Ever wish you could meet one of your intellectual idols? Maybe shake her hand? Maybe share how much her work has meant to you? Well, I got to meet, greet, and convey my gratitude to many of the mental giants who have most influenced my meager mind. And then I sat down and they let me interview them, on film, for a good half hour or so.
Part I of this blog series explains why fellow evolutionary psychologist Catherine Salmon, filmmaker DaveLundberg Kenrick, and I co-led On the Origin of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society ~ An Oral History Project, and presents our interviews with Steven Pinker, Leda Cosmides, John Tooby, Douglas Kenrick, Martin Daly, Randy Thornhill, Mark Flinn, and William Irons.
Part II contains interviews with David Buss, David Sloan Wilson, Napoleon Chagnon, Don Symons, Bobbi Low, Sarah Hrdy, and Raymond Hames. Future installments will include interviews with Richard Alexander, Randy Nesse, and Peter Richerson, and hopefully luminaries Robert Trivers, Noam Chomsky, and Richard Dawkins.
This installment focuses on my January 2014 interview with the world’s most decorated living scientist, Harvard University’s Edward O. Wilson. Among hundreds of other accolades, Ed is a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-fiction and recipient of the Crafoord Prize, biology’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize. This extensive interview was full of surreal moments, the first of which occurred off camera, just before we began:
After we sat down, Ed told me that he's been ‘looking forward to this interview and the opportunity it provides an 84-year-old to set the record straight on the formation of sociobiology, a story I have never fully told and want recorded for posterity before it’s too late.’ Nearly speechless, all I could muster in return was a measly, "Ditto, sir. Ditto."
I had asked Ed for an hour of his time. Three hours later, my belly was full of lunch and my camcorders full of riveting stories. Highlights include:
- his rocky relationship with the co-discoverer of DNA, the “difficult” James Watson (Part I: 7:23 - 9:50)
- the historical formation of sociobiology (Part I: 11:40 – 40:00)
- our spirited discussion of the relationship between sociobiology and evolutionary psychology (Part I: 40:00 – 58:04)
- his antagonist relationships with two departmental colleagues: the “inexplicable” Richard Lewontin (Part I: 1:19 - 8:10) and the “charlatan” Stephen Jay Gould (Part I: 17:32 – 18:40; Part I: 25:33 – 28:19; Part I: 39:46 - 41:17)
- the infamous moment when ice water was dumped on his head at the American Association for the Advancement of Science Symposium in February of 1978 (Part I: 8:10 – 13:08)
- how he came to learn of inclusive fitness theory and its originator, William D. Hamilton (Part II: 43:34 – 47:12)
After we finished, Ed strongly encouraged me to find a publisher and to write the origin story of evolutionary psychology and the Human Behavior and Evolution Society (HBES):
Me: “But Ed, unlike you, I haven't written a single book, never mind 32, never mind several New York Times Best Sellers and two Pulitzer Prize winners."
Ed: "Well, this would be a good one to start with."
On my drive back from Cambridge, MA I reflected on Ed’s suggestion and called friends and fellow evolutionary psychologists David Buss and Geoffrey Miller. They enthusiastically agreed with Ed that Catherine and I should write the story of the founding of HBES and evolutionary psychology using the transcripts of our filmed interviews as the foundation. Since then I've received a Faculty Development Grant from The University of Scranton to write book proposals to Harvard, Princeton, Oxford, and Cambridge University Presses and I’ve applied for a sabbatical for next fall. If all goes as planned, I'll co-write “On the Origin of an Evolution Revolution: The Birth and Rise of an Evolutionary Approach to Human Behavior and Cognition” in the near future.
In the meantime, I do hope you enjoy this extended interview with one of evolutionary psychology’s great grandfathers, Dr. E. O. Wilson.
Part I of interview with Ed Wilson:
Part II of interview with Ed Wilson:
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Copyright © 2014 Barry X. Kuhle. All rights reserved.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect the views of Psychology Today and the University of Scranton, or me, and certainly not the views of my friends, family, probation officer, gut bacteria, darkest thoughts, and personal mohel.