The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast

Dan always wrote a great book on bullying uh I don't know if it's in print anymore bullying what we know and what we can do about it very straightforward title he cut bullying rates in Scandinavia by 50% by the way

I've also read his book, New Book, Fortitude, something Dan knows something about, by the way, Fortitude, American resilience in the age of outrage. And I really liked the book.

I would say that it provides each of us with a range of talents and a reach range of temptations and it's something like that so it's the hand-wredelt and there's certainly a genetic element to that our genetic makeup imbues in us certain proclivities but it is true that character is mostly a consequence of choices strangely enough we all make them and we should make them deliberately with the knowledge that these choices are part of our responsibility toward a purpose other than our own selfish aims.

It is true that character is to some extent innate.

That responsibility is to your family, friends community and country.

And so I really liked that it's defining you know what we what Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence this this right to life liberty in the pursuit of happiness and you know those are those those words get thrown around a lot and some people might say well pursue my happiness that means pursue whatever ends I want right pursue whatever it gives me that short-term gratification pursue whatever makes me just feel good but there's a difference that's what right and I don't think that's what the founders meant there's a lot of evidence for that because what they meant was the pursuing of purpose you know the idea that that some sort of purpose in your life is what what makes you happy and not and that there's there there is a given set of traditions and social interactions and and standards of living that genuinely make people happier.

Fortitude: American Resilience in the Era of Outrage

Fortitude American resilience in the era of outrage

I kind of describe it as like a Jordan Peterson 12 rules for life but like the JV version.

I've very specifically trying to guide people through how to build more Fortitude, more mental Fortitude.

Perspectives from Darkness

friends to all who's a great primatologist just wrote a book called like are we smart enough to know how smart animals are and the answer to that could well be no

His latest book, Different, published in 2022, looks at sex differences in humans, chimpanzees, and bano-bombs.

and Different gender through the eyes of her primatologist, which was published by Norton in 2022.

I would highly recommend to all of those who are watching and listening that you pick up any or all of Dr. DeWall's books, they're extremely, they're very straightforward, they're easy to read, they're deep, they're well grounded in a multi-dimensional, in the scientific literature in a multi-dimensional manner.

so in your book the difference with your new book you distinguish as do the more radical political types now sex and gender and i was interested in that for a variety of reasons

duol has just written a book called Different and in that book he assesses the clear and marked differences in in motivational preference between boys and girls but also between male primates and female primates especially chimpanzees who are our closest biological

the only his only competitor would be what's his name he wrote Catching Fire Richard rang him who I also talked to about a week ago and duos works unbelievably important it's unbelievably important because he's concentrated on the idea of the alpha male and you know we have popular parlance we have an idea of the alpha chim right or the alpha male for that matter and

And since then, he's published two others, Catching Fire, How Cooking Made As Human. Also not a title that you would expect because it's not as if people popularly think about cooking as something that made as human. So that was very interesting. It's a great book.

I just think it's a really helpful sort of embedding of the reality of animals lives and it's not something necessarily comes across when you read about the social behavior but they are spending most their time strategizing about how to get as much food as possible.

You made the claim for example that what you think human beings have been using fire for about two million years which is a yeah off a long time.

And you also make a very strong case that our proclivity to use fire and cook has radically altered well a whole morphology a whole physiology are our intestinal system our digestive system and that's provided us with the additional calories necessary to expend some resources on on brain power more resources on brain power.

His other books include The New York Times Best Seller Why Men Are the Way They Are.

Dr. Warren Farrell was chosen by the financial times as one of the world's top 100 thought leaders his books have been published in more than 50 countries and in 19 different languages they include the New York Times bestseller Why Men Are the Way They Are, which must be a very thick book plus the international bestseller the myth of male power is most recent is the boy crisis.

I think that is a great book.

You know you point out that you earn more for doing jobs that are less desirable intrinsically desirable in some sense I mean that's part of the equation at least their jobs are more dangerous they take you away from home more often et cetera and those are disproportionately male jobs I mean the guy that I saw who got demolished so badly.

Why Men Earn More was selected by US News and World Report in 2006 as one of the top four books on career, a very practical book by the way for men and women alike, contemplating how they might maximize their earning power over the course of the career.

The boy crisis we mentioned Why Men Earn More as well which is a very good book his most recent is the boy crisis as I said 2018 co authored with John Gray.

I think that is a great book.

You know you point out that you earn more for doing jobs that are less desirable intrinsically desirable in some sense I mean that's part of the equation at least their jobs are more dangerous they take you away from home more often et cetera and those are disproportionately male jobs I mean the guy that I saw who got demolished so badly.

I think you have 13 reasons that men earn more you know that's quite a few reasons and privilege isn't one of them.

It's actually 25 differences between the choices that men tend to make and the choices that women tend to make 25 25 differences are things that do lead to men earning more money but could you list a few of those now because it's such an interesting it's such an interesting topic.

Men are more likely to take hazardous jobs they're more likely to take jobs like logging or trucking they're more likely to take jobs that that require them to work weekends or evenings they're more likely to take jobs that.

That have very little people contact like being an engineer and but most men do like people contact but many of the jobs with less people contact like being an engineer mathematician tend to pay less they men are more likely to let's see a work a longer a longer hours so yeah so the US Bureau of Labor statistics when you we do hear somebody works full time that only.

It means that they work 35 hours a week or more not 40 hours a week was what you usually think of as full time well the average person who works 44 hours per week makes twice the money as somebody who works 35 hours a week it's twice I see why remember one of your stats which was I think 10% more working hours is 20% more income.

Yes, nothing like that but that's a much more dramatic stat statistic 44 hours is twice as valuable as 35 hours yes on it on it and men are much more likely to work that 44 hours or more per week right and thus not be there for their children as exposed in family court.

The reason for the gap is very very complex and involves many factors including the ones we discussed here which you take apart so nicely in your book Why Men Earn More I think you have 13 reasons that men earn more you know that's quite a few reasons and privilege isn't one of them.

So in in Wonderworks and this in this book which I referred to earlier, you list out what you consider 25 inventions and they basically constitute the chapter structure of the book.

Dr. Angus Fletcher is a professor at Ohio State University's project narrative, the world's leading academic think tank for the study of stories.

He has dual degrees in neuroscience and literature received his PhD from Yale taught Shakespeare at Stanford and has published two books and dozens of peer-reviewed academic articles on the scientific workings of novels, poetry, film and theater.

His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Mellon Foundation and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

He's done story consulting for projects for Sony, Disney, the BBC, Amazon, PBS, and NBC Universal.

And is the author, presenter of the audible slash, great course is guide to screenwriting.

and many people took the idea of hell extremely seriously and tortured themselves with it believe that the fruits of immorality were infinitely terrible well that isn't something that you that you use as a childish defense against the world

medieval people took the idea of hell extremely seriously and tortured themselves with it believe that the fruits of immorality were infinitely terrible and well that isn't something that that you that you that you use as a childish defense against the world in fact fear of hell is actually more intense I would say in some sense than fear of death and I believe that I think there are things that are if you if the thing you're most afraid of is death you haven't been very afraid because there are things that are far more terrifying than death and certainly well hell is among those uh and I suppose that's the place that you're eternally tortured for for your own immorality maybe perhaps even defined by your own conscience anyways you wouldn't invent that as something attractive to the masses