The biology of our best and worst selves | Robert Sapolsky 

This is the man that got me interested in neuroscience and biology in general. I can't get enough of his lectures.

Main lesson is "be really careful, really cautious before you think you know what causes a behavior, specially if it's a behavior you are judging harshly ... Every bit of behavior can change with circumstances ..."

this guy has great bio lectures on stanfords youtube page

A bonafide genius. His ability to effortlessly describe very complex things in simple clear language is the hallmark of a master

In just 15 minutes he gave us his wisdom in a silver plater, +30 years of field research in kenya, summarized his Stanford's biology lectures, best ever TED lecture and lecturer offcoarse

Found this guy on accident...a biology prof at Stanford, I happened upon one of his lectures. I cannot get enough of him. He is an extraordinarily fascinating human being who every one of us can learn a great deal from!

I love this guy, how can we keep him alive forever?

I instantly gave a thumbs up because I knew Robert Sapolsky would deliver.

Hugh Thompson - A man willing to mow down his own allies to protect his enemies from rape and slaughter. I'm honored to have even known such an amazing person. Thank you.

This wasn't long enough. I need a 40 minute version.

Robert Sapolsky is ever inspiring and incredible. Everything he studies is very much suggestive of the poignant truth that humans are deeply flawed, and still quite beautiful regardless. I would love to meet him.

By far the most sophisticated Ted talk I've seen. There's a lot of footage of Sapolsky lecturing on RU-vid for those who want more.

one of the best speeches ever

9:34 funnily enough it's also more complicated for baboons. While they're generally a very aggressive species with a very stratified group hierarchy, there's one instance where this changed. There was a group that lived near a dumpsite where they took food from, and as usual the dominant males ate first. However, some of the food was poisonous, and those dominant males died, leaving the more submissive males and females. The females did not feel the danger of violent reprisal anymore, and started mating the surviving males, who had a much more peaceful and mild disposition. Because of their genes and the way they raised their new young the group stayed peaceful and altruistic. So even a little shuffling of the genepool, and a nicer environment, completely changed the predisposition of these baboons.

This also serves to highlight how important it is for us to treat 'now' as carefully as possible because it then would in some way impact our actions in the future.

Robert Sapolsky is like a neuroscience/behaviour rock star!

Thank God this guy doesn't want to torture me

God, I love listening to this generous,compassionate, and articulate genius

Beautiful. It takes the strongest person to admit that they were wrong.

I highly recommend his book "Behave", the scope and scholarly quality is on another level

Such lucid explanation and such great examples. Thank you Dr Sapolsky.

finally we had a TED by the one and only Dr Sapolsky

"What we're left with here is this inevitable cliche: 'Those who don't study history are destined to repeat it'. What we have here is the opposite: Those who don't study the history of extraordinary human change; those who don't study the biology of what can transform us from our worst to our best behaviors; those who don't do this are destined not to be able to repeat these incandescent, magnificent moments."

15 minutes of pure knowledge! It is so good that a man who is studying this for 20+ years can take some minutes to share a bit with us! Thank you, internet!

MIND BLOWING!!! Sapolsky at it again, blowing away ignorance of the world.

Sapolsky the best lecturer in the whole world

My primatology professor suggested Sapolsky in 2020 for a read and I am now in love eoth his work and how he shares his knowledge with the world. Share him with anyone and everyone lovelies 💜

One of my fav teachers ..positive vibes your way

I never tire of watching/listening to Dr Robert Sapolsky, he is phenomenal

Wow that ending! Had to listen to it 3 times to understand and appreciate it. LET US STUDY ALL OF THOSE!

This is the first time that I see a TedEx where the host says in 15 minutes a huge lesson to all of the humanity, cos there is bullets in all directions and I love that, this talk should be 4 hours long and even in that scenario , will not be enough to learn from this man.

Fascinating. And logical. And an important message.

I'm going through all his lectures and this is one of the most powerful nights if my life. I'm understanding the connecting between my childhood, heredity, hashimotos, and depression. I'm understanding how we can live simultaneously as predetermined slaves, yet we live with complete free will. Strange loops of all kinds are seeming natural. As an empath and artist, I am so grateful for this wisdom!

I have listened to a few lectures of yours and felt like sending gratitude to you. More than the actual scientific findings themselves I absorbed through these lectures, I found myself fascinated by your ways of expressing, of bringing the findings to the foreground, through fluent language that combines the scientific fact to the human story, the storytelling, this allowed me to relate to your work, not feel it either too technical, analytical or too philosophic, abstract, rather balanced and centered on the practical human experience. Thank you professor for your unique contribution, the inspiration, the example 💗

He's always so eloquent and really uses good storytelling to builds upon his points. For me, everyone is an us. Every human being is an individual worthy of respect and human decency, including ourselves, and if we all kept that same basic assumption when interacting with others there'd be less violence.

I think it is about being truly conscious, being sufficiently aware to act rather than react, to decide, in plain conscience, from a higher perspective. That moment when we define, through volition, who we are and who we want to be, when we become the true actors of our lives. All these people who made compassionate moves made it because they expanded their minds and consciousness out of the boundaries we normally keep ourselves in.

Robert, you are my favorite professor, and I’ve learned so so so much from your lectures! Thank you!

I love sapolsky this is a nice nutshell of some of what this man studies and has tried to understand in himself and all of us. His delivery is humble sometimes humorous. Concise. Clear. And compassionate

A LEGEND against ignorance. Robert Sapolsky.

I've watched this video at least five times and it still gives me really deep insights about myself. The video is underrated, indeed. Thank you a lot

I understand and agree with it. Where does that leave us on topic of personal responsibility then?

I have met and heard his lectures before; Sapolsky is such a great speaker... these are the TED talks I subbed fore.

Can't believe I started connecting with scientists at this level from bottom of my heart. First it was Carl Sagan & now this gentleman !

a liberating and moving lecture. I am reading 'behave' now. Thank you. Just what I needed.

Learned about this guy in a neuroscience class, have been watching his Stanford lectures just for fun since then. Men like him make science interesting and accesible.

Robert, I just love you. I'm so glad you are here. You really help me. You are the man!

One of the best presentations I have ever seen on RU-vid. An amazing introspective into the human condition.

By watching this, can we step back and reflect on ourselves and be a better person every day we wake up? Or do we watch Robert only once and get emotional and forget about things when tomorrow comes?

Check out Robert Sapolsky's lectures, especially his _Human Behavioral Biology_ Stanford course.

I absolutely love this and everything else that this professor teaches! ❤️

One of the most important talks. Period.

Hugh Thompson was presumably mindful of the ostracism he had faced and the long wait for that medal ceremony in Washington. As he told The Associated Press in 2004: "Don't do the right thing looking for a reward, because it might not come."

One of the most underrated TED Talk.

At 3:25 of this spectacular lecture Prof. Sapolsky is basically describing a bottom-up vs top-down (his favorite) approaches to the problem.

my notes and takeaways from the talk We don’t hate violence, we love it in the right context Pulling a trigger or touching someone has very different meanings in different contexts There are multiple levels of causality for a behavior. An example case: There is man running toward you and holds something that looks like a gun. You shot him 1 sec before: amygdala -> fear, excitement minutes: a large black male is more likely to be shot, or if you are hungry or tired, frontal cortex doesn’t work well and ask you that are you sure if it is a gun Hours to days -> testesteron, stress hormones, alcohol -> they are not the cause but they amplify existing tendencies Weeks to months -> neuroplasticity -> brain changes by experience, if previous months were stressful, amygdala will enlarge, and will be harder to control Years to decades -> adolescence shapes the brain , stress in childhood or as a fetus leads to larger amygdala and elevated stress hormone levels Genes don’t determine anything because they work differently in different environments. Genes and environment interact Centuries -> if ancestors are nomadic herders, mood are that they will have a culture of honor and quick to anger and revenge, and this values can stick around for centuries Millions of years -> evolution, some species have lower aggression levels some higher - if you wanna understand a behavior, there are factors from the second before to millions of years before Its complicated and be careful to conclude what causes a behavior, especially if it’s a one you are judging harshly The single most important having to do with change, every bits of biology can change and it is possible to change in a good way Ecosystems change -> Sahara was a lush grassland Cultures change -> swedes Brains change -> people can get better even the ones who have done bad things We can change our worst sides, history is full of such examples and we are able to change for the better

I absolutely love his lessons.I learn so much .

one the best lectures i had ever watched in TED.

this is one of the best TED talks EVER!

That was excellent. Time flew by so fast watching this.

This is one of my all time favorite video's on the internet. Everyone should see it!

Amazing talk.. I love his lectures, what an intelligent man!

This man is insanelyy legit!!! His researcher, we need this kinda people more on social media to let the youth know what legit brains are!!

THANK YOU, ROBERT ! ! !

Great minds like professor Sapolsky are shaping our reality and our future. I really enjoyed this talk. Thanks.

What a revelation, I've always been on the fence about humans being ability to change. And I completely believe now it is possible. What great content. Thank you YT for bringing me this video. I love when the algorithm works

So powerful I immediately replayed it. Too much genius to take in

That was amazing! Thank you, got me teary

Robert Sapolsky in his recent interview with Joe Rogan, said that one of his fears is we look back 50 years from now and say "Wow, those people then were locking individuals up and thinking it was justified for a behavior we could fully analyze, understand, and even predict today."

The Hugh Thomson segment blew my mind

Дякую за можливість прослуховувати ваші лекції українською 💛💙

thank you. My favorite TEDTALK to this day.

so nice talking. His talks give me calmness and confident! Thanks!

I would love to see and listen to Professors Sapolsky, Dawkins, and Tyson on a panel.

I'm still in shock. This changes many things for me. Thank you for your work.

Love Robert Sapolsky. He's one of the few scientists that admit they're not perfect. He exposes his own vulnerability. I'd like to see Sam Harris do that more often.

As a professor, I watch this and rewatch this like game film of a championship performance.

I am sold. Going to read his book right away

Sapolsky is always solid, thank you for this upload!

It surprised me the amount of comparing that was amazing to understand. Thank you so much.

Beautifully structured as well. Meaning proceeded by significance. If there's a scientific argument for forgiveness, humanity, and love, this is it right here, folks.

My suspicion is that much of this comes from the shifting boundaries of "us and them". Often, when you really see yourself in someone else especially those common aspects like family, life struggles, or just wanting to keep those we love safe, then it is harder to do harm: "they are just trying to do their best as I am." I liked Robert's thought process about right and wrong violence. What is at the core of this? Perhaps when aggression comes from a combination of hate with "us and them" attitude, it is wrong? Wrong because it starts a cycle of revenge that often results in many innocent casualities such as the notion, "An eye for an eye". Untimately, it makes everyone blind. Perhaps self-defense or defense of loved ones is the right use of aggression? The intent is to protect and stop rather than harm and hate. Is is all about intent? I wonder.

One of the greatest lecturers I've every seen. His behavioral biology course lectures are on Stanford's page.

It is for videos like this one that I have subscribed to TED. Fascinating.

Robert Sapolsky first stole my heart with his description of torturing Hitler. Then he opened the doors to the wonderful world of neuro biology to me.

Such a powerful speech, I loved it!

Wow! This the best Ted lecture/video I've ever seen. I learnt a lot in just 15 minutes.

This is why TED should exist.

By far the best Ted Talk I've ever seen

I wish I had more knowledge than that PhD but it is almost impossible..he is brilliant..I love him to pieces..he is extraordinary!

Making integrated changes to your own self is an effort described as "bootstrapping", or another illustration was, "character is carrying out commitment to promises, long after the fervour in which you made them has faded away", ie personal policies have to "be the changes". All Dr Sapolsky's Lectures are worth studying, to at least be aware of the bodily arrangements of the Mind-Body problem. The Culture in which we're immersed is a different story.., like the video.

This is one of the best videos I ve ever came across. Truly magnificent ❤

this is simply amazing

Robert Sapolsky is the greatest discovery of my lifetime, this amazing human has me wanting to study biology 🧬 🧫 🧪

Mr. Sapolsky is best professor i see in RU-vid. He is so brilliant.

Thank you Robert, best TED talk, peak reached.

These 15min where so good it felt only like 5min!

Brilliant, Robert Sapolsky is my hero 😁😁

Those who don't study the history of extraordinary human change, those who don't study the biology of what can transform us, those who don't do this are destined not to be able to repeat these incandescent , magnificent moments .......

Eternally grateful for Dr. Sapolsky.

Great lectures... Thank you.