Podcast
In this episode of Podcast 45 degrees, Science returns to the center of the conversation, with the return of Paulo Gama Mota, biologist and professor at the University of Coimbra, expert on animal behavior and sexual selection. This time, the conversation with José Maria Pimentel focuses on cultural evolution, complementing previous episodes dedicated to biological evolution
Paulo Gama Mota is a biologist, doctorate from the University of Coimbra, associate professor at the Department of Life Sciences at FCTUC and researcher at Cibio. It investigates animal behavior and understanding of its evolutionary causes, including animal communication and sexual selection. He is a teacher in areas related to the evolution and the evolution of behavior. It maintains a great interest in science communication, having been director of various museums and responsible for the project and director of the University of Coimbra Museum of Science (2006-2015).
Throughout the conversation, the way culture is explored, such as genes, it is transmitted, accumulates and transforms over time, also subject to selection mechanisms. The old question of human nature is also discussed: Are we, by instinct, cooperative or competitive? The answer proves more complex than the models of Hobbes or Rousseau suggested.
Among the topics covered are the role of religion in social cooperation, the limits of language in primates, the human fascination with the spicy, the debate between biological inheritance and the influence of the environment, the risks of extrapolating ideas from evolutionary biology to society and the way evolution continues to shape characteristics such as height, digestion or food tolerance. A comprehensive conversation that links biology to human culture and identity.
The 45 degrees is a podcast to know more and think critically. José Maria Pimentel – Economist, university professor and curious by nature – talks about the big themes (and not only) with experts and people whose ideas is worth listening. They are conversations without haste, sometimes deep, but always relaxed. New episodes every two weeks, always on Wednesday.
