Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology
CSPI Podcast
Why is the West Special? | Joe Henrich & Richard Hanania
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Why is the West Special? | Joe Henrich & Richard Hanania

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Joe Henrich is the Ruth Moore Professor of Biological Anthropology and Professor of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. He is the author of Why Humans Cooperate, The Secret of Our Success, and The WEIRDest People in the World. He joins the podcast to talk about his work. Topics include:

  • The implications of Henrich’s theories for the debate over AI alignment

  • The nature of intelligence

  • Whether genetic differences between populations explain societal outcomes

  • If the Ancient Greeks and Romans were already WEIRD

  • How to understand the group selection debate

  • Why Islamic familial practices may have stunted economic development and growth

  • The political and ideological reaction to his last book

Medieval manuscript of a wedding
Medieval wedding. Source.

Listen in podcast form or watch on YouTube. A transcript of the podcast can be found at the Richard Hanania newsletter.

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