Species

A narrative about a bear attack in Kamchatka, exploring the ecological causes and consequences.

This episode explores the evolutionary history of jaws, tracing back over 400 million years to the first vertebrates.

This episode investigates the evolutionary reasons for beards, weighing hypotheses of protection in combat versus sexual selection.

Marta Kowal says 93-country data found people spend 231 minutes a day on beauty.

["Species opens with the 4,000-year-old Code of Ur-Namu from modern-day Iraq, where murder and robbery bring death and a shattered limb costs a mina of silver.", "Macken Murphy then cites a 39-nation Pew Research survey, a 98%/80% fantasy study, and his estimate that at least one-fourth of Western marriages experience infidelity.", "He moves through monogamy trade-offs in birds, fish, lizards, and termites, plus a 254-person sample of affair motives that includes revenge, supplemental investment, and information-seeking.", "The episode sets up a pre-registered comparison of dual mating versus mate switching by asking whether affair partners or primary partners rate higher on mate value, attractiveness, and co-parenting value."]

Species opens with an argument that asking whether violence, meat-eating, or infidelity is "natural" assumes humans sit outside the rest of nature.

Species opens with Darwin's peacock-tail problem and asks why a costly human trait like a beard exists when chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas lack one.

Species examines incel identity and romantic exclusion through an interview with evolutionary psychologist William Costello, a researcher mentored by David Buss.

Alexander, the grad student behind @DatePsych and DatePsychology.com, cites dating-app research in which adding a master's degree to a man's bio increased swipes, while the same information for women had "basically no effect." He puts the sex difference in sociosexuality at roughly a standard deviation (Cohen's d about 0.9) and points to the Clark and Hatfield campus experiment, where many men but no women accepted sex offers from attractive strangers.

This episode explores the fascinating mutualistic relationship between the greater honeyguide bird and humans, describing how the bird leads people to beehives in exchange for access to honey.