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PODCAST

Natural Reward Podcast

The Natural Reward podcast will focus on questions of innovation, progress and advancement in the evolution of life. We will discuss the evolution of scientific theories, how to think critically about science, and questions of progress and advancement in technology and human culture. The Natural Reward podcast will cover the philosophy and history of science, evolutionary theory, and economic theory. Music by Christian Bjoerklund.

science life sciences

All Episodes

35:38

Why Some Cells Die So Others Can Live

Natural Reward Podcast ·

2026/07/31

Episode summary When starvation strikes, hundreds of thousands of solitary cellular-slime-mold cells ("social amoebae") assemble into a temporary multicellular body. Roughly one-quarter sacrifice reproduction to construct a dead stalk, allowing the remaining cells to become spores and disperse. That extraordinary cooperation creates an equally extraordinary opportunity for cheating. This episode follows the problem from Leo Buss’s 1982 description of a naturally occurring stalkless parasite, ...

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47:10

Why Myth-Busting Beats Shared Fictions

Natural Reward Podcast ·

2026/06/28

Episode Overview In this "deep dive" episode, the hosts take a sledgehammer to the comforting narratives of popular science. Drawing on the work of evolutionary biologist Dr. Owen Gilbert, the conversation explores the profound difference between falling for a "seductive fiction" and engaging in "rigorous, brutal myth-busting". The episode challenges the bedrock of traditional Neo-Darwinism and examines how human success is actually driven by the destruction of dogma rather than collective im...

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54:53

The Blind Entrepreneur: How Natural Reward Scales...

Natural Reward Podcast ·

2026/06/25

Summary In this episode, we dive into a radical new evolutionary framework proposed by Owen M. Gilbert in his paper, "Natural Reward Drives the Advancement of Life." We explore why the traditional "scarcity mindset" of Darwinian evolution—the idea that nature is a zero-sum battlefield—fails to explain the massive, global expansion of life. By introducing the concept of Natural Reward, we shift the perspective from a "struggle for existence" to a "struggle for supremacy," where the winners are...

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60:57

Natural Reward’s Struggle to Exist: How a New Theory...

Natural Reward Podcast ·

2026/06/01

I. What does it take for a new scientific theory to come into existence? Before a theory can spread, it must first emerge. It must be invented, named, clarified, defended, revised, and forced into a form that can survive public scrutiny. Only later comes dissemination: the broader process of spreading the theory, persuading an audience, applying it to new problems, and building a scientific movement around it. II. The hostile world: why natural reward had trouble being born. Evolutionary biol...

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17:06

Hamilton’s Rule and Inclusive Fitness, Part I: What...

Natural Reward Podcast ·

2026/02/24

Keywords Inclusive fitness, Hamilton’s rule, kin selection, altruism, social evolution, population genetics, gene substitution, Fisher’s average effect, relatedness, evolution of cooperation, greenbeard effect, dominance, allele frequency change, mathematical modeling, empirical research Summary In this episode of the Natural Reward podcast, brothers Owen and Jon Gilbert revisit Hamilton’s original papers on inclusive fitness and the evolution of altruism. They discuss how Hamilton’s rule (rb...

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108:08

Composite-trait evolution in pitcher plants: Ulrike...

Natural Reward Podcast ·

2024/03/01

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75:01

Using Drones and AI to Find Illegal Dumping Sites:...

Natural Reward Podcast ·

2023/05/11

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28:18

Supplement to "Updating the Software of Social...

Natural Reward Podcast ·

2023/02/15

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60:48

Updating the Software of Social Evolution to Patch...

Natural Reward Podcast ·

2023/02/15

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98:50

Innovation in Technology, Science, and Nature with...

Natural Reward Podcast ·

2022/05/19

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100:22

Addressing Inequality and Rising Costs of Living with...

Natural Reward Podcast ·

2021/12/26

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104:34

Local-Scale Approach to Conservation in Costa Rica...

Natural Reward Podcast ·

2021/11/16

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79:41

Spatial Sorting with Nikunj Goel

Natural Reward Podcast ·

2021/10/04

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58:14

Follow up with Komi German: reviewer’s reaction to...

Natural Reward Podcast ·

2021/08/27

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118:57

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Academia with Komi...

Natural Reward Podcast ·

2021/08/13

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15 results

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