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The Selfish Gene Review (Patreon)

Published:
2024-10-26 05:11:22
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

In this special international episode of Decoding the Gurus, Chris and Matt Brown team up to dissect Richard Dawkins' enduring influential work, 'The Selfish Gene.'

The hosts dive deep into Dawkins' evolutionary theories, touching on genes, memes, and human meat bags. They explore Dawkins' narrative style, the academic controversies sparked by his ideas, and his broader influence on understanding human behaviour. Along the way, they address criticisms by figures like Stephen Jay Gould and Mary Midgley, debate the implications of seeing humans as biological automata, and reflect on cultural paradigms overtaking biological legacies.Join Chris and Matt as they recognise their true nature as a vehicle for bastard genes and do their best to contribute their enduring genetic lineage.

Links

Dawkins, R. (2016) The Selfish Gene (40th Anniversary edition)

Files

Comments

Lillie

A treat every time one drops :)

Anne Stephens

Always good to confess🙂 📖👍🏼

Jill

So good 😊

RareTripleBait

We have one hole with two openings. Think donut!

Nina Davies

By the end of this, I had a very clear memory of the culture war in student bars circa 1989. What is interesting is that Dawkins can be adapted to any simplistic argument any shouty bloke wants to make. A bit like Orwell.

Jenny

Matt is correct, we do have the best squirrels here in the SF Bay Area. I’m glad to have his validation on that. We’re scruffier in the East Bay, so just cross a bridge and you’ll fit right in. Plus you haven’t seen a truly cute squirrel until you’ve seen a Berkeley campus squirrel, so that’s two reasons to visit the East Bay: peak scruffy and peak squirrel

Jake

Australians are always into the squirrels

Erland Hvittfeldt

Thanks, should be a good listen 😊. Might even reread the book first, it's been a while. Now, if we could get just the Dominion review as audio...

PuffyLowe

As a Californian it is true, In and Out is great. However, squirrels are rats in cute outfits.

Amy

I read this book when I was 17 and a fan of Dawkins. It was disappointing to see him get into the culture war nonsense but it’s nice to know this book still holds up.

Linda Sears

I’m glad ya’ll said you were doing this book because it got me to read it, and I enjoyed it. Although you cautioned against seeing the descriptions of animal behaviors as saying something about human behavior, this one passage reminded me of the dynamic between our gurus and their followers: “The cuckoo is usually much larger, in some cases grotesquely larger, than its ‘parent’. I’m looking at a photograph of an adult dunnock, so small in comparison to its monstrous foster child that it has to perch on its back in order to feed it. Here we feel less sympathy for the host. We marvel at its stupidity, its gullibility. Surely any fool should be able to see there is something wrong with a child like that.”

Roland Weber

Thanks, that was very entertaining, and also educational! 😃 As I have too many unread books, and bought another two this week, I'll skip this one. Something about Ethnography would be interesting!

Robert Andrews

Loved the podcast episode, but I must point out... and I hate to be that guy... Matt said that he had some anthropological observations of America, and one of them was about .... squirrels. If only there had been an anthropologist on the podcast, to point out that squirrels are not actually people even if they think they are. Sorry.

Stardustsparkle

I'm here for the banter more mostly 😊

Eddy Wyn

Matt, if you have the opportunity to fit in another In-N-Out Burger, make sure the next one is Animal Style.

Alex H

This was good. I have the book but it's not on my immediate to-read list . Some day!

Tree

I dont disagree with a lot you've said. But I found it a little frustrating that your response to every criticism of the book was "I dont think he was saying that" (though its probably true in a lot of cases related to culture etc). But ultimately the main disagreement other biologists (including genetecists) tend to have with him is over genes being the central unit of evolution. I dont think saying he aknowledges lot of genes are involved in complex traits really adresses that, because at a certain point its becomes an argument against genes being the fundamental unit evolution is acting on. Like when hundreds or thousands of genes or even other molecular processes affect a trait. I also think a lot of biologists focussing on different levels find it frustrating because they can see evolution acting on those levels, from other molecular processes to whole ecosystems. Is it that Im still taking his metaphore too literally or something?

Mike Nelson

As a life long fan of Doctor Who, and a person who is disillusioned over who Dawkins is today, it did make me happy to see that Lalla "Romana II" Ward divorced him.