This episode of Books and Ideas is an interview with David Shariatmadari author of "Don't Believe a Word: The Surprising Truth About Language." We explore some of the common myths about language. This includes a follow up of our recent discussion on Brain Science about the evidence against the assumption that language is an instinctive.

Links and References:

• Don't Believe a Word: The Surprising Truth About Language by David Shariatmadari
• Cognitive Gadgets: The Cultural Evolution of Thinking by Cecilia Heyes
  • Interviewed in Brain Science 168
• Pullum, GK and Schultz, BC, (2002) Empirical assessment of stimulus of poverty arguments. The Linguistic Review, 19, ?.
• Hsu, H J, and Bishop, DV (2014) Sequence-specific procedural learning deficits in children with specific language impairment. Developmental Science,17(3), 352-365.
• Tomblin, J B, Shribirg, L , Murray, J, Patil, S, and Williams, C. (2004). Speech and Language characteristics associated with a 7/13 translocation involving FOXP2. American Journal of Medical Genetics, Part B, Neuropsychiatric Genetics, 130, 97-?.
• Both books have extensive references. For more please see show notes of BS 168.

Announcements:

• Coming in early May 2020: new expanded edition of re You Sure? The Unconscious Origins of Certainty by Virginia "Ginger" Campbell, MD. Sign up for Brain Science Newsletter for updates.
• Send email to docartemis@gmail.com or post voice feedback at http://speakpipe.com/docartemis.
• Books and Ideas is going on hiatus until November 2020 so that Dr. Campbell can work on her neuroscience writing project. Please subscribe in your favorite podcasting app so that you don't miss the next episode.

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• Twitter: @docartemis
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Several years ago I interviewed Terrence Deacon about his fascinating book Incomplete Nature: How Mind Emerged from Matter. His goal was to propose a theory of how purpose evolved in a universe without purpose. His argument was persuasive, but highly technical. In this month’s episode of Books and Ideas I interview his longtime colleague Jeremy Sherman. His book Neither Ghost nor Machine: The Emergence and Nature of Selves makes Deacon’s ideas highly accessible to a wider audience. Join us as we explore the question: How did purpose arise from a purposeless universe? (Hint: the answer is not supernatural!)

Links and References:

• Neither Ghost nor Machine: The Emergence and Nature of Selves by Jeremy Sherman
• Incomplete Nature: How Mind Emerged from Matter by Terrence W. Deacon
• The Symbolic Species: The Co-Evolution of Language and the Brain by Terrence W. Deacon
• Books and Ideas 47 with Terrence Deacon
• Metaphors We Live By by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson
• The Selfish Gene and The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins
• Consciousness Explained by Daniel Dennett
• The Life of the Mind by Hannah Arendt

Announcements:

• Coming April 28, 2020: a new expanded version of Are You Sure? The Unconscious Origins of Certainty by Virginia “Ginger” Campbell, MD (links coming soon)

• Send email to docartemis@gmail.com or post voice feedback at http://speakpipe.com/docartemis.
• Please support Books and Ideas via Patreon at http://patreon.com/booksandideas.
• To win an Amazon gift certificate: post a review of Books and Ideas in iTunes and send me a screenshot.

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• Twitter: @docartemis
• Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/booksandideas

This episode of Books and Ideas is a follow up of my previous interview of Becky Hale, past-president of the American Humanist Association (AHA). I am fascinated by the relationship between modern Humanism and Unitarian Universalism. Listen to my interview with Amanda Poppei from the Unitarian Universalist Humanist Association (UUHA) to learn why.

Links and References:

• Humanist Voices in Unitarian Universalism, ed. by Gibbons and Murray
• Unitarian Universalist Humanist Association (UUHA)
• American Humanist Association (AHA)
  • BI 53 with AHA president Becky Hale
• The Humanist Manifesto (Wikipedia) 
• The Secular Coalition

Announcements:

• Send email to docartemis@gmail.com or post voice feedback at http://speakpipe.com/docartemis.
• Please support Books and Ideas via Patreon at http://patreon.com/booksandideas.
• To win an Amazon gift certificate: post a review of Books and Ideas in iTunes and send me a screenshot.

Connect on Social Media:

• Twitter: @docartemis
• Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/booksandideas

• Humanist Unitarians of Birmingham (Facebook Group)