Converging Dialogues

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Moudhy Al-Rashid about ancient Mesopotamia. They discuss the uniqueness of Mesopotamia and the Fertile Crescent, importance of cuneiform, Sumerian to Akkadian writing, importance of clay for writing, ancient astronomy, and many more topics. Moudhy Al-Rashid is an Assyriologist and Honorary Fellow at Wolfson College at the University of Oxford. She has a Bachelors in Philosophy from Columbia University’s Columbia College, an MPhil in Cuneiform Studies, and a DPhil in Oriental Studies at the University of Oxford (Wolfson College), where she now researches the use of metaphor in descriptions of mental distress in cuneiform medical texts. She teaches Akkadian text classes and modules in the history of science in Mesopotamia at the Oriental Institute.Research interests include the history of science, medicine, and technology; science and medicine in the ancient Middle East; Iraq; cuneiform; Akkadian language; ancient North Arabian languages and scripts; archaeology; Assyriology; and historiography of Assyriology.She is the author of the latest book, Between Two Rivers: Ancient Mesopotamia and the Birth of History. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Laurence Hurst about the imperfection of evolution. They discuss mutation, selection, and adaptation, DNA and waste, larger and smaller populations, sickle cell anemia, embryology, gene editing and CRISPR, and many more topics. Laurence Hurst is Professor of Evolutionary Genetics in The Milner Centre for Evolution, at the University of Bath, UK. He has his DPhil in Zoology from Oxford University. His research interests cover a broad span of evolution, genetics and genomics, predominantly using computational and mathematical techniques to understand the way genes and genomes evolve. He is the author of the latest book, The Imperfection of Evolution: The science of why we aren’t and can’t be perfect. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Michael P. Lynch about truth and politics. They discuss local and national politics, defining truth, “Twitbookians,” liberal pluralism, role of institutions, Rawls and morals, truth in politics, and many more topics. Michael P. Lynch is Provost Professor of the Humanities and Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of Connecticut. He has his PhD in philosophy from Syracuse University. His work mostly centers around truth, ethics, democracy, and epistemology of technology. He is the author of numerous books, including the most recent, On Truth In Politics: Why Democracy Demands It. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Georgios Varouxakis about “the West.” They define the west, discuss different meanings and ideas about the west, and how western ideas came from the east. They also talk about “L’Occident,” impact of Christendom, separating Russia from the West, and Comte. They talk about whether Western values can exist without Christianity, WWI and WWII, the cold war, decline of the West, future of the West, and many other topics. Georgios Varouxakis is Professor of the History of Political Thought and Co-Director of the Centre for the Study of the History of Political Thought and Intellectual History at Queen Mary-University of London. He has a Masters in Legal and Political Theory at University College London (UCL) and a PhD in History at UCL. His work has concentrated on the nineteenth and twentieth-century history of political thought and intellectual history with a particular emphasis on international political thought, political thought on nationalism, patriotism and cosmopolitanism, empire, and the intellectual history of ideas of “Europe” and “the West”, as well as of attitudes towards the EEC/EU. He is the author of numerous books including the most recent, The West: The History of An Idea. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Mark Blyth and Nicolò Fraccaroli on inflation. They define inflation, provide positive and negative of inflation, and how prices are measured. They talk about housing interest rates, Federal Reserve, inflation in the 70s, Biden stimulus, Hyperinflation in Turkey and Argentina, Trump’s tariffs, and many more topics. Mark Blyth is the William R. Rhodes ’57 Professor of International Economics and the Director of the Rhodes Centre for International Economics and Finance at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University. He holds a joint appointment in the department of political science. He studies the politics of growth, distribution and decarbonization and why people continue to believe dubious economic ideas despite buckets of evidence to the contrary. He is the author of many award-winning books including his most recent (co-authored with Nicolò Fraccaroli), Inflation: A Guide for Users and Losers. Nicolò Fraccaroli is an Economist at the World Bank and Visiting Scholar at Brown University. He has an MSc in Political Economy of Europe from the London School of Economics and PhD in Economics from the University of Rome Tor Vergata. Before joining the World Bank, he was a Postdoctoral Research Associate and Adjunct Professor at Brown University. He has also worked at the European Central Bank, the Bank of England, and the Inter-American Development Bank. His work focuses on political economy with data-driven applications to the topics of central banking, populism, and finance. His work has featured on the Financial Times, the Guardian, and other outlets, and in the speeches of various policymakers including Mario Draghi and Christine Lagarde. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Henry Abbott on the Peak Performance Project (P3) within sports medicine. They discuss the landscape of injuries in the U.S., P3, chronic injuries, healthy movement and hip rotation, landing and ACL injuries, prevention and recovery, mental endurance, and many more topics. Henry Abbott is an award-winning journalist and founder of TrueHoop. He led ESPN’s 60-person NBA digital and print team, which published several groundbreaking articles and won a National Magazine Award. He is the author of the book, Ballistic: The New Science of Injury-Free Athletic Performance. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Judith Scheele about the human history of the Sahara. They discuss the perceptions of the Sahara, landscape of the Sahara, sand and freshwater, multiple uses of camels, peoples of the Sahara, Slavery and race in the Sahara, Islam, contemporary Sahara, and many more topics. Judith Scheele is professor of social anthropology at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, EHESS). She has spent almost two decades living in and researching Saharan societies. She is the author of three previous books and is the author of the recent book, Shifting Sands: A Human History of the Sahara. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Karen Hao about OpenAI and the current landscape about AI. They discuss the origins of OpenAI, Sam Altman and his motivations, his relationships with Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, using cheap labor in Venezuela and Kenya for AI, supercomputers and mega campuses for data centers, and many more topics. Karen Hao is a bestselling author and award-winning reporter covering artificial intelligence. She was an application engineer at the first startup to spin out of Google[x]. She received a B.S. in mechanical engineering and minor in energy studies from MIT. She has written for many publications such as The Atlantic and others. Previously, she was a foreign correspondent for The Wall Street Journal focused on AI & China, and a senior editor at MIT Technology Review, where she wrote about the latest AI research & its social impacts. She has been a fellow with the Harvard Technology and Public Purpose program, the MIT Knight Science Journalism program, and the Pulitzer Center’s AI Accountability Network. She was the first journalist to profile OpenAI and author of the book, Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Katherine Stewart about democracy and American authoritarianism. They discuss the evolution of conservatives to the Far Right, critiques of the Far Right, reactionary nihilism and the anti-woke. They discuss issues such as abortion, conservative conventions, religion, and many more topics. Katherine Stewart is a journalist and author who has been covering the rise of the anti-democratic movement for over 16 years. Her writing appears in The New York Times op ed, New Republic, Religion News Service and others. Her 2012 book, The Good News Club: The Christian Right’s Stealth Assault on America’s Children, focused on the religious right’s efforts to undermine public education. Her previous book, The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism (Bloomsbury 2020), won First Place in the Nonfiction Books category from the Religion News Association, as well as a Morris B. Forkosch Best Book award. The Power Worshippers formed the basis of the documentary feature God & Country, produced by Rob Reiner and Michele Reiner; Stewart served as executive producer. Her latest book, Money, Lies, and God: Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy (Bloomsbury 2025), is an instant New York Times bestseller. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Fawaz Gerges about continuous Western involvement in the Middle East. They discuss misconceptions of the Middle East, role of colonialism, Iran and Turkey being exceptions to foreign colonial involvement, Arab Nationalism, Civilizations and colonialism, political Islam, and many more topics. Fawaz A. Gerges is Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), and holder of a Professorship in Contemporary Middle East Studies. He was also the inaugural Director of the LSE Middle East Centre from 2010 until 2013.He earned a doctorate from Oxford University and M.Sc. from the London School of Economics. He has taught at Oxford, Harvard, and Columbia, and was a research scholar at Princeton and the chairholder of the Christian A. Johnson Chair in Middle Eastern Studies and International Affairs at Sarah Lawrence College, New York.His special interests include Islam and the political process, social movements, including mainstream Islamist movements and jihadist groups (like the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda), Arab politics and Muslim politics in the 20th century, the international relations of the Middle East, the Arab-Israeli conflict, state and society in the Middle East, American foreign policy towards the Muslim world, the modern history of the Middle East, history of conflict, diplomacy and foreign policy, and historical sociology.His recent books include Making the Arab World: Nasser, Qutb, and the Clash That Shaped the Arab World, ISIS: A History, Contentious Politics in the Middle East: Popular Resistance and Marginalized Activism beyond the Arab Uprisings, The New Middle East: Protest and Revolution in the Arab World , Obama and the Middle East: The End of America’s Moment? and The Rise and Fall of Al-Qaeda. He is also the author of several recently acclaimed books: Journey of the Jihadist: Inside Muslim Militancy, and The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global. He is the author of the latest book, The Great Betrayal: The struggle for freedom and democracy in the Middle East. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Agustina Paglayan about mass education around the world. They discuss education as a tool for political and social order, theories of education, and explicit aims of government education. They also talk about early critical thinking, nationalism, and education worldwide. They discuss mass education and violence, indoctrination, curriculums, teachers and quality education, and many more topics. Agustina S. Paglayan is a political science and public policy professor at the University of California, San Diego, and a nonresident fellow at the Center for Global Development. She is an expert in the interplay between politics and education.​ She holds a PhD in political science from Stanford University, an MA in education policy (Stanford), an MPP (Georgetown University) and a Licenciatura en Economia (Universidad de San Andres, Argentina). During 2020-21, she served as the Founding President of the Education Politics and Policy Section within the American Political Science Association. Her research has received numerous awards from the American Political Science Association for deepening our understanding of democracy, autocracy, political economy, political history, public policy, and labor politics. She has consulted for the United Nations, the World Bank, and the Inter-American Development Bank. Her findings have been featured in The Economist, NPR, the Washington Post, and other media. She is the author of the new book, Raised to Obey: The Rise and Spread of Mass Education. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Kasia Szymanska about translation of texts. They discuss how many translations can diverge from one source, translating into English, post-1989 Poland and translation, ethics of translation, the poem VIA, A Clockwork Orange translations, and many more topics. Kasia Szymanska is Lecturer in translations studies at the University of Manchester. Her research is in translation and comparative literature, literary translation, translation politics, and multilingual writing — especially with reference to the East European context. Her work to date has appeared in, among others, PMLA, Contemporary Literature, Slavic and East European Journal, the volume Prismatic Translation and other books on the intersection between translation, literature, and politics. She was named the 2022 Martha Cheung Award winner for the best English article in Translation Studies by an early career scholar. She hold a BA/MA from the University of Warsaw, MPhil in European Literature and Culture from the University of Cambridge, and a DPhil in Modern Languages from the University of Oxford. She is the author of the latest book, Translation Multiples: From Global Culture to Post-Communist Democracy. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Vali Nasr about the recent political history of Iran. They give an overview of Iran’s political motives and strategy, impact of the Persian empire and Shia Islam, and Reza Khan and Iranian nationalism. They talk about the impact of “Kemalism,” the 1979 Iranian revolution, the Iran-Iraq war, rise of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran’s relationship with Syria, Nuclear power, future of Iran, and many more topics. Vali Nasr is the Majid Khadduri Professor of International Affairs and Middle East Studies at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He served as the eighth Dean of Johns Hopkins SAIS between 2012 and 2019 and served as Senior Advisor to U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke between 2009 and 2011. He received his BA from Tufts University in International Relations summa cum laude and was initiated into Phi Beta Kappa in 1983. He earned his master's from the Fletcher School of Law in and Diplomacy in international economics and Middle East studies in 1984, and his PhD from MIT in political science in 1991. He serves as the co-director of the SAIS Rethinking Iran Initiative at Johns Hopkins University, the leading hub for fostering a comprehensive and nuanced understanding of contemporary Iran and its regional influence within academia and the public sphere. He is a member of the International Board of Advisors of the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford University, the International Board of Advisors at the American University of Beirut, the Global Board of Trustees of Asia Society, and he is on the Board of Advisors of Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. He has been the recipient of grants from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, and the Social Science Research Council, and was named a 2006 Carnegie Scholar, and holds the 2024-25 Henry Alfred Kissinger Chair in Foreign Policy and International Relations at The John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress. He has advised senior American policymakers, world leaders, and businesses, including the President, Secretary of State, senior members of the Congress, and presidential campaigns. He has written for New York Times, Foreign Affairs, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. He is the author of numerous books including the most recent, Iran’s Grand Strategy: A Political History. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Padraic Scanlan about the Irish famine. They provide an overview of the Irish famine, discuss the relationship between Ireland and Britain and how British colonialism impacted the Irish famine. They talk about potatoes in Ireland, formation of the United Kingdom, variables leading up to the Irish famine, potato blight, exiting the famine, generational impact, and many more topics. Padraic Scanlan is Associate Professor at the Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources, cross-appointed to the Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies at the University of Toronto. He is also a Research Associate at the Center for History and Economics at Harvard University and the University of Cambridge, and a fellow of St. Michael’s College. He has his BA in history from McGill University and PhD in history from Princeton University. His research focuses on the history of labor, enslaved and free, in Britain and the British empire during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. He is the author of the latest book, Rot: An Imperial History of the Irish Famine. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Jacob Mchangama about the history of free speech. They discuss free speech in Europe, defining free speech, limits of free speech and ethics of free speech. They also talk about the free speech recession, origins of free speech, Athenian and Roman empires, Abbasid Caliphate, ancient India, printing press and enlightenment, John Stuart Mill, free speech in the 21st century, and many more topics. Jacob Mchangama is the founder and Executive Director of The Future of Free Speech. He is also a research professor at Vanderbilt University and a Senior Fellow at The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). Jacob has written and commented extensively on free speech and human rights in international media outlets including the Economist, L.A. Times, Washington Post, BBC, CBS News, NPR, CNN, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The Wall Street Journal, Politico as well as top-tier academic and peer-reviewed journals. Jacob is the producer and narrator of the podcast, Clear and Present Danger: A History of Free Speech and author of the critically acclaimed book, Free Speech: A History From Socrates to Social Media. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Paul Chaisty and Stephen Whitefield about public opinion in Russia. They discuss Russia’s transformation since the fall of the Soviet Union, Consolidation and contestation within Russia’s hybrid political economy, and generational changes under Putin. They talk about authoritarianism, collecting public data in Russia, changes in Russian public opinion, social media, propaganda, how Russians vote, identity, Russia-Ukraine war, post-Putin Russia, and many other topics. Paul Chaisty is professor of Russian and East European politics in the Department of Politics and International Relations, the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies and St Antony’s College, University of Oxford. He is the author of Legislative Politics and Economic Power in Russia and the coauthor of Coalitional Presidentialism in Comparative Perspective: Minority Presidents in Multiparty Systems. Stephen Whitefield is professor of comparative Russian and East European politics in the Department of Politics and International Relations and fellow in politics at Pembroke College, University of Oxford. He is the author of Industrial Power and the Soviet State and coauthor of The Strain of Representation: How Political Parties Represent Diverse Voters in Western and Eastern Europe. Both Paul and Stephen are co-authors of the book, How Russians Understand the New Russia: Consolidation and Contestation. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Yuval Levin about the importance of reforming our institutions. They discuss why institutions are important, individuals and institutions, slow change with institutions, and the mistrust and dislike of institutions. They also make the case for elites, building broad political coalitions, Trump’s 2nd first 100 days, reforming journalism, family in the 21st century, and many more topics. Yuval Levin is the director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he also holds the Beth and Ravenel Curry Chair in Public Policy. The founder and editor of National Affairs, he is also a senior editor at The New Atlantis, a contributing editor at National Review, and a contributing opinion writer at New York Times. He has his MA and PhD from the committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. Dr. Levin served as a member of the White House domestic policy staff under President George W. Bush. He was also executive director of the President’s Council on Bioethics and a congressional staffer at the member, committee, and leadership levels.In addition to being interviewed frequently on radio and television, Dr. Levin has published essays and articles in numerous publications, including Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, The Atlantic, and Commentary. He is the author of several books on political theory and public policy, including the title, A Time to Build. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Olga Khazan on whether one could change their personality. They discuss why someone would want to change their personality, constancy over the lifespan, and why she used the BIG-5. They talk about extroversion and connection, neuroticism and mindfulness, openness to experience, conscientiousness, agreeableness, values, and many more topics. Olga Khazan is a staff writer for The Atlantic. Prior to that, she was The Atlantic’s Global editor. She has also written for the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, Forbes, and other publications. She is the author of Me, But Better: The Science and Promise of Personality Change and Weird: The Power of Being an Outsider in an Insider World. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Robert Plomin on behavioral genetics. They discuss why behavioral genetics has explanatory power, heritability, genetics and psychological research, SNPs, GWAS, and epigenetics. They also talk about shared and non-shared environments, twin models and adoption models, heritability and cognitive abilities, heritability and personality, psychopathology, and many other topics. Robert Plomin is MRC Research Professor in Behavioral Genetics at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London. He helped launch the Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Research Centre, which brings together genetic and environmental strategies to understand individual differences in behavioral development. In 1995, Professor Plomin began the Twins Early Development Study (TEDS), which has followed 10,000 pairs of UK twins from infancy through early adulthood and has been continuously funded for 25 years as a program grant from the Medical Research Council. He was the youngest elected President of the international Behavior Genetics Association and has received lifetime research achievement awards from the major associations related to his field (Behavior Genetics Association, Association of Psychological Science, Society for Research in Child Development, International Society for Intelligence Research), as well as being made Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, British Academy, American Academy of Political and Social Science, and Academy of Medical Sciences (UK). He has published more than 800 papers and is the author of the best-selling textbook in the field as well as a dozen other books, including, Blueprint: How DNA Makes Us Who We Are. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Hugo Shakeshaft about ancient greeks ideas about beauty and the gods. They discuss beauty in ancient Greece and its impact on modern times, architecture and beauty, beauty and aesthetics, and the gods and beauty. They talk about the relationship between humans and the gods, superficial and deeper beauty, beauty and nature, beauty as power, role of religion, and many more topics. Hugo Shakeshaft is a classicist, art historian, and artist. He is a specialist in the cultural history of ancient Greece and its legacy. His research ranges across ancient literature, history, philosophy, art, and archaeology. At the heart of his work is a fascination with aesthetics, with how people in antiquity perceived the world. The place of beauty in ancient Greek culture has been a focus of his research to date.He has a degree in Classics from Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge. After a year at Harvard as a Herchel Smith Scholar, he completed a Masters in Classical Archaeology and then a doctorate in Ancient History at Lincoln College, University of Oxford. Since 2018 he has held research fellowships at Christ Church College, Oxford, and the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence. He is currently A.W. Mellon postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. He is the author of the book, Beauty and the Gods: A History from Homer to Plato. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Daniel Mendelsohn on his new English translation of Homer’s The Odyssey. They discuss the massive impact of The Odyssey, major themes in the Odyssey, authorship, and translation for our time. They talk about the lines and meter of the Odyssey in English, oral to written form, adapting the Odyssey, relevance for the 21st century, and many more topics. Daniel Mendelsohn is an internationally bestselling author, critic, essayist, and translator. He is a professor of literature at Bard College. He has degrees in Classics from the University of Virginia and Princeton. He has been a prolific contributor of essays, reviews, and articles in many publications, most frequently The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books. He has also been a contributing editor at Travel + Leisure and a columnist for The New York Times Book Review, Harper’s, and New York magazine, where he was the weekly book critic. In February 2019, he was named Editor-at-Large of the New York Review of Books and the Director of the Robert B. Silvers Foundation, a charitable trust that supports writers of nonfiction, essay, and criticism.He has received many honors including the American Academy of Arts and Letters Harry Vursell Prize for Prose Style, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Barnes and Noble Discover Prize, the NBCC Citation for Excellence in Book Reviewing, the George Jean Nathan Prize for Drama Criticism, and Princeton University’s James Madison Medal. In 2022, he was made a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters by the Republic of France, and received the Premio Malaparte, Italy’s highest honor for foreign writers. He is a member of both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Association. He is also the author of many books including the new translation of, Homer’s The Odyssey. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Jenara Nerenberg about the importance of nuance thinking and healthy dialogue with others. They discuss self-censoring, groupthink, rise of gurus, podcasters, and influencer culture. They also talk about heterodox thinking, ethics of speaking to a larger audience, healthy dialogue with others, and many other topics. Jenara Nerenberg is a journalist, author, and founder of The Neurodiversity Project. She has interdisciplinary training from Harvard in public health, business, and government. She is the author of the latest book, Trust Your Mind: Embracing Nuance in a World of Self-silencing. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Agustín Fuentes about biological sex. They talk about the history of sex evolution, the importance of gametes, intersex individuals, and history of sex binary. They talk about gonads and hormones, sex variation in the animal kingdom, spectrum question, gender, gender and sports, gender and bathrooms, and many other topics. Agustín Fuentes is an anthropologist and professor of anthropology at Princeton University. His research focuses on the entanglement of biological systems with the social and cultural lives of humans, our ancestors, and a few of the other animals with whom humanity shares close relations. He has his BA/BS in Anthropology and Zoology and his MA and PhD in Anthropology from UC Berkeley. He has conducted research across four continents, multiple species, and two-million years of human history. His current projects include exploring cooperation, creativity, and belief in human evolution, multispecies anthropologies, evolutionary theory and processes, and engaging race and racism. Fuentes is an active public scientist, a well-known blogger, lecturer, tweeter, and an explorer for National Geographic. Fuentes was recently awarded the Inaugural Communication & Outreach Award from the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, the President’s Award from the American Anthropological Association, and elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is the author of numerous books including the most recent, Sex Is A Spectrum: The Biological Limits of the Binary. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with William Dalrymple about India and the Golden Road. They define the Golden Road of ancient India, discuss evidence other cultures interacted with India, and discuss the spread of Buddhism out of India. They talk about similarities and differences with the Silk Road, Kushans and Scythians, Hinduism, Islam, the Golden Road’s impact on modern India, and many more topics. William Dalrymple is a Historian, Journalist, and Broadcaster. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, the Royal Asiatic Society and the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and has held visiting fellowships at Princeton, Brown and Oxford. In 2018, he was the recipient of the prestigious President’s Medal by the British Academy for his outstanding literary achievement. He is the author of numerous award-winning books including, The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire and his latest book, The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Greg Grandin about a new history of the Americas. They discuss the term “American,” landscape of the Americas in pre-colonial years, Spanish colonialism, British colonialism, and the American and French Revolutions. They talk about Bolívar and Gran Colombia, the Monroe Doctrine, FDR’s new deal in Latin America, the future of America, and many other topics. Greg Grandin is a historian and professor of history at Yale University. He has his Bachelors from Brooklyn College and PhD from Yale University. He has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 2010. He is an expert on Latin American politics, the Cold War, and U.S. Foreign Policy. He is the author of numerous books including the Pulitzer prize winning, The End of the Myth, and his latest book, America, América. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Gina Rippon about autism in females. They discuss the increase in autism cases, defining autism, and origins of autism. They also talk about the history of the autism diagnosis, identity, current diagnostic criteria, specific presentations in females, neurological features, eating disorders, future of autism research, and many more topics. Gina Rippon is Professor Emeritus of Cognitive NeuroImaging at Aston University in the UK. Her research involves the use of state-of-the-art brain imaging techniques to investigate developmental disorders such as autism, profiling different patterns of brain activity in autistic children and adults. Her current research explores the under-recognition of autism in women and girls, especially in neuroscience research. She is the author of the latest book, Off the Spectrum. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Robert Garland about death in the ancient world. They talk about how ancient cultures considered death, beginnings of understanding death, process of dying, funerals, different cultural beliefs about the afterlife, caring for the bodies of the deceased, afterlife for non-believers, and many more topics. Robert Garland is Emeritus Professor at Colgate University. He has his PhD from University College, London. His main interests have been in ancient histories and classics. He is the author of numerous books including the most recent book, What To Expect When You’re Dead: An Ancient Tour of Death and the Afterlife. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Nicholas Wolfinger and Matthew McKeever about single motherhood since 1980. They discuss major causes of single motherhood, income, workforce change, teenage mothers, and low fertility rates. They also talk about the differences between divorced vs. non-married mothers, income and family size, race, 1979 longitudinal cohort, single motherhood in the 21st century, and many other topics. Nicholas Wolfinger is professor of family and consumer studies and sociology at the University of Utah. He has a Ph.D. in Sociology from UCLA. He is widely published and cited within academia and has written for The Atlantic, National Review, Huffington Post, and other outlets. He is the author of numerous books on marriage, family, and divorce, including the most recent book (co-authored with Matthew McKeever), Thanks For Nothing: The Economics of Single Motherhood Since 1980. Matthew McKeever is Professor of Sociology and Department Chair of sociology at Haverford College. He has also taught at Rice University, University of Houston, University of Kentucky, and Yale University. He received his Ph.D. from UCLA, and his B.A. from Haverford. His research focuses on the structure of social inequality within a variety of institutional, cultural, and regional contexts, from the U.S. and Europe to South Africa and Asia. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Emily Falk about the neuroscience of choice and change. They discuss studying values, strengths and limits of fMRIs, value system in the brain, reward system, making choices, the self, making future choices, values with others, and many more topics. Emily Falk is professor of Communication, Psychology, Marketing, and OID (Operations, Information, and Decisions) at the University of Pennsylvania. She is also the director of the Communication Neuroscience Lab, the vice dean of the Annenberg School for Communication, and the director of the Climate Communication Division of the Annenberg Public Policy Center. She has a bachelors in Neuroscience from Brown University and PhD in Psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research uses tools from psychology, neuroscience, and communication to examine what makes messages persuasive, why and how ideas spread, and what helps people get on the same page when communicating. Her research has been recognized by numerous awards, including early career awards from the International Communication Association, the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Attitudes Division, a Fulbright grant, Social and Affective Neuroscience Society, a DARPA Young Faculty Award, and the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award. She was named a Rising Star by the Association for Psychological Science. She is the author of the latest book, What We Value: The Neuroscience of Choice and Change. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Helen King about the history of the female body. The give an overview of the four parts (breasts, clitoris, hymen, womb) of the female body and discuss how medicine shaped positive and negative ideas about the female body. They talk about breasts, clitoris, female genital mutilation, hymen, womb, and many more topics. Helen King is Professor Emerita of Classical Studies at The Open University. She is an elected member of the General Synod of the Church of England, where she is vice chair of Together, which campaigns on a range of discrimination issues including discrimination on the grounds of gender or sexuality. She is the author of the latest book, Immaculate Forms: A History of the Female Body in Four Parts. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Dalton Conley about the social genome. They discuss the nature/nurture debate, polygenic index (PGI), and ethics of PGI and Genome Wide Association Studies (GWAS) studies. They give some critiques of The Bell Curve, three major Gene-Environmental interactions (active, passive, reactive), epigenetics, the social genome, and many more topics. Dalton Conley is a sociologist and professor of sociology at Princeton University. He is also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and faculty affiliate at the New York Genome Center. He has his Bachelors from the University of California-Berkeley, MPA in Public Policy and PhD in Sociology from Columbia University as well as a Masters and PhD in Biology from New York University. His research has focused on the intergenerational transmission of socioeconomic and health status from parents to children, the impact of parental wealth in explaining racial attainment gaps; the causal impact of birthweight on later health and educational outcomes; sibling differences that appear to reflect the triumph of achievement over ascription; and, finally, genetics as a driver of both social mobility and reproduction. He has been the recipient of Guggenheim, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Russell Sage Foundation fellowships as well as a CAREER Award and the Alan T. Waterman Award from the National Science Foundation. He is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science as well as a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He is the author of numerous books including the most book, The Social Genome: The New Science of Nature and Nurture. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Jaap de Roode about how animals heal themselves. They discuss whether animals intentionally or unintentionally seek out medicinal plants, four ways animals fight infection, Monarch butterflies and treating against parasites, chimps and their gut health. They also talk about birds using cigarettes in their nests, ants and rezin, goats and sheep having preferences, cats and dogs eating grass, and many other topics. Jaap de Roode is a biologist and professor of biology at Emory University. He has a MSc in Population Biology from Wageningen University in the Netherlands and PhD in Evolutionary Biology from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. He is interested in the ecology and evolution of infectious diseases, and currently studies infectious diseases of monarch butterflies, honey bees and humans. He is the author of the book, Doctors by Nature: How Ants, Apes, and Other animals Heal Themselves. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Henry Gee about the decline and fall of the human species. They discuss the lifetime and decline of a species, when humans began to decline, what does it mean to be human, bipedalism, Homo Erectus, and slow human growth. They also talk about domestication and disease impacting humans, overpopulation concerns and low fertility rates, climate change, future of humankind, and many more topics. Henry Gee is a Paleontologist and is the Senior Editor for the scientific journal Nature. He received his PhD from the University of Cambridge. Along with many articles, he is the author of numerous books including his most recent book, The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire. You can find his blog here. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Alan Baddeley about his model of working memory. They define short-term memory, metacognition, overview of memory, memory loss and self-identity, and chunking in working memory. They talk about the levels of processing model, attention and working memory, overview of his multi-component model of working memory, and the six divisions of the model. They discuss the model with individuals with schizophrenia, forgetting and long-term memory, Alzheimer’s and Dementia, ADHD, psychological assessments for memory, emotion and memory, EMDR, future of working memory research, and many more topics. Alan Baddeley is Emeritus Professor at the University of York. His areas of expertise are in human memory, neuropsychology, and is known for his model of working memory. He has his Bachelors in psychology from University College London, Masters from Princeton University, and PhD from Cambridge University. He has received many honorary doctorates. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1993 and was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1996. In 2001, he received the American Psychological Association Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions. He was given the Lifetime Achievement Award by the British Psychological Society in 2012. He also received the Major Advancement in Psychological Science Prize from the International Union of Psychological Science in 2016. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Neil Shubin about polar science in the arctic and Antarctica. They discuss polar science, Arctic and Antarctica, hot ice, blue ice, life under the Antarctic ice, fossil discoveries, meteorites, climate change, and many other topics. Neil Shubin is a Paleontologist and Evolutionary Biologist. He is the Robert Bensley Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago and the Associate Dean for academic strategy of the Biological Sciences Division. His research focuses on the evolution of new organs and he and his team discovered the 375 million-year-old Tiktaalik fossil. He is the author of many books, including the most recent, Ends of the Earth. Lab Website: https://shubinlab.uchicago.edu/ Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with C. Daniel Batson about his work on empathy and altruism. They discuss the empathy-altruism hypothesis, Bloom’s work on empathy, empathic concern, egoistic and altruistic motives, cooperation, future of altruism/empathy research, and many more topics. C. Daniel Batson is a social psychologist and Emeritus Professor at the University of Kansas. He has a PhD in theology and PhD in Psychology both from Princeton University. His research has focused on altruism, empathic concern, the psychology of religion. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Agnes Callard about Socrates and living a philosophical life. They discuss untimely questions, intellectual intimacy, savage commands, socratic ethics, truth inquiries, living a philosophical life, and many more topics. Agnes Callard is a philosopher and Associate Professor of philosophy and Director of Undergraduate Studies at the University of Chicago. She has her Bachelors from the University of Chicago and her PhD from Berkeley. Her primary research areas are ancient philosophy and ethics. She has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Atlantic, Harper’s and others. She is the author of many books, including her latest book, Open Socrates: The Case For A Philosophical Life. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Michael Albertus about land power. They define land power, land sovereignty, and discuss land ownership. They talk about the great reshuffle, settler reforms, collective reforms, land-to-tiller reforms, and cooperative reforms. They discuss federal vs. private lands, 1860 Homestead Act, land and race, Native Americans and land, El Salvador and land control, Venezuela’s land revolution, land reconciliation in South Africa, and many more topics. Michael Albertus is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago. He studied math, electrical engineering, and political science at the University of Michigan and earned degrees in all three. He has PhD in political science at Stanford University. His books and articles have won numerous awards and shifted conventional understandings of democracy, authoritarianism, and the consequences of how humans occupy and relate to the land. He is the author of the newest book, Land Power: Who Has It, Who Doesn't, and How That Determines the Fate of Societies.Website: https://www.michaelalbertus.com/ Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Sophia Rosenfeld about the modern history of choice. They discuss the concept of choice in different domains of society, choice and freedom in liberalism and neoliberalism, choice in shopping, choice in religion, choosing romantic partners, choice in politics, choice in reproductive rights, and many more topics. Sophia Rosenfeld is Walter H. Annenberg Professor of History and Chair of the Department of History at the University of Pennsylvania, where she teaches European and American intellectual and cultural history with a special emphasis on the Enlightenment, the trans-Atlantic Age of Revolutions, and the legacy of the eighteenth century for modern democracy. She received her B.A. from Princeton University and her Ph.D. from Harvard University. She has held fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, the Mellon Foundation, both the Remarque Institute and the Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU, the Institute for Advanced Studies in Paris, and the American Council of Learned Societies, as well as visiting professorships at the University of Virginia School of Law and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (Paris). She is the author of her newest book, The Age of Choice: A History of Freedom in Modern Life. Website: https://sophiarosenfeld.com/ Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Eugene Finkel about the Ukraine-Russian War. They discuss Russia’s 200 year crusade to end Ukraine, identity, shared histories, and impact of Mongol and Ottoman empires. They talk about the Donbas and Crimea regions, Putin’s version of history, Galicia and Eastern Front in WWI, Ukraine independence, and Stalin’s Russification of Ukraine. They discuss Ukraine post- Soviet Union, 2014 annexation of Crimea and start of the current war, the 2022 invasion, current state of the war, peace, and many other topics. Eugene Finkel is the Kenneth H. Keller Professor of International Affairs at Johns Hopkins University. He received a BA in Political Science and International Relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a PhD in Political Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research focuses on how institutions and individuals respond to extreme situations: mass violence, state collapse, and rapid change. He is the author of numerous books including the most recent, Intent to Destroy: Russia's Two-Hundred-Year Quest to Dominate Ukraine. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Christine Rosen about changes in our experiences within today’s society. They talk about the value of human experience, speed of change with technology, becoming users not individuals, embodied experience, and spatiality. They also discuss audience capture, institutional reform, our future experiences, and many more topics. Christine Rosen is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where she focuses on American history, society and culture, technology and culture, and feminism. Concurrently she is a columnist for Commentary magazine and one of the cohosts of The Commentary Magazine Podcast. She is also a fellow at the University of Virginia’s Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture and a senior editor in an advisory position at the New Atlantis. She has a PhD in history, with a major in American intellectual history, from Emory University, and a BA in history from the University of South Florida.Her writing has appeared in the Christian Science Monitor, Commentary, the New York Daily News, Los Angeles Times, National Affairs, National Review, the New Atlantis, the New Republic, the New York Times, MIT Technology Review, Politico, Slate, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Examiner, the Washington Post, and the New England Journal of Medicine, among other outlets. She is the author or coauthor of many books including her most recent book, The Extinction of Experience: Being Human in a Disembodied World. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Jonathan Rauch about the impact of Christianity on democracy in the United States. They discuss Christianity without dogma, why secular America should care about Christianity, and if a secular religion is possible. They talk about why people are less religious, evangelical Christians aligned with MAGA, liberalism and post-liberalism, mormonism, future of Christianity and democracy, and many more topics. Jonathan Rauch is a Senior Fellow of Governance Studies at Brookings Institute. He is a journalist and author of eight books. He is a contributing writer at The Atlantic and recipient of the 2005 National Magazine Award. He is the author of the latest book, Cross Purposes: Christianity’s Broken Bargain with Democracy. Website: https://www.jonathanrauch.com/ Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Rahul Bhatia about the many recent changes in India. They provide an overview of the recent social changes in India, the Citizenship Act and National Register, Citizenship based on religion, protests against the Citizenship Act, history of the RSS, Infosys, Modi, and many more topics. Rahul Bhatia is a journalist and author of The New India, a book of narrative reportage about the road to authoritarianism in India and its effects on ordinary citizens.His work has been published in the Guardian Long Read, the New Yorker, the New York Times, Reuters Investigates, Quartz, Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, the Caravan, and other places. He was awarded a Harvard Radcliffe Institute fellowship in 2022-23, won the True Story Award in 2024, and received a Ramnath Goenka Award and a Mumbai Press Club Red Ink Award in 2015.Website: https://rahulbhatia.com/ Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with James M. Bradley about the life and president of Martin Van Buren. They discuss how Van Buren built the modern political party system, background and upbringing of Van Buren, influence of Aaron Burr, Van Buren’s temperament, his time as New York State Senator, Attorney General, U.S. Senator, and Governor of New York. They talk about Van Buren being campaign manager for Andrew Jackson’s presidential campaign, Secretary of State for Jackson, Van Buren’s own presidency, legacy of Van Buren, and many more topics. James M. Bradley is co-editor of the Martin Van Buren Papers, based at Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee. He is an Adjunct Instructor in the public history program at State University of New York at Albany, and was the Senior Project Editor of Encyclopedia of New York City, published by Yale University Press. He is the author of the most recent book, Martin van Buren: America’s First Politician. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Christopher Cox about Woodrow Wilson and his interactions with women’s rights. They discuss the complicated history and legacy of Woodrow Wilson, landscape of the women’s Suffrage movement, and the origins of Wilson’s racist and sexist ideas. They talk about his time at Bryn Mawr College, ignoring women’s rights as governor, and how he won the Presidency in 1912. They discuss his removal of African-Americans from the Civil Service division, his interactions with the National American Women Suffrage Association (NAWSA), handling women’s rights protests, change to supporting the Anthony Amendment, Wilson’s legacy on women’s rights, and many more topics. Christopher Cox is a Senior Scholar in Residence at the University of California, Irvine, a Life Trustee of the University of Southern California, Chair of the Rhodes Scholarship selection committee for Southern California and the Pacific, and a member of several nonprofit and for-profit boards. Between two decades as a practicing lawyer, he served as chair of the Homeland Security Committee in the US House of Representatives, chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, and senior associate counsel to the President. He has written for Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Forbes, The Detroit News, The Denver Post, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, and dozens of other publications. He is the author of the recent book, Woodrow Wilson: The Light Withdrawn. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Yardena Schwartz about the 1929 Jewish Massacre in Hebron. They give an overview of the 1929 Hebron massacre, review of Ottoman and British rule of Palestine, and talk about Hebron and holy sites in Palestine. They also discuss an independent Palestine, motivations and propoganda before the 1929 massacre, Haj Amin, lineage of Amin to present-day Palestinian leadership, October 7 massacre, and many more topics. Yardena Schwartz is an award-winning journalist and Emmy-nominated producer. From 2013 to 2023 she was based in Israel, where she reported for dozens of publications, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Time, Economist, New York Review of Books, and Foreign Policy. She has also reported from Morocco, Nepal, Ukraine, Poland, France, Germany, and the United States.​ Yardena previously worked at NBC News, including stints at The Today Show, Nightly News, and MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports. She graduated with honors from Columbia Journalism School in 2011, earned an Emmy nomination in 2013, and an RNA award for excellence in magazine reporting in 2016. ​ Ghosts of a Holy War is Yardena's first book.Website: https://www.yardenaschwartz.com/ Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Nathan Thrall about Palestinians living in Jerusalem. They discuss using narrative to discuss the Palestinian experience in Jerusalem, provide an overview of the geography, wall, and West Bank. They talk about sovereign rights, home, color ID cards for Palestinians in the West Bank, 1st intifada of 1987, October 7, future of Israel-Palestine relations, and many other topics. Nathan Thrall is is an American writer living in Jerusalem. In 2024, he received the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction for A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of. A Jerusalem Tragedy. An international bestseller, it was translated into more than two dozen languages, selected as a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, and named a best book of the year by over twenty publications, including The New Yorker, The Economist, and Time. His writing has appeared in the London Review of Books, The Guardian, The New York Times Magazine, and The New York Review of Books and has been cited in the United Nations Security Council, General Assembly, and Human Rights Council, as well as in reports by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories. His books have been longlisted for The Baillie Gifford Prize and the PEN Galbraith Award for Nonfiction, selected as a finalist for The Moore Prize, and shortlisted for The Orwell Prize. His commentary is often featured in print and broadcast media, including the Associated Press, BBC, CNN, Democracy Now!, The Economist, Financial Times, The Guardian, The New York Times, PRI, Reuters, Time, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. Website: https://www.nathanthrall.com/ Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Lauren Oakes about forest and trees and the impact of climate change. They talk about the Global Tree Restoration study of 2019, impact of forests on the planet, and how we obtain data on forests. They talk about what is a forest, reforestation and afforestation, forest transition, and the Carboniferous period. They talk about the Land Gap Report, carbon accounting, offsets, incentive structures, ecosystem services, urban forests, and many more topics. Lauren E. Oakes is an ecologist and writer who writes on forests, climate, the complex relationship humans have with nature. She has her Ph.D. from the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program for Environment and Resources at Stanford University. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Scientific American, Emergence Magazine, Nautilus and other media outlets. Her first book, In Search of the Canary Tree, was selected as one of Science Friday’s Best Science Books of 2018. In 2019, it won second place for the Rachel Carson Environment Book Award and was a finalist for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Communication Award. She is the author of the most recent book, Treekeepers. Website: https://leoakes.com/ Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Michel Brahic about prions. They provide an overview of proteins, prion proteins, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, and importance of cells and ribosomes. They also talk about neuroanatomical regions relevant for prions, Lewy Body, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, memory, future of medical research, and many more topics. Michel Brahic, an expert in viral and prion infections of the brain, is Professeur Honoraire at Institut Pasteur in Paris. He has been Directeur de Recherche at CNRS and Consulting Professor at Stanford University School of Medicine. His work has been published in Nature, Cell, New Scientist, and other journals. He is the author of the latest book, The Power of Prions: The Strange and Essential Proteins that can cause Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and other diseases. Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Sarah B. Hrdy about a natural history of fathers. They discuss fathers as caregivers, different roles, role of prolactin with male care, decrease of testosterone in new fathers, alloparenting, grandmother hypothesis, attachment in fathers, fatherhood in the 21st century, and many more topics. Sarah B. Hrdy is an anthropologist and primatologist who is professor emerita at the University of California-Davis. She has her PhD in Anthropology from Harvard University. She is a former Guggenheim fellow and has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the California Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. She is the author of numerous award-winning books such as That Woman That Never Evolved, Mother Nature, Mothers and Others, and her most recent, Father Time. Website: https://www.citrona.com/hrdy Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe