Radio Lab: Does All Goodness Distill To Subtle Self Interest?

Alan: Stem-to-stern, this is a remarkable program. 
          "Goodness..." and the people who bet their lives on it. 
          Winners. 
          And losers.

The Good Show

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In this episode, a question that haunted Charles Darwin: if natural selection boils down to survival of the fittest, how do you explain why one creature might stick its neck out for another?

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The standard view of evolution is that living things are shaped by cold-hearted competition. And there is no doubt that today's plants and animals carry the genetic legacy of ancestors who fought fiercely to survive and reproduce. But in this hour, we wonder whether there might also be a logic behind sharing, niceness, kindness ... or even, self-sacrifice. Is altruism an aberration, or just an elaborate guise for sneaky self-interest? Do we really live in a selfish, dog-eat-dog world? Or has evolution carved out a hidden code that rewards genuine cooperation?

GUESTS:

 Robert Axelrod, Richard Dawkins, Oren Harman, Walter F. Rutkowski, Steve Strogatz, Stanley Weintraub, Carl Zimmer and Andrew Zolli

CONTRIBUTORS:

 Lynn Levy

TAGS:

 
• altruism
 
• evolution
 
• game theory
 
• george price
 
• good
 
• gut wrenching
 
• hero
 
• idea explorer

An Equation for Good

In a brief snippet from a conversation Robert had with Richard Dawkins at the 92 Street Y in New York City, we learn that natural selection is often a brutal arms race, inherently full of suffering and cruelty. But if Darwin's big idea is really predicated on pain and selfishness, ...

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I Need a Hero

Is there such a thing as a purely selfless deed--one with no hidden motives whatsoever? Walter F. Rutkowski from the Carnegie Hero Fund spends his days measuring good deeds by some very stringent criteria--such as risking your life "to an extraordinary degree while saving or attempting to save ...

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One Good Deed Deserves Another

In the early 60s, Robert Axelrod was a math major messing around with refrigerator-sized computers. Then a dramatic global crisis made him wonder about the space between a rock and a hard place, and whether being good may be a good strategy. With help from Andrew Zolli and Steve Strogatz, ...

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