The Better Angels of Our Nature

This book by Steven Pinker was genuinely recommended once in the episodes we index, on Tim Ferriss. The people who vouched for it on air: Jack Kornfield. It comes up in conversations about consciousness, exercise & strength, meditation & mindfulness, psychedelics, trauma & ptsd. Every quote below is verbatim, attributed, and linked to the exact second it was said. Sourced expert opinion, not medical advice.

We've all asked, "What is the world coming to?" But we seldom ask, "How bad was the world in the past?" In this startling new book, cognitive scientist Steven Pinker shows that the past was much worse. Evidence of a bloody history has always been around us: genocides in the Old Testament, gory mutilations in Shakespeare and Grimm, monarchs who beheaded their relatives, and American founders who dueled with their rivals. The murder rate in medieval Europe was more than thirty times what it is today. Slavery, sadistic punishments, and frivolous executions were common features of life for millennia, then were suddenly abolished.

• “one of my favorite recent books is called the better angels of our Nature by Steven Pinker and he's a remarkable Professor”

  Why it counts as a recommendation: “one of my favorite recent books is called the better angels of our Nature by Steven Pinker”
  Jack Kornfield · The Tim Ferriss Show · Jul 202402:56:11

  Said during "Elizabeth Gilbert and Jack Kornfield". The episode features Elizabeth Gilbert and Jack Kornfield: Elizabeth Gilbert is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Eat Pray Love, Big Magic, and City of Girls. Jack Kornfield is a founding teacher of the Insight Meditation Society and Spirit Rock, one of the key figures who brought mindfulness practice to the West and author of 16 books. A 10th-anniversary super-combo episode pairing Elizabeth Gilbert on grief, intuition, and saying no with Jack Kornfield on meditation and compassion.