humanflourishing

I had a super compelling conversation with the legendary biologist Robert Sapolsky to challenge the concept of free will and pull together what can be done with these ideas when you feel lazy and lack purpose or direction. We dive into the unsettling reality that everything we perceive may just be a simulation, and how evolution has optimized us for survival, not accuracy. But don't despair! Even without god or free will, we discuss how you can still massively improve your life.  We explore the societal implications of free will being an illusion and why acting as if it exists could be beneficial for your mental health. Don't miss this riveting conversation that will challenge your perspective and empower you to leverage your biology for self-improvement. Renowned biologist Robert Sapolsky, presents a compelling argument that free will is an illusion that is deeply rooted in our biology. His ground-breaking insights, as detailed in his book "Determined," challenge conventional wisdom and reshape our understanding of human behavior, asserting that we are in fact products of our biology, not the autonomous agents of free will you believe yourself to be. If you’re on the edge of your seat wanting more, check out Robert Sapolsky’s latest book, Determined, A Life Without Free Will: https://www.amazon.com/Determined-Science-Life-without-Free/dp/0525560971 Follow Robert Sapolsky: Website: http://www.robertsapolskyrocks.com/  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robert.sapolsky/  Follow Me, Tom Bilyeu:  Website: https://impacttheoryuniversity.com/  Twitter: https://twitter.com/TomBilyeu  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tombilyeu/ SPONSORS: If you purchase an item using these affiliate links, Impact Theory may receive a commission.  Get 5 free AG1 Travel Packs and a FREE 1 year supply of Vitamin D with your first purchase at https://drinkag1.com/impact. Try Audible free for 30 days! Just visit https://audible.com/impacttheory or text impacttheory to 500-500. ButcherBox is offering our listeners their choice of meat—2 lbs of ground beef, 3 lbs of chicken breasts, or 2 lbs of salmon—for free in every order for a whole year! Plus, get $20 off your first order.Sign up today at https://butcherbox.com/impact Right now, download NetSuite’s popular KPI Checklist, designed to give you consistently excellent performance - absolutely free, at https://netsuite.com/theory Start your free online visit today for your personalized ED treatment options at https://Hims.com/IMPACT. Prescriptions require an online consultation with a healthcare provider who will determine if appropriate. Restrictions apply. See website for details and important safety information. Subscription required. Price varies based on product and subscription plan. Right now get 55% off your Babbel subscription - but only for our listeners - at https://Babbel.com/IMPACTTHEORY. ***Are You Ready for EXTRA Impact?*** If you’re ready to find true fulfillment, strengthen your focus, and ignite your true potential, the Impact Theory subscription was created just for you. Want to transform your health, sharpen your mindset, improve your relationship, or conquer the business world? This is your epicenter of greatness.  This is not for the faint of heart. This is for those who dare to learn obsessively, every day, day after day. * New episodes delivered ad-free *****Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3PCvJaz***** Subscribe on all other platforms (Google Podcasts, Spotify, Castro, Downcast, Overcast, Pocket Casts, Podcast Addict, Podcast Republic, Podkicker, and more) : https://impacttheorynetwork.supercast.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tom Bilyeu is a businessman and motivational speaker. In 2010 he co-founded Quest Nutrition, which creates high-protein, low-carb/sugar products. The company was wildly successful, earning more than $82 million in revenue just by 2013. With his wife Lisa, Tom founded Impact Theory, a media company whose aim is to motivate people to unlock their full potential. Check out his content here: https://www.youtube.com/tombilyeu SPONSORED BY Fum - Head to www.tryfum.com/TRIG and use code TRIG to save an additional 10% off your order today. Become a Premium Member to receive exclusive benefits https://triggernometry.supercast.com/ OR Support TRIGGERnometry Here: Bitcoin: bc1qm6vvhduc6s3rvy8u76sllmrfpynfv94qw8p8d5 Music by: Music by: Xentric | info@xentricapc.com | https://www.xentricapc.com/ YouTube:  @xentricapc   Buy Merch Here: https://www.triggerpod.co.uk/shop/ Advertise on TRIGGERnometry: marketing@triggerpod.co.uk Join the Mailing List: https://www.triggerpod.co.uk/sign-up/ Find TRIGGERnometry on Social Media:  https://twitter.com/triggerpod https://www.facebook.com/triggerpod/ https://www.instagram.com/triggerpod/ About TRIGGERnometry:  Stand-up comedians Konstantin Kisin (@konstantinkisin) and Francis Foster (@francisjfoster) make sense of politics, economics, free speech, AI, drug policy and WW3 with the help of presidential advisors, renowned economists, award-winning journalists, controversial writers, leading scientists and notorious comedians. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today it’s a great honor to have Steven Pinker on the podcast. Dr. Pinker is an experimental psychologist who conducts research in visual cognition, psycholinguistics, and social relations. He grew up in Montreal and earned his BA from McGill and his PhD from Harvard. Currently Johnstone Professor of Psychology at Harvard, Pinker has also taught at Stanford and MIT. He has won numerous prizes for his research, his teaching, and his ten books, including The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, The Blank Slate, The Better Angels of Our Nature, The Sense of Style, and most recently, Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress. Pinker is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, a Humanist of the Year, a recipient of nine honorary doctorates, and one of Foreign Policy’s “World’s Top 100 Public Intellectuals” and Time’s “100 Most Influential People in the World Today.” He is Chair of the Usage Panel of the American Heritage Dictionary, and writes frequently for The New York Times, The Guardian, and other publications.

In this episode we discuss the following topics:

• The main thread that runs through all of Pinker’s work
• Does reducing economic inequality increase happiness?
• Does increased autonomy lead to increased happiness?
• How humanism is compatible with spirituality
• Why we should not confuse evolutionary adaptation (in Darwin’s sense) with human worth
• The difference between the ultimate and proximal levels of analysis
• Why Evolutionary Psychology is often so misunderstood
• Why human nature isn’t necessarily conductive to human flourishing
• How the laws of the universe don’t care about you
• Why do intellectuals hate progress so much?
• What are some indicators of human progress?
• Why should people care about human progress over the course of history?
• The myth of the suicide and loneliness “epidemics”
• Why we enjoy and care more about food and children than oxygen
• Rates of sexual assault and mental health on campus
• The increasing divisiveness and irrationality of politics
• How the recent presidential election was a “carnival of irrationality”
• Humanistic ethics
• Can we have a good without a God?
• The possibility of the unification of knowledge across the arts, humanities, and sciences
• Toward a third culture

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Does the daily news feel depressing? Does the world feel grim? It’s not, says Harvard professor Steven Pinker. This is, in fact, the best moment in human history — there’s less war, less violence, less famine, less poverty, than there ever has been. There’s more opportunities for human flourishing, more personal freedom, more democracy, more education, more equality, more technological wonder, than the world has ever seen.  In Pinker’s new book, Enlightenment Now, he mounts both his case that the world that this moment is astonishingly great from a historical perspective, and argues that there’s a reason for that: enlightenment values of science, reason, humanism, and faith in progress. Values that he says are under attack from a right that is retreating into zero-sum nationalism, a left that has lost faith in progress, and a public that doesn't always appreciate just how much progress has been made. In this conversation, we talk about Pinker’s new book, as well as his views on political correctness on campus, how politics drives us to irrationality, and what future generations will look back on us with horror for doing. There are things Pinker says in here that I’m skeptical of, as you’ll hear, but I agree with his big point: if all you’re following is the daily news cycle, with our deep bias towards what’s going wrong right now, it’s easy to miss how much has gone right to get us to this moment.  Books and articles mentioned in this episode: Pinker's piece for the New Repulibic, Science Is Not Your Enemy Leon Wieseltier's reponse to that piece Yuval Noah Harari's, Sapiens Paul Shapiro's Clean Meat Philip Tetlock's Superforecasting Peter Singer's The Expanding Circle Richard Herrnstein's controversial Atlantic piece on IQ  E.O. Wilson's book, Sociobiology German Lopez's reporting on "The Ferguson Effect" Books Recommended: Factfulness by Hans Rosling The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch Whole Earth Discipline by Stewart Brandt Atrocities by Matthew White Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices