Making Sense - Sam Harris - June 24, 2019


#161 — Rise & Fall


Episode Stats

Length

43 minutes

Words per Minute

152.10739

Word Count

6,561

Sentence Count

345

Misogynist Sentences

2

Hate Speech Sentences

37


Summary

Jared Diamond joins me to talk about his new book, Guns, Germs, and Steel and Collapse, and his new memoir, Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations in Crisis, which explores the rise and fall of civilization. We talk about political polarization in our own time, and how to deal with it, and why we should all be worried about it. And we talk about whether or not we should pay reparations to the descendants of the Unabombers for their crimes, and what we should do in the wake of recent events, such as the recent hearing of Coleman Hughes, who testified in Congress on the question of slavery reparations, and the reaction to that hearing. We also talk about how we should deal with immigration policy, and whether we should have a strong center-talk policy, if we lack a strong political policy about immigration across the globe. And as always, you can support the podcast by subscribing through my website at Samharris.org, where you'll get access to the podcast through my private RSS feed. We don't run ads on the podcast, and therefore it's made possible entirely through the support of our listeners, so if you enjoy what we're doing here, please consider becoming a supporter of the podcast you're making a lifelong friend of The Making Sense Podcast. Thanks for listening. It's my pleasure to have you here, and it's my hope that you'll find some value in this sort of thing. -Sam Harris to make sense of what you're listening to this podcast by listening to the Making Sense: a podcast that's making sense of things that matters, not only for you, and not just about what you can be a good time, but also about you, in which you can help us all be a better place to learn more about the things you can do more of it? and what you'll learn about the world we can do better, better, and more of that, and you'll be better at listening to more of this, too, in the things that matter more of what matters more of the things like that, not less of it, more of you're better than that, better than you know more than you're going to learn about it, better of you, better listening, and less of that. Thank you for your support, and I'll see you in the next episode of Making Sense, coming soon, I hope you'll like it, I'll hear you soon.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Welcome to the Making Sense Podcast.
00:00:08.820 This is Sam Harris.
00:00:10.880 Just a note to say that if you're hearing this, you are not currently on our subscriber
00:00:14.680 feed and will only be hearing the first part of this conversation.
00:00:18.420 In order to access full episodes of the Making Sense Podcast, you'll need to subscribe at
00:00:22.720 samharris.org.
00:00:24.060 There you'll find our private RSS feed to add to your favorite podcatcher, along with
00:00:28.360 other subscriber-only content.
00:00:30.620 We don't run ads on the podcast, and therefore it's made possible entirely through the support
00:00:34.640 of our subscribers.
00:00:35.900 So if you enjoy what we're doing here, please consider becoming one.
00:00:46.740 Welcome to the Making Sense Podcast.
00:00:49.140 This is Sam Harris.
00:00:52.140 Well, not much housekeeping here today.
00:00:54.720 I've spent much less time on social media of late, so much less time, in fact, that
00:01:02.700 I really can't actually judge whether what I've seen there this week just reflects an
00:01:10.160 especially contentious week, or whether I have changed in my sense of what is the expected
00:01:17.920 ambient level of hostility and lunacy on Twitter.
00:01:23.900 It has seemed completely crazy every time I've checked back in over there.
00:01:30.140 Honestly, I just re-read the Unabombers manifesto for the first time since it was originally published,
00:01:35.960 as you might recall, under threat of further maiming and murder.
00:01:39.760 And it is a slightly crazy document.
00:01:44.920 You can certainly hear Kaczynski grinding his teeth in the background, more or less throughout.
00:01:52.320 But the truth is, it is better reasoned and modulated than half of what I see on Twitter.
00:02:01.780 And this is from people with blue check marks by their names and large followings.
00:02:08.000 So I don't know what it means to be able to honestly say that half the people on Twitter
00:02:12.940 seem less hinged than a man who was sending bombs in the mail.
00:02:17.820 But it does seem that we're performing an experiment on ourselves,
00:02:21.920 the consequences of which are as yet undetermined.
00:02:26.000 Anyway, I'm very happy to have withdrawn to the degree that I have.
00:02:31.900 It feels far more sane.
00:02:34.180 One of the things that happened this week is
00:02:36.060 Coleman Hughes, who's been a guest on this podcast,
00:02:40.140 the preternaturally mature undergraduate,
00:02:44.900 still undergraduate from Columbia University studying philosophy,
00:02:49.920 Coleman testified in Congress
00:02:52.780 on the topic of whether it would make sense to pay reparations for slavery.
00:02:59.500 And he argued against paying reparations.
00:03:03.580 I'm not actually sure I agree with him,
00:03:06.040 though he was perfectly rational in his remarks.
00:03:09.780 And I'll be going on his podcast in a few weeks, I think,
00:03:12.860 and we'll probably talk about this.
00:03:14.780 I'm actually quite open-minded on whether or not reparations make sense.
00:03:19.720 Some of you might recall that Hitch argued in a formal debate
00:03:24.920 in favor of reparations.
00:03:27.320 It's a genuinely difficult question.
00:03:30.240 So, at a minimum, I can say I'm quite open to arguments from both sides here.
00:03:37.320 Anyway, to watch Coleman's testimony
00:03:40.280 and to have heard the hissing and booing in the gallery,
00:03:46.740 to see the faces of some of the people sitting behind him reacting
00:03:51.140 to his arguments,
00:03:53.540 and then to see the aftermath to the degree that I did
00:03:57.480 on social media,
00:03:59.500 where at least one person with a blue checkmark,
00:04:02.560 an HBO writer,
00:04:05.160 called him a coon
00:04:06.240 without apparent repercussions
00:04:09.840 from among her fans,
00:04:11.160 we have to find some way to correct course here.
00:04:15.140 Which brings me to today's podcast.
00:04:18.040 Today, I'm very happy to have finally connected with Jared Diamond
00:04:21.100 in person.
00:04:23.620 Jared is a professor of geography at UCLA.
00:04:26.460 He's the author, quite famously, of the books
00:04:28.980 Guns, Germs, and Steel
00:04:30.640 and Collapse.
00:04:32.440 And his newest book is Upheaval,
00:04:34.320 Turning Points for Nations in Crisis.
00:04:36.240 He has won many awards,
00:04:39.620 including a MacArthur grant
00:04:42.440 and a Pulitzer Prize.
00:04:44.980 He's a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences
00:04:47.060 and an all-around fascinating man.
00:04:50.420 In this conversation, we focus on
00:04:52.740 the themes that Jared has focused on
00:04:55.680 in the books I just mentioned,
00:04:58.220 which really are about the rise and fall of civilization.
00:05:02.540 We discuss political polarization
00:05:04.880 in our own time.
00:05:07.720 We talk about disparities
00:05:09.280 in civilizational progress.
00:05:11.880 Why it is that
00:05:12.680 Europeans,
00:05:14.200 for the most part,
00:05:15.500 seem to have dominated
00:05:16.420 the globe.
00:05:18.420 Talk about the precariousness of democracy
00:05:20.600 in the U.S. at the moment.
00:05:23.180 The fact that we lack a strong
00:05:24.700 political center.
00:05:26.320 Talk about immigration policy.
00:05:29.160 And as always, if you find
00:05:30.200 conversations of this sort valuable,
00:05:31.760 you can support the podcast
00:05:33.860 by subscribing through my website
00:05:36.260 at samharris.org.
00:05:38.480 I left the bonus questions
00:05:40.040 in this episode,
00:05:41.280 but I have bonus questions
00:05:42.640 from many other podcasts
00:05:44.300 that will soon be rolled out
00:05:45.880 as subscriber-only content there.
00:05:49.220 Anyway, without further delay,
00:05:50.740 I bring you Jared Diamond.
00:05:58.460 I am here with Jared Diamond.
00:06:00.040 Jared, thanks for coming on the podcast.
00:06:01.760 It's my pleasure.
00:06:02.900 Thank you for coming.
00:06:03.860 I've been, you know,
00:06:04.620 as many of my listeners will be,
00:06:06.400 I've been an admirer of your work
00:06:08.060 for many years.
00:06:09.880 This is not your first book,
00:06:10.900 but the first book I read of yours
00:06:12.800 was Guns, Germs, and Steel.
00:06:14.360 And I want to talk about
00:06:16.260 really three of your books
00:06:18.000 that seem to form
00:06:20.320 a kind of unified picture
00:06:21.920 of how civilizations arise
00:06:24.940 and thrive and fail.
00:06:27.620 So I'm thinking of Guns, Germs, and Steel collapse
00:06:30.100 and the new one, upheaval.
00:06:32.220 And we'll focus on the new one
00:06:33.960 because it has special relevance
00:06:37.540 to the moment,
00:06:38.900 both from a publishing point of view
00:06:40.440 and just from a, you know,
00:06:41.520 what is happening
00:06:42.200 in our own country point of view.
00:06:44.600 But thank you for doing this
00:06:46.640 and it's a great pleasure
00:06:47.880 to do this with you in person.
00:06:49.780 Gladly.
00:06:50.160 Now I'm happy to discuss
00:06:51.480 these subjects with you,
00:06:53.160 which I guess interest you
00:06:54.160 just as they interest me.
00:06:55.600 So you, like many people
00:06:58.760 who I admire,
00:06:59.700 you have taken an unconventional route
00:07:01.700 into focusing on what you focus on.
00:07:04.340 You were a physiologist at first
00:07:06.380 for quite some time
00:07:07.880 and now are functioning
00:07:09.160 more in the mode of a historian,
00:07:13.340 although you have a formal appointment
00:07:15.600 in the geography department at UCLA.
00:07:18.280 How do you think of your,
00:07:20.720 the way in which you have respected
00:07:22.640 or failed to respect
00:07:23.980 the traditional boundaries
00:07:25.280 between disciplines
00:07:26.520 and what you've focused on?
00:07:29.080 It's not something that I think
00:07:30.380 I'm consciously about.
00:07:32.340 It's just that I'm interested
00:07:33.720 in lots of things
00:07:34.640 and already as a child,
00:07:37.120 I was interested in lots of things.
00:07:39.480 In high school,
00:07:41.180 I expected that I was going
00:07:42.600 to become a physician
00:07:44.180 like my father.
00:07:45.880 And so I figured
00:07:46.920 that I would be doing science
00:07:48.860 for the rest of my life.
00:07:49.900 Therefore, in high school,
00:07:51.800 in high school,
00:07:53.080 I would use the time
00:07:53.980 to do things other than science.
00:07:55.720 So in high school,
00:07:57.540 I took Latin and Greek
00:07:59.180 and I had wonderful history courses.
00:08:02.280 In college,
00:08:04.020 again, being pre-med,
00:08:06.120 expecting to do it
00:08:07.020 for the rest of my life,
00:08:08.320 I took the minimum number
00:08:09.740 of required science courses.
00:08:13.040 I've never taken a biology course
00:08:15.280 other than introductory biology.
00:08:17.140 That's hilarious.
00:08:17.960 I majored in biochemical sciences,
00:08:20.260 but I never took a course
00:08:21.500 in biochemistry.
00:08:22.800 And instead,
00:08:23.240 I took courses
00:08:23.820 in all sorts of possible things.
00:08:25.460 I took courses in astronomy,
00:08:27.160 intensive Russian,
00:08:28.540 music composition
00:08:29.540 for professional musicians,
00:08:31.800 oral epic poetry.
00:08:33.100 So I was interested
00:08:34.200 in all these things.
00:08:36.020 I then decided
00:08:38.280 not to go to medical school
00:08:39.600 at the last minute.
00:08:40.840 Instead,
00:08:41.860 got my,
00:08:42.860 went and took a PhD,
00:08:44.940 did graduate study,
00:08:45.880 and physiology became
00:08:47.580 one of the world's
00:08:49.180 three experts
00:08:50.480 on the gallbladder.
00:08:51.540 And I was hired
00:08:52.580 by UCLA Medical School
00:08:53.980 as a promising gallbladder expert.
00:08:56.160 That sounds like
00:08:56.580 a backhanded compliment
00:08:57.680 in some way.
00:09:00.180 The gallbladder
00:09:01.100 is not an organ
00:09:02.520 that we think a lot about.
00:09:03.760 That's right.
00:09:04.580 The gallbladder
00:09:05.420 does not play a lead
00:09:06.820 in the world.
00:09:07.720 The reason I studied it
00:09:09.380 is that the gallbladder
00:09:10.540 is a model.
00:09:12.120 It works.
00:09:12.780 It uses the same mechanisms
00:09:14.720 that the kidney
00:09:15.660 and intestine use,
00:09:16.840 but it's easier to study.
00:09:18.480 So I got a lot of mileage
00:09:20.300 out of the gallbladder.
00:09:21.540 I taught kidney physiology
00:09:23.700 and intestinal physiology,
00:09:25.040 liver physiology
00:09:25.860 to medical students
00:09:27.160 until 2002.
00:09:28.760 But then two things
00:09:30.160 triggered my shift
00:09:31.980 out of gallbladders.
00:09:33.820 One was the birth
00:09:35.360 of our twin sons
00:09:36.600 in 1987.
00:09:38.000 And at that point,
00:09:38.840 I realized
00:09:39.420 that their future
00:09:40.380 was not going to depend
00:09:41.340 upon gallbladders,
00:09:42.580 but their future
00:09:43.360 was going to depend
00:09:43.980 upon the state
00:09:44.660 of the world.
00:09:45.260 Not even their own
00:09:45.980 gallbladders.
00:09:46.640 Not even their own,
00:09:47.540 because you can do
00:09:48.200 without a gallbladder.
00:09:49.340 And the other thing
00:09:50.380 was totally unexpectedly
00:09:52.220 in 1985,
00:09:53.860 being awarded
00:09:54.600 one of these
00:09:55.100 MacArthur Foundation
00:09:56.120 fellowships,
00:09:57.140 which you would think
00:09:58.340 would thrill me.
00:09:59.700 So I got a phone call.
00:10:01.380 Totally unexpected,
00:10:02.560 because you don't know
00:10:03.100 you're nominated.
00:10:04.300 Totally unexpected,
00:10:05.260 saying,
00:10:05.860 this is Ken Hope
00:10:06.620 from the MacArthur Foundation.
00:10:07.900 You've been awarded
00:10:08.480 a fellowship,
00:10:09.140 and it'll give you
00:10:09.820 no strings for five years,
00:10:12.420 and it'll give you
00:10:13.240 any questions.
00:10:14.920 And I was stunned.
00:10:17.820 And then I went
00:10:19.180 into a depression
00:10:19.940 for a week.
00:10:20.520 It's the only,
00:10:21.680 really the only
00:10:22.580 lasting depression
00:10:23.340 in my adult life.
00:10:24.460 And the reason was
00:10:25.880 that the award,
00:10:27.900 in effect,
00:10:28.800 told me,
00:10:29.720 Jared,
00:10:30.240 we expect things of you.
00:10:31.940 And I was saying
00:10:32.800 to myself,
00:10:33.460 but you've been
00:10:33.920 wasting your time
00:10:34.600 on gallbladders.
00:10:35.640 What are you going
00:10:36.100 to do about it?
00:10:36.980 So it was those
00:10:37.600 two things,
00:10:38.060 the MacArthur Award
00:10:39.060 and the birth
00:10:39.940 of my sons
00:10:40.440 that induced me
00:10:41.820 to switch in 1987.
00:10:45.200 Gradually,
00:10:45.740 my interest in,
00:10:46.660 I enjoyed doing physiology,
00:10:48.460 but my interest
00:10:49.060 in it decreased.
00:10:50.760 And as time went on,
00:10:52.020 I wanted to switch
00:10:54.540 from physiology
00:10:55.340 to geography.
00:10:56.980 But university appointments
00:10:58.600 are not a portable
00:10:59.960 appointment
00:11:00.720 where you can go around
00:11:02.200 and find some department
00:11:03.240 that will take you.
00:11:04.300 Instead,
00:11:04.660 my appointment was
00:11:05.580 as a gallbladder physiologist.
00:11:08.260 It took a lot
00:11:09.220 of negotiations
00:11:10.540 to get me transferred
00:11:12.160 from the physiology department
00:11:13.720 to the geography department
00:11:15.140 where I've been
00:11:15.640 since 2002.
00:11:17.200 What did you get
00:11:17.640 the MacArthur Award for?
00:11:18.960 Someone must have recognized
00:11:20.080 that your work
00:11:21.240 held wider promise
00:11:22.880 than focus
00:11:24.180 on the gallbladder.
00:11:25.320 How did that happen?
00:11:26.520 I had already,
00:11:28.080 at the time
00:11:28.620 I got the MacArthur Award,
00:11:30.160 I had a parallel career
00:11:31.600 in ecology
00:11:32.920 and evolution
00:11:33.560 because I had been
00:11:34.480 a bird watcher
00:11:35.480 from there
00:11:35.880 and seven onwards.
00:11:37.140 And so immediately
00:11:37.840 after I got my PhD,
00:11:40.420 in the year or two
00:11:41.180 after I got my PhD,
00:11:42.460 at the time
00:11:42.940 I didn't know
00:11:43.620 what the significance
00:11:44.780 of it all was,
00:11:45.720 but I immediately began
00:11:47.080 looking for another field,
00:11:49.000 a parallel field.
00:11:50.100 I seriously considered
00:11:51.660 a career in conducting,
00:11:53.860 music conducting.
00:11:55.080 I seriously considered
00:11:56.140 getting into
00:11:57.480 pre-Columbian pottery,
00:11:59.140 but those didn't take.
00:12:00.740 And instead,
00:12:01.740 I went to New Guinea.
00:12:02.620 It was love at first sight
00:12:04.420 and I've been studying
00:12:06.100 New Guinea birds
00:12:06.780 ever since.
00:12:07.880 So for the MacArthur Award,
00:12:10.240 my work on New Guinea birds,
00:12:12.080 I'm sure it was that
00:12:13.020 and not my gallbladder work
00:12:14.260 that contributed
00:12:15.460 to the MacArthur Award.
00:12:16.980 Right.
00:12:17.540 Well, you are a true polymath.
00:12:19.960 Really,
00:12:20.920 I got to think that
00:12:22.060 at a certain point,
00:12:23.580 we will age out
00:12:24.520 of being polymaths
00:12:25.940 because there was a time
00:12:27.340 with knowledge doubling
00:12:28.600 every three to five years,
00:12:30.540 it becomes harder and harder
00:12:31.560 to even pretend
00:12:33.020 to know much
00:12:34.640 about so many things.
00:12:36.000 But it seems to me
00:12:37.680 that you really have managed it
00:12:38.780 as your books attest.
00:12:40.560 What's the significance
00:12:41.320 of your scientific background
00:12:43.740 in how you approach
00:12:45.280 writing history?
00:12:47.360 That's interesting.
00:12:49.140 It's not something
00:12:50.060 that I thought of consciously,
00:12:52.720 but the fact is
00:12:53.520 that my approach to history
00:12:55.940 is always comparative history.
00:12:57.840 I've never,
00:12:59.080 most historians do
00:13:00.460 single case studies.
00:13:02.920 So a historian will write a book
00:13:04.160 about 19th century Germany
00:13:05.580 or 17th century France.
00:13:07.440 I've never done that.
00:13:09.020 It's that all of my historical studies,
00:13:11.500 they're comparative.
00:13:12.580 I compare different countries
00:13:14.680 or different societies.
00:13:16.120 That's something that I learned
00:13:17.540 right at the beginning
00:13:18.800 of my gallbladder career
00:13:20.060 when I went to Cambridge, England
00:13:23.340 to do my graduate study.
00:13:25.120 My mentor was a great physiologist
00:13:27.520 who was studying
00:13:28.740 iron transport in muscles.
00:13:31.000 And the way he did it,
00:13:32.300 he was looking at the effect
00:13:34.040 of potassium
00:13:34.600 on sodium effluxan muscles.
00:13:36.840 He did it beautifully elegant.
00:13:38.720 He had two test tubes
00:13:39.680 and he had two pieces
00:13:42.080 of the same muscle
00:13:42.840 in two different tubes.
00:13:44.200 One tube had potassium
00:13:45.960 and the other tube
00:13:46.760 had no potassium.
00:13:48.320 So he compared pieces
00:13:49.780 of the same muscle.
00:13:51.180 Then when I went to New Guinea
00:13:52.320 and began studying
00:13:53.140 New Guinea birds,
00:13:53.980 in order to study
00:13:55.960 the effect of species number one
00:13:58.700 on species number two.
00:14:00.420 In New Guinea,
00:14:01.000 it's not considered nice
00:14:02.180 or permissible or legal
00:14:03.520 to go around exterminating
00:14:05.480 species number one
00:14:06.440 on one mountain
00:14:07.200 in order to see
00:14:08.340 what that does to species two.
00:14:09.860 I had to find
00:14:10.700 different mountains
00:14:11.520 where one mountain,
00:14:13.300 for whatever reason,
00:14:14.840 lacked species one naturally.
00:14:17.140 And then I compared it
00:14:18.480 with another mountain
00:14:19.240 that had species number one.
00:14:20.880 So my approach
00:14:21.740 has always been
00:14:22.820 a comparative approach.
00:14:23.780 And then when I got
00:14:24.880 to history,
00:14:26.160 I realized that
00:14:27.640 with history,
00:14:29.660 the comparative approach
00:14:30.820 forces you to,
00:14:32.680 poses questions
00:14:33.680 that you would never
00:14:34.500 think of otherwise.
00:14:36.280 An example that I think of
00:14:37.720 is that I love reading books
00:14:39.140 about the American Civil War,
00:14:40.560 like so many people.
00:14:41.620 And all these fat books
00:14:42.980 on the American Civil War,
00:14:44.920 they'll devote six pages
00:14:46.480 to the second day
00:14:48.560 of the Battle of Gettysburg.
00:14:49.520 But at the end
00:14:50.840 of an 800-page book,
00:14:52.360 they haven't discussed
00:14:53.400 one of the most salient things
00:14:54.840 of the American Civil War,
00:14:55.960 which is that at the end
00:14:57.000 of the war,
00:14:57.720 the victors did not
00:14:58.740 kill the losers.
00:15:00.060 Instead, at the end
00:15:00.740 of the American Civil War,
00:15:02.240 only one person
00:15:03.160 was executed,
00:15:03.900 and that was the commandant
00:15:05.560 of Andersonville
00:15:06.540 Prisoner of War Camp.
00:15:08.300 Whereas at the end
00:15:09.060 of the Spanish Civil War,
00:15:10.500 the victors killed
00:15:11.180 a million of the losers.
00:15:12.180 And at the end
00:15:13.080 of the Finnish Civil War,
00:15:14.520 the victors began
00:15:15.260 to kill losers
00:15:16.480 at a rate higher
00:15:17.840 than any modern genocide rate
00:15:19.960 until Rwanda.
00:15:21.180 If you compare civil wars,
00:15:23.640 you're then struck
00:15:24.420 by this thing
00:15:25.140 that's crying out
00:15:25.960 for explanation
00:15:26.520 with the American Civil War.
00:15:27.880 But if you don't do comparisons,
00:15:29.420 the question doesn't arise.
00:15:31.020 So with comparative studies,
00:15:33.360 naturally,
00:15:34.160 with a 500-page book,
00:15:36.400 I can't devote the whole book
00:15:37.880 to 19th century Germany.
00:15:39.540 I have to divide the book
00:15:40.760 among seven countries.
00:15:42.700 But questions arise,
00:15:44.440 and you can answer questions
00:15:45.580 through comparison.
00:15:46.740 So that's my approach
00:15:47.480 to history.
00:15:48.960 Yeah, and it's really,
00:15:50.320 it's thrilling to read.
00:15:51.920 So again,
00:15:52.920 I want to talk about
00:15:53.780 three of your books,
00:15:55.160 but I guess I want to frame
00:15:56.600 the conversation
00:15:57.180 with what seems to be
00:15:58.880 the charged political moment,
00:16:01.720 especially in,
00:16:03.460 as we notice it,
00:16:04.480 in our own country,
00:16:06.320 the U.S.,
00:16:06.880 and in Western Europe.
00:16:08.800 And I don't know
00:16:10.240 how much time
00:16:10.840 you spend on social,
00:16:12.180 media.
00:16:12.700 I think probably none.
00:16:14.060 Yeah, that's...
00:16:14.980 I don't know
00:16:15.480 how to turn them on.
00:16:16.960 This is,
00:16:17.840 if there's no other variable
00:16:20.040 that accounts
00:16:20.520 for your basic sanity,
00:16:21.860 it's really that.
00:16:23.340 But it does seem like,
00:16:24.840 and this is a concern
00:16:25.680 you raise
00:16:26.440 throughout your latest book,
00:16:28.580 Upheaval,
00:16:29.280 which is where
00:16:30.300 what we're witnessing
00:16:31.400 is a persistent
00:16:32.900 and growing failure
00:16:34.720 of political compromise
00:16:36.520 and our ability
00:16:37.900 and our ability
00:16:37.920 to resolve
00:16:39.620 our differences
00:16:40.240 civilly,
00:16:41.560 to converge
00:16:42.100 on answers
00:16:43.840 to global problems
00:16:46.120 that break us out
00:16:47.380 of partisan gridlock.
00:16:50.160 And this is something
00:16:52.080 that increasingly worries us,
00:16:55.020 and I think we're right
00:16:55.860 to be worried.
00:16:56.640 And we're going to talk about it
00:16:57.480 as we get into upheaval,
00:16:58.700 but I'm just wondering
00:16:59.180 just how you view
00:17:00.860 the current moment
00:17:02.760 and how much of that
00:17:04.220 was informing
00:17:05.300 your writing
00:17:06.600 of your latest book.
00:17:08.580 The current moment,
00:17:09.560 meaning right now
00:17:10.480 or this year
00:17:11.300 or since 2016,
00:17:13.540 no effect
00:17:14.880 because I began the book.
00:17:16.540 People often ask me,
00:17:18.480 Jared,
00:17:18.720 did you start your book
00:17:19.660 within November 2016?
00:17:21.620 It took longer than that, yeah.
00:17:22.940 No, I began the book
00:17:24.080 in 2013.
00:17:25.120 I didn't foresee 2016.
00:17:27.080 It happened
00:17:27.600 that the book
00:17:28.960 was doubly
00:17:30.140 at the right moment,
00:17:31.080 not only because
00:17:31.980 2016 exacerbated
00:17:34.180 the breakdown
00:17:36.020 of political compromise
00:17:37.180 in the U.S.,
00:17:37.800 but also Brexit.
00:17:39.160 Brexit began
00:17:40.660 after I started the book.
00:17:42.400 And I'm just back
00:17:43.280 from, what,
00:17:45.020 10 days in the U.K.
00:17:46.880 I was shocked
00:17:48.540 being in the U.K.
00:17:49.360 I've lived in the U.K.
00:17:50.620 for five years,
00:17:51.460 and I had thought
00:17:53.560 that the United States
00:17:54.540 had the most imminent problem,
00:17:56.920 but no,
00:17:58.740 Brexit is going to...
00:18:00.140 Brexit threatens
00:18:01.200 big problems
00:18:02.400 for Britain
00:18:02.820 before what's happening
00:18:05.100 in the U.S.
00:18:05.680 will cause big problems
00:18:07.000 in the U.S.
00:18:07.740 Brexit risks
00:18:09.440 the falling apart
00:18:11.440 of the U.K.
00:18:12.160 secession of Scotland
00:18:13.720 and even secession
00:18:14.940 of Northern Ireland.
00:18:16.280 Yeah, yeah.
00:18:17.740 And there's also just such a...
00:18:18.860 There's a breakdown
00:18:19.500 of civility
00:18:20.420 that is shocking to me,
00:18:23.320 and it's so cavalier.
00:18:25.460 I mean, so I...
00:18:26.460 Perhaps you've noticed this
00:18:28.160 if you...
00:18:29.240 It's hard to know
00:18:29.720 what one notices
00:18:30.340 if one isn't on Twitter
00:18:31.460 these days,
00:18:32.000 but I don't know
00:18:32.760 how widely reported
00:18:33.540 this has been,
00:18:33.980 but there's been
00:18:34.320 this seeming epidemic
00:18:36.180 of people throwing milkshakes
00:18:38.360 at politicians
00:18:39.700 they don't like,
00:18:40.420 in the U.K.
00:18:41.560 especially.
00:18:42.760 And I look at this
00:18:44.060 through two lenses.
00:18:45.260 One is just the kind
00:18:46.280 of the personal...
00:18:47.800 My personal understanding
00:18:48.880 of, you know,
00:18:49.780 as a semi-public figure,
00:18:51.420 what it means...
00:18:51.940 And a controversial one,
00:18:53.480 what my security concerns are
00:18:55.140 and what it means
00:18:55.800 to have someone
00:18:56.600 come up to you in public
00:18:58.760 and hit you with a milkshake,
00:19:00.740 you know,
00:19:01.000 even though you...
00:19:01.860 In this case,
00:19:02.840 you have bodyguards around.
00:19:04.480 What that is,
00:19:05.600 actually,
00:19:06.880 whether the perpetrators
00:19:08.040 know it or not,
00:19:09.140 is a mock assassination,
00:19:10.760 right?
00:19:10.920 It's like,
00:19:11.240 what it is,
00:19:11.880 is demonstrating
00:19:12.640 that I can get this close to you
00:19:14.580 no matter, you know,
00:19:15.380 whether you're Bill Gates
00:19:16.380 or whoever you are,
00:19:17.240 you've spent millions
00:19:18.220 of dollars a year
00:19:18.780 on your personal security,
00:19:20.160 and yet right now
00:19:20.940 I can throw whatever
00:19:22.080 I want in your face,
00:19:23.600 right?
00:19:24.080 And it advertises that
00:19:25.780 to the entire world,
00:19:27.180 which includes people
00:19:28.300 who may, in fact,
00:19:29.220 want to assassinate people.
00:19:31.140 So there's that kind
00:19:31.980 of narrow security concern,
00:19:34.260 which many people
00:19:34.920 are unaware of,
00:19:35.600 and when I voiced this
00:19:36.780 on social media,
00:19:38.240 you know,
00:19:38.560 many people found it risible,
00:19:39.660 like, well,
00:19:39.960 it's just a milkshake.
00:19:40.800 What are you...
00:19:41.080 It's not a mock assassination.
00:19:42.760 But the security implications
00:19:44.520 are graver
00:19:45.060 than people realize
00:19:46.060 because what it does
00:19:46.740 is just advertises
00:19:47.800 persistent vulnerability
00:19:49.060 no matter how much
00:19:51.020 you spend on security.
00:19:52.320 But more important than that,
00:19:54.420 it's a breakdown
00:19:55.160 of civility
00:19:56.080 such that there are
00:19:57.540 very few stops
00:19:58.560 past a milkshake
00:20:00.160 between where we are now
00:20:01.800 and actual political violence.
00:20:03.580 If you can no longer
00:20:04.860 resolve your differences
00:20:05.900 with a political figure
00:20:07.720 whose views you detest
00:20:08.920 through conversation
00:20:10.380 or debate
00:20:11.740 or criticism,
00:20:13.340 and you have
00:20:14.340 mainstream journalists
00:20:15.560 advocating for the
00:20:17.040 public humiliation
00:20:18.620 of people
00:20:19.840 by, you know,
00:20:20.780 throwing milkshake
00:20:21.640 such that they no longer
00:20:22.980 feel secure
00:20:23.940 in their persons,
00:20:26.440 it's alarming.
00:20:27.480 I mean,
00:20:27.680 they're very...
00:20:28.260 Again,
00:20:28.520 there are very few places
00:20:29.680 to stop
00:20:30.400 where we can arrest
00:20:31.380 our slide
00:20:31.900 into actual political violence.
00:20:34.020 I was wondering
00:20:34.480 how you view
00:20:35.360 civility itself
00:20:37.720 and an ability
00:20:38.420 to let words suffice
00:20:40.420 as a break
00:20:41.600 on our baser natures
00:20:43.440 collectively.
00:20:44.840 Well,
00:20:45.060 it's not only
00:20:46.200 politicians,
00:20:47.420 I don't know
00:20:47.860 whether you noticed
00:20:49.000 as you came in here
00:20:50.200 that the entrance
00:20:51.960 to my house
00:20:52.840 now has
00:20:54.420 a metal
00:20:55.540 wall around it
00:20:57.160 with spikes
00:20:58.220 at the top
00:20:59.120 and
00:21:00.360 Marie and I
00:21:01.380 put those up
00:21:02.540 about a decade ago
00:21:04.560 at a time
00:21:05.820 when
00:21:06.640 some angry
00:21:08.380 anthropologist
00:21:09.280 launched
00:21:10.220 a series
00:21:11.380 of four lawsuits
00:21:12.720 against me.
00:21:13.760 Sorry to laugh,
00:21:14.280 but given
00:21:16.000 my run-ins
00:21:16.660 with anthropologists,
00:21:17.600 the angry
00:21:18.140 anthropologist
00:21:18.820 is a fixture
00:21:20.080 in my imagination
00:21:21.000 that I can easily
00:21:22.020 summon.
00:21:24.040 Most
00:21:24.640 anthropologists
00:21:26.180 are normal,
00:21:27.380 decent human beings.
00:21:29.540 Yeah,
00:21:29.880 let's leave it at that.
00:21:31.220 But there are
00:21:32.200 a small number
00:21:33.800 of very angry
00:21:34.680 anthropologists
00:21:35.540 more so in
00:21:36.540 anthropology
00:21:37.060 than in other fields.
00:21:38.280 And consequences
00:21:39.180 for me
00:21:39.780 are
00:21:40.820 the putting up
00:21:41.920 of spikes
00:21:42.500 on my fence
00:21:44.080 and
00:21:45.160 getting
00:21:45.980 bodyguards.
00:21:47.580 They were
00:21:47.840 two
00:21:48.340 broad-shouldered
00:21:50.040 gentlemen
00:21:50.720 in black suits
00:21:52.040 who accompanied
00:21:53.000 me to a lecture
00:21:53.940 that I gave
00:21:54.660 at an unnamed
00:21:55.680 nearby university
00:21:56.760 because
00:21:57.280 an angry
00:21:58.620 anthropologist
00:21:59.460 called up
00:22:00.500 my host
00:22:01.100 and began
00:22:02.340 by saying,
00:22:03.020 do you believe
00:22:03.680 in academic freedom?
00:22:04.740 And then
00:22:05.580 the angry
00:22:06.640 anthropologist
00:22:07.240 proceeded
00:22:07.700 to say
00:22:08.640 that he
00:22:09.060 intended
00:22:09.520 to attempt
00:22:10.760 to disrupt
00:22:11.440 my lecture.
00:22:12.760 So we had
00:22:13.460 the two
00:22:13.780 gentlemen
00:22:14.160 with broad
00:22:15.900 black
00:22:16.260 children.
00:22:16.960 It's something
00:22:17.300 that I'm
00:22:17.600 constantly
00:22:17.900 with.
00:22:18.300 I've not
00:22:18.720 been physically
00:22:19.800 attacked,
00:22:20.340 but I certainly
00:22:20.900 have been
00:22:21.480 on the receiving
00:22:22.800 end of
00:22:23.460 a lot of
00:22:24.960 vile
00:22:25.540 verbiage.
00:22:26.740 Yeah.
00:22:27.420 Well,
00:22:27.720 let's get into
00:22:28.300 that a little bit.
00:22:28.960 So let's
00:22:30.060 start with
00:22:30.540 Guns, Germs,
00:22:31.040 and Steel.
00:22:31.760 What was the
00:22:32.200 thesis of that
00:22:32.800 book?
00:22:33.640 And what
00:22:34.240 was controversial
00:22:35.240 about it?
00:22:36.600 The question,
00:22:37.560 so the question
00:22:38.220 of the book
00:22:38.580 before we get
00:22:39.160 to the thesis,
00:22:39.920 the question
00:22:40.480 of the book
00:22:40.960 is why
00:22:42.060 has history
00:22:42.780 turned out
00:22:43.420 differently
00:22:43.860 for people
00:22:44.480 of different
00:22:44.940 continents?
00:22:45.960 Why is it
00:22:46.520 that you
00:22:46.900 and I
00:22:47.300 are sitting
00:22:48.080 here speaking
00:22:49.060 English
00:22:49.640 in land
00:22:51.820 of Native
00:22:53.000 Americans
00:22:53.540 where the
00:22:54.000 language
00:22:54.400 500 years
00:22:55.220 ago was
00:22:55.700 Chumash?
00:22:56.500 Why did
00:22:57.040 it turn
00:22:57.360 out that
00:22:57.800 way?
00:22:58.380 Why is it
00:22:58.780 not the
00:22:59.140 case that
00:22:59.540 Chumash
00:23:00.020 is the
00:23:00.740 language
00:23:01.060 spoken in
00:23:01.820 London?
00:23:03.180 Or why
00:23:04.100 is it
00:23:04.740 let's
00:23:05.040 say
00:23:05.320 Bantu
00:23:06.300 languages
00:23:06.880 are not
00:23:07.320 spoken in
00:23:08.140 Australia?
00:23:08.960 Why did
00:23:09.320 history turn
00:23:09.900 out that
00:23:10.400 way?
00:23:11.020 Why did
00:23:11.400 history turn
00:23:11.980 out with
00:23:12.500 Eurasian
00:23:13.220 people expanding
00:23:14.120 and particularly
00:23:14.580 within Eurasia
00:23:15.460 European people?
00:23:17.380 So that's
00:23:17.760 the question.
00:23:18.320 And the
00:23:19.940 subtext of
00:23:20.520 that obviously
00:23:21.040 is that we're
00:23:21.960 not just
00:23:22.320 interested in
00:23:22.960 who speaks
00:23:23.660 which language
00:23:24.360 we're talking
00:23:25.300 about why
00:23:26.000 did certain
00:23:26.580 civilizations
00:23:27.280 thrive so
00:23:28.800 fully that
00:23:29.340 they could
00:23:29.760 conquer and
00:23:30.660 dominate
00:23:31.040 others and
00:23:32.700 you have
00:23:33.020 massive
00:23:33.680 disparities in
00:23:34.740 wealth, in
00:23:36.060 technological
00:23:36.620 sophistication and
00:23:37.680 all the rest.
00:23:38.600 Exactly.
00:23:39.540 The way that my
00:23:41.200 friends in New
00:23:41.780 Guinea put it
00:23:42.400 they talk about
00:23:43.600 cargo.
00:23:44.480 Cargo is the
00:23:45.900 New Guinea term
00:23:46.560 for all of
00:23:47.940 the good
00:23:48.220 stuff, for
00:23:49.100 metal,
00:23:50.600 technology,
00:23:51.820 writing,
00:23:52.740 schools,
00:23:53.660 medicine.
00:23:54.240 And the way
00:23:54.700 New Guineans
00:23:55.800 put it to me
00:23:56.660 is why did
00:23:57.700 you white
00:23:58.320 people develop
00:23:59.500 all the cargo
00:24:00.340 while we
00:24:00.840 black people
00:24:01.460 had none?
00:24:02.320 New Guineans
00:24:02.820 posed the
00:24:04.180 question explicitly
00:24:05.500 and the
00:24:07.800 question was
00:24:08.580 posed to me
00:24:09.220 by a
00:24:10.360 New Guinean
00:24:10.900 in 1972.
00:24:14.520 It was a
00:24:14.980 great question.
00:24:16.600 I babbled
00:24:17.220 out something
00:24:17.760 but as soon
00:24:18.200 as I said
00:24:18.720 it I knew
00:24:19.140 that my
00:24:19.420 answer was
00:24:19.820 wrong.
00:24:20.880 Why is it
00:24:21.660 that these
00:24:22.000 really smart
00:24:22.740 people in
00:24:23.240 New Guinea,
00:24:24.000 why is it
00:24:24.940 that we
00:24:25.780 Europeans,
00:24:26.800 I who can't
00:24:27.420 find my way
00:24:28.000 around the
00:24:28.540 New Guinea
00:24:28.680 forest without
00:24:29.300 being guided
00:24:30.000 and I need
00:24:31.200 a child to
00:24:32.060 lead me by
00:24:32.500 the hand so
00:24:33.040 I won't
00:24:33.300 fall off a
00:24:33.820 cliff,
00:24:34.320 why is it
00:24:34.820 that New
00:24:35.400 Guineans
00:24:35.800 didn't conquer
00:24:37.100 the world?
00:24:38.520 The thesis
00:24:39.100 of guns,
00:24:39.840 germs and
00:24:40.200 steel,
00:24:40.980 when I ask
00:24:43.020 professors of
00:24:44.040 biochemistry
00:24:44.560 in the United
00:24:45.060 States this
00:24:45.620 question,
00:24:46.200 why did
00:24:46.520 Europeans
00:24:46.900 conquer the
00:24:47.440 world?
00:24:48.040 A typical
00:24:48.620 answer that
00:24:49.180 I'll get
00:24:49.520 is well,
00:24:50.280 you know,
00:24:52.540 I hate to
00:24:53.180 say it,
00:24:53.640 this isn't
00:24:54.080 politically
00:24:54.440 correct,
00:24:55.320 but higher IQ
00:24:56.740 and more
00:24:57.220 brains than
00:24:57.800 Judeo-Christian
00:24:58.520 work ethic.
00:24:59.580 But all you
00:24:59.960 have to do
00:25:00.360 is work in
00:25:00.920 New Guinea
00:25:01.220 one day and
00:25:02.720 you see that
00:25:03.960 it's not that
00:25:04.460 Europeans have
00:25:05.120 better brains
00:25:05.680 than New
00:25:06.020 Guineans.
00:25:06.480 There was
00:25:06.760 some other
00:25:07.160 explanation.
00:25:08.140 So guns,
00:25:08.700 germs and
00:25:09.060 steel,
00:25:09.820 in fact,
00:25:11.220 interpreted,
00:25:11.720 and the
00:25:13.180 explanation is
00:25:13.920 now widely
00:25:14.520 accepted by
00:25:15.180 people concerned
00:25:15.800 with these
00:25:16.160 things.
00:25:16.900 Guns,
00:25:17.180 germs and
00:25:17.520 steel interpreted
00:25:18.500 the different
00:25:19.420 rates of
00:25:19.860 development of
00:25:20.380 people on
00:25:20.740 different continents
00:25:21.440 in terms of
00:25:22.640 the wild plant
00:25:23.860 and animal
00:25:24.240 species suitable
00:25:24.980 for domestication
00:25:25.960 because everybody
00:25:27.040 was hunter-gatherers
00:25:28.100 everywhere in the
00:25:28.800 world until 11,000
00:25:30.340 years ago.
00:25:31.280 With the beginnings
00:25:32.180 of agriculture,
00:25:32.960 you got population
00:25:34.220 explosion, food
00:25:35.300 surpluses,
00:25:36.640 surpluses that
00:25:37.380 could feed
00:25:37.860 inventors,
00:25:39.540 kings,
00:25:40.060 scribes,
00:25:41.920 but only a
00:25:43.320 tiny fraction
00:25:43.920 of wild planted
00:25:44.560 animal species
00:25:45.280 are suitable
00:25:46.160 for domestication
00:25:47.120 and you can
00:25:47.560 satisfy yourself
00:25:48.620 just by taking
00:25:49.740 a walk this
00:25:50.360 weekend in the
00:25:50.940 Santa Monica
00:25:51.460 Mountains and
00:25:52.500 seeing what
00:25:52.920 there is out
00:25:53.520 there that's
00:25:53.940 suitable for
00:25:54.400 domestication,
00:25:55.380 like nothing,
00:25:56.200 trying to
00:25:56.560 domesticate a
00:25:57.600 skunk or a
00:25:58.380 deer.
00:25:59.600 So the people
00:26:00.660 living in the
00:26:01.720 areas with
00:26:02.280 wild planted
00:26:02.840 animal species,
00:26:03.920 the Fertile
00:26:04.340 Crescent,
00:26:05.380 China,
00:26:05.840 Mexico,
00:26:06.580 with ones who
00:26:07.040 got the head
00:26:07.500 start on
00:26:07.960 developing the
00:26:08.520 cargo.
00:26:10.060 Yeah, so I
00:26:10.760 remember from
00:26:11.640 that book,
00:26:12.300 there's an
00:26:12.700 arresting image
00:26:13.320 of just how
00:26:14.100 implausible it
00:26:15.560 would be to
00:26:16.020 try to saddle
00:26:16.900 a rhino and
00:26:17.600 ride it into
00:26:18.140 battle and
00:26:19.220 apparently a
00:26:20.520 zebra is not
00:26:21.360 much easier to
00:26:22.580 domesticate.
00:26:23.400 I was on the
00:26:24.040 animal management
00:26:25.640 committee of the
00:26:26.300 Los Angeles Zoo
00:26:27.400 and I was
00:26:28.680 astonished to
00:26:29.460 learn there that
00:26:30.300 the zoo animal
00:26:32.800 that each year
00:26:33.660 kills or cripples
00:26:35.220 more keepers,
00:26:37.080 zookeepers in the
00:26:37.860 United States than
00:26:38.600 any other,
00:26:39.080 is not tigers
00:26:40.380 but it's
00:26:40.800 zebras because
00:26:41.840 zebras have the
00:26:42.500 nasty habit,
00:26:43.780 well, two
00:26:44.540 things, they
00:26:45.200 have a nasty
00:26:45.660 habit of biting
00:26:46.740 and they don't
00:26:47.360 let go until
00:26:47.980 you're dead.
00:26:49.000 The other thing
00:26:49.480 is, seriously,
00:26:50.100 they have a
00:26:51.860 really vicious
00:26:52.600 kick, the kick
00:26:53.740 is useful to
00:26:54.400 them because when
00:26:55.080 they're being
00:26:55.720 chased by a
00:26:56.400 lion and the
00:26:57.040 lion is ready
00:26:57.580 for the next
00:26:58.380 last one, the
00:27:00.040 zebra kicks
00:27:00.680 out and smashes
00:27:01.940 the jaw of the
00:27:03.160 lion.
00:27:03.880 So zebras have
00:27:04.900 not been
00:27:05.320 domesticated.
00:27:06.360 There are people
00:27:06.800 that then point
00:27:07.400 out to me that
00:27:08.420 Lord Rothschild
00:27:11.260 got some
00:27:12.520 zebras that
00:27:13.040 pulled his
00:27:13.900 cart in
00:27:14.440 London.
00:27:15.260 Yes, you can
00:27:16.100 occasionally get
00:27:16.700 zebras to pull
00:27:17.680 carts but they've
00:27:18.280 never been
00:27:18.600 domesticated.
00:27:19.540 Whereas horses
00:27:20.240 and donkeys have
00:27:21.620 been domesticated.
00:27:23.040 So you paint a
00:27:23.720 picture of really
00:27:25.340 sheer, unearned,
00:27:28.380 geographic disparities
00:27:30.500 in luck.
00:27:31.060 completely unearned
00:27:33.080 geographic disparities
00:27:34.220 where that upsets
00:27:36.000 angry anthropologists
00:27:37.700 is twofold.
00:27:39.100 First of all, to
00:27:40.440 discuss why
00:27:41.560 Europeans expanded
00:27:43.260 over the world
00:27:43.900 means that you are
00:27:45.140 Eurocentric and
00:27:46.780 racist.
00:27:47.500 It's not nice to
00:27:48.320 pose the question.
00:27:49.300 But the fact is
00:27:50.000 everybody can see
00:27:51.220 that Europeans
00:27:53.500 rather than
00:27:54.500 Aboriginal Australians
00:27:55.360 or Africans
00:27:55.960 conquer the world
00:27:57.040 and it cries out
00:27:58.000 for explanation.
00:27:58.680 The fact that
00:28:00.260 historians and
00:28:01.500 archaeologists
00:28:02.280 hadn't provided
00:28:03.220 an answer to the
00:28:03.900 question, that
00:28:04.740 forces people to
00:28:06.260 fall back on the
00:28:07.320 obvious racial
00:28:08.060 explanation.
00:28:08.740 You can see that
00:28:09.200 people have
00:28:09.620 different faces and
00:28:10.900 maybe that means
00:28:11.500 that they have
00:28:11.900 different brains.
00:28:12.980 So to pose the
00:28:13.700 question means that
00:28:15.220 you're bad because
00:28:16.140 you're racist and
00:28:17.200 you're eccentric.
00:28:18.760 And then also to
00:28:19.780 answer the question
00:28:20.620 in terms of
00:28:21.580 geography means
00:28:23.340 geographic
00:28:24.360 determinism, which
00:28:25.680 is another dirty
00:28:26.440 word.
00:28:27.440 Geographic
00:28:27.840 determinism seems
00:28:29.360 to imply that
00:28:30.100 the human spirit
00:28:31.000 counts for
00:28:31.640 nothing.
00:28:32.620 Well, the human
00:28:33.460 spirit counts for
00:28:34.260 something within
00:28:35.160 limits.
00:28:36.000 But if you would
00:28:36.480 like to stand at
00:28:37.380 the North Pole in
00:28:38.200 January in a
00:28:39.540 t-shirt and shorts
00:28:40.580 and look to the
00:28:42.060 human spirit to
00:28:43.020 allow you to stand
00:28:44.380 there, lots of
00:28:45.480 luck for the
00:28:45.940 human spirit.
00:28:47.040 All this,
00:28:47.480 geography has big
00:28:48.520 effects and in
00:28:50.220 some cases the
00:28:51.040 big effects are
00:28:51.840 dominant like standing
00:28:52.880 the North Pole in a
00:28:54.040 t-shirt, but also
00:28:55.020 in developing
00:28:55.540 agriculture.
00:28:56.220 If you don't
00:28:57.380 have domesticable
00:28:58.340 species around
00:28:59.060 there, you're not
00:28:59.840 going to develop
00:29:00.420 agriculture and
00:29:01.540 without agriculture
00:29:02.440 you don't develop
00:29:03.580 metal tools and
00:29:04.580 you don't develop
00:29:05.140 writing and you
00:29:05.860 don't develop
00:29:06.320 kings.
00:29:08.060 So what has
00:29:08.740 been the most
00:29:10.580 persuasive argument
00:29:12.420 against this
00:29:14.360 thesis?
00:29:15.140 Has there been
00:29:15.440 anything?
00:29:15.740 None whatsoever.
00:29:18.500 Oh, to be able to
00:29:19.680 say that, that's
00:29:20.240 correct.
00:29:20.360 No, the fact
00:29:21.520 is there is no
00:29:22.260 counter-explanation.
00:29:25.420 Occasionally, I
00:29:26.540 recall one
00:29:27.380 archaeologist who
00:29:28.460 said there are
00:29:29.400 cultural reasons
00:29:30.280 why Aboriginal
00:29:31.100 Australians never
00:29:32.500 developed agriculture.
00:29:33.800 Well, for heaven's
00:29:34.640 sakes, there are
00:29:35.440 what, 184 different
00:29:36.760 tribes in Aboriginal
00:29:37.760 Australia and they're
00:29:39.020 different from each
00:29:39.660 other, but Australia
00:29:41.820 has no domesticable
00:29:43.040 plant or animal
00:29:44.480 species other than
00:29:45.340 macadamia nuts, but
00:29:46.540 you can't found a
00:29:47.220 civilization based on
00:29:48.320 macadamia nuts.
00:29:49.940 So there is no
00:29:50.820 alternative explanation.
00:29:52.440 Yeah, I'm totally
00:29:53.440 persuaded of your
00:29:55.760 thesis.
00:29:56.520 I guess it also
00:29:58.100 seems plausible to
00:29:58.840 me that there are
00:29:59.280 other contributing
00:29:59.940 factors which
00:30:02.020 arguably are of the
00:30:04.100 sort raised that are
00:30:05.180 even less politically
00:30:06.380 correct than yours,
00:30:09.360 which is any groups
00:30:10.760 of people who are
00:30:11.720 isolated enough so
00:30:13.200 as to express
00:30:14.080 biological and
00:30:16.440 cultural variation.
00:30:18.320 are going to
00:30:20.300 differ in some
00:30:21.580 factors that are
00:30:22.820 relevant to their
00:30:24.300 differential success
00:30:25.380 as groups, right?
00:30:26.280 So whether it's
00:30:27.320 biology and or
00:30:28.660 culture, it's almost
00:30:29.540 certainly both to
00:30:30.780 some degree.
00:30:31.640 There will be
00:30:32.100 differences in the
00:30:33.880 mean level of
00:30:34.960 expression of certain
00:30:36.020 skills, which could
00:30:37.380 lead to differential
00:30:38.100 success given the
00:30:40.000 environments that
00:30:40.840 select for it,
00:30:42.200 right?
00:30:42.400 So it seems to me
00:30:44.000 to be an
00:30:45.500 unsustainable and a
00:30:47.380 fundamentally
00:30:47.740 unnecessary political
00:30:50.040 commitment to say
00:30:51.220 that we know in
00:30:52.340 advance that there
00:30:54.400 are no differences
00:30:55.620 between groups that
00:30:57.660 are biologically
00:30:58.520 mediated.
00:30:59.220 I mean, we know
00:30:59.560 there are cultural
00:31:00.180 differences that are
00:31:01.000 relevant.
00:31:01.640 I mean, it's just that
00:31:02.760 is as obvious as the
00:31:04.280 nose on anyone's face.
00:31:05.280 But the idea that there
00:31:07.720 could be biological
00:31:09.880 differences that have
00:31:11.720 implications for the
00:31:14.180 success of whole
00:31:15.720 groups of people, it
00:31:17.520 does seem to me that
00:31:18.140 we can't rule that
00:31:19.000 out.
00:31:20.100 And there's no reason
00:31:21.500 to rule that out once
00:31:22.560 we know that our
00:31:24.480 political commitment is
00:31:25.560 such that we want all
00:31:27.120 of these unearned
00:31:28.700 differences in luck to
00:31:31.240 be canceled insofar as
00:31:32.760 that increasingly becomes
00:31:34.340 possible.
00:31:34.940 We want everyone to be
00:31:35.880 able to thrive in
00:31:36.700 whatever way they want
00:31:38.080 to thrive such that
00:31:39.600 it's compatible with the
00:31:40.480 thriving of other
00:31:41.180 people.
00:31:41.500 That has to be the
00:31:42.920 punchline for how we
00:31:44.380 build a viable global
00:31:45.920 civilization.
00:31:47.240 But the idea that, I
00:31:48.640 mean, this is just to
00:31:49.780 express the fear as
00:31:51.320 clearly as possible.
00:31:52.640 It seems, and this is
00:31:53.600 I'm sure anthropologists
00:31:55.880 by the thousands would
00:31:56.880 line up in defense of
00:31:57.980 this notion, that the
00:32:00.380 idea that if we tested
00:32:02.360 Fijians for the top 100
00:32:05.860 traits we care about in
00:32:07.320 human beings, quantitative
00:32:09.300 intelligence being one,
00:32:10.380 but we could add
00:32:11.500 sense of humor and
00:32:12.800 everything else we love
00:32:13.700 about people, whatever
00:32:15.360 those 100 traits are, and
00:32:17.000 we tested Norwegians on
00:32:20.000 those same traits, people
00:32:22.440 feel like we are
00:32:23.700 approaching some ethical
00:32:25.640 or political emergency if
00:32:28.640 we don't conclude in
00:32:30.240 advance that all of those
00:32:32.840 mean values must be the
00:32:34.560 same.
00:32:35.300 Or if there's any
00:32:36.680 difference between them,
00:32:38.820 genetics can't have
00:32:39.680 anything to do with it,
00:32:40.500 right?
00:32:41.000 Even though we know that
00:32:41.860 so much about ourselves is
00:32:44.000 largely governed by what we
00:32:47.780 are physically, that is
00:32:49.520 genetically.
00:32:50.080 So I wonder if you have any
00:32:51.600 thoughts on that topic.
00:32:53.220 All of what you say about
00:32:54.700 expectations, it's all true.
00:32:58.320 People differ in eye color
00:33:00.320 around the world.
00:33:01.780 People differ in hair color,
00:33:03.880 red, yellow, brown, black,
00:33:05.220 et cetera.
00:33:05.740 So why shouldn't they also
00:33:07.180 differ in quantitative
00:33:09.040 ability or in predisposition
00:33:14.040 to verbalize in certain ways?
00:33:18.560 Why shouldn't they differ in
00:33:20.400 predisposition to tonal versus
00:33:22.840 non-tonal languages?
00:33:25.240 Theoretically, that's a
00:33:26.160 possibility.
00:33:27.020 The problem is that despite a
00:33:28.700 lot of effort by a lot of
00:33:29.980 people to establish
00:33:31.480 differences in, say,
00:33:34.120 cognitive skills,
00:33:35.960 differences at a population
00:33:37.640 level have not been
00:33:38.560 established.
00:33:40.040 Instead, there are obvious
00:33:41.320 massive cultural effects on
00:33:43.640 cognitive skills.
00:33:44.560 But my experience in New
00:33:47.840 Guinea, it doesn't take much
00:33:49.800 time with New Guineans, with
00:33:51.580 traditional New Guineans, to
00:33:53.220 realize that these are smart
00:33:54.540 people.
00:33:55.500 And yes, there are differences
00:33:56.600 among New Guineans, but on the
00:33:59.800 average, my experience with
00:34:01.060 New Guineans right from the
00:34:02.160 first year has been that they
00:34:04.000 are more curious and they're
00:34:08.780 more inventive, more prone to
00:34:12.180 look for possibilities to use
00:34:14.360 something.
00:34:15.280 They just strike me as
00:34:16.500 more alert than Europeans.
00:34:20.900 Right.
00:34:21.460 Now, the reasons for this...
00:34:23.220 Well, then maybe there's an
00:34:24.340 invidious comparison to draw
00:34:25.520 between New Guineans and
00:34:26.660 Europeans for certain types of
00:34:28.660 inventiveness.
00:34:30.240 Absolutely.
00:34:30.640 I'm just saying that we don't...
00:34:32.640 What I'm increasingly worried
00:34:33.700 about, and you're talking to
00:34:35.360 someone who's still dealing with
00:34:36.700 the aftermath of having had
00:34:38.340 Charles Murray on the podcast
00:34:39.980 and dealt with the whole
00:34:41.600 legacy of his publicity
00:34:44.560 problems, really, in the end.
00:34:46.080 And it just seems to me that we
00:34:47.880 can close the loop on the
00:34:50.020 political and ethical concern
00:34:51.640 without knowing what we're going
00:34:54.040 to find over the next century of
00:34:55.960 studying human biology, human
00:34:58.620 genetics, its contribution to
00:35:00.420 everything we care about.
00:35:01.520 We know that we're living in a
00:35:04.880 circumstance where each of us
00:35:06.420 personally and all of us
00:35:07.900 collectively have inherited the
00:35:11.580 world as we find it.
00:35:13.180 You know, you didn't pick your
00:35:13.960 ancestors, and therefore you
00:35:15.940 didn't pick your genes.
00:35:16.720 You didn't pick the society into
00:35:18.060 which you were born.
00:35:19.160 And whatever tools you have to
00:35:21.020 make the most of this situation,
00:35:22.660 you didn't earn any of them.
00:35:24.400 Right?
00:35:24.580 You can't account for yourself.
00:35:26.300 And yet what we notice the world
00:35:27.720 over, you know, both within our
00:35:29.600 society, you know, how many
00:35:31.280 homeless people did I pass on
00:35:32.560 the way to your house to
00:35:33.760 conduct this interview?
00:35:34.900 I know that but for a few
00:35:37.680 changes in my neurophysiology or
00:35:41.420 just in my history as a person,
00:35:44.560 you know, opportunities I didn't
00:35:46.200 get or didn't take advantage of,
00:35:48.260 I would be one of those people
00:35:49.660 who's, you know, now sleeping on
00:35:50.860 the sidewalk tonight.
00:35:52.080 So we know that we want to
00:35:54.380 mitigate those disparities
00:35:56.880 disparities, and we know that
00:35:58.300 being good people and building
00:35:59.900 good societies is predicated on
00:36:02.620 our commitment to mitigating
00:36:04.300 those disparities, and yet I find
00:36:06.260 myself surrounded by people, and
00:36:07.680 again, they seem disproportionately
00:36:09.320 to be anthropologists or social
00:36:11.460 scientists, who feel that even to
00:36:14.580 broach the topic that I just
00:36:16.780 broached to you is a sign of some
00:36:19.860 covert interest in, you know, white
00:36:24.500 supremacy or some insane political
00:36:26.940 doctrine that, you know, has gotten
00:36:28.920 people, you know, by the millions
00:36:30.740 killed, I mean, these are the kinds
00:36:33.020 of political experiences we're about
00:36:34.620 to talk about.
00:36:35.640 I just think we have to pull back
00:36:37.740 from this brink where we feel like
00:36:38.920 we can't, again, I wasn't even
00:36:40.760 expecting to bring this up to you, but
00:36:42.660 given your academic bona fides, it
00:36:45.240 seems worth doing.
00:36:47.120 This is where the precariousness of our
00:36:49.720 situation intellectually was first
00:36:52.520 forced upon me.
00:36:53.940 I remember in 2014 when it was found
00:36:56.580 that homo sapien DNA had been
00:36:59.500 commingled with Neanderthal DNA to
00:37:01.960 the tune of, you know, 2.7% or 3%.
00:37:04.400 Basically, everyone on Earth, with
00:37:06.720 the exception of people who have just
00:37:08.900 all of their ancestors in Africa, is
00:37:11.480 part Neanderthal, right?
00:37:13.020 And so I remember going out on social
00:37:14.600 media that day and quite
00:37:16.160 sanctimoniously saying, attention all
00:37:19.420 racists, you were right, whites are
00:37:21.860 special, we're part Neanderthal, blacks
00:37:24.300 are just human, right?
00:37:26.200 You know, it took me about five seconds
00:37:28.180 after sending that tweet to understand
00:37:30.900 what if it had gone the other way?
00:37:33.360 What if the only people on Earth who
00:37:35.520 were part Neanderthal were people of
00:37:37.820 African, direct African descent?
00:37:40.180 That would have been a life-deranging,
00:37:44.040 probably life-destroying discovery for
00:37:47.360 the geneticist who had the misfortune to
00:37:50.340 make it, or for any journalist who had
00:37:53.080 the temerity to even talk about it, right?
00:37:54.920 It just would have been so awful for
00:37:57.800 reasons that we have to perform an
00:38:00.060 exorcism on.
00:38:01.200 We can't politically be vulnerable to
00:38:04.020 just the data coming in.
00:38:06.500 The data will be whatever they are, right?
00:38:08.420 And who cares who's part Neanderthal in
00:38:11.020 the end?
00:38:11.320 But I feel that we as a community of
00:38:14.900 public intellectuals, for lack of a better
00:38:17.360 word, are truly vulnerable to what is a
00:38:21.180 kind of moral panic around the politics
00:38:25.280 of discussing human difference.
00:38:27.440 If the studies were available, the answers
00:38:31.260 are likely to be unpalatable to people who
00:38:37.000 least expect the outcome of the studies.
00:38:38.760 A personal example that I encountered was
00:38:41.460 that a friend introduced me to a
00:38:44.960 prospective donor to support my research.
00:38:48.440 And the prospective donor was a wealthy
00:38:51.220 industrialist.
00:38:52.220 And then the friend made the horrible
00:38:54.200 mistake of talking about my New Guinea work
00:38:56.960 and then saying to a friend in front of the
00:38:58.620 prospective donor, Jared, didn't you say that
00:39:01.400 New Guineans strike you as more intelligent
00:39:06.040 than Europeans?
00:39:08.100 And at which point the donor, the prospective
00:39:10.460 donor flipped out and said, what has any New
00:39:14.100 Guinean ever done for world civilization?
00:39:17.960 Well, you know, if you don't have metal tools,
00:39:21.060 your capacity to possibilities of doing stuff
00:39:24.360 for world civilization are limited.
00:39:26.080 The fact is that those who invented agriculture
00:39:29.380 longest ago, 11,000 years ago, the major causes
00:39:33.040 of death in Eurasian societies for the last
00:39:36.360 many millennia have been epidemic infectious
00:39:39.260 diseases, which means that the strongest
00:39:41.480 natural selection is for overcoming resisting
00:39:45.280 smallpox and measles.
00:39:47.220 And that depends upon ABO blood groups and
00:39:49.600 da, da, da, da, da.
00:39:50.680 It's a major cause of death.
00:39:52.120 Whereas in New Guinea, the major causes of death
00:39:55.560 death are starvation, fighting with other New
00:39:59.920 Guineans, figuring out how to survive a frost
00:40:04.940 or a famine, there's strong selection for
00:40:07.180 intelligence rather than epidemic diseases
00:40:09.460 because the population wasn't large enough for
00:40:11.760 epidemic diseases.
00:40:13.200 Therefore, it would not be surprising if the
00:40:16.580 studies that you're thinking of end up showing
00:40:19.060 that New Guineans have not only more social
00:40:21.820 skills developed culturally, but that they have,
00:40:24.100 they were genetically selected for a superior
00:40:26.300 cognitive ability.
00:40:27.880 But there are a lot of people who won't like
00:40:30.340 that conclusion.
00:40:31.540 Right.
00:40:32.160 And I would also imagine that there's been a
00:40:34.940 fair amount of selection pressure for intergroup
00:40:38.140 violence, you know, outgroup violence.
00:40:41.260 Yeah.
00:40:41.560 In basically any society that doesn't have a
00:40:44.380 central government, what central governments can
00:40:47.740 declare war and kill 100,000 people in 10 seconds,
00:40:51.500 yes.
00:40:51.720 But what central governments can also do is end wars,
00:40:56.080 whereas in societies without centralized governments,
00:40:58.280 you can't end wars.
00:40:59.640 You can reach a temporary peace or an agreement to
00:41:04.420 halt the hostilities, but then a batch of hotheads from
00:41:08.120 your group would go attack another group.
00:41:10.000 You can't restrain the hotheads.
00:41:11.680 So the fact is, and again, anthropologists don't like to
00:41:16.180 recognize the fact, but there's massive evidence that the
00:41:18.920 percent of people who die violent deaths per year in
00:41:22.960 traditional tribal societies without centralized
00:41:25.300 government is considerably higher than in state
00:41:27.740 societies.
00:41:28.780 Yeah.
00:41:29.100 Well, that's a happy point that our mutual friend Steve
00:41:32.440 Pinker has made to the consternation of many that, I mean,
00:41:35.040 that civilization as horrible as recent or even distant
00:41:40.260 wars were, again, even adding World War I and World War II to the
00:41:45.520 ledger, what we see is a precipitous decline in the risk that
00:41:49.900 you are going to die at the hands of another person as
00:41:53.040 civilization has progressed.
00:41:55.000 Right.
00:41:55.720 And Steve has drawn on studies by anthropologists and
00:42:00.960 archaeologists who've surveyed dozens and maybe hundreds of
00:42:05.280 societies around the world, traditional societies.
00:42:08.740 You can come up with a couple of traditional societies with low rates
00:42:12.700 of violence, but the great majority have rates of violence, rates of
00:42:16.600 violent deaths, percentages per year of violent deaths in excess of
00:42:21.320 those, in excess of the worst of the worst, in excess of Poland in the
00:42:25.600 20th century.
00:42:26.840 Yeah.
00:42:28.060 So, okay, we're on our way to your recent book, but let's touch on
00:42:32.860 collapse.
00:42:33.800 What was the thesis of that book?
00:42:35.440 The thesis of collapse is that, in the past, societies have
00:42:40.360 profiled to collapse.
00:42:43.340 If you'd like to continue listening to this conversation, you'll need to
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