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We explore how the challenges of our evolutionary past shaped many of the most fundamental aspects of our behavior in the modern day, traversing a journey from several million years ago to the present day. Along the way we touch heavily on many topics, including, but certainly not limited to, our evolutionary mismatch with the modern environment, why humans innovate the way we do, and different leadership styles that are rooted in evolutionary responses to hierarchy.

This conversation centers around William’s book, the ⁠Social Leap: The New Evolutionary Science of Who We Are, Where We Come From, and What Makes Us Happy⁠.

William von Hippel grew up in Alaska, got his B.A. at Yale and his PhD at the University of Michigan, and then taught for a dozen years at Ohio State University before finding his way to Australia, where he is a professor of psychology at the University of Queensland

William Von Hipple

Psychology Professor, Author