29 episodes
Curious Apes Steven Parton
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- Society & Culture
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4.2 • 5 Ratings
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With skyrocketing rates of depression, increasing rates of poverty, hostile political radicalism, and so much more, it’s obvious that our modern society is failing us. Unfortunately, we’re struggling to navigate these many personal and social challenges because of a culture that promotes binary thinking (us vs them, black vs white, etc) & influences us to undermine our own well-being. Through controversial freethought, philosophical inquiry, and intellectual rigor, we seek to empower individuals to shape a better world by embracing the challenges and nuances of life's most important questions.
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#29 - Jean Twenge + Singularity: How Generations Are Shaped By Technology
** This is a partnership episode originally recorded in collaboration with Singularity **
This week my guest is Jean Twenge, a renowned psychologist, professor, and author who has been one of the world’s leading researchers investigating generational differences and the impacts of technology. This includes her books The Narcissism Epidemic, Generation Me, and my personal favorite iGen: Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy–and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood.
In this episode we explore Jean’s wonderful collection of work through the lens of her newest book, Generations, where we investigate how Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z have been shaped by technology and the implications this holds for the future. This takes us on a tour of discussions around the animosity between generations, mental health, personality traits like narcissism, regulations for social media platforms, and more.
Follow her at twitter.com/jean_twenge
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Host: Steven Parton - LinkedIn / Twitter
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#28 - Jonathan Haidt + Singularity: How Social Media Dissolves Society
** This is a partnership episode originally recorded in collaboration with Singularity **
This week our guest is social psychologist, Jonathan Haidt, who has authored several of my personal favorite books including the Happiness Hypothesis, The Righteous Mind, and the Coddling of the American Mind. We're lucky enough to have Jon join us to discuss his just released Atlantic article entitled, 'Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid,' which explores his upcoming book about social media.
In this episode we discuss the key points of this article, exploring what dynamics shifted in American life as a result of social media and the resulting impacts on our children’s mental health, on our politics, and on the fabric of society itself.
Visit TheCoddling.com or LetGrow.org for more information on raising and mentoring Gen-Z kids to be less anxious and depressed.
And if you wish to learn more about viewpoint diversity in academia, visit Heterodoxacademy.org
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Host: Steven Parton - LinkedIn / Twitter
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#27 - Robert Sapolsky + Singularity: A Future Without Free Will
** This is a partnership episode originally recorded in collaboration with Singularity **
This week our guest is Stanford neuroscientist, Robert Sapolsky. You may know Dr. Sapolsky from his incredible 25-part lecture series on Youtube, his triumphant book, Behave, or his guest appearances on the Joe Rogan and Huberman Lab podcasts.
And if you know him from any of these things, you may also know that Sapolsky isn’t a big fan of free will. In fact, he wrote an entire book about it, Determined. And it is this very book we will explore in this episode, in no small part because understanding how we make choices will drastically alter how we shape our future societies.
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Hosted by Steven Parton - LinkedIn / Twitter
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#26 - Duncan Trussell + Singularity: Navigating Our Human Transformation
** This is a partnership episode originally recorded in collaboration with Singularity **
Today we have one of my favorite comedians, Duncan Trussell, who many of you might recognize from his frequent appearances on the Joe Rogan Podcast, on Drunk History, or his latest Netflix show, The Midnight Gospel. He also has his own podcast, the Duncan Trussell Family Hour, which provides a steady stream of humor and thought-provoking conversation.
On this episode, we take a wide exploration of humanity's relationship with technology and how it's impacting our behavior.
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Host: Steven Parton - LinkedIn / Twitter
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#25 - Bret Weinstein & Heather Heying + Singularity: Our Evolutionary Challenges
** This is a partnership episode originally recorded in collaboration with Singularity **
This week our guests are evolutionary biologists, Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying, who many of you might recognize from their frequent appearances on the Joe Rogan Podcast, or from their very own show, the Darkhorse Podcast, where they explore current affairs through an evolutionary lens.
They’ve recently released a brand new book, A Hunter-Gatherer's Guide to the 21st Century: Evolution and the Challenges of Modern Life, where they combine their decades of expertise into a comprehensive overview of the many lessons evolution can teach us, including concepts like the precautionary principle, Sucker’s Folly, Chesterton's Fence, and more.
This was a wonderfully expansive conversation exploring many of the ways in which technology and capitalism is being driven by our ancient genetic wiring. This includes exploring the impacts of social media, of technological infrastructure, of capitalism and its incentives, the biological influences of complacency due to technological comfort, and far much more than I can even begin to summarize here.
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Host: Steven Parton - LinkedIn / Twitter
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#24 - Anna Lembke + Singularity: Dopamine & Digital Addiction
** This is a partnership episode originally recorded in collaboration with Singularity **
Anna Lembke is a psychiatrist currently working as the Chief of Addiction Medicine at Stanford’s Dual Diagnosis clinic. She was recently interviewed for the Social Dilemma, the amazing Netflix documentary exploring the dangers of social media.
On this episode, we really dive deep into the heart of addiction--how it starts, how it controls our behavior, and how to escape its magnetic pull. But more specifically, we explore the role of social media and smartphones, and how these tools are hijacking our evolutionary drive for novelty, pleasure, exploration, and connection with other human beings.
Her latest book, Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence, just released last week.
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Host: Steven Parton - LinkedIn / Twitter
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Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/curiousapes/message
Customer Reviews
Frustrated to think that 2 cisgender men thought it would be a good idea to make episode #9
Although you had good intentions, there are a plethora of disinformation on trans people and their lives and actual struggles in this podcast. Emotionally invalidating trans people and speaking like you know what they go through in their every day lives is painful to hear. If you really value that community and see them as people, then you will remove your episode. Episode #9 is no different from the old white men who sit around and make decisions about women’s bodies/lgbtq+ bodies and discuss their experiences like they know them. Asking for women, minorities, and all lgbtq+, please do not have these conversations where you’re speaking about us and our experiences without one of us present. Also please do not speak on communities of which you have no part or connection. Please understand where you’re privileged and where this society has allowed straight cisgender white men to but their heads in when y’all have no business being there.