All topics / violence
Topic
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Violence
3
episodes
3
thinkers
8h
of conversation
14
books & papers
9
terms defined
The neighbourhood: violence and the ideas it travels with. Drag to roam, click a star for the episode, click a neighbour to travel.
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The lexicon
Every term the guests lean on, in plain language. Read one in full, or filter to find it.
What the corpus says
The throughline across every conversation that touches this idea.
Chris Blattman argues that war is an inefficient means to achieve political goals, often resulting in loss for all parties involved.
Chris Blattman · Chris Blattman: War and Violence
The US invasion of Afghanistan and the Russia-Ukraine conflict illustrate how miscalculations and intransigence lead to prolonged conflicts.
Chris Blattman · Chris Blattman: War and Violence
The Doomsday Clock reflects the ongoing high risk of nuclear conflict, highlighting the precariousness of current geopolitical tensions.
Chris Blattman · Chris Blattman: War and Violence
In Medellín, criminal organizations maintain peace through hierarchical structures, offering parallels to international institutions like the UN.
Chris Blattman · Chris Blattman: War and Violence
Journalists in Mexico face extreme risks with little consequence for their murderers, contrasting with the severe repercussions of harming DEA agents.
Chris Blattman · Chris Blattman: War and Violence
Humans exhibit significantly lower reactive aggression compared to chimpanzees, with violence occurring 500-1000 times less frequently.
Richard Wrangham · Richard Wrangham: Violence, Sex, and Fire in Human Evolution
Cooking food allowed Homo erectus to develop smaller guts and larger brains, crucial for human evolution.
Richard Wrangham · Richard Wrangham: Violence, Sex, and Fire in Human Evolution
Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) has prevented nuclear war since 1945, acting as a psychological deterrent.
Richard Wrangham · Richard Wrangham: Violence, Sex, and Fire in Human Evolution
Sexual violence in war reflects power dynamics and evolutionary roots, not just cultural phenomena.
Richard Wrangham · Richard Wrangham: Violence, Sex, and Fire in Human Evolution
The domestication of animals and humans shows reduced aggression leads to physical changes, seen in early Homo sapiens.
Richard Wrangham · Richard Wrangham: Violence, Sex, and Fire in Human Evolution
Josh Barnett sees Nietzsche's Ubermensch as a temporary state of overcoming human weaknesses, not a permanent ideal.
Barnett argues that war and conflict are inherent to human survival and flourishing, reflecting a struggle for power.
Voices on violence
12 standout quotes from across the corpus.
Go read
14 books and papers cited across these episodes.
For the specialist
What experts find new
7 expert-level takeaways for a specialist reader.
At the frontier
Still unresolved
4 open questions flagged across these conversations.
The thinkers
Who takes this idea on, by how often they return to it.