Evolutionary Psychology (the podcast) &#8211; Dave Pietraszewski &amp; David Pinsof

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https://www.durham.ac.uk/staff/sheina-lew-levy/

Childhood in the Congo Basin with Sheina Lew-Levy Jun 24, 2025

Show notes

Helicopter parenting is not a human universal! Guest Sheina Lew-Levy (Durham) explains what drew her to studying childhood among BaYaka foragers in the Congo Basin, and what parenting and childhood is like there and how this helps us understand who we are and what we need growing up. In this episode we also cover why field anthropologists are bad*ss and how, for David, “roughing it” involves staying at a 3-star hotel without room-service.

More about Sheina Lew-Levy:

https://sites.google.com/view/sheinalewlevy/home

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Friendship with Jaimie Krems Jun 17, 2025

Show notes

Why is the study of friendship so lonely, and what makes Philadelphia Philly? Guest Jaimie Krems (UCLA) explains why friendship is a blindspot in science, and why she has no advice to give you if you’re feeling lonely (we’re only half-kidding). If you do want friends, don’t want friends, or have friends, you should listen to this episode.

More about Jaimie Krems:

UCLA Social Minds Lab

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Computational Mate Choice @ UCSB

Mating with Daniel Conroy-Beam Jun 10, 2025

Show notes

Guest Daniel Conroy-Beam (UCSB) explains why human mating has occupied the interest of evolutionary psychologists, what consequences this has had on science, and how things might be done better. If you want to understand the science behind why we prefer certain other people to bonk, don’t listen to this episode (we’re kidding, this is exactly what Dan studies).

More about Daniel Conroy-Beam:

https://psych.ucsb.edu/people/faculty/daniel-conroy-beam

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Controversies in Evolutionary Psychology Jun 03, 2025

Show notes

Dave and David plunge (or dip a toe) into the controversies surrounding evolutionary psychology and try to make a good-faith effort, while not suffering fools (or internet trolls) lightly.

Listen through to the end of this one.

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Basement Cults May 27, 2025

Show notes

Co-host Dave Pietraszewski explains how he learned to love evolutionary psychology despite hating it at first, why attending basement cults as a child in upstate New York wasn’t all bad, really, and why he thinks understanding the human mind will require eventually understanding the evolutionary psychology of psychologists.

More about Evolutionary Psychology

More about David Pinsof:

More about Dave Pietraszewski:

Dave & Annie Wertz’s Modularity Paper

Things mentioned this Episode:

Planetary Regression

Dave’s How our intuitive psychology shapes our science paper

Wayne Wu's paper on attention

Music by David Pinsof

Produced by Naomi Monahan-Miller

Is Evolutionary Psychology Bulls**t? May 20, 2025

Show notes

Co-host David Pinsof explains how he discovered evolutionary psychology, why it might not be bulls**t, and why we hate status-seekers (most of the time). Since this is our first episode and it’s been a while, there may be other stuff in this episode, but we don’t remember what it is.

More about Evolutionary Psychology

More about David Pinsof:

More about Dave Pietraszewski:

The Center for Evolutionary Psychology: Publication List

Things mentioned this Episode:

Matrix Scene