Nature & Nurture #163: Nicholas Wade - The Origin of Politics

Nature & Nurture #163: Nicholas Wade - The Origin of Politics

From The Nature & Nurture Podcast by Adam Omary

October 26, 2025 · 60 min · Episode 163

About this episode

Nicholas Wade discusses his book on the evolutionary psychology of politics.

Nicholas Wade is the author of several books on human evolution, and has served as staff writer and editor for Nature, Science, and the science section of The New York Times. In this episode, we discuss Nicholas’ latest book The Origins of Politics on the evolutionary psychology of social cognition, tribalism, altruism, aggression, and other psychological factors relevant to understanding modern politics.

People in this episode

Host: Adam Omary

Guest: Nicholas Wade

Topics covered

  • human evolution
  • evolutionary psychology
  • social cognition
  • tribalism
  • altruism
  • aggression
  • modern politics

Keywords

  • Nicholas Wade
  • evolutionary psychology
  • politics
  • tribalism
  • altruism
  • aggression
  • social cognition

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Nature, Science, The New York Times

Books & works: The Origins of Politics

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