Discovering Darwin
55 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 1 month ago - ★★★★★ - 10 ratingsA website dedicated to the podcast Discovering Darwin.
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Episodes
Season 5 Episode 6: Gender Bender
March 15, 2024 20:17In this final episode of Season 5, Sarah, Mark, and James discuss the last chapters from Lucy Cooke's book Bitch: On the female of the species. Sarah described the sex lives of barnacles and encouraged us to watch the Green Porno episode that illustrates the impressive size of a barnacle penis. Image from https://bodegahead.blogspot.com/2017/06/a-long-reach.html The conversation considered why Charles Darwin did not include barnacles in his Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Se...
Season 5 Episode 5: Hot Orcas and Superfluous Males
November 05, 2023 21:54In this episode Sarah, Mark and James continue their discussion of the book Bitch by Lucy Cooke where they explore menopause in humans and non-human animals and discuss those animals that have forwent males when they reproduce. The first conversation explored how orcas are an unusual mammal in that the males do not disperse from their mother's pod, but instead they retain a close relationship with their mothers. The ultimate momma's boy. Sarah discussed the various hypothesis for why wome...
Season 5 Episode 4: Ken the Naked Mole Rat
September 24, 2023 21:42In this episode Sarah, Mark, and James continue their coverage Bitch by Lucy Cooke. We discussed systems where female aggression was common and the subjugation of other females and males was done by "alpha" females. We were surprised to learn how murderous and violent naked mole rats and sweet little meercats could be. Photo from Akron Zoo Naked mole rats are eusocial mammals where a dominant female is the sole reproducer in the colony and others help rear the young. Here is a photo o...
Seson 5 Episode 3 - Variable Vaginas and Punchable Penises
July 25, 2023 01:27We continue our discussion of Lucy Cooke's book entitled Bitch: On the female of the species focusing on chapters 5 & 6 which covered variation in female genitalia, the evolution of the human penis, and maternal care. We spent some time talking about the baculum, a bone that is found in the penis of many mammals, but not in humans. Sarah described how intricately shaped the baculum of squirrels can be, as evident in the image below. From Bacula of North American Mammals by W. H. Burt, 19...
Season 5 Episode 2: Your O face
June 22, 2023 16:34In this episode we continue our conversation based upon Chapters 3 & 4 of Lucy Cooke's book Bitch: on the female of the species. We started off the conversation doing a deep dive on the famous Bateman experiment that purported to reveal 3 principles concerning variation in male and female reproductive success and how those differences drive sexual selection. After reviewing the experiments and what they were reported to show, Sarah then discussed some more recent papers that closely re-an...
Season 5 Episode 1-Incubated in misogyny
May 04, 2023 13:22We have returned from a long hiatus to discuss a wonderful book entitled Bitch: On the Female of the Species by Lucy Cooke. Sarah asked James and Mark to read this book that gives an updated look at Darwin's original model of sexual selection, a topic we covered extensively in Season 4. In this episode we cover the introduction and first 2 chapters of the book. In our conversation about the book, we discuss how Darwin's stereotypical, and simplistic. views of male and female roles in mating...
Season 4 Episode 10: Darwin is WRONG! Click here to learn more
November 27, 2022 15:54In this final episode of Season 4, Mark, Sarah, and James finally critiqued Darwin's analysis of secondary sexual characteristics in humans and his clumsy attempt to apply his model of sexual selection in explaining the diversity of forms in what Darwin called "races" and we call geographically distinct phenotypes (GDPs). We found that Chapters 19 & 20 of Descent of Man distilled and concentrated Darwin's most ethnocentric and sexist observations and pseudo-scientific explanations concernin...
Season 4 Episode 9: Love Antics and Conspicuous Ornamentations
October 10, 2022 18:40After a long COVID induced hiatus, we have returned to tackle the meaty middle of Charles Darwin's magnum opus The Descent of Man. It was actually most of Volume 2, three hundred and nineteen pages of anecdotes, observations, wild conjecture, and chuck'splaining his crazy system of inheritance. The dense plodding Victorian prose was diluted, a bit, by the amazing woodcut prints of beetles, fish, lizards, exotic birds whose feathers were stolen by Victorian women, and ornamented antelopes ...
Season 4 Episode 8: Sexy time and selection
July 06, 2022 21:02In this episode we dive into Chapter 8 from Darwin's Descent of Man. James incorrectly attributed this chapter to the end of Volume I of the two volume set but it is actually the first chapter of Volume II, which makes more sense given its dramatic shift in focus and topic. Sarah tried to get us to differentiate between adaptive traits that come about from sexual selection with those that come about from natural selection. Photo from https://rollingharbour.com/2017/02/14/bluehead-wrass...
Bonus Episode - Are Angels moral?
June 13, 2022 14:09image from:https://www.artsales.com/ARTistory/angelic_journey/index.html In this bonus episode we return to our conversation with our favorite ex-monk philosopher friend Dr. Jack Furlong where he discusses whether angels, as described in scripture, could actually be moral. We then briefly discuss the Yale baby lab where clever behavioral experiments are done on human babies to see how early they exhibit cognitive decision making. We hope to be back in the studio to record a complete ep...
Season 4 Episode 7: We are Many, We are One
May 10, 2022 01:06In this episode we finally confront Chapter 7 of Descent of Man, entitled On the Races of Man. In this chapter Darwin discusses the races of humans and outlines the scientific arguments of the time that questioned if humans are more than one species. These arguments, of course, were based upon racist European views of the people from the lands their countries had colonized. Race is a social construct, not a biological identity, and we discussed why that is the case in this episode. h...
Season 4 Episode 6: Your Inner Sea Squirt
April 06, 2022 00:16Mark, Sarah, and James discuss Chapter 6 of Charles Darwin's Descent of Man. In this chapter Darwin unequivocally declares humans evolved from ancestral primate stock and that event occurred in Africa. We discussed how prescient Darwin was in interpreting the biology and scant fossil record in determining human relationship in the evolutionary tree. (Image credit: Nick Hobgood/Wikimedia Commons) We discussed at length this problematic paragraph: The great break in the organic chain betwee...
Season 4 Episode 5: I am Jack's morality
February 19, 2022 17:45In this episode we enlist a different Furlong, Dr. Jack Furlong, to help us untangle morality and determine if there really is such a thing as big M morality, as Sarah calls it. <spoiler alert> Jack, after a very in depth explanation, says "No". Jack invokes the classic Trolley thought experiment to illustrate why various historical positions on morality stumble when confronted with the scenario and asks which big M morality system should be employed when resolving the trolley dilemma. J...
Season 4 Episode 4: Big M morality &c
December 07, 2021 22:10In Chapter 4 Darwin begins to sketch out his views on how complicated human behaviors, like sacrifice, empathy for others, and group defense would evolve when selection would favor us to act otherwise. Chapter 4 is entitled Comparison of the Mental Powers of Man and the Lower Animals - continued, but the short title at the top of the page is Moral Sense, which suggests what Darwin really thinks he is discussing. although he never clearly defines morality Mark shares with us a couple of d...
Season 4 Episode 3: Civilised as much as a dog
October 18, 2021 02:28In this episode we discuss Chapter 3: The Mind from Darwin's Descent of Man. We are joined by a very special guest - Dr. Ellen Furlong from Illinois Wesleyan University who studies cognition in dogs. In this chapter Darwin spends some time going through a litany of traits that he associates with intelligence. His goal is to get the reader to recognize that humans, although very intelligent, are only different in degree and not in kind when compared to other animals. The list of traits Da...
Season 4 Episode 2: Absolutely useless faculty
September 14, 2021 15:25In this episode we discuss Chapter 1 of Descent of Man and are joined by a special guest - Evolutionary developmental (EvoDevo) biologist Dr. Belinda Sly. Darwin spends the chapter documenting how human bodies show the scars from evolution past. Darwin takes two approaches in convincing the reader that humans are modified from "lower forms". In one approach he discusses how humans share ailments, diseases, and parasites with other animals. The argument of homology. The second argument Dar...
Season 1 Episode 14: Chapter XV - Recapitulation and Conclusion
August 17, 2021 01:30In this episode we discussed Chapter XV - Recapitulation & Conclusion from Darwin's Origin of Species. It is our final podcast of this season and we chose not to recapitulate as much as discuss how Darwin's book was received at the time and how Darwin handled the release of his book. Although only 1250 copies of Origin of Species was published in the first edition, Darwin purchased 80 or so copies himself and Mudie's Circulating Library purchased 500 copies for use in their subscription ser...
Season 4 - Episode 1: The most interesting problem for the naturalist
August 11, 2021 19:46https://commons.wikimedia.org/ This is the first episode of Season 4 where we begin our exploration of Charles Darwin's Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex which was published in 1871. In this episode we explore how Darwin finally got around to discussing the evolution of humans, a topic he avoided in Origin of Species even though he told Alfred Wallace it was "...the highest & most interesting problem for the naturalist." In creating the book he relied on a wide array of sc...
Season 3 Episode 11: a loathsome, distended, tumefied, bloated, dropsical mass
May 21, 2021 20:30By Photographer unidentified - MS Am 1092 (1185), Houghton Library, Harvard University, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34246605 In this final episode of Season 3 we actually do not talk about Darwin, but instead focus our attention to William James, a medical doctor, early psychologist, and philosopher who wrote about emotions about 20 years after Charles Darwin published The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. Mark suggested we read James' vie...
Season 2 Episode 5- Big Llama
May 10, 2021 11:08In this episode we discuss the interesting extinct and extant mammals that Darwin collected in South America during his voyage on the Beagle. James makes an argument that it was the mammals that Darwin collected that stimulated his idea that species evolve. Sarah talks about why there are so many large mammals in Africa and not in South America, which Darwin thought was odd since vegetation growth is much more dense and thick in the rain forest of South America compared to the plains of Afri...
Season 3 Episode 10: Shame, Blushing, and Guilt
April 04, 2021 18:56modified image from Bridgeman Art Library Mark, Sarah, and James discuss the last technical chapter of Charles Darwin's The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals, Chapter XIII: Self Attention, Shame, Shyness, Modesty: Blushing. Mark Jackson's graduate research was on shame and guilt and he explained to us the difference between shame, guilt, embarrassment, and humiliation (a concept Darwin did not address) and why they are actually distinctly different emotions. In our discussion M...
Season 3 Episode 9: Fear, Anxiety, and Terror
March 11, 2021 18:31We discuss Chapter XII of the text The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. In this chapter Darwin explores the expressions we associate with surprise, fear, terror, horror, and anxiety. The stereotypical expression of fear, as represented by the image above from the 1950's horror film franchises, has both a physiological function and a signal function. We discuss the various arguments Darwin made about the reason your eyes are opened wide, your mouth held agape, your hands he...
Season 3 Episode 8: Disdain, Disgust, and Mark's secret time in Norway
February 01, 2021 15:49Billy Idol and his trademark sneer In this episode of Mark, Sarah, and James discuss Chapter XI from Darwin's text The Expression and Emotions in Man and Animals, 3rd edition. Sarah noted that this chapter was a potpourri of emotions, including: Scorn, Disdain, Contempt, Disgust, Jealousy, Envy, Avarice, Revenge, Suspicion, Deceit, Slyness, Guilt, Vanity, Conceit, Ambition, Pride, Humility, Helplessness, Impotence, Affirmation, *heavy sigh*...and Disapproval. Darwin's use of images in t...
Season 3 Episode 7:Sulkiness & Hatred
December 29, 2020 17:56Detail from Truth Coming Out of Her Well to Shame Mankind Jean Leon Gerome 1896 In this episode we discuss both Chapters IX & X from Darwin's The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. Chapter IX dealt with the interesting phenomenon of the frown - a telltale expression we exhibit when we are disappointed, sad, or confused. Darwin notes: "From these considerations, we may conclude that frowning is not the expression of simple reflection, however profound, or of attention, howev...
Season 3 Episode 6: Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy
October 28, 2020 14:54In this episode of Discovering Darwin we tackle Chapter VIII - Joy, High Spirits, Love, Tender Feelings, Devotion in Darwin's book The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. In this chapter Charles explores how we express ourselves when we are happy, in particular he discussed the two expressions associated with a happy mental state - smiling and laughing. Mark, Sarah and I explore what a "real" smile looks like, why we fake it sometimes, and why women more often fake it. Clearl...
Season 3 Episode 5 - Sweet Spot of Grief
September 23, 2020 18:40Persons suffering from excessive grief often seek relief by violent and almost frantic movements, as described in a former chapter; but when their suffering is somewhat mitigated, yet prolonged, they no longer wish for action, but remain motionless and passive, or may occasionally rock themselves to and fro. The circulation becomes languid; the face pale; the muscles flaccid; the eyelids droop; the head hangs on the contracted chest; the lips, cheeks, and lower jaw all sink downwards fro...
Season 3 Episode 4: Sarah Bares All
August 29, 2020 16:20"The fact of tears not being shed at a very early age from pain or any mental emotion is remarkable, as, later in life, no expression is more general or more strongly marked than weeping." pg 154 EEMA Charles Darwin. In this episode we explore Chapter VI: Suffering and Weeping where Darwin describes in excruciating detail the muscles involved in the crying face of infants and how tears are formed in the lacrimal glands. This chapter is the first one in the book to use photographic im...
Season 3 Episode 3: Erected Neck-hackles
July 28, 2020 18:06In this episode we discuss Chapters 4 & 5 of Darwin's The Expression of the Emotions of Man and Animals, 3rd Definitive edition. Chapter 4 documented how animals use specific sounds and body postures to communicate their current emotional state. We explored how familiar we are to the sounds of domestic dogs and cats and the information they encode in their vocalizations. James was intrigued with the idea that early human language may have been more musical than expected. Mark spoke about th...
Season 3 Episode 2: Everyone has a Tell
June 23, 2020 17:14In this episode we discuss the first three chapters of Darwin's On the Expression and Emotion of Man and Animals, and James fails to convince the team to refer to the book as EEMA for short. The first chapters of EEMA lays out Darwin's 3 principle foundations and each of us focused on one of the principles. The three principles are: I. The principle of serviceable associated Habits.—or "I wear my emotions on my sleeve" II. The principle of Antithesis.— or "Turn that frown upside down" ...
Season 3 Episode 1 - Darwin's Hobby-Horse
May 18, 2020 20:52This is the first episode of the long awaited Season 3 of Discovering Darwin. In this season we will be exploring Charles Darwin's 14th original published book entitled The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. We are reading the 3rd Edition of the book that has been edited by Paul Ekman. Dr. Mark Jackson, Psychology professor at Transylvania University is joining us this season as we tackle this unusual book by Charles Darwin. One of things that makes this book so unusual is that...
Season 2 Episode 10 - Home Again, Home Again, Jiggidy Jig
February 06, 2020 19:49In this, the final episode of Season 2, Darwin does some island hoping, takes a surprising return trip to Brazil, and on October 2, 1836, finishes his 4 year 9 month journey. In this episode of the podcast we are joined by Dr. Belinda Sly, a evolutionary developmental biologist and colleague of ours, to discuss Darwin, his thoughts about the voyage, and if it had an effect on Darwin's mental health. The final two chapters of the Voyage of the Beagle are unusual in that Darwin's writing sty...
Season 2 Episode 9-without sorrow or regret
August 12, 2019 17:36"At daylight, Tahiti, an island which must for ever remain classical to the voyager in the South Sea, was in view. At a distance the appearance was not attractive. The luxuriant vegetation of the lower part could not yet be seen, and as the clouds rolled past, the wildest and most precipitous peaks showed themselves towards the centre of the island. As soon as we anchored in Matavai Bay, we were surrounded by canoes. This was our Sunday, but the Monday of Tahiti: if the case had been revers...
Calling for Suggestions
February 18, 2018 21:18Dear Listeners- We will be recording the final episode of Season 2 Discovering Darwin in the upcoming weeks and we are asking for suggestions for Season 3. We are open to doing a close reading on a Darwin book, if you are unfamiliar with all of the works of Charles Darwin check out Darwin Online to see the options available. Or we can focus Season 3 on a topic or text in the style of Season 2 - Darwin the Adventurer - which used the Voyage of the Beagle as a framework for our episodes. Plea...
Episode 4 - Chapter III Struggle for Existence
February 16, 2018 10:55This podcast episode is dedicated to Chapter III from Charles Darwin's Origin of Species. The title of the chapter is Struggle for Existence. We discussed Thomas Malthus and how his ideas of population growth influenced Charles Darwin. In particular, Malthus noted that human population growth is geometric which is clearly represented by the graph below that shows global human population growth in the last 300+ years. Human population on earth is currently over 7 billion with the estimates ...
Season 2 Episode 8 - Galapagos
February 11, 2018 17:11"In the morning (17th) we landed on Chatham Island, which, like the others, rises with a tame and rounded outline, broken here and there by scattered hillocks, the remains of former craters. Nothing could be less inviting than the first appearance. A broken field of black basaltic lava, thrown into the most rugged waves, and crossed by great fissures, is everywhere covered by stunted, sunburnt brushwood, which shows little signs of life. The dry and parched surface, being heated by the noon...
Bonus Episode: Drawn a Bill
December 27, 2017 19:53To celebrate the 186th Anniversary of Charles Darwin setting sail on the HMS Beagle we post a Bonus podcast discussion with Dr. Geoffrey Williams, an economics professor, on the expenses and wealth of Charles Darwin. Hope you enjoy the conversation! image from Darwin Online
Season 2 Episode 7: Potatoless Breakfast
December 20, 2017 19:31"I climbed up on foot to very near the crest; from the Puna I experienced, I cannot suppose the elevation is less than 8000 to 10000 ft; There was a good deal of snow, which however only remains here in the winter months. The winds in these districts obey very regular laws; every day a fresh breeze blows up the valley & at night, an hour or two after sunset, the air from the cold regions above descends as through a funnel. — This night it blew a gale of wind, & the temperature must have be...
Season 2 Episode 6: Boat Memory
September 04, 2017 20:19"Whilst going on shore, we pulled alongside a canoe with 6 Fuegians. I never saw more miserable creatures; stunted in their growth, their hideous faces bedaubed with white paint & quite naked.— One full aged woman absolutely so, the rain & spray were dripping from her body; their red skins filthy & greasy, their hair entangled, their voices discordant, their gesticulation violent & without any dignity. Viewing such men, one can hardly make oneself believe that they are fellow creatures pla...
S2 E4 - My Gacho Bromance
June 06, 2017 20:05In this episode of we are joined by the historian Dr. Gregg Bocketti (Transylvania University) in a discussion on the cultural and political conditions of South America when Charles Darwin set shore in Brazil and surrounding territories in the 1830's. In 1831, a year before Darwin was to arrive in Rio de Janerio, the emperor Don Pedro I decided to return to Portugal to help his daughter reclaim the throne of Portugal and left behind his 5 year old son Don Pedro II to be regent of the King...
Season 2 Episode 2 - and he dies.......at the end.
April 30, 2017 21:45In this episode we discuss the extensive library on the HMS Beagle that was created by Charles Darwin and Robert Fitzroy. Over 400 books were in the ship's library and the catalog had a heavy emphasis on travel accounts (travelogues), natural history and geology. We discussed Humboldt and his influence on Darwin and Jeremy told the story about the dragon tree and Darwin's wish to travel the lands of Humboldt to see the same sights as Humboldt. Dragon trees in the canary islands (picture...
Season 2 Episode 3 - Court of Neptune
April 30, 2017 21:37 - 108 MBIn this episode Sarah, Josh and James discuss the opening chapters of Voyage of the Beagle where Darwin recounts the initial months of his voyage that includes an aborted stop at the Canary Islands, a visit to Cape Verde and then his first overland trip in Brazil. James discussed how Darwin spent as much time off the Beagle traveling overland than he did sailing in the Beagle. By Jules de Caudin - Relation complète du naufrage de la frégate La Méduse faisant partie de l'expédition du Séné...
Season 2 Episode 1: Hot Coffee
March 15, 2017 17:53This is the first episode for Season 2 of Discovering Darwin. We have titled this season Darwin the Adventurer because we plan to explore in detail the Voyage of the Beagle, Darwin's five year around-the-world survey in which he collected the specimens and made the observations that ultimately led him to develop his theory of evolution and write On the Origin of Species. In this episode we introduce the three major characters involved in the famous voyage- Captain Robert Fitzroy, Charles ...
Chapter XV - Recapitulation and Conclusion
August 15, 2016 19:24In this episode we discussed Chapter XV - Recapitulation & Conclusion from Darwin's Origin of Species. It is our final podcast of this season and we chose not to recapitulate as much as discuss how Darwin's book was received at the time and how Darwin handled the release of his book. Although only 1250 copies of Origin of Species was published in the first edition, Darwin purchased 80 or so copies himself and Mudie's Circulating Library purchased 500 copies for use in their subscription ser...
Chapter XIV Embryology
June 28, 2016 18:01This episode discusses Chapter XIV where Darwin applies his ideas of evolution and descent with modification to explain the developing "natural system" of classification, the unity of embryos and why organisms have rudimentary or vestigial organs. Classification From the most remote period in the history of the world organic beings have been found to resemble each other in descending degrees, so that they can be classed in groups under groups. This classification is not arbitrary like...
Geographical Distribution: Chapter XII-XIII
June 16, 2016 18:34In this episode we gather our liquid strength and courage to work our way through two chapters of Origin of Species, Chapter XII - Geographical Distribution and Chapter XIII - Geographical Distribution continued. Although Sarah predicted the podcast would last 3 hours we luckily were able to restrain ourselves to 1 hour and 28 minutes. We do have two corrections to make- #1 Although Josh declared that Noah's Ark came to rest on the top of Mt. Sinai the general view is that it actually set...
Chapter XI -On the Geological Succession of Organic Beings
April 27, 2016 14:38Let us now see whether the several facts and laws relating to the geological succession of organic beings accord best with the common view of the immutability of species, or with that of their slow and gradual modification, through variation and natural selection. In this episode we explore Chapter XI that deals with the fossil record and how patterns in the fossil record fit with Darwin's model of descent with modification. We begin the discussion with Darwin's views on extinction and ...
Chapter X - On the Imperfection of the Geological Record
February 09, 2016 16:02...so must the number of intermediate varieties, which have formerly existed, be truly enormous. Why then is not every geological formation and every stratum full of such intermediate links? Geology assuredly does not reveal any such finely-graduated organic chain; and this, perhaps, is the most obvious and serious objection which can be urged against the theory. The explanation lies, as I believe, in the extreme imperfection of the geological record. [406] This episode focused on Darwin...
Episode 9: Chapter IX - Hybridism
January 05, 2016 22:15We dedicate this episode of the podcast to Chapter 9 - Hybridism in Darwin's Origin of Species (OoS). We all agree that this chapter is one of the most challenging chapters to read in OoS. In this chapter Darwin force marches the reader through example after example of hybrids while simultaneously admitting his ignorance on why these creatures should exist. It is not inherently obvious to the reader why they are being subjected to this catalog of biological anomaly and minutiae concerning ...
Season 1 Episode 8: Chapter VIII Instinct
November 12, 2015 18:44MANY instincts are so wonderful that their development will probably appear to the reader a difficulty sufficient to overthrow my whole theory. [page 317] In this episode of Discovering Darwin we covered Darwin's chapter on Instinct and how Chuck attempted to explain how animals exhibit complex behaviors that are not learned. More importantly Darwin was trying to outline how behaviors could evolve in the same way he explained the evolution of physical traits. It is not too difficult to s...
Human Instinct - Special Episode with Dr. Mark Jackson
October 09, 2015 18:48In this episode we take a side trip with Dr. Mark Jackson, our colleague from the psychology department, to explore the historical view of instinct behaviors in humans. The next chapter of Darwin's Origin of Species deals specifically with instinct behavior in non-human animals and it stimulated us to question what the thought of the time was considering human instinct behavior. Dr. Jackson brings his sly wit to the conversation and tells us how the early field of psychology dealt with or e...