“Determined: What If Free Will Is a Useful Myth?”
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“Determined: What If Free Will Is a Useful Myth?”
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About this listen
What if every choice you’ve ever made — every triumph, every regret, every whispered “what if” — was never truly yours to begin with?
In this episode, we journey deep into Robert Sapolsky’s groundbreaking book, Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will — a work that challenges everything we think we know about choice, responsibility, and human nature.
From the savannahs of Kenya, where Sapolsky studied baboons and the biology of stress, to the quiet corridors of Stanford’s neuroscience labs, this is a story of science colliding with the soul. Sapolsky argues that our actions aren’t acts of freedom, but the final expressions of causes stretching back through time — genetics, childhood, trauma, culture, and chance — all converging in a single, inevitable moment we call “decision.”
But far from hopeless, Determined reveals something deeply human: that understanding our limits might be the first step toward compassion, justice, and peace.
Join us as we explore every chapter, every idea, and every personal revelation that shaped Sapolsky’s lifelong search to understand what makes us who we are.
“Free will is an illusion,” he says — “but kindness never was.”