Posted 02 Oct 2015 / 0
WNYC The Leonard Lopate Show “Options Grow For Starting a Non-Traditional Family” As I continue to work on my popular science book with the working title Breeders, Propagators, & Creators, I have been thinking a lot about what it means to be a parent. Biological parenting (what I call “breeding”… why to be explained) is a Read More
A Major Post, Breeders, Propagators, & Creators, Cultural Evolution, Kin Selection, Parenting, Radio & Podcasts, Reproductive Fitness, Social Diversity, Sociology
Posted 02 Oct 2015 / 0
WNYC The Brian Lehrer Show “Where Women Go from Here” Several years ago, Anne-Marie Slaughter wrote the seminal article on the conflict between work and parenting. Published in The Atlantic and entitled “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All“, Slaughter’s article used her own professional experience to explore the challenge faced by many women in the developed world: the Read More
A Major Post, Belief, Breeders, Propagators, & Creators, Cultural Evolution, Gene-Culture Coevolution, Parenting, Public Policy, Radio & Podcasts, Sex and Reproduction, Sociology
Posted 20 Sep 2015 / 0
The Guardian “Why the UK sperm bank is running short” Further evidence that while we are — on the one hand — one of the weirdest species in the world, at our core we remain not unlike the rest of our animal brethren. Think about it for a second: if humans were both rational and Read More
A Minor Post, Articles, Behavior, Belief, Breeders, Propagators, & Creators, Cultural Evolution, Evolutionary Psychology, Gene-Culture Coevolution, Human Uniqueness, Psychology, Reproductive Fitness, Sex and Reproduction
Posted 08 Sep 2015 / 0
National Geographic News “Sperm Whales’ Language Reveals Hints of Culture” It is interesting how the number of animal species displaying culture keeps getting larger. There’s a lot of evolutionary convergence involved here, as the phylogenetic tree of vertebrates is still only sprinkled with pockets of culture. But those pockets of culture are deep, and therefore Read More
A Minor Post, Breeders, Propagators, & Creators, Cetaceans, Communication, Convergence, Cultural Evolution, Exaptation, Human Uniqueness, Web
Posted 26 Aug 2015 / 0
National Public Radio “For Prospective Moms, Biology and Culture Clash” Seven years later, I need to check and see how these American demographic trends have developed. Are even more women having babies later in life? Interesting thing here is how big a tension there is between our cultural choices and our biological realities. If fertility peaks Read More
A Minor Post, Breeders, Propagators, & Creators, Cultural Evolution, Gene-Culture Coevolution, Memetic Fitness, Radio & Podcasts, Reproductive Fitness, Senescence, Sex and Reproduction, Social Norms
Posted 26 Aug 2015 / 0
I used to have a Twitter account, but a few years back I decided to get rid of it… or — put more precisely — to neglect it. My reasons for avoiding Twitter and most definitely Facebook are pretty simple: I love the free internet. I hate that the approach of companies like Twitter and Read More
A Major Post, Breeders, Propagators, & Creators, Public Outreach, Publication
Posted 24 Aug 2015 / 0
Today is the first official day of my first-ever sabbatical. Although I have been trying to get some over-the-summer momentum going into this one-semester break from teaching and service duties, now is the time that I really need to get (and stay) focused on my sabbatical project. I want to write a popular science book Read More
A Minor Post, Breeders, Propagators, & Creators, Public Outreach, Publication
Posted 22 Jun 2015 / 0
The Chronicle of Higher Education “You Want to Write for a Popular Audience? Really?” Sometimes I feel bummed out that I do not occupy a seat in a ‘normal’ academic department. But when I read about or encounter the attitudes that pervade these ‘normal’ places, I am really happy to have the freedom associated with Read More
A Minor Post, Articles, Breeders, Propagators, & Creators, Higher Education, The WmD Project
Posted 04 Jun 2015 / 0
It is early June and I am just beginning to settle in to what will be my longest period of unstructured work time since I left graduate school. In the Spring of 2014 I received tenure and in the Fall of 2014 I applied for my first sabbatical. In the coming semester — Fall 2015 Read More
A Major Post, Breeders, Propagators, & Creators, Cultural Evolution, Higher Education, Pratt Institute, Teaching, The WmD Project
Posted 08 May 2012 / 0
The Guardian “Mark Pagel: culture is central to human success” I thought it was interesting how Pagel took on the “culture as parasite” idea pretty directly: we are far too dependent on culture for it to be parasitizing us, although culture probably does lead to the sacrifice of the ‘good of the individual’ for the ‘good Read More
A Minor Post, Breeders, Propagators, & Creators, Cooperation, Cultural Evolution
