We usually think of childhood as an extended preparatory period for adulthood, a time when kids just passively absorb the complex cultural knowledge, skills, and languages that we adults pass down to them. But what if we have the story completely backward? What if children aren’t just acquirers of culture, but active, independent producers of it?

Today’s guest, associate professor Sheina Lew-Levy, has spent an immense amount of time investigating human childhood cross-culturally. As a co-author of a recent paper titled “Children as agents of cultural adaptation”, she provides a fresh perspective that casts children as one of the central drivers that shape human culture.

Credits:

Interview: Tanay Katiyar and Jay Richardson

Editing: Jay Richardson

Communication: Tanay Katiyar

Music: Thelma Samuel and Robin Baradel

Artwork: Ella Bergru

Religion is a puzzling phenomenon. On the one hand, it has been a major historical motor, shaping civilizations and guiding billions of lives. On the other hand, the core of religion centers around beings and realms that we simply cannot see, touch, or measure. One might then wonder, how can religious beliefs be both more important to us than ordinary beliefs, and more removed from what we can know to be the case? In his recent book, Religion as Make-Believe, Neil Van Leeuwen offers a provocative answer: religious beliefs have this puzzling aspect because they are, in reality, a kind of imagining, not so different from that which guides child’s play. Media Recommendations1. Movie: Conclave

Credits:

• Interview: Tanay Katiyar and Jay Richardson
• Editing: Tanay Katiyar
• Communication: Tanay Katiyar
• Music: Thelma Samuel and Robin Baradel
• Artwork: Ella Bergru

This episode is sponsored by The European Behaviour and Evolution Association (EHBEA)