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How did we evolve to be the way we are? I'm joined by international award winning philosopher on evolutionary science Dr Kim Sterelny and international acclaimed comedian Tom Ballard to find out.
Guest comedian:
Tom Ballard is one of Australia's most decorated comedians who has been selling out shows and winning awards around the world for over a decade. His accolades include (but aren't limited to) Best Newcomer Winner at Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Best Show Winner at Sydney Comedy Festival and Best Show Nominee at Edinburgh Comedy Festival. When he's not on stage Tom is a regular on TV and Radio and also hosts the brilliant 'Like I'm a Six-Year-Old' podcast.
Tom has upcoming tours scheduled in Brisbane and Sydney and is filming his show across two nights in Melbourne.
You can learn more on his website. Or check out his Facebook, Instagram or Twitter
Guest expert:
Professor Kim Sterelny is arguably one of the most influential thinkers and academics of our generation. He is the winner of multiple international awards in science and philosophy, including the Jean-Nicod Prize and Lakatos Award. Kim is currently a Chief Investigator and leader of the Language Evolution program at the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language. He is also an ARC Laureate Professor at the ANU School of Philosophy. His latest book The Pleistocene Social Contract: Culture and Cooperation in Human Evolution has just been published by Oxford University Press.
His research interests have always been in the border areas between philosophy and the sciences; most of his research and graduate supervision has been in philosophy of biology and the philosophy of the cognitive sciences. In the last decade and a half, he has been particularly interested in human evolution and in understanding the the evolution of the distinctive features of human social life, and of the cognitive capacities that make that life possible.
He is the author of The Representational Theory of Mind; the co-author of Language and Reality (with Michael Devitt); Sex and Death: An Introduction to Philosophy of Biology (with Paul Griffiths); Thought in a Hostile World (which won the 2003 Lakatos Prize); What is Biodiversity (with James MacLaurin); Dawkins vs Gould; and The Evolved Apprentice (the book of the 2009 Nicod Prize Lectures). He is Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, and the Royal Society of New Zealand. In addition to philosophy, Kim spends his time eating curries,drinking red wine, bushwalking, snorkelling and bird watching.