounced him. And then everyone is circling the wagons now, reading his actions in the most uncharitable way. To me, this seems like a situation in which they're trying to cast out an innocent person in order to make themselves feel better and build group solidarity and police the margins of acceptable discourse. All of which is wrong, in my view.KHALID: You know, the irony is that this is happening at a law school, which is all about teaching students how to pass out evidence, how to think through who is responsible, and how you hold them responsible. And also, one of the key elements of legal schooling is to learn there is the action but then there is the intention. And you cannot discount the intention. The intention is what makes the difference between the verdict for manslaughter versus murder. CHRISTAKIS: Yes.KHALID: Somehow that has been completely erased from our conversation right now.CHRISTAKIS: There was no due process. There was no right to confront your accusers. It was so unlawyerly from start to finish, as far as I can tell, ignoring some of these philosophical elements that are so important in our jurisprudence. It's embarrassing. And furthermore, some of the students claim that this party invitation from this guy was physically harmful to them, they claimed, in a kind of histrionic language that I think needs to be called for what it is. They use the term “never again,” which is a phrase we usually use when talking about genocide. We say genocide should never happen again. These are very extreme statements, really unwarranted in this type of a situation. The uncharitable reading, the witch hunt mentality, the over involvement of administrators in business they really shouldn't be involving themselves in, the attempts at forced apology — you know, they drafted an apology note for him to sign and then threatened him with reporting him to the bar if he didn't sign it. There's so many elements of this case that are just shameful.KHALID: The parallels are really striking between how communities and pandemics are scapegoated and how people, right now, for their speech are being ostracized and being blamed. And the implications — what we were talking about earlier about a social death — are very real because these kinds of cancelations and attacks and censorship have implications for people's lives in very real ways.CHRISTAKIS: Just imagine being widely reviled. I mean, it's one thing if you are a murderer and you're widely reviled. Imagine if you're not. There was a case at Dartmouth a few years ago of a chair of a department of psychology who was wrongly accused of being complicit — falsely and wrongly accused of being complicit in sexual harassment done by other professors. And he was rejected by the local community. People would see him in the grocery store and take it upon themselves to denounce him. And this man eventually took his own life. I mean, this is appalling. It is extremely painful to be cast out of a community. And it is not a light sanction to impose, especially unjustly. This is not a civilized way to act, in my view. I think there are better ways to handle the stumbles that people sometimes make around many hot button issues in our society. And I would especially like to see us do better at our best universities.KHALID: Thank you, Nicholas. I feel like that's a good way to converge the two conversations. Thank you so much for joining us today.CHRISTAKIS: Amna, thank you so much for having me. KHALID: Nicholas Christakis is a physician, a professor at Yale, and author of Apollo’s Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live — which is now out in paperback. It’s a book I highlighly recommend to all Banished listeners. My conversation with Christakis, as you heard, called to mind the protocol for casting out those suffering from leprosy in Medieval England. Here is an excerpt from a set of instructions used by the diocese at Salisbury for banishing a “leper” — in the parlance of the time:The priest casts earth on each of his feet saying “Be thou dead to the world, but alive again unto God.” Then the priest must lead him from the church to his house as a dead man, chanting libre me Domine, in such ways that the sick man is covered with a black cloth. Then when he comes into the open fields … he ends by imposing prohibitions on him in the following manner:I forbid you to ever enter churches or go into a market or a mill or in any assemblies of people.I forbid you henceforth to go out without your leper’s dress, that you may be recognised by others; and you must not go outside your house unshod.I forbid you henceforth to eat or drink in any company except that of lepers.I would encourage you to heed the advice of Nicholas Christakis and imagine being reviled by many thousands of people for some perceived transgression. Really sit with that for a while and then ask yourself: Are the judgements of Medieval clergy so different from those of Twitter mobs or university administrators today? Is one social death really less painful than another? Less barbaric? Less, oh, I don’t know, medieval? Please support the work we do at Booksmart Studios by becoming a paying subscriber, and get access to full interviews, bonus segments, and more.Don’t forget to rate and share what you've heard here today on whichever platform you listen on and leave a comment so we know what you think. Our success here at Booksmart depends as much on you as on us.Banished is produced by Matthew Schwartz and Mike Vuolo. And I, as always, am Amna Khalid. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit banished.substack.com/subscribe

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Conversations on HC: Yale's Dr. Nicholas Christakis on Enduring Impact of COVID-19

HealthcareNOW Radio - Insights and Discussion on Healthcare, Healthcare Information Technology and More

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 15, 2021 29:00

Dr. Nicholas Christakis, Director of Yale's Human Nature Lab and expert on the influence of social networks on health and behavior. In his recent book, Apollo's Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live, he examines the patterns of pandemics throughout human history and says the "appalling” US response, driven by denial from the White House and amplified by misinformation on social media channels, led to hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths. He predicts the pandemic will wind down in 2022, and that a period of innovation and improvements to health care delivery will follow, fueled by lessons learned from this crisis. Find all of our network podcasts on your favorite podcast platforms and be sure to subscribe and like us. Learn more at www.healthcarenowradio.com/listen/

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Lies and Misinformation Led to Hundreds of Thousands of US Deaths: Yale's Dr. Nicholas Christakis on Enduring Impact of COVID-19

Conversations on Health Care

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 5, 2021 31:07

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Nicholas Christakis, Director of Yale's Human Nature Lab and expert on the influence of social networks on health and behavior. In his recent book, Apollo's Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live, he examines the patterns of pandemics throughout human history and says the "appalling” US response, driven by denial from the White House and amplified by misinformation on social media channels, led to hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths. He predicts the pandemic will wind down in 2022, and that a period of innovation and improvements to health care delivery will follow, fueled by lessons learned from this crisis.

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Lies and Misinformation Led to Hundreds of Thousands of US Deaths: Yale's Dr. Nicholas Christakis on Enduring Impact of COVID-19

Conversations on Health Care

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 4, 2021 31:08

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Nicholas Christakis, Director of Yale's Human Nature Lab and expert on the influence of social networks on health and behavior. In his recent book, Apollo's Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live” he examines the history of pandemics throughout human history, and says the ‘appalling” US response, driven by denial from the White House and amplified by social media channels led to hundreds... Read More Read More The post Lies and Misinformation Led to Hundreds of Thousands of US Deaths: Yale's Dr. Nicholas Christakis on Enduring Impact of COVID-19 appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.

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78. Dr. Nicholas Christakis, MD, PhD, MPH – Scientist / Physician / Director, Human Nature Lab @ Yale / Author - Being Addicted to Discovery

Behind Greatness by Inspire North

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 27, 2021 52:49

Nicholas joins Behind Greatness from his office at Yale in Connecticut. Nicholas grew up with two parents who had originally came to the US from Greece as young scholars. One of Nicholas' heroes was his mother, who suffered for two decades with a form of fatal cancer. This experience was instrumental in Nicholas' decision to later become a physician. As a physician, he specialized in palliative care. Having been present at countless amount of deaths, he began to take more interest in what he saw made humanity tick: love and the need for human connection. For the last 20 years, Nicholas has been spearheading a unique scientific adventure with his team at The Human Nature Lab at Yale. For too long scientists have pondered and studied the obvious dark side of human nature, but it is his scientific view that the capacity for love, friendship and teaching are much more powerful than our darkest forces. Armed with the increasing knowledge of how human social networks work, he and his growing inter-disciplinary team of scientists have been on a relentless quest to make it even better. Interestingly, we also discuss the reality of “like at first sight” and Japanese interpretation of neighbourhoods as an analogy for contrast against the Western view of interpersonal relationships. Oh, and Brazilian soccer. To DONATE to the Behind Greatness podcast, please visit here: www.inspirenorth.com/podcast. Tax receipt issued to donors with Canadian address. Behind Greatness IG: @behindgreatnesspodcast & @inspire_north New BOOK Apollo's Arrow: https://www.amazon.com/Apollos-Arrow-Profound-Enduring-Coronavirus/dp/0316628204/ BOOK – Blueprint: https://www.amazon.com/Blueprint-Evolutionary-Origins-Good-Society/dp/0316230030 Human Nature Lab: www.humannaturelab.net Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholas-christakis-07a01ba5/ Twitter: @nachristakis Website: https://humannaturelab.net/people/nicholas-christakis

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Nicholas Christakis — How We're Wired for Goodness

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 10, 2021 50:56

Elemental human capacities like friendship and love, teaching and learning, have tremendous, constant, practical force. We don't think of these in terms of what has given our species the grit to endure through hard times and even evolve in the long run. They're lived social intelligence, part of the everyday, and so can be hard to see as serious amidst the high tumult of our age. But these kinds of human qualities are what sociologist Nicholas Christakis studies from his Human Nature Lab at Yale and his life generously lived. He offers a wide lens, a broad perspective, that deepens and refreshes.Nicholas Christakis — is the Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University, where he's also the director of the Human Nature Lab and co-director of the Institute for Network Science. He's the author of Connected: How Your Friends' Friends' Friends Affect Everything You Feel, Think, and Do and Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society. In October 2020, he published Apollo's Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live.Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.This show originally aired on March 5, 2020.

[Unedited] Nicholas Christakis with Krista Tippett

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Play Episode Listen Later Jun 10, 2021 97:47

Elemental human capacities like friendship and love, teaching and learning, have tremendous, constant, practical force. We don't think of these in terms of what has given our species the grit to endure through hard times and even evolve in the long run. They're lived social intelligence, part of the everyday, and so can be hard to see as serious amidst the high tumult of our age. But these kinds of human qualities are what sociologist Nicholas Christakis studies from his Human Nature Lab at Yale and his life generously lived. He offers a wide lens, a broad perspective, that deepens and refreshes.Nicholas Christakis — is the Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University, where he's also the director of the Human Nature Lab and co-director of the Institute for Network Science. He's the author of Connected: How Your Friends' Friends' Friends Affect Everything You Feel, Think, and Do and Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society. In October 2020, he published Apollo's Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live.This interview is edited and produced with music and other features in the On Being episode "Nicholas Christakis — How We're Wired for Goodness." Find the transcript for that show at onbeing.org.This show originally aired on March 5, 2020.

Nicholas Christakis: Pandemics, Human Nature, and Our Evolutionary Biology.

Through Conversations

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 1, 2021 45:00

Today I am joined by Nicholas Christakis. Nicholas A. Christakis, MD, PhD, MPH, is the Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University. His work is in the fields of network science, biosocial science, and behavior genetics. He directs the Human Nature Lab and is the Co-Director of the Yale Institute for Network Science.Website -https://humannaturelab.net/christakis Buy His Newest Book Here: Apollo's ArrowBuy Blueprint Here--- Highlights ---(3:50) Apollos' Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live.(10:15) Are we gaining the upper hand against deadly viruses?(12:30) The role of leaders during a pandemic.(19:35) When will this pandemic truly end?(25:03) The lessons of the pandemic for future crisis.(31:30) The replication crisis in science and its consequences.(38:43) How we truly choose our partners, and the role of free will in our everyday decisions (from Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society.)--- Support Me ---Thanks for tuning in for this edition of Through Conversations Podcast!If you find this episode interesting, don't miss out on new conversations and subscribe to the podcast at any podcast feed you use, and leave me a review.Consider sharing it with someone you think can enjoy this episode.--- Keep The Conversation Going ---Instagram:@thruconvpodcastTwitter: @ThruConvPodcastWebsite: throughconversations.com--- Credits ---Photo Credits: Evan MannOur New, Awesome Music by Joe Lyle. More info can be found at https://joelyledrums.comHosted, Produced by Alex Levy.

Nicholas Christakis and Rob Stein

Kentucky Author Forum

Play Episode Listen Later May 21, 2021 41:47

Physician, sociologist and author Nicholas Christakis speaks with NPR journalist Rob Stein about Dr. Christakis’s bestseller, "Apollo’s Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live." Nicholas Christakis directs the Human Nature Lab at Yale University, where he is also the Co-Director of the Yale Institute for Network Science. Dr. Christakis is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2009, Christakis was named to the Time 100, Time Magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2009 and again in 2010, he was named by Foreign Policy magazine to its list of top global thinkers. Rob Stein is a correspondent and senior editor on NPR's science desk. Stein covers health and medicine, focusing on stories that illustrate the intersection of science, health, politics, social trends, ethics, and federal science policy. Stein's work has been honored by many organizations, including the National Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Association for Cancer Research, and the Association of Health Care Journalists. He was twice part of NPR teams that won Peabody Awards.

Human Nature & COVID with Dr. Nicholas Christakis

CYLINDER RADIO

Play Episode Listen Later May 20, 2021 44:47

Nick Christakis is an author, medical doctor, and sociology professor that runs the Human Nature Lab at Yale. Will & Nick discuss his books Apollo's Arrow & Blueprint and what the global pandemic shows us about humanity. Will & Nick discuss his books Apollo's Arrow & Blueprint and what the global pandemic shows us about humanity. Topics include tribalism, free speech, friendship, and more!

#32 - COVID-19: The Malady of Our Time: A Dialogue with Nicholas Christakis

Converging Dialogues

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 22, 2021 54:01

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Nicholas Christakis about the COVID-19 global pandemic. They discuss how he wrote his latest book, Apollo's Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live, while the pandemic was happening in real time. They discuss the basic facts about the COVID-19 virus along with the lethality and infectious rates. They briefly consider if there is any validity that the virus is the result of a lab leak. They also present an overview of vaccine history and how the current mRNA vaccines work. They stress the importance of everyone getting a vaccine sooner than later and how the current vaccines appear to defend well against the virus variants. They also discuss herd immunity and what the timeline towards a return to normal looks like. Nicholas Christakis is a physician and sociologist who conducts research at his Human Nature Lab at Yale University on social networks. Currently, he is the Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science, Internal Medicine, & Biomedical Engineering at Yale University. He has his MPH and MD from Harvard University along with his PhD in Sociology from the University of Pennsylvania. In 2009, he was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. He is the author of Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives, Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of A Good Society, and Apollo's Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live. You can find his lab here. You can find the app mentioned in this episode here. Twitter: @nachristakis

#330: How This Plague Ends (and What It Tells Us About Human Nature) | Nicholas Christakis

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Play Episode Listen Later Mar 15, 2021 66:50

We all remember that fateful week, almost exactly a year ago, when it all seemed to sink in for so many of us–when Tom Hanks got sick, the NBA suspended games, and the (now former) President addressed the nation in primetime. The big question now is: When and how will this plague end? My guest today has a clear vision for how things are likely to play out from from here. His name is Dr. Nicholas Christakis. He’s a physician, sociologist, and director of the Human Nature Lab at Yale University. He’s written a number of books, but there are two that we will discuss in this episode. His latest is called Apollo's Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live. The other book we’re going to talk about is on a related subject. It’s called Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society. In it, Christakis argues that human beings are fundamentally good. In fact, as you will hear, it is our goodness that the virus exploits. One more order of business: when COVID began affecting our lives, most of us were in immediate crisis, wondering about the answers to very basic questions: How do I get food safely? How do I care for my children and/or do my job under less-than-ideal circumstances? Will my loved ones and I be safe? In response to our changing reality, we’ve used this podcast to help you figure out how to navigate our new world. We’ve spoken with experts about how to cope with this crisis, from dealing with anxiety and grief to parenting in a pandemic to worries about money. As you know, the practice of meditation undergirds all of the practical takeaways you hear us discuss on this podcast–and as you may or may not know, many of our podcast guests have contributed to our companion meditation app. We hope that you'll subscribe to the Ten Percent Happier app to learn how to care for yourself and others during crises (which are, after all, inevitable). To make it easier, we're offering 40% off the price of an annual subscription for our podcast listeners. We don’t do discounts of this size all the time, and of course nothing is permanent—so get this deal before it ends on April 1st by going to to https://www.tenpercent.com/march for 40% off your subscription. Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/nicholas-christakis-330

#330: How This Plague Ends (and What It Tells Us About Human Nature) | Nicholas Christakis

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 15, 2021 63:05

We all remember that fateful week, almost exactly a year ago, when it all seemed to sink in for so many of us–when Tom Hanks got sick, the NBA suspended games, and the (now former) President addressed the nation in primetime. The big question now is: When and how will this plague end? My guest today has a clear vision for how things are likely to play out from from here. His name is Dr. Nicholas Christakis. He's a physician, sociologist, and director of the Human Nature Lab at Yale University. He's written a number of books, but there are two that we will discuss in this episode. His latest is called Apollo's Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live. The other book we're going to talk about is on a related subject. It's called Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society. In it, Christakis argues that human beings are fundamentally good. In fact, as you will hear, it is our goodness that the virus exploits. One more order of business: when COVID began affecting our lives, most of us were in immediate crisis, wondering about the answers to very basic questions: How do I get food safely? How do I care for my children and/or do my job under less-than-ideal circumstances? Will my loved ones and I be safe? In response to our changing reality, we've used this podcast to help you figure out how to navigate our new world. We've spoken with experts about how to cope with this crisis, from dealing with anxiety and grief to parenting in a pandemic to worries about money. As you know, the practice of meditation undergirds all of the practical takeaways you hear us discuss on this podcast–and as you may or may not know, many of our podcast guests have contributed to our companion meditation app. We hope that you'll subscribe to the Ten Percent Happier app to learn how to care for yourself and others during crises (which are, after all, inevitable). To make it easier, we're offering 40% off the price of an annual subscription for our podcast listeners. We don't do discounts of this size all the time, and of course nothing is permanent—so get this deal before it ends on April 1st by going to to https://www.tenpercent.com/march for 40% off your subscription. Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/nicholas-christakis-330

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#329: How to Break Your Anxiety Habit | Judson Brewer

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Play Episode Listen Later Mar 10, 2021 75:26

To mark the first anniversary of the week in March 2020 when Covid fundamentally altered our lives, we’re launching a special two-part series. Today, we’re going to be talking about anxiety, which has been spiking during the pandemic. My guest is Dr. Jud Brewer, a psychiatrist and deep dharma practitioner who argues that anxiety is a habit–one that you can unwind. Then, next Monday, we’ll talk to Nicholas Christakis, who is not only a doctor but also the head of the Human Nature Lab at Yale, about when the pandemic will end, and what this ordeal has revealed about our species. But today it’s anxiety with Jud Brewer. Some of you may know Jud from the Ten Percent Happier app, where he teaches a mindful eating course. He’s also been on this show several times. He is the Director of Research and Innovation at the Mindfulness Center at Brown University. He’s got a number of apps that use mindfulness to treat addiction, including Eat Right Now, Craving to Quit, and Unwinding Anxiety. He also has a brand new book, called Unwinding Anxiety. In this interview, we talk about: how exactly mindfulness can be harnessed to deal with anxiety; what is anxiety anyway, and why does he view it as a habit? And we publicly debate something we have been privately discussing: Is there any level of stress or anxiety that is healthy? One more thing: We are looking for a podcast marketer. If you love this show, marketing, and building relationships, we would love to have you on the team to help us grow Ten Percent Happier and our future shows. Please apply at https://www.tenpercent.com/careers. Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/judson-brewer-329

#329: How to Break Your Anxiety Habit | Judson Brewer

covid-19 director anxiety research innovation quit habit yale brown university craving jud judson brewer ten percent happier nicholas christakis mindfulness center jud brewer unwinding anxiety human nature lab eat right now

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 10, 2021 71:41

To mark the first anniversary of the week in March 2020 when Covid fundamentally altered our lives, we're launching a special two-part series. Today, we're going to be talking about anxiety, which has been spiking during the pandemic. My guest is Dr. Jud Brewer, a psychiatrist and deep dharma practitioner who argues that anxiety is a habit–one that you can unwind. Then, next Monday, we'll talk to Nicholas Christakis, who is not only a doctor but also the head of the Human Nature Lab at Yale, about when the pandemic will end, and what this ordeal has revealed about our species. But today it's anxiety with Jud Brewer. Some of you may know Jud from the Ten Percent Happier app, where he teaches a mindful eating course. He's also been on this show several times. He is the Director of Research and Innovation at the Mindfulness Center at Brown University. He's got a number of apps that use mindfulness to treat addiction, including Eat Right Now, Craving to Quit, and Unwinding Anxiety. He also has a brand new book, called Unwinding Anxiety. In this interview, we talk about: how exactly mindfulness can be harnessed to deal with anxiety; what is anxiety anyway, and why does he view it as a habit? And we publicly debate something we have been privately discussing: Is there any level of stress or anxiety that is healthy? One more thing: We are looking for a podcast marketer. If you love this show, marketing, and building relationships, we would love to have you on the team to help us grow Ten Percent Happier and our future shows. Please apply at https://www.tenpercent.com/careers. Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/judson-brewer-329

EP: 48: THE IMPACT OF CORONAVIRUS: NICHOLAS CHRISTAKIS ON WHAT WENT WRONG, WHAT'S GOING RIGHT, AND OUR POSSIBLE FUTURE

Bounce! Conversations with Larry Weeks

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 6, 2021 55:01

Nicholas Christakis on the impact of Coronavirus, what went wrong, what's going right, and our possible future. More below. Nicholas is a physician and social scientist at Yale University who conducts research in network science, biosocial science, and behavior genetics. Named by Time magazine to their annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world, Nicholas's current work focuses on how human biology and health affect social interactions and social networks. He directs the Human Nature Lab and is the Co-Director of the Yale Institute for Network Science. He is also the author of several books, including Connected: The Amazing Power of Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives, Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society, and his latest, Apollo's Arrow, The Profound and Enduring impact of Coronavirus On the Way We Live - which is the topic of our conversation. Nicholas was a font of information; it was a challenge to fit everything into an hour. He was a conversational tour de force crisscrossing history, medicine, social behavior, and disease math. On the show we covered... How earlier pandemics were similar in how they played out The frequency of pandemics How COVID-19 compares to other pathogens Disease math and mortality curves Updates on lethality Effective contagion rates What went wrong Trust in government and scientific institutions What's going right Development of vaccines Vaccination rates (percentage of the populace) we need to open the economy The swiss cheese model of personal risk mitigation Post pandemic behavior and the future boom There is a lot more here, so give it a listen. For show notes, resources, and more, visit www.larryweeks.com Larry

Ep. 79: Nicholas Christakis

Talking Beats with Daniel Lelchuk

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 2, 2021 62:00

“We have the misfortune that the virus struck us at a particular moment in our history. We have the highest levels of income inequality in a century, we have extreme levels of political polarization, and we have a number of macro trends that have thinned out our intellectual discourse that have made it very difficult for us to have a reasoned conversation about what we should do as a nation to confront this threat.” Physician and sociologist Nicholas Christakis is here. On the docket? Variants, viruses, epidemics, pandemics, and the toll— medical, physical, social, and emotional— that COVID-19 is taking on the country and the world. What could we have done better? What happened in Wuhan, China at the outset of this pandemic? Who were the early unsung heroes who sounded the alarm? Nicholas Christakis, recently out with his new book Apollo’s Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live, is here to help us understand where we are in this pandemic, but also to offer historical context and perspective using previous plagues as his starting point. How much the human way of life has changed over the millennia pales in comparison to how much hasn’t when it comes to our ability to cope with, and our reactions, to a worldwide plague. Support Talking Beats with Daniel Lelchuk on Patreon. You will contribute to continued presentation of substantive interviews with the world's most compelling people. We believe that providing a platform for individual expression, free thought, and a diverse array of views is more important now than ever. For more information on the show, visit talkingbeats.com Nicholas A. Christakis, MD, PhD, MPH, is a sociologist and physician who conducts research in the areas of social networks and biosocial science. He directs the Human Nature Lab. His current research is mainly focused on two topics: (1) the social, mathematical, and biological rules governing how social networks form (“connection”), and (2) the social and biological implications of how they operate to influence thoughts, feelings, and behaviors (“contagion”). His lab uses both observational and experimental methods to study these phenomena, exploiting techniques from sociology, computer science, biosocial science, demography, statistics, behavior genetics, evolutionary biology, epidemiology, and other fields. To the extent that diverse phenomena can spread within networks in intelligible ways, there are important policy implications since such spread can be exploited to improve the health or other desirable properties of groups (such as cooperation or innovation). Hence, current work in the lab involves conducting field experiments: some work involves the use of large-scale, online network experiments; other work involves large-scale randomized controlled trials in the developing world where networks are painstakingly mapped. Finally, some work in the lab examines the biological determinants and consequences of social interactions and related phenomena, with a particular emphasis on the genetic origins and evolutionary implications of social networks. The author of several books and over 150 articles, Christakis was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 2006 and was made a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2010.

The Legacy Of COVID-19

The Colin McEnroe Show

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 19, 2021 49:01

Yale University's Dr. Nicholas Christakis explores what it means to live in a time of pandemic. He looks at historical epidemics and current medical and social research to help us understand the potential long-term impact COVID-19 will have on people and culture. Greek mythology holds that the arrows of plague Apollo shot down upon the Greeks led to great death and suffering. The plague that has brought death and pain over this past year was not brought by an angry god, but an infinitesimal virus that has wreaked global havoc and exposed the best and worst of human behavior. We spend an informative and insightful hour with Nicholas Christakis. GUEST: Nicholas Christakis - A physician and sociologist; he directs the Human Nature Lab at Yale where he is the Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science, and he's the author of Apollo's Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe and Cat Pastor contributed this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Prof. Nicholas Christakis, Professor of Social and Natural Science and Biomedical Engineering at Yale University

Scientific Sense ®

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 14, 2021 42:40

Social networks, Influencers, On the origins of a good society, Artificial Intelligence in hybrid systems, and managing pandemics. Prof. Nicholas Christakis is professor of Social and Natural Science, Internal Medicine and Biomedical Engineering at Yale University. He directs the Human Nature Lab at Yale. His current research is focused on the social, mathematical, and biological rules governing how social networks form (“connection”), and (2) the social and biological implications of how they operate to influence thoughts, feelings, and behaviors (“contagion”). --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/scientificsense/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/scientificsense/support

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Nicholas Christakis: Peer pressure—getting grants and navigating academia

Science et al

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 8, 2021 54:56

Daniel talks with Nicholas Christakis (@NAChristakis), Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale, where he directs the Human Nature Lab and is Co-Director of the Yale Institute for Network Science. Nicholas had just published Blueprint: the Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society when the two spoke, and they discuss various aspects of the book including the phenomenon of “social suites” present in academic communities—how evolutionary pressures like grant funding have steered academic culture, and how to navigate a changing climate.

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Nicholas Christakis: How Covid-19 Will Change the Way We Live

Keen On Democracy

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 17, 2020 39:47

On today's episode, Andrew talks with Nicholas Christakis about his new book, Apollo's Arrow, and his own study on the spread of Covid-19 around the world -- and why we need to look at it broadly. Nicholas A. Christakis is a physician and sociologist who explores the ancient origins and modern implications of human nature. He directs the Human Nature Lab at Yale University, where he is the Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science, in the Departments of Sociology, Medicine, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Statistics and Data Science, and Biomedical Engineering. He is the Co-Director of the Yale Institute for Network Science, the co-author of Connected, and the author of Blueprint. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

#1566 - Nicholas Christakis

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 18, 2020 130:43

Nicholas A. Christakis is the Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University, where he also directs the Human Nature Lab, and serves as Co-Director of the Yale Institute for Network Science. His most recent book is Apollo's Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live. https://www.amazon.com/Apollos-Arrow-Profound-Enduring-Coronavirus/dp/0316628212

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#1566 - Nicholas Christakis

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Play Episode Listen Later Nov 18, 2020 139:57

Nicholas A. Christakis is the Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University, where he also directs the Human Nature Lab, and serves as Co-Director of the Yale Institute for Network Science. His most recent book is Apollo's Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live. https://www.amazon.com/Apollos-Arrow-Profound-Enduring-Coronavirus/dp/0316628212

Digital Salon with Nicholas Christakis: Pandemics and Human Nature

Palladium Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 17, 2020 43:22

Dr. Nicholas Christakis joins the salon to discuss his new book on COVID-19, extreme crisis, and what we can learn about the relationship between pandemics and human nature. Dr. Nicholas Christakis is the Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University. He is also Director of the Human Nature Lab and Co-Director of the Yale Institute for Network Science. His research focuses on topics such as biosocial science, behavior genetics, and network science. He is author of the newly-released Apollo's Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live, in which he explores the impact of the pandemic on our institutions and what lessons it teaches us about our evolved social nature. The first half of the show is available to all our listeners. The full discussion is available to Palladium Members. Members also get to participate in the Palladium Community Salons, which the editorial podcasts are based on, as well as other benefits like the community chat. To become a Palladium Member, subscribe here.

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143. Nicholas Christakis — Apollo’s Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live

Science Salon

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 17, 2020 82:34

Apollo’s Arrow offers a riveting account of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic as it swept through American society in 2020, and of how the recovery will unfold in the coming years. Drawing on momentous (yet dimly remembered) historical epidemics, contemporary analyses, and cutting-edge research from a range of scientific disciplines, bestselling author, physician, sociologist, and public health expert Nicholas A. Christakis explores what it means to live in a time of plague — an experience that is paradoxically uncommon to the vast majority of humans who are alive, yet deeply fundamental to our species. Featuring new, provocative arguments and vivid examples ranging across medicine, history, sociology, epidemiology, data science, and genetics, Apollo’s Arrow envisions what happens when the great force of a deadly germ meets the enduring reality of our evolved social nature. Shermer and Christakis discuss: the replication crisis in social science and medicine, determining causality in science and medicine, how we know smoking causes cancer and HIV causes AIDS, but vaccines do not cause autism and cell phones do not cause cancer, randomized controlled trials and why they can’t be done to answer many medical questions, natural experiments and the comparative method of testing hypotheses (e.g., comparing different countries differing responses to Covid-19), the hindsight bias and the curse of knowledge in judging responses to pandemics after the fact, looking back to January 2020, what should we have done?, comparing Covid-19 to the Black Death, the Spanish Flu, and other pandemics, bacteria vs. viruses, coronaviruses and their effects, and why viruses are so much harder to treat than bacteria, Bill Gates’ TED talk warning in 2015 and why we didn’t heed it, treatments: hydroxychloroquine, remdesivir, Vitamin D. How civilization will change: medical: coronavirus is here to stay — herd immunity naturally and through vaccines, personal and public health: handshakes, hugs, and other human contact; masks, social distancing, hygiene, long run healthier society (e.g., body temperatures have decreased from 98.6 to 97.9), economics and business, travel, conferences, meetings, marriage, dating, sex, and home life, entertainment, vacations, bars, and restaurants, education and schools, politics and society (and a better understanding of freedom and why it is restricted), from pandemic to endemic. Nicholas A. Christakis is a physician and sociologist who explores the ancient origins and modern implications of human nature. He directs the Human Nature Lab at Yale University, where he is the Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science, in the Departments of Sociology, Medicine, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Statistics and Data Science, and Biomedical Engineering. He is the Co-Director of the Yale Institute for Network Science, the co-author of Connected, and the author of Blueprint.

What will be the lasting impact of the Coronavirus on the way we live?

Sunday Extra - Separate stories podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 31, 2020 15:25

Nicholas Christakis, director of the Human Nature Lab at Yale University, explores the possibilities of life after the pandemic in his new book “Apollo’s Arrow”.

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#222 - A Pandemic of Incompetence

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Play Episode Listen Later Oct 27, 2020 99:50

In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Nicholas Christakis about the Covid-19 pandemic. They discuss the breakdown of trust in institutions and experts, the corruption of science by politics, the ineptitude of the Trump administration in handling the pandemic, whether the gravity of Covid-19 has been exaggerated, preparing for future pandemics, whether Covid deaths are being over-reported, bad incentives in the medical system, tracking “excess death” statistics, the prospect that the novel coronavirus will evolve to become more benign, the efficacy of current treatments, safety concerns about a rushed vaccine, the importance of public health communication, when life might return to normal, the economic impact of the pandemic, long term social changes, the future of universities, Nicholas’s personal habits during the pandemic, the importance of rapid testing, and other topics. Nicholas A. Christakis, MD, PhD, MPH, is the Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University, where he directs the Human Nature Lab and is the Co-Director of the Yale Institute for Network Science. He was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2006, the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2010, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2017. He is the author of several books—Connected: The Amazing Power of Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives, Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society, and most recently Apollo’s Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live. Website: www.humannaturelab.net Twitter: @NAChristakis

Pandemics: Early Detection, Networks, Spreaders

a16z

Play Episode Listen Later May 23, 2020 34:06

Pandemics are predictable; what's not predictable is the intensity, or the precise timing of arrival. That's where early detection -- not just rapid warning (as with something like Google Flu Trends back in the day), or even delayed warnings (as with CDC flu trackers and such) -- comes in. Because unfortunately, many disease tracking efforts old and new are "like watching the weather forecast a week after you've experienced that weather", observes a16z general partner Jorge Conde.And this matters for saving lives; for load balancing and allocating resources (ventilators, PPE, supplies); getting back to work; and much more. Even a two-week advantage could have made a huge difference! Which is what sociologist and physician Nicholas Christakis (who directs the Human Nature Lab, part of the Yale Institute for Network Science, and also author of the book Blueprint) learned from the H1N1 pandemic. Specifically, the role of social network "sensors" -- where friends in one's network graph can be like canaries in the proverbial coal mine to help detect pandemics earlier.In fact, the lab recently released an app called Hunala (which uses information crowdsourced among networks) to determine one's likelihood of contracting flu/ influenza-like or other respiratory illnesses through a personalized daily assessment of risk. Kind of like Waze, but for illnesses not car accidents. So in this episode of the a16z Podcast, the two take that analogy far. They also discuss the role of other mobility data and population flows in China for where and when the pandemic spread; the nuances behind "superspreaders"; how bad is the coronavirus, really; and the near future of "bio-surveillance" -- not just from a personal risk perspective, but from a global public-health perspective... Can we get the holy grail here without sacrificing privacy and agency?

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update: The Near Future

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Q&A

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 1, 2020 35:48

How does the current pandemic compare to historical infectious outbreaks and what can we expect in summer and fall of 2020? Nicholas Christakis, MD, PhD, MPH, director of the Human Nature Lab, Co-director of the Institute of Network Science, and Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University, discusses the epidemiology of COVID-19.

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Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update: The Near Future

JAMA Author Interviews: Covering research in medicine, science, & clinical practice. For physicians, researchers, & clinician

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 1, 2020 35:48

How does the current pandemic compare to historical infectious outbreaks and what can we expect in summer and fall of 2020? Nicholas Christakis, MD, PhD, MPH, director of the Human Nature Lab, Co-director of the Institute of Network Science, and Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University, discusses the epidemiology of COVID-19.

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#190 - How Should We Respond to Coronavirus?

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 10, 2020 78:36

In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Nicholas Christakis about the coronavirus pandemic. They discuss the likely effects on society, proactive vs reactive school closures, community transmission, false comparisons between coronavirus and flu, the imperative of social distancing, the timeline of the pandemic, Trump’s political messaging, the widespread distrust of expertise, the importance of “flattening the curve” of the epidemic, the possible failure of our healthcare system, gradations of personal response to this threat, and other topics. Nicholas A. Christakis, MD, PhD, MPH, is the Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University, where he directs the Human Nature Lab and is the Co-Director of the Yale Institute for Network Science. He was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2006, the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2010, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2017. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller, Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society, and known for his research in the areas of social networks, biosocial science, behavior genetics, and public health. Website: www.humannaturelab.net Twitter: @NAChristakis

Nicholas Christakis — How We’re Wired for Goodness

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 5, 2020 51:33

Sociologist Nicholas Christakis says we come to social goodness as naturally as we come to our bloodier inclinations. Research out of his Human Nature Lab at Yale shows that capacities like friendship, love, teaching, and cooperation exert a tremendous and practical force on us — and yet we don’t think of those behaviors as grit for what’s helped humans evolve as a species. Christakis’ science — and the passion with which he shares and lives what he learns — put goodness in refreshing evolutionary perspective.Nicholas Christakis is Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University, where he’s also the director of the Human Nature Lab and co-director of the Institute for Network Science. He’s the author of Connected: How Your Friends’ Friends’ Friends Affect Everything You Feel, Think, and Do. His most recent book is Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society.Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.

[Unedited] Nicholas Christakis with Krista Tippett

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Play Episode Listen Later Mar 5, 2020 97:32

Sociologist Nicholas Christakis says we come to social goodness as naturally as we come to our bloodier inclinations. Research out of his Human Nature Lab at Yale shows that capacities like friendship, love, teaching, and cooperation exert a tremendous and practical force on us — and yet we don’t think of those behaviors as grit for what’s helped humans evolve as a species. Christakis’ science — and the passion with which he shares and lives what he learns — put goodness in refreshing evolutionary perspective.Nicholas Christakis is Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University, where he’s also the director of the Human Nature Lab and co-director of the Institute for Network Science. He’s the author of Connected: How Your Friends’ Friends’ Friends Affect Everything You Feel, Think, and Do. His most recent book is Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society.This interview is edited and produced with music and other features in the On Being episode "Nicholas Christakis — How We’re Wired for Goodness." Find more at onbeing.org.

41: Humanity's Capacity For Teaching with Nicholas Christakis

WISE Words

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 11, 2020 44:58

APPLY FOR THE 2020 WISE AWARDS: https://bit.ly/2t5Vqsw ----------------------------------------------------- Author of Connected and Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of A Good Society, Nicholas Christakis joins us to discuss the human being's innate ability to teach and learn from one another, how societies are inherently good, and the negative externalities of emerging tech. Nicholas is the Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University. His work is in the fields of network science, biosocial science, and behavior genetics. He directs the Human Nature Lab and is the Co-Director of the Yale Institute for Network Science. He was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2006; the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2010; and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2017. He was also a speaker for the WISE 2019 Summit. -------------------------------------------------- Related links Buy Blueprint: https://amzn.to/36rZlhZ Follow Nicholas: https://twitter.com/NAChristakis?s=20 Send your thoughts to: @wise_ceo --------------------------------------------------- Check out more WISE content! Website: www.wise-qatar.org Email: wisewordspod@gmail.com Twitter: twitter.com/WISE_Tweets Instagram: wiseqatar

Nicholas Christakis; evolusjon og det gode samfunnet

Goffeng På Leting

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 18, 2019 86:17

Nicholas Christakis er Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science ved Yale University, hvor han forsker på sosiale nettverk på deres Human Nature Lab. Han er ute med en (ikke spesielt) ny bok: Blueprint; The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society. Vi har med oss Wegard Harsvik, som er en av to forfattere bak boken Homo Economicus. Evolusjonen har fått et ufortjent dårlig rykte. Verden blir bedre og bedre. Det er ikke til tross for evolusjon, men på grunn av den. Det er i hvert fall påstanden i disse to bøkene. Vi snakker med Christakis om dette, og vi nevner ikke Halloween-kostymer med et eneste ord :-) .

#512 Dr. Nicholas Christakis - Our Blueprint For Goodness

Simulation

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 18, 2019 65:40

Dr. Nicholas Christakis is a sociologist and physician known for his research on social networks and on the socioeconomic, biosocial, and evolutionary determinants of behavior, health, and longevity. He is the Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University, where he directs the Human Nature Lab. He is also the Co-Director of the Yale Institute for Network Science. https://sociology.yale.edu/people/nicholas-christakis https://sociology.yale.edu/centers-projects/human-nature-lab Twitter ► https://twitter.com/NAChristakis Blueprint ► http://bit.ly/BlueprintBook1 ******* Simulation interviews the greatest minds alive to inspire you to build the future ► http://simulationseries.com Design Merch, Get Paid, Spread Thought-Provoking Questions ► https://yoobe.me/simulation ******* Subscribe across platforms ► Youtube ► http://bit.ly/SimYoTu iTunes ► http://bit.ly/SimulationiTunes Instagram ► http://bit.ly/SimulationIG Twitter ► http://bit.ly/SimulationTwitter Spotify ► http://bit.ly/SpotifySim ******* Facebook ► http://bit.ly/SimulationFB Soundcloud ► http://bit.ly/SimulationSC LinkedIn ► http://bit.ly/SimulationLinkedIn Patreon ► http://bit.ly/SimulationPatreon Crypto ► http://bit.ly/CryptoSimu PayPal ► https://paypal.me/simulationseries ******* Nuance-driven Telegram chat ► http://bit.ly/SimulationTG Allen's TEDx Talk ► http://bit.ly/AllenTEDx Allen's IG ► http://bit.ly/AllenIG Allen's Twitter ► http://bit.ly/AllenT ******* List of Thought-Provoking Questions ► http://simulationseries.com/the-list Get in Touch ► simulationseries@gmail.com

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#149: How Our Genes Shape Societies Ft. Nicholas Christakis

Politics and Polls

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 8, 2019 40:38

History is rife with examples of people behaving badly, sometimes with truly evil intent. Yet noted scholar Nicholas Christakis argues that humans are actually wired for goodness. His recent book, “Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society,” makes the case for what he calls a “social blueprint for goodness,” which he discusses with Sam Wang and Julian Zelizer in this episode. A physician and sociologist, Christakis directs the Human Nature Lab at Yale University and is the Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science in the Departments of Sociology, Medicine, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Statistics and Data Science, and Biomedical Engineering. Nicholas was named one of Time magazine’s “100 Most Influential People in the World” and one of Foreign Policy magazine’s “Top 100 Global Thinkers.”

59. Nicholas Christakis, Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society

Half Hour of Heterodoxy

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 1, 2019 31:38

Nicholas Christakis is a physician and sociologist at Yale University, and Director of the Human Nature Lab at the Yale Institute for Network Science. His previous books included Connected, about how social networks affect our health and our lives, and Death Foretold, about the sociology of prognosis. We discuss his new book Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society in which he writes about how evolutionary pressures gave human beings a set of social skills and desires that we can capitalize on to build a better society. We also talk about Human Universals by Donald Brown. A related newer book is Our Common Denominator: Human Universals Revisited by Christoph Antweiler. "Let’s Shake Up the Social Sciences,"an essay by Nick, may be of interest to social scientists. Here is a transcript of this episode. Rating the Show If you enjoyed this show, please rate it on iTunes: * Go to the show’s iTunes page and click “View in iTunes”* Click “Ratings and Reviews” which is to the right of “Details”* Next to “Click to Rate” select the stars. See the full list of episodes of Half Hour of Heterodoxy >>

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Bonus Questions: Nicholas Christakis

Play Episode Listen Later May 14, 2019 10:26

Nicholas Christakis is a sociologist and physician known for his research in the areas of social networks and biosocial science. He is the Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University, where he directs the Human Nature Lab. His books include Death Foretold: Prophecy and Prognosis in Medical Care and Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives (coauthored with James H. Fowler). He was on Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2009.

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#156 - The Evolution of Culture

Play Episode Listen Later May 13, 2019 98:06

Sam Harris speaks with Nicholas Christakis about his new book, Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society. Nicholas Christakis is a sociologist and physician known for his research in the areas of social networks and biosocial science. He is the Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University, where he directs the Human Nature Lab. His books include Death Foretold: Prophecy and Prognosis in Medical Care and Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives (coauthored with James H. Fowler). He was on Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2009. Website: humannaturelab.net Twitter: @NAChristakis

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THINKING THURSDAY: Binary or Non-Binary: Zac Gandara: Nicholas Christakis: Joe Rogan

Losing Our Religion

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 18, 2019 12:53

Thinking Thursday’s are about critically thinking, breaking out of boxes, and discussing new ways we could live this life together. Our world is so black and white. Win or lose, but when we leave binary and begin living in the tension, we grow more, love more, and embrace each other more. Can we do this? How do our ideas get better? MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: THE JOE ROGAN EXPERIENCE: #1274. Nicholas Christakis is a sociologist and physician known for his research on social networks and on the socioeconomic, biosocial, and evolutionary determinants of behavior, health, and longevity. He is the Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University, where he directs the Human Nature Lab. He is also the Co-Director of the Yale Institute for Network Science. Thinking Thursday: Thinking Thursday is about learning how to think. We live in a world where people like to tell us what to think, but has anyone taught us how to think? Examining the worlds greatest thinkers is a great place to start. Send us thinkers you'd like us to feature. Call 206-395-5608 and leave us a message. E-Mail us zacg@LosingOurReligion.org or message any of our social pages (links below). Do You Love the Podcast and Want to Support It? Support the podcast by leaving us a Rating & Review on iTunes or your podcast app. Do your Amazon shopping through our links. Donate to the Podcast. Join the CounterCulture Society and become a Producer through our Patreon. Follow, Read Blogs, and Hang Out with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LosingOurReligionPodcast.com. Receive Weekly Communication and Encouragement: Join our email list. This podcast is made possible by the producers of the CounterCulture Society and created and hosted by @ZacGandara.

161: Nicholas Christakis on The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society

The Psychology Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 11, 2019 57:02

"We should be humble in the face of temptations to engineer society in opposition to our instincts. Fortunately, we do not need to exercise any such authority in order to have a good life. The arc of our evolutionary history is long. But it bends toward goodness." -- Nicholas Christakis Today we have Nicholas Christakis on the podcast. Christakis is a physician and sociologist who explores the ancient origins and modern implications of human nature. He directs the Human Nature Lab at Yale University, where he is the Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science in the departments of Sociology, Medicine, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Statistics and Data Science, and Biomedical Engineering. He is also the codirector of the Yale institute for Network Science, the coauthor of Connected, and most recently, author of the book Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society,which on its first week became a NY Times bestseller. In this episode we discuss: Why breadth of knowledge across fields is important The evolutionary forces that have shaped our capacity for living socially Can you love your own group without hating everyone else? How can crowds be a force for good? How the capacity for friendship is connected to the evolution of cooperation Can you love your own group and evenloveother groups as well? Framing group dynamics in terms of collective narcissism The â€œsocial suiteâ€ of human nature The â€œforbidden experimentâ€ Experiments on artificial societies How long will Homo Sapiens last? The importance of elephant friendships How evolution has shaped our societies The importance of recognizing our common humanity

60. Nicholas A. Christakis — Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society

Science Salon

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 2, 2019 95:17

In this exceptionally important conversation Dr. Shermer discusses at length the background to and research of Dr. Nicholas Christakis, a physician and evolutionary sociologist famous for his study of social networks in humans and other animals. Drawing on advances in social science, evolutionary biology, genetics, neuroscience, and network science, Blueprint shows how and why evolution has placed us on a humane path—and how we are united by our common humanity. For too long, scientists have focused on the dark side of our biological heritage: our capacity for aggression, cruelty, prejudice, and self-interest. But natural selection has given us a suite of beneficial social features, including our capacity for love, friendship, cooperation, and learning. Beneath all our inventions—our tools, farms, machines, cities, nations—we carry with us innate proclivities to make a good society. In Blueprint, Nicholas A. Christakis introduces the compelling idea that our genes affect not only our bodies and behaviors, but also the ways in which we make societies, ones that are surprisingly similar worldwide. With many vivid examples—including diverse historical and contemporary cultures, communities formed in the wake of shipwrecks, commune dwellers seeking utopia, online groups thrown together by design or involving artificially intelligent bots, and even the tender and complex social arrangements of elephants and dolphins that so resemble our own—Christakis shows that, despite a human history replete with violence, we cannot escape our social blueprint for goodness. Shermer and Christakis also discuss: his background and how he got into studying social networks and society why evolutionary psychology is an equal opportunity offender (Right: biological creationism; Left: cognitive creationism) the 8-character suite of human nature that goes into building a good society Unintentional Communities like shipwrecks Intentional Communities like communes Artificial Communities like Seasteading love and why it matters for a good society, and not just a good life friends and social networks genes and culture co-evolution boo words like positivism, reductionism, essentialism, determinism and why we need not fear them Hume’s Wall: is-ought naturalistic fallacy engineering new social worlds and governing mars. Nicholas A. Christakis is a physician and sociologist who explores the ancient origins and modern implications of human nature. He directs the Human Nature Lab at Yale University, where he is the Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science, in the Departments of Sociology, Medicine, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Statistics and Data Science, and Biomedical Engineering. He is the Co-Director of the Yale Institute for Network Science and the co-author of Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives. Listen to Science Salon via iTunes, Spotify, Google Play Music, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, and Soundcloud. This Science Salon was recorded on March 27, 2019. You play a vital part in our commitment to promote science and reason. If you enjoy the Science Salon Podcast, please show your support by making a donation, or by becoming a patron.

Nicholas Christakis on the Evolutionary Origins of Ethics, Morality, and a Good Society

Hidden Forces

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 1, 2019 68:18

In Episode 82 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Dr. Nicholas Christakis about the evolutionary origins of ethics, morality, and a good society. A renowned sociologist and physician, Dr. Christakis was named to Time Magazine’s 2009 list of the 100 most influential people in the world. He is known for his research on social networks and on the socioeconomic, biosocial, and evolutionary determinants of behavior, health, and longevity. He directs the Human Nature Lab and is the Co-Director of the Yale Institute for Network Science, as well as the Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University. Listeners to this show will recall our prior episode with social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, where we discussed a 2015 incident at Yale, involving Dr. Christakis, who was accosted and berated by a horde of belligerent students for approximately two hours over the contents of an email sent by his wife, an esteemed childhood educator, in what was one of the earliest examples of a bizarre phenomenon of public shaming and moral outrage that has overtaken college campuses in recent years. Though Demetri and Nicholas do discuss that experience, as well as this larger move to moderate or in some cases, shut down speech entirely, the episode focuses on the professor’s book, which is an exploration of the evolutionary origins of a good society. Their conversation explores the biological foundations of culture-making and the features that define the social landscape that we have evolved to create. Dr. Christakis highlights some of the profound similarities that can be seen, not just cross-culturally, but across time and space. He shares research into what is known about some of the earliest groups of hunter-gatherers, impromptu societies formed by the survivors of shipwrecks, as well as the deliberately constructed communes of 19th-century transcendentalists. Nicholas Christakis also explains the biological origins of romantic love, examines polyamorous cultures like those of the Na people of the Himalayas, and compares human societies with those of chimpanzees, elephants, and whales. This is an episode full of fascinating stories, statistics, and scientific research that weave together insights from the fields of evolutionary psychology, moral philosophy, and genetics. It is a conversation that cuts right to the heart of society’s resurgent interest in human origins, social norms, and moral values. Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod

#1274 - Nicholas Christakis

social yale university co director natural sciences nicholas christakis sterling professor yale institute network science human nature lab

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 28, 2019 141:44

Nicholas Christakis is a sociologist and physician known for his research on social networks and on the socioeconomic, biosocial, and evolutionary determinants of behavior, health, and longevity. He is the Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University, where he directs the Human Nature Lab. He is also the Co-Director of the Yale Institute for Network Science.

#1274 - Nicholas Christakis

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Play Episode Listen Later Mar 28, 2019 150:42

Nicholas Christakis is a sociologist and physician known for his research on social networks and on the socioeconomic, biosocial, and evolutionary determinants of behavior, health, and longevity. He is the Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University, where he directs the Human Nature Lab. He is also the Co-Director of the Yale Institute for Network Science.

#100 - Facing the Crowd