Beat Your Genes

Ok. This is a big one, and potentially controversial.

I’m just going to point you in the direction of, possibly, my favourite podcast in the world “Beat Your Genes”

(I ❤️ podcasts…. have you figured that out???)

As I do every day, I will say I am not a professional scientist, psychologist or anything else. I’m sharing the resources that interest and excite me. I’m sharing my thoughts, my experiences and my truths. Take what you want, leave what you don’t.

Obviously, our brains are very complex and intricate and there’s no clear cut answer to ANYTHING when it comes to the human brain. But evolutionary psychology is the closest (and most intellectually challenging AND satisfying) thing I’ve found so far.

I’ll disclaimer this section by saying:

There are two evolutionary psychologists on the podcast: Dr Doug Lisle and Dr Jen Howk.

Dr Lisle can be blunt, tone deaf to gender and other human rights issues, and has a tendency to get on his high horse and deliver heated monologues. He no doubt advocates for a better world, but his approach can often come across as discompassionate and cold. While he is constantly acknowledging how smart Dr Howk is, he takes up a considerable amount more air time than she does with above mentioned heated monologues and this really pisses me off.

Dr Howk, on the other hand delivers calculated, thoughtful and emotionally neutral information. She approaches evolutionary psychology through a lens of political and social awareness which, in my opinion, makes her approach a lot more compassionate than his. This compassion doesn’t take away from her brilliance - it’s a result of it. She’s able to navigate the good, bad and ugly of humanity with compassion for the complex nature of our genetics, relationships, social structures and the world we find ourselves living in. I girl crush on her!

So, if you choose to listen to this podcast and Dr Lisle gets your goat, or says a bunch of things that make you want to vomit a little bit in your mouth, I can relate.

Having said all that, there’s no doubting that both of them offer a perspective that is helpful and rarely seen elsewhere in psychology.

Evolutionary psychology is the lens I try to view EVERYTHING else through. It’s so huge that I can’t always wrap my head around it, and even though I listen to the podcast religiously, read articles and talk about these concepts with other people there is SO MUCH that I don’t know or understand.

As you probably know by now, I’m pretty enthusiastic about gender equality. Looking at feminism through the lens of evolutionary psychology, and looking at evolutionary psychology through the lens of feminism does all kind of wild things to my brain.

I’m currently learning some things about how hormonal differences affect male vs female brains (in the book The Female Brain - by Louann Brizendine M.D) and it’s fascinating to try and understand where innate differences end and where the cultural and gender conditioning & stereotyping begins.

There’s a great article about the dangers of talking about female vs male brain (and the power of neuroplasticity) HERE

On my new album DEAR JOHN I have a song called “Whole”.

One of the lines in the song goes like this:

“I read the books, I saw the films, it’s powerful psychology. I’m up against the science and the stories that my value is placed on the sweetness of my face and the amount of men that choose to give me glory”

This line was written after considering the biological reality that, to a certain degree, we all rate potential mates on looks (“gene quality” in evo psych terms) and the cultural reality that the emphasis on women’s looks - and their “female” roles has been blown dangerously out of proportion.

The rest of the song talks about how I’m so much more than “my role” as a woman, in the context of somebody else’s expectations

There’s so much in humans that is innate, and it seems there are very real, scientific differences between genders - but I think we’ve created caricatures of these differences and built a static structure around our limited understandings of these differences and whether or not we can learn beyond “instincts”.

When I look at my life through the lens of innate vs learnt/conditioned and where the two intersect, I start to understand myself and other people a little better. I start to understand the complex decision making that is happening every second of every day, as I try - like every other living organism - to survive. I start to understand why I have chosen X over Y even though X wasn’t really what I wanted. I start to understand how my personality changes the way I approach everything, and why I have patterns that I just can’t seem to shake.

Evo psych says that our personalities are set in our DNA. We are who we are. But there is quite a range of possibilities within that preset personality, and that different behaviours will be triggered depending on the environment, who we’re interacting with and what’s at stake. I wonder if so many of our problems as humans come from not properly understanding what can and can’t be changed in ourselves and others - and how.

Ok, I could go on FOREVER, but I’m going to leave it there. If you’re up for the ride, dive in. I’m not going to recommend one particular episode. Each episode is epic, and you’ll really only start to get a handle on it after listening to several (and even after you’ve listened to 100, your brain will keep exploding 😂)

I reckon this podcast has completely changed my life. Big call, I know …. I’m sticking to it.

Check it out HERE and let me know, in the Facebook group, what you think x