#18: Tickling, Negativity Dominance, Household Baboons | Robert Sapolsky Father-Offspring Interviews

[@ImHereForTheFalcons]

We need more Robert Sapolsky in our world. i am reading behave and absolutely love it.

[@OrafuDa]

In typical ADHD manner, I have Behave, but I could not get myself to start reading that huge hunk of a book. (Plus a large pile of other books.) 🤦‍♂️ 🤷‍♂️ 😔 - Eventually, they will diagnose and medicate me in this country, it can only be a matter of years … fingers crossed. 🤞😅🤢

[@ImHereForTheFalcons]

@@OrafuDa i have adhd and started reading it to my plants. mabye they will be smart plants. one is named sapolskys baby

[@bradsillasen1972]

@@OrafuDa There is a KZbin lecture series by Sapolsky courtesy of Standford U. There are like 25 ~1:40 min. lectures. It is certainly among the very most powerfully informative content on YT for anyone interested in what we know about the mind, and what that ultimately implies. As you probably know by know, he has an exceptional gift for presenting his material.

[@OrafuDa]

@@bradsillasen1972 Yep, I have watched his Stanford lectures with much interest. Might want to watch them again though, and take a few tests.

[@stephaniecok3484]

He is in unique and I cannot imagine another like him, I just many more people think like him in terms of humanity, forgiveness or compassion, and understanding nobody has lived the same life and thus it is impossible to judge another person without bias! Also, he always willing to look at his own opinion ands past theories that he was sure were right without egoism and if someone proves his theory off base, he is always willing with no shame to admit and search for the truth rather than recognition; That is rare and I want to be more like him and that was what I wish for everyone. HIs flavor of comedy is unique to those in his field and my personal favourite, but his teachings through research findings that compassion is best. As a former New York attorney, I can say his theory about the corrupt and rather injustice system of justice in our country among all states is skewed being adversarial, and using retribution and punishment rather than rehabilitation and safety of society as basis for prison and our criminal justice system is right on and I applaud him for speaking out. I personally found law school to be amazing, but being a lawyer you no longer live in hypotheticals and see often lawyers do things they know in their gut to be wrong but have ignored so many times and been rewarded for ignoring it, has driven our system to value money almost always above all rather than actual justice. The only law I practiced and loved was when I worked at Legal Aid, and then doing contract law, as I love to argue and contract law is rarely based on emotion and often based on equality, what would have happened had the contract not been breached" . So, now that I have turned this comment about Sapolsky about me as I tend to do, I just want to agree that he is basically, to me like a modern day Jesus, if you believe Jesus was a real man who tried to help spread compassion rather than hate. Whether you believe he was magical or not is your personal beliefs, I think he was a man, just like Sapolsky, and yes I am making this comparison! Maybe, it's the beard? Sorry for any typos, I am late, and if wrote anything in French I do have issues with languages and keeping them separate. But whatever, SAPOLSKY is amazing and I try to think WWSD? Before making opinions, lol.

[@bridgham1]

Dr. Sapolsky is the David Attenborough of the mind!

[@nnnnsaakadamanas218]

Love this.

[@nflorin1919]

It's so much fun to find out that your favorite genius has such great love for his daughter. Thanks for these episodes!!

[@lizlemon9632]

OMG…I am a Dr. Sapolsky groupie!! The episodes get better and better!! Thank you for sharing your brilliant intellect with the world…

[@TheBaconWizard]

Same. Ex-biker, aged 50, uk :P

[@bradsillasen1972]

"Entropy is almost always on the side of evil" @7:40 Aye to that!

[@danitajaye7218]

You are all three so charming!

[@yasminemroweh6653]

This human is amazing

[@Alex-js5lg]

I'm ticked pink about this episode.

[@ImHereForTheFalcons]

I would like to start my comment by thanking you for the incredible work you have done in the field of education. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to your Stanford lectures on transgender neurobiology, as a transgender person myself it helped me understand it was not a mistake. Furthermore, when listening to your talks about the non-existence of free will, it has helped me understand that this is the path that has been set for me. I stumbled across your work casually and fell down a rabbit hole of philosophy which I am now studying, I find the information about the brain being more feminine in trans girls and vice versa fascinating and wondered whether that could sometimes change as the brain is malleable? I would love it if you could send me some more resources in the field of transgender neurobiology. I recently purchased your book 'Behave' online and can not wait for it to arrive. I know it will be a fascinating read. I wondered whether or not it would be possible that instead of the many psych tests trans youth have to do in order to access medication, doing a brain scan and looking at their BSTc and the gender size that fits. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

[@carmenmccauley585]

I do hope he reads it. That is a very interesting idea for testing.

[@misha_stupidyttookmyname]

I think in the video 2 weeks ago he said that while there are differences between male and female brains you can't look at a single brain and tell if it's male or female. So i'm guessing the brain scan idea for trans people wouldn't really work.

[@alexandrabessolitsyna862]

Pretty cool when the father is a legend :)

[@a.bodhichenevey1601]

Delightful lecture! I harbor a positivity bias toward this channel and its principal actors! Thank you so much!

[@ValerioVota]

This is getting fantastic-er with each episode. Thanks for doing this! Keep them coming please!

[@Curiouscreature365]

You guys are amazing, thank you so much for this content!

[@KeithCooper-Albuquerque]

Thanks for another great video, you two! (And the baboon in progress ...)

[@kellyberry4173]

Well done!!! Thank you both!! We love you!! Keep up the great work!!!

[@XYZ56771]

Lovely episode, please keep it up! The info is breathtaking!

[@Pamela-Iridemybike]

You two deliver unique information! The life experiences shared enhance the questions greatly!

[@katambrose5568]

Thank you to Offspring for this amazing series. Your dad is so insightful and funny. He reminds me of Terry Pratchett. I just bought Determined and can’t wait to read it.

[@maxjohn6012]

Wow! So happy to find you have this channel, Dr Sapolsky!

[@AtypicalPaul]

Love these

[@nnnnsaakadamanas218]

Hey there Dr Sapolsky and Sapolsky offspring! Just wanted to say in relation to 18:45, that you haven't forgotten it! It's still in there somewhere and just making its way back to you. It will come to you, always! You have a very healthy brain, you can be sure of that :-). Try to reinforce this constantly and you'll notice that they come back to you quicker each time. Much love for what you are doing for the world - thank you so much. Much love- a recently evolved Ape from Yorkshire.

[@RebeccaResnik-k9w]

Dear Dr. Sapolsky and lovely Offspring, You are one of our family's favorite scientists (Perhaps tied w/Pinker since my husband knows him, tho you're MY personal fave tied w/ Stanislas Dehaene and Danny Khaneman). As a psychologist I take incredible pleasure in hearing you give Freud a good take down as we are 100% on Team Popper. My own offspring (who I'm as delighted by as you seem to be by yours) have grown up with your books and lectures. My boys were completely charmed by the stories in A Primate's Memoir where you had to relieve yourself in the street and when you were kidnapped and had to drink coke for days. They also liked when you pretended to buy weed. My own burning question is what happened to Samwelly and what did he do after you ended your research? Thank you for this podcast it is lovely.

[@Yoseb-d6g]

Holding up a Library😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂🎉🎉😂😂😂😂

[@hanzale]

Oh, what a great episode in this great series! Thanks a lot for sharing!

[@JuggleMan]

I know Robert likes to play soccer. When playing soccer, the offensive or attacking players are attempting to be creative. The are working together. They are building team work and positive play. The defenders on the other hand simply want to disrupt and destroy the play. Another example that destruction is definitely easier.

[@nnnnsaakadamanas218]

I'll give you another along the same vein- as a defending player you have useful options in terms of fouling your counterpart at almost every angle of the game. Not the case as an attacker.

[@markbrown2749]

😅 How fun these videos are!

[@matidom]

Fukin' funny at the end Share!

[@hickory5467]

20:08 😂

[@amusicment4829]

Another great show, thank you!

[@poi4ever121]

Funny!! Especially the good news that the library wasn't held up! At least for today🤣

[@NihilisticRealism]

Im half way in, and you are making some great great points

[@nti2763]

Thank you so much for sharing the Information with us, Dr. Sapolsky! I am happy that now there is your channel on KZbin! ❤ Love all your videos!

[@rustamslobodskoy9065]

Hi Pr.R.Sapolsky I would like to know what do you think about neurosthenia and dissomnia --- how to interact and take care of people who's have this disorders? And if had experienced to look after an elderly person's, would you give some advices. Rustam Slobodskoy.Azerbaijan.Baku. Thanks

[@mahalosailing]

Paper mache project on chix wire

[@kevincfoss]

I recently learned about gelada baboons. Grass eating, cold climate monkeys sound pretty neat! Can you tell me things that google doesn’t know?

[@curiousreporter4292]

Good morning sir Sapolsky Shahid from India

[@BradC44]

Another excellent video. Your answer on good vs evil was so interesting. I can see why media tends to feed us the scary stuff. And we oblige them by eating it up. Aren't those back molars the carnassial teeth?

[@cinarilhan7083]

Thank you so much for this content

[@arcangelogrimani]

8:18 we have a saying in my country: “El que con cojo se junta, al año cojea”

[@cedricburkhart3738]

I would love for him to explain how we can make friends. I'm hoping people who believe very different things can be friends because I believe very different things than most people. I also wander why I'm that sort of person and what made me that way.

[@briseboy]

I made friends with two schizophrenics on a single evening, so there is hope. Ravens, if yet warier, do need some generous positive reinforcement

[@Al-cynic]

Watching a student of yours lecture in the series, Hope you guys aren't still conflating Darwinian Evolution with Mendelian Inheritance. Epigentic structures are set up through Darwinian Evolutionary processes and not through the parents 'intent'? We won't mention Nitric Oxide not being the same as Nitrous Oxide.

[@floxy709]

But? I don't have schizophrenia?? Ive always been able to tickle myself, whether i wanted to or not. What the hell is up with that? Do i have something undiagnosed?

[@itachi_uchiha8783]

Great

[@mc_double]

Algo

[@nancychace8619]

Interesting. Respectfully, not sure I agree about evil. Is it easier to do, perceive and remember evil? I haven't found that to be the case. Many a crossroad have I been where I had the choice between good and evil. Good has always proven to be the most prudent path yielding the best and longest lasting result. Sometimes it is more of a scenic route, to be sure, maybe more difficult, but not always. Most importantly I get to a healthier and more sustainable place. I briefly reviewed entropy, the tendency to go from order to disorder. Disorder does not necessarily imply the damage and destruction we have with evil. Plus, order can evolve out of disorder, like a fractal. Correct me if I'm mistaken here. I don't think so. Granted, my study of fractals is limited. Once, when I was taking this math class we had been graphing functions. I was completely amazed to discover that the beautiful and exquisite wildflowers I was finding on a hike were the exact same shape as the functions I'd been graphing. One might be quick to associate the cold calculations found in math with potential for evil, but in this case it was a manifestation of something beautiful - a wildflower. Robert - life is what you make it. If you let evil take over you'll inevitably suffer the consequences. If you focus on the good, you'll rise above life's challenges. We create "heaven" and "hell" right here on this earth. We remember bad things b/c we've been traumatized. Certainly you must remember the good things in your life as well...like when Offspring arrived! When you were able to get your samples home so you could study them - Tell me things like that don't count as much as the bad things. Unfortunately, the bad things make a heavier mark. They weigh on us and they weigh us down. Who needs it? Is it really worth it? Perhaps people are better at spotting jerks than those who are benevolent b/c there are so many jerks out there - lol. They are a dime a dozen after awhile. Example: when I used to hitchhike - I got pretty good at spotting and avoiding "jerks" out of the spirit of necessity. I've been humbled, of course. But I learned quick not to get in a car with or ride with a jerk. Nothing but trouble. Drunks were a close second. I would fake motion sickness and threaten to vomit all over their car if they didn't let me out. Worked like a charm. I traveled like that for a very long time. I can tell you I can count the real jerks on one hand, out of multiple thousands of miles over several years I met mostly nice people. That's it for now - PS - what is this chicken wire baboon? I have a little pastel I started. I call it my "unfinished bird" - it's found a permenant perch on the wall, and remains unfinished. Story of my life.

[@IGNANT4LIFE]

15:35

[@danielbirnbaum8540]

Can you post the sources that he quotes? I particularly want the one about rumors among social networks, but in general this should be done

[@danielbirnbaum8540]

And the one about evolutionary reasons for caring about breaking social contract via the king and peasant story.

[@Saritabanana]

Alex from Ukraine has won the best question award from me anyway and the award is not a chicken wire baboon. No no no. It’s a roach who’s deliciousness didn’t come easily through genetics. No no no. only by environmental means. Like in People Mag. A chance encounter. A stunning pirouette over the most delicious loaf of bread made by grandma of course. Maybe the pirouette skills were genetic. So there ya go Alex!

[@alex_bakkalinskiy]

Thank you. Those were good examples for evil dominance :-). Perceived evil always excites and moves us, because we need to evade it, evil is not a thing to be ignored. Perceived good is "you can relax, it's all right" or may demand action to keep it or improve, but good is not so sure excitement. So I suppose multiple levels of perception within our brains evolved to react stronger to anything that is to be evaded. So evil always finds a way, yeah 😅

[@kityuen-f1h]

You saw through so clearly, evil is really the sum of things everyone else wanted or, at least fantasized to do, too. But they're too afriad of instant repurcussion, delayed retribution. Or some moral belief coming from their learned procedural memory. So it'll be comprehensible when everyone labels those behaviour bad/evil, and FREE WON'T ourselves from going ahead and doing so.

[@briseboy]

Please see the work on etiology of psychopathy and related antisocial traits. While some specific genetic variations are associated with increased vulnerability to such development, so, too, do deprivations in early postnatal developmental stages. It is falsehood that " everyone else wanted or fantasized to do" as well as retributive prevention.

[@WzRDxDiamond]

I love these videos. But why do you put ads on? Doesn't seem worth it given the couple thousand clicks? Maybe open a patrion? Could be more successful?

[@rachel.s-s]

Not by choice, KZbin does it automatically!

[@WzRDxDiamond]

@@rachel.s-s Got it! Thank you for your and your dads efforts!

[@OmniversalInsect]

It's very unfortunate that focusing on negativity is part of our nature. It leads to people who don't appreciate the modern world which humanity worked so hard to create, people who spread fear that we live in the worst time of human history when that simply is not true.

[@briseboy]

The oddity of symbolic verbal signaling long ago created niche for Dark Tetrad ideation,, dissemination, and behaviors. In tiny populations, more appears to have been detected and suppressed, but the callous psychopath is extraordinarily sophisticated in reading and responding deceptively to, others' signals. The comment to which i respond here, is quite naive and involves a number of errors. -- too common in internet social sites. #1. No unalloyed or organized "humanity" ever existed. Individuals responded, and often, errors have been magnified, through intent orroximate utility. Luckily, life is driven hedonically; without pleasure, however hormonally driven, the terrible worked so hard elves or whatever the fictional slaves may be called, INCLUDING "Ahura Mazda" or other coporate ceo, would not themselves bothered to construct this best of all possible worlds, finally in 1984, or whenever it was "achieved." Absolute BS, such as the comment, DOES offer opportunities for joyous flies, which species i neither claim nor disclaim, membership within.

[@jimwilliams3816]

Ah, but “appreciating the modern world that humans worked so hard to create” is a positive oversimplification in the same way that “we live in the worst time in human history” is a negative one. Nothing is all one thing or the other, and people vary and will experience their environment in different ways. Some people may thrive from the level of stimulation that the modern world provides, for example, while others may find it overwhelming. And context matters too. It has never been easy to be poor, but some it’s probably harder under some societal structures than others. Perspectives will certainly differ due to circumstance - a billionaire is probably more likely to perceive the current era as positive than will someone whose livelihood has been made untenable by modern innovations.

[@michaelrichardjnr9600]

Tournament species is a hardcore name

[@quill444]

The _Chicken Wire Baboon_ is a wonderful idea! It reminds me (and for whatever reason why, who knows?) when they put up Chicken Wire in the movie _The Blues Brothers_ (1980) . . . kzbin.info/www/bejne/iJW1Z4CEZ89-j9U but in their case, it was to prevent thrown beer bottles from striking the band members! "Rawhide" in the key of A! _Move'em on, Head'em up, Cut'em out . . . Rawhide!_ - j q t -

[@quicknumbercrunch8691]

I suppose it is too late to pose a question, but I'll waste a little time because this is important to me and because have learned from Sapolsky's lectures for a decade or more. The question: As overpopulated as the Earth is, along with the biosphere drying from all the concreting-over of nature, all the plastics and other pollutants in the waterways and oceans, eight billion humans with even more farm animals, pets, and cars shooting carbon dioxide into the air. Now there are cities of twenty million people breathing hot polluted air in summer. Should people have children even though six of the eight billion people on Earth live with great deprivations such as the poverty and suppression of votes in places like Russia, Egypt, and China ?

[@reyneva]

[@natashafordyce925]

David Farrier has entered the chat

[@Saritabanana]

Wow! Please give us updates on the baboon art project. Or ask us for help on what to do next because we have ideas. Maybe Dr Sapolsky is ADHD too. It’s ok to ask for help. It’s the only way you’ll finish it! Sadly, when I ask my husband for help with !fun! projects- he huffs and puffs to the point I tell him to go away. so! his plan to gleefully watch me struggle and almost die falling out of a tree trying to save it from invasive vines works every time. This sassy “I’ve already had a shower!” Sh!t is not attractive, oh Mr Man Partner. I was going to say something more relevant to the episode and my mind went blank. Let’s do an art project!

[@dianedevery2662]

I love your chicken wire (almost) baboon. You are an interesting, erudite, gorgeous human being (wih a lovely daughter); genes will out!

[@AdamBechtol]

:)

[@thomasesau2376]

I notice how much larger you are than your daughter. Could you please show us your teeth?

[@richardarmstrong1618]

The baboon chicken wire thing is kooky. That's beneath Dr. Sapolsky's pedigree. It undermines his serious work in the field of neurobiology.

[@Rororororororo0]

Are you joking? Surely the man is allowed a ‘kooky’ hobby in his spare time

[@fruitlessbeast]

Over-judge much? Kind of a churlish comment. If you've been paying attention to the man at all you should know he's not just one thing but incredibly rounded in his experience, approach to life, and his communication with everyone. One thing he thoroughly lacks is the kind of pomposity displayed in your comment. Some genuine self examination on your part wouldn't go amiss. Consider yourself undermined. ok. Mini-rant concluded.

[@MilesCushion]

V. E. R. Y. F. U. N. S. H. O. W 🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷