#1075 - Roy Baumeister - Why Men Are At The Top Of Society (and the bottom)
3/23/20261 hr 30 min
Roy Baumeister is a psychologist, professor, and researcher. Are men inherently more expendable from an evolutionary standpoint—and if so, has that dynamic helped drive innovation? If risk-taking outliers are often responsible for progress, what does that say about the role men play in shaping civilization? And does this tradeoff come at the cost of higher failure, instability, and sacrifice along the way? Expect to learn why cultures flourish when they exploit men and what that actually means, why men have ended up in higher positions in society and if civilisation runs on male competition, why men are so much more likely to take physical, financial, and social risks, if risk-taking men are necessary for progress, what people do not understand about self-destructive male behaviours and much more… Sponsors: See discounts for all the products I use and recommend: https://chriswillx.com/deals New pricing since recording: Function is now just $365, plus get $25 off at https://functionhealth.com/modernwisdom Get up to $350 off the Pod 5 at https://eightsleep.com/modernwisdom Get 35% off your first subscription on the best supplements from Momentous at https://livemomentous.com/modernwisdom Get a free bottle of D3K2, an AG1 Welcome Kit, and more when you first subscribe at https://ag1.info/modernwisdom Extra Stuff: Get my free reading list of 100 books to read before you die: https://chriswillx.com/books Try my productivity energy drink Neutonic: https://neutonic.com/modernwisdom Episodes You Might Enjoy: #577 - David Goggins - This Is How To Master Your Life: https://tinyurl.com/43hv6y59 #712 - Dr Jordan Peterson - How To Destroy Your Negative Beliefs: https://tinyurl.com/2rtz7avf #700 - Dr Andrew Huberman - The Secret Tools To Hack Your Brain: https://tinyurl.com/3ccn5vkp
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Clips
Showing 10 of 12Transcript preview
First 90 secondsChris Williamson· Host0:00
You say that cultures flourish by exploiting men. What does that mean?
Roy Baumeister· Guest0:04
Well, um, there are multiples, uh, multiple aspects to it. But, uh, uh, first of all, men are more expendable, uh, than women, uh, probably for basic biological reasons. If a, a small group loses half its men, the next generation can still be full size. Loses half its women, it'll be a long time to, uh, to recover. So it takes, it risks men. Uh, puts men to work, um, to, to produce things. Most of, uh, um, you know, the structures of society are really created by men. Um, I was talking to Carol Huven at Harvard, and she said, uh, th-there was a feminist who had an epiphany one point. She was looking out the window and said, "The whole world was built by men." [chuckles] Uh, as you look at the buildings and the roads and the cars and the, uh, all those things, and, uh, and that's, that's just the physical world. The institutions too, the, uh, the banks and the, uh, the schools and the, uh, armies and the governments and the marketplaces. Um, I mean, women do plenty of wonderful things, and they're important partners in the flourishing of our species. Uh, but, uh, creating large social systems, that seems always to be the men's job. Um, and so our