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

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

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