Beat Your Genes: An Evolutionary Psychology Podcast For Finding Happiness In The Modern World

If you've ever had a dating experience where you felt you coudn't control yourself or the eventual outcome, that was your genes compelling you to behave in a certain way.  This is a double-edged sword.  On one hand, you can be optimizing your genes surviving but on the other hand, it may be detrimental to long-term happiness.  We have evolved to enjoy the pursuit of love & sex through dating and relationships.  In this episode we discuss how we can optimize happiness in this area by beating our genes.    Copyright Beat Your Genes Podcast Host: Nathan Gershfeld                               Interviewee: Doug Lisle, Ph.D. www.BeatYourGenes.org   Intro & outro song: City of Happy Ones · Ferenc Hegedus

Ever have a pushy friend that's trying to get you to do something you don't want to?   It may seem like the only way to get them to understand "no" is to be rude or leave.   In this episode, Dr. Doug Lisle, PhD discusses how to get along without going along.  For a variety of scenarios it is in our best interest to get along with our friends, family members, and co-workers.  However, that does not mean that we have to just do everything they want us to.   Learn some unique tips and tricks for staying firm but remaining pleasant.    Copyright Beat Your Genes Podcast Host: Nathan Gershfeld Interviewee: Doug Lisle, Ph.D. www.BeatYourGenes.org   Intro & outro song: City of Happy Ones · Ferenc Hegedus

Dr. Lisle dives into a discussion of personality diffferences and what role they play in different life circumstances.  For example, if you ever had to hire an attorney to defend you, you would want them to be a generally argumentative person.  If you had to hire an accountant, you'd want them to be very detail-oriented.  Similarly, if you are a naturally passionate and highly extraverted person, sitting at a desk job in your own cubicle all day long can be miserable even if it's a great job.  How can you meet these challenges while staying true to who you are.   Copyright Beat Your Genes Podcast Host: Nathan Gershfeld                               Interviewee: Doug Lisle, Ph.D. www.BeatYourGenes.org   Intro & outro song: City of Happy Ones · Ferenc Hegedus

Dr. Lisle discusses the biological difference between men and women, how this translates into modern society.   Copyright Beat Your Genes Podcast Host: Nathan Gershfeld Interviewee: Doug Lisle, Ph.D. www.BeatYourGenes.org   Intro & outro song: City of Happy Ones · Ferenc Hegedus

Where do political views come from?  Dr Lisle explains that political differences evolved from our basic need to optimize the survival of the stone age village.  This results in a natural split of political views that essentially desire to either "share more" or "share less".     Copyright Beat Your Genes Podcast Host: Nathan Gershfeld Interviewee: Doug Lisle, Ph.D. www.BeatYourGenes.org   Intro & outro song: City of Happy Ones · Ferenc Hegedus

As Dr. Lisle discusses the purpose of psychology, we begin with a discussion of thoughts, feelings, and behavior.    Some philosophers believe that we can think one thing and then feel something completely different but Dr. Lisle explains these seemingly conflicting thoughts & feelings explains how this relates to stress.  We discuss different models of psychology and some of the limits of learning theory.  For example,  do we learn our emotions during childhood?     Dr. Lisle discusses an example of a common "beat your genes" trap for women nowadays of staying with a man who's not right for her.    We continue on this topic for the remainder of the show and Dr. Lisle begins the explanation about differing mating strategies. Copyright Beat Your Genes Podcast Host: Nathan Gershfeld Interviewee: Doug Lisle, Ph.D. www.BeatYourGenes.org Intro & outro song: City of Happy Ones · Ferenc Hegedus

Motivation and expectations are supposed to go hand-in-hand.  The idea being - if you're expected to achieve a goal, your motivation kicks in to meet these expectations.  In this episode, Dr. Lisle goes over a concept called The Ego Trap.  Which is the trap we may find ourselves in if the expectations of our performance exceeds what we think we can reasonably accomplish.  Dr. Lisle describes this trap, how this process works, why it works the way it does, and how to effectively overcome it.    Copyright Beat Your Genes Podcast Host: Nathan Gershfeld Interviewee: Doug Lisle, Ph.D. www.BeatYourGenes.org Intro & outro song: City of Happy Ones · Ferenc Hegedus

What does "self-esteem" actually mean?  In this episode, Dr. Lisle goes over the history of the study of self-esteem.  Then he explains his own discoveries of  esteem processes including self-esteem. As it turns out, nobody can give you "self-esteem".  Dr. Lisle explains that self-esteem is quite literally esteem of your self, so it is how you view yourself.  So, what's called "low self-esteem" or "high self-esteem" is entirely based on how you view yourself.  However, this view is not easily changed, as Dr. Lisle describes a concept called the "internal audience" - a sort of social meter sitting inside your mind that views your own behavior & effort in context with expectations.   When you impress your 'internal audience' through diligent effort, you feel higher self-esteem.  In this episode, Dr. Lisle describes what you can do to impress your internal audience and therefore improve your self-esteem.  

In the very first episode of the Beat Your Genes podcast, Host Nate Gershfeld talks with Dr. Doug Lisle, PhD about the purpose of life, happiness vs. pleasure, and the psychological mechanisms that guide our behavior.    Dr. Lisle talks about some important findings namely, that purpose of life (biologically) is quite simple - to spread our own genes and ensure their survival into the next few generations.  Because of this, our entire biology, physiology, and psychology is built around this goal.  It's been like this for the entire history of our species and we have survived in nature due to this goal.  All of a sudden, comes the modern environment of convenience and innovation in an incredibly short time frame.  With this new environment comes a new set of challenges that our brains were never designed to solve. In this podcast and in future episodes, Dr. Lisle methodically describes what role the mind and, therefore, our behavior plays in our life experience and satisfaction.