Videos/Podcasts

Why do anxiety and depression exist? KeepTalking video podcast with Dan Riley, 2024.

Are evolutionary explanations for human capacities for relationships helpful in psychiatry?"
Video of 30 minute talk at the August, 2024 Evolutionary Psychiatry meeting in Durham UK.


Four short-form videos from the Great Minds series produced by the Korean Educational Broadcasting Service in 2023 

Why evolution left us so vulnerable to depression and anxiety, two hours of audio on the 80,000 hours podcast, with Robert Wiblin, 2024Video version also now available 

Why aging exists at all, video of a 1 hour lecture for the Arizona Senior Academy, 2024 (audio comes in at 1:45) 

Evolutionary Explanations for Mental Illness and Human Suffering, podcast for KTAL Radio's Delving In, with Stuart Kelter, 2024. 

Six short video talks on evolutionary psychiatry produced by TheGreatMinds.com. The 10 minute introduction to natural selection is open access. 

Why evolution left us so vulnerable to depression and anxiety, two hours of audio on the 80,000 hours podcast, with Robert Wiblin, 2024.

Depression & the Art of Giving Up, podcast from the Ottawa Institute of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy with Owen Kelly, 2024

Is anxiety inherited?  Happy Habit podcast # 362 with Mathieu Norry, 2023.


The future of evolutionary medicine, keynote for a 90 minute 2023 Frontiers Forum with 6 speakers.  


Selfish Genes & Good Reasons For Bad Feelings, video podcast on The Mind-Body Solution with Tevin Naidu, 2023 


Emotional Disorders, a 2023 audio podcast on "The Thinking Mind" with psychiatrist Alex Curmi.


Stoicism, religion, morality, anxiety and depression, a 2023 audio podcast on Stoa, with Caleb Ontiverso  


Evolutionary medicine, a 2023 slide talk overview of the 50+ Henry Stewart Talks series on evolutionary medicine 


Can Evolution Explain Human Emotions?  2023 Modern Wisdom Podcast 542 with Chris Williamson

Talks on Evolutionary Medicine at University of Milano-Bicocca, June 2023, talk starts at 15:30

The Saad Truth vIdeo podcast 2023


Selfish Genes & Good Reasons For Bad Feelings, video podcast on The Mind-Body Solution with Tevin Naidu, 2023

Evolutionary Psychiatry: Lecture with slides for the Henry Stuart Talks series on evolutionary medicine, 2023

Why depression exists: Panel discussion on Television Ontario, The Agenda, with Steve Palin, 2023

Video podcast on Emotions, Evolution, and Evolutionary Psychiatry on the 2023 Painting Onions YouTube Channel

Can Evolution Explain Human Emotions? 2022 YouTube video of a Modern Wisdom Podcast with Chris Williamson

A six minute YouTube video about the Smoke Detector Principle

Good (Evolutionary) Reasons for Bad Feelings 2022 Nature Nurture Video Podcast

Why do mental disorders persist? Evolving Psychiatry 2022 video podcast (17 min.)

The Evolution of Anxiety  Evolving Psychiatry 2022 video podcast (16 min.)

Why Relationships Exist: Evolutionary Foundations for Psychotherapy
Video of a 2022 talk for the World Psychiatry Association

Evolutionary Psychiatry A narrated slideshow from HSTalks, not open access.

What is evolutionary medicine?  A 13 minute overview on YouTube

Why hasn't natural selection eliminated mental disorders. A YouTube video with slides of  talk for the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland, 2022

Grand Rounds, Texas Health Resources University, 2022

Intrinsically vulnerable control systems and disease heritability, 13 minute video

Evolutionary Psychiatry 40 minute video for Abertay University (talk starts at 3 minutes).

Why Bad feelings are usually normal but useless. Video of a 12 min talk for HBES 2021. 

Video from 52 Living Ideas MeetUp discussion about Good Reasons for Bad Feelings, 2021

Video of Grand Rounds, Tufts University Department of Psychiatry, 2021 

Varför mår vi så dåligt? Podcast (in English) with the wonderful Stockholm psychiatrist/author/podcaster Åsa Nilsonne about the evolutionary origins of unsatisfiable desires, 2021

Video on Tacit Creationism in emotions research 

Podcast from the Jordan Harbinger show

Lecture on Evolutionary Psychiatry for a class at Oxford University in 2020 (60 minutes, my most comprehensive overview of evolutionary psychiatry) 

Big Biology Audio Podcast on Mental Smoke Detectors 2020

Podcast for Thoughts on Record--This 2020 podcast with Pete Kelly is the best one for psychotherapists who are curious about how evolutionary thinking can help them...and their patients

Grand Rounds August 2020 for the University of Arizona Department of Psychiatry

2020 podcast on Good Reasons for Bad Feelings from the Jordan Harbinger show

Intrinsically vulnerable organic systems  Video of my 2019 talk at  Mathematical Biology Workshop on "Rules of Life"

Why painful emotions persist, Simplify Podcast 2019

Evolution and mental illness video podcast with Ricard Lopes on "The Dissenter" 

Video of a talk on evolutionary medicine and diet for Ancestral Health conference, 2016

How to test an evolutionary hypothesis about disease 2013. 

Why aren't we happier? Podcast on Public Radio International Innovation Hub

Making Sense of Mental Illness, Podcast on Intelligent Medicine with Ronald Hoffman, MD. Part 1 

Making Sense of Mental Illness, Podcast on Intelligent Medicine with Ronald Hoffman, MD. Part 2 

Start the week BBC interview (@16.5 min.) February 11, 2019.

Its Not You, Its Evolution, Podcast for Simplify, with Caitlin Schiller (37m) Transcript here

Good Reasons for Bad Feelings: Video podcast with Robert Wright, March, 2019

Mental Smoke Detectors, Podcast #24 on BigBiology

Good Reasons for Bad Feelings. Podcast of the Stephen Spierer show on TalkRadioOne

Why We Get Sick, a podcast with Charles Kazilek on the website Ask a Biologist

USA Book launch debate and discussion with three panelists 

Video overview of Good Reasons for Bad Feelings: Insights from the Frontier of Evolutionary Psychiatry 

Video podcast with Robert Wright

PBS AZ Horizons Interview March 19, 2019 (11 min)

Why We Get Sad: Evolutionary Foundations for Psychiatry. Royal College of Psychiatrists, October 4, 2016

Complex adaptive systems, evolution and disease Feb 2017 Symposium

Breaking the wall to understanding disease, Falling Walls Conference, Berlin, November 9, 2016

Why genes that cause disease persist  USCD CARTA talk October 14, 2016

Medicine Without Evolution is like Engineering Without Physics- Ancestral Health Society, June 1, 2016

Doctor Darwin: Is Evolutionary Medicine the Future of Health Linnean Society, London, January 22, 2016.

Evolutionary Medicine at 20: Not yet Mature but on the Way Harvard Museum of Natural History, March 29, 2012

Methods for Testing Hypotheses: Why Darwinian Medicine is Difficult - Lecture at MDIBL 2012 summer course

Darwinian Medicine, Cambridge University Darwin Festival 2009  A short overview of Darwinian medicine and social selection. 

Evolutionary Medicine: Envisioning the Opportunities   Keynote at Palo Alto Institute Conference 2012  available on YouTube

Evolution and Medicine (unedited footage from UK TV interview on Evolutionary Medicine with Richard Dawkins)

Evolution and Medicine: How New Applications Advance Research and Practice, Henry Stewart Talks Series of 40 lectures edited by Randolph Nesse (Demos available, but full access requires purchase of a subscription.  Your university can get a free six month trial. )

What is Grief Good For? Audio lecture based on my research on bereavement 

Case Western University's Year of Darwin: The Great Opportunity: New Evolutionary Applications in Medicine  

Overview of Evolutionary Applications in Medicine.  Sackler Colloquium, National Academy, 2009

The Evolving Body. Podcast at  Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Darwinian Medicine: The Pleasures and Perils of New Questions Lecture at a Symposium: Darwinian Evolution Across the Disciplines Realplayer version of talks from a Dartmouth Interdisciplinary Symposium October 29-30, 1999, Dartmouth College.

Evolution: The missing basic science that brings psychiatry coherence and deeper empathy.  American Psychiatric Association Distinguished Psychiatrist Lecture 2005, recorded in MP3. (right click to download)

If evolution is so great, why is depression so common?  Grand Rounds, Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, 2005.  QuickTime movie.