How WEIRD Societies Shaped the World w/Evolutionary Biologist Joseph Henrich

I had a conversation with Joesph Henrich, a distinguished anthropologist and evolutionary biologist at Harvard. Renowned for his interdisciplinary research on cultural evolution and the origins of WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) societies, Joseph is a deep dude.

We had a wide-ranging discussion on topics such as cultural learning, social contagion, and the WEIRD phenomenon. We explored the interplay between truth and religion, the economic and political impacts of kinship structures, and cognitive development in non-schooled environments. Additionally, we talked about David Deutsch’s work on falsifiability and its role in building systems of knowledge, divination, witchcraft, rationality, and the question of who might be considered the "weirdest" people in the world.

Joseph's website: https://henrich.fas.harvard.edu/
Joseph on X: https://x.com/JoHenrich

Chapters
0:00 Intro
2:50 Social contagions
5:44 "WEIRD" acronym
12:20 Kinship structures
22:04 Religious and cultural community health outcomes
27:39 Cultural evolution and subjective epistemology
39:07 Diversity in social interactions enhances innovation
45:30 Working in multiple fields
47:20 Current politics and critical thinking
54:30 Public distrust in institutions
58:45 Witchcraft and divination

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