Sapolsky, Peterson, Dopamine, Anticipatory Mastery & Motivation

Of Baboons and Men | Robert Sapolsky | EP 390

Dr. Jordan B Peterson sits down with Neuroendocrinology researcher and author of the upcoming book Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will, Robert Sapolsky. They discuss how Game Theory applies to human behavior across iterative rounds of play, the unexpected success of the tit-for-tat principle, the role of dopamine in the anticipation of the future, and the objective reality of transcendent structures within our biological routines.

Robert Sapolsky is an American Neuroendocrinology researcher, author, and communicator. He has spent decades studying primates in the wild, written numerous articles and books, as well as produced multiple video series on the subject. By the age of 12, Sapolsky was writing to well known primatologists as a fan, and had also begun teaching himself Swahili with the early ambition of heading to Tanzanian, Mozambique, and Kenya in search of his own primates (Specifically Silverback Gorillas) to study. Not too much later, Sapolsky would make contact with a group of gorillas in Kenya, a group he would visit every year for 25 years, spending 4 months studying them at a time. Sapolsky would go on to become the John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn Professor at Stanford University, holding joint appointments in several departments, including Biological Sciences, Neurology & Neurological Sciences, and Neurosurgery.