Evolutionary Psychology (the podcast)
Actual evolutionary psychology by actual evolutionary psychologists. Hosted by Dave Pietraszewski and David Pinsof. Every week, Dave and David bring cutting-edge work in the evolutionary behavioral sciences to you.
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Episodes
Episodes
6 days ago
6 days ago
Dave and David move beyond the controversies to explain—and give examples of—evolutionary psychology done well. Topics covered include the science of racial categorization and why we get angry. If you’re looking for examples of novel insights in evolutionary psychology, this episode is for you.
More about Evolutionary Psychology
The Center for Evolutionary Psychology “Primer”
More about David Pinsof:
https://www.everythingisbullshit.blog/
https://www.kremslab.com/people
More about Dave Pietraszewski:
https://cal.psych.ucsb.edu/david-pietraszewski
Tuesday Jun 24, 2025
Tuesday Jun 24, 2025
Helicopter parenting is not a human universal! Guest Sheina Lew-Levy (Durham) explains what drew her to studying childhood among BaYaka foragers in the Congo Basin, and what parenting and childhood is like there and how this helps us understand who we are and what we need growing up. In this episode we also cover why field anthropologists are bad*ss and how, for David, “roughing it” involves staying at a 3-star hotel without room-service.
More about Sheina Lew-Levy:
https://www.durham.ac.uk/staff/sheina-lew-levy/
https://sites.google.com/view/sheinalewlevy/home
More about David Pinsof:
https://www.everythingisbullshit.blog/
https://www.kremslab.com/people
More about Dave Pietraszewski:
https://cal.psych.ucsb.edu/david-pietraszewski
Tuesday Jun 17, 2025
Tuesday Jun 17, 2025
Why is the study of friendship so lonely, and what makes Philadelphia Philly? Guest Jaimie Krems (UCLA) explains why friendship is a blindspot in science, and why she has no advice to give you if you’re feeling lonely (we’re only half-kidding). If you do want friends, don’t want friends, or have friends, you should listen to this episode.
More about Jaimie Krems:
UCLA Social Minds Lab
More about David Pinsof:
https://www.everythingisbullshit.blog/
https://www.kremslab.com/people
More about Dave Pietraszewski:
https://cal.psych.ucsb.edu/david-pietraszewski
Tuesday Jun 10, 2025
Tuesday Jun 10, 2025
Guest Daniel Conroy-Beam (UCSB) explains why human mating has occupied the interest of evolutionary psychologists, what consequences this has had on science, and how things might be done better. If you want to understand the science behind why we prefer certain other people to bonk, don’t listen to this episode (we’re kidding, this is exactly what Dan studies).
More about Daniel Conroy-Beam:
Computational Mate Choice @ UCSB
https://psych.ucsb.edu/people/faculty/daniel-conroy-beam
More about David Pinsof:
https://www.everythingisbullshit.blog/
https://www.kremslab.com/people
More about Dave Pietraszewski:
https://cal.psych.ucsb.edu/david-pietraszewski
Tuesday Jun 03, 2025
Tuesday Jun 03, 2025
Dave and David plunge (or dip a toe) into the controversies surrounding evolutionary psychology and try to make a good-faith effort, while not suffering fools (or internet trolls) lightly.
Listen through to the end of this one.
More about Evolutionary Psychology
The Center for Evolutionary Psychology “Primer”
More about David Pinsof:
https://www.everythingisbullshit.blog/
https://www.kremslab.com/people
More about Dave Pietraszewski:
https://cal.psych.ucsb.edu/david-pietraszewski
Tuesday May 27, 2025
Tuesday May 27, 2025
Co-host Dave Pietraszewski explains how he learned to love evolutionary psychology despite hating it at first, why attending basement cults as a child in upstate New York wasn’t all bad, really, and why he thinks understanding the human mind will require eventually understanding the evolutionary psychology of psychologists.
More about Evolutionary Psychology
The Center for Evolutionary Psychology “Primer”
More about David Pinsof:
https://www.everythingisbullshit.blog/
https://www.kremslab.com/people
More about Dave Pietraszewski:
https://cal.psych.ucsb.edu/david-pietraszewski
Things mentioned this Episode:
Dave & Annie Wertz’s Modularity Paper
Planetary Regression
Dave’s How our intuitive psychology shapes our science paper
Wayne Wu's paper on attention
Music by David Pinsof
Produced by Naomi Monahan-Miller
Tuesday May 20, 2025
Tuesday May 20, 2025
Co-host David Pinsof explains how he discovered evolutionary psychology, why it might not be bulls**t, and why we hate status-seekers (most of the time). Since this is our first episode and it’s been a while, there may be other stuff in this episode, but we don’t remember what it is.
More about Evolutionary Psychology
The Center for Evolutionary Psychology “Primer”
More about David Pinsof:
https://www.everythingisbullshit.blog/
https://www.kremslab.com/people
More about Dave Pietraszewski:
https://cal.psych.ucsb.edu/david-pietraszewski
Things mentioned this Episode:
The Center for Evolutionary Psychology: Publication List
Matrix Scene
https://www.everythingisbullshit.blog/
Status is a Four-Letter Word Paper
David’s Politics as Alliances Paper
David’s Social Paradoxes Paper
Dave & Annie Wertz’s Modularity Paper
Music by David Pinsof
Produced by Naomi Monahan-Miller