Robert Sapolsky, Intellectual Heavyweight | Model P and Mayor Ford | Korean Kindness

I marinated at Stanford for four years and had the incredible luck to observe, learn, and unlearn from many distinguished speakers. Right now the biggest regret I have about my time at Stanford is not to have taken or sat in a class or even a lunch talk that included Robert Sapolsky. Some of the leading public intellectuals of our time include Neil deGrasse Tyson, Stephen Pinker, Malcolm Gladwell, Barbara Ehrenreich, and Yuval Noah Harari. Robert Sapolsky should be as well known as any of those thinkers, and I believe anyone who reads his works will find it immensely accessible, insightful, and helpful to better understand humanity.

Sapolsky is best known for Behave: The BIology of Humans at our Best and Worst but I encourage readers to check out two of his earlier works: “A Primate’s Memoir” and “Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers.” The former is excellent and one that I really enjoyed while listening to it as an audiobook. The latter is an “acclaimed guide to stress, stress-related diseases, and coping.” And it will shape how you think about managing stress, Type-A people, poor people and stress, and stress and aging. If Daily Pnut was a book club, this is a book that I would heavily advocate the group read. Although we have linked the books to Amazon, we encourage readers to check out the books from their library.

“If you want to see an example of chronic stress, study poverty. Being poor involves lots of physical stressors. Manual labor and a greater risk of work-related accidents. Maybe even two or three exhausting jobs, complete with chronic sleep deprivation.” – Robert Sapolsky, Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers

“If you want to improve health and quality of life, and decrease the stress, for the average person in a society, you do so by spending money on public goods – better public transit, safer streets, cleaner water, better public schools, universal health care.” – Ibid.

“Agriculture is a fairly recent human invention, and in many ways it was one of the great stupid moves of all time. Hunter-gatherers have thousands of wild sources of food to subsist on. Agriculture changed all that, generating an overwhelming reliance on a few dozen domesticated food sources, making you extremely vulnerable to the next famine, the next locust infestation, the next potato blight. Agriculture allowed for the stockpiling of surplus resources and thus, inevitably, the unequal stockpiling of them – stratification of society and the invention of classes. Thus, it allowed for the invention of poverty.” – Ibid. (Reflecting on this quote makes one reconsider how humanity should really measure progress. And challenges the practically unassumed notion that all technology is inevitable and that technology equals progress.)

Additional read: “Man mocked online for shaving on train says he was homeless and trying to clean up: Anthony Torres, 56, was upset by the viral video, saying strangers don’t understand the struggle he’s been through.” (Guardian)

“Instagram is supposed to be friendly. So why is it making people so miserable?: For a growing number of users and mental health experts, the positivity of Instagram is precisely the problem, with its relentless emphasis on promoting ‘perfect’ lifestyles. Should everyone just stop scrolling?” (Guardian)

Korean Kindness: The president of South Korea Moon Jae-in is making great strides in his continuing attempts to unify the peninsula. On Tuesday, President Moon will be heading to North Korea for the third time this year. Recently many of the US’s attempts to persuade North Korea’s denuclearization have failed due to the Trump administration’s heavy handed approach. President Moon believes that the road to denuclearization is paved with kindness first, not after. And now following the opening of a liaison office between the two countries, some say Moon is closer than ever to winning over Kim’s favor.

Critics of South Korea’s kindness approach have called into question the purpose of showing the leader of a totalitarian government such kindness. Some experts believe that North Korea plans on taking advantage of South Korea’s kindness and use it to create tension between SK and the US stating, “Kim Jong Un may seek to exploit the enthusiasm and goodwill of President Moon to create tensions in U.S.-ROK ties.” It is currently unclear if South Korea’s kindness is the best approach, but this is currently the closest we have ever come to a united Korea. South Korean Defense Minister Song Young-moo stated, “We will not let this heartfelt opportunity slip through…Returning to our 70-year history of conflict and hatred is not an option.” Either way, hopes are high since Kim Jong Un stated at the beginning of this month that he wants to denuclearize by the end of Trump’s term in office.

Additional Read:

– “Why Samsung’s billionaire chief is headed to North Korea: The leader of Samsung’s sprawling business empire will visit North Korea this week along with the heads of other top South Korean corporations.” (CNN)

Ford Will Not Stand With This: The “notwithstanding clause” is part of the Canadian Constitution that allows legislators to essentially veto the decision of the court when they believe that the judicial system has overstepped their boundaries. In July, the current premier of Ontario, Doug Ford decided to use the clause after the Ontario supreme court shot down his legislation to reduce the number of voting districts in Toronto from 47 to 25. Due to Ford’s use of the clause, everyone is now uncertain of how the election will play out, creating a very chaotic situation. Emmett Macfarlane, a political science professor at the University of Waterloo described the current situation, “Technically, city officials should be following the judge’s decision and implementing a 47 ward contest. Immediately, once this legislation passes, they’d have to reverse course and implement a 25 ward process. It’s an implementation nightmare,” For the election to occur with no errors, printers will have to work 14 hours a day for 7 days to create the needed 2.6 million ballots.(Guardian)

Glass Borders: The Trump administration has decided to lower the number of refugees admitted into the US from the current 45,000 to 30,000 starting next year. On Monday US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gave a brief statement on the matter, “The improved refugee policy of this administration serves the national interest of the United States, and helps those in need all around the world,” An important thing to note here is that this number does not reflect the amount of refugees accepted into the country, but the amount of refugees considered. According to The Atlantic, “for the current fiscal year, which ends September 30, the refugee ceiling was 45,000, but the U.S. has so far admitted 18,214 people.” By lowering the refugee ceiling, we are also lowering the odds that refugees will be accepted into this country in general. (Atlantic)

– “Russia And Turkey Agree On A Demilitarized Zone In Syria’s Last Rebel Stronghold” (NPR)

– “US imposes new tariffs on $200bn of Chinese goods.” (BBC)

Supreme Showdown: Following the release of a letter accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual violence, Kavanaugh and his accuser, Professor Christine Ford, will appear before a committee on Monday. The meeting will be in a public setting where the senators will be able to ask questions to both Ford and Kavanaugh to help them decide if they want to vote in Kavanaugh. A spokesman for the White House stated, “Judge Kavanaugh looks forward to a hearing where he can clear his name of this false allegation.” The senate’s vote whether or not to appoint Kavanaugh will have to be delayed due to this meeting. (NYT)

Model P: A lot of people compare Elon Musk to Tony Stark. Maybe it’s because they’re both the face of a company or maybe it’s the fancy cars. Lets not forget the time Tony Stark called a heroic diver a pedophile in Iron Man issue #81 (just kidding). Following Musk’s irrational claims that Vernon Unsworth, one of the men who rescued the children from the Thai cave, is a pedophile– Unsworth is officially suing Musk for at least $75,000 in damages. Musk tweeted in August reaffirming his belief stating that if Unsworth was not a pedophile, he would be suing Musk. Unsworth’s lawyers then responded to the tweet with a picture of a letter dated two weeks earlier that was sent to Musk informing him of the lawsuit. Musk did not like and retweet. (Guardian)

Stay Safe: Florence continues to ransack the Carolinas. The official death toll has been raised to 23 and is expected to climb further as the area continues to be hit by flooding and power outages. Evacuating drivers have begun driving around barricades set up by specialists and putting themselves in horrifically dangerous situations. One woman and her son drove around one of the barricades and had their car overtaken by the flood. The boy was taken by the current and was found dead by a rescue team. Governor Roy Cooper had to give a warning to those driving to avoid another tragedy like this one, “Don’t drive around barricades. We’re seeing this happen now, and the result is not good.” (NPR)

– “In Cyberwar, There are no Rules: Why the world desperately needs digital Geneva Conventions.” (Foreign Policy)

– “The Inequality Industry: Since 2008, wonks, politicians, poets, and bankers have all started talking about inequality. But are they interested in making us more equal?” (The Nation)

– “5 movies that explain what caused the financial crisis, and what happened after: The global meltdown began 10 years ago this week, when Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy.” (Vox)

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