Episode · Modern Wisdom · 2025-06-28
Books mentioned on The Spiciest Ideas Of Evolutionary Biology - Dr Jerry Coyne - #960
Dr Jerry Coyne is an evolutionary biologist, professor at the University of Chicago, and an author. Has ideology hijacked academia?
Dr Jerry Coyne recommended Your inner fish by Neil Shubin, and discussed The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin. Chris Williamson recommended The Moral Animal by Robert Wright.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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The Origin of Species
The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin is a foundational 1859 scientific text that introduced the theory of evolution by natural selection, forever altering humanity's understanding of biology and the natural world.
Discussed“But when I was working in the lab, I worked on the problem of speciation or the origin of species, which is of course the title of Darwin's 1859 book. It's a problem that Darwin didn't solve. So that's why I took it up when I was a graduate student. I think we know a lot more now. We certainly”
Where to get it
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The Moral Animal
The Moral Animal by Robert Wright is an influential exploration of evolutionary psychology that examines how natural selection has shaped human nature, morality, relationships, and social behavior.
Recommended“And I understand, you know, I I got into evolutionary theory through Robert Wright's book uh from 1993, 1992, The Moral Animal. And I read this, you know, only seven or eight years ago, and some stuff has is a little looks a little silly in retrospect, but it still holds up so well. 30 years later, that book is”
Where to get it
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Your inner fish
Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin is a popular science book exploring evolutionary biology by tracing human anatomical features back to ancient aquatic ancestors.
Recommended“He wrote an awesome book called the Your Inner Fish about how we show the remnants of our fishy ancestry. And he started a website to publicize that. And so my agent said, "Why don't you do that, too?"”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (2) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
“And I have a book too called Speciation which is what I wrote as my technical book, my f my real first book. And I'm not I'm not smart enough to understand that one. So I'll get you to explain it to me. My friends want to say, "Oh, you read this book. It's so great. Can I read it?"”
“So, the name of the website is Why Evolution is True, which is the title of my first book. And I'd still recommend it because I really, really like that book. I don't think I could write it again. Why evolution is true. But if you want to come to the website, you just string all those together into one”