Episode · Modern Wisdom · 2026-10-29
Chris Williamson & Rob Kurzban: books mentioned on Modern Wisdom #1169
35 Emotions Explained By Evolutionary Psychology - Rob Kurzban - #1169
Rob Kurzban is a psychologist and an author.
Chris Williamson recommended Evolutionary Psychiatry by Riadh Abed and others and Good Reasons for Bad Feelings by Randolph M. Nesse and others, and discussed The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Evolutionary Psychiatry
Evolutionary Psychiatry by Riadh Abed and Paul St John-Smith is an academic exploration of mental health through the lens of evolutionary biology, examining the adaptive functions of psychological phenomena.
Recommended“Evolutionary Psychiatry, Good Feelings for Good Reasons for Bad Feelings. Unreal. Yeah, really good. Nice primer as well it two two car garage with your one. Yeah, people should definitely go out and buy get both books for sure.”
Where to get it
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Good Reasons for Bad Feelings
Good Reasons for Bad Feelings by Randolph M.
Recommended“Evolutionary Psychiatry, Good Feelings for Good Reasons for Bad Feelings. Unreal. Yeah, really good. Nice primer as well it two two car garage with your one. Yeah, people should definitely go out and buy get both books for sure.”
Where to get it
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The Anxious Generation
The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt is a prominent non-fiction book that explores the profound psychological impacts of smartphones and social media on youth mental health.
Discussed“So, in some sense, I mean, I don't know if the anxious generation findings are going to hold up. They look. Bro, they're in the middle of the quickest 180 360 540 720 like just the replication of that.”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (4) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
“part of the reason I wanted to write about emotions is I'm looking at the myths and I'm reading about the stories and the plays and you see the same emotions, right? In in the in the in the classics, not to mention the ancients. You see in the Bible”
“I mean, empathy is kind of it get it has a lot uh it's sort of got a lot written about it. Paul Bloom has done some nice work on it. Against empathy. Against empathy.”
“But behavioral economics is one of the most robust and fascinating Russ Roberts is a thesis around like wild I think it's called wild decisions. Was that the book or like big decisions something like that? Uh friend of the show.”
“It has these very partsy kind of as you were saying. That was Robert Wright's Why Buddhism Is True when I first learned about that. The modules of the mind. But yeah, that's so yeah, this idea that you've got these different modules”