Primate Behavior: Lessons for Life

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PRIMATE BEHAVIOR: LESSONS FOR LIFE
Dr. Robert Sapolsky in Conversation with Michael Krasny
Monday March 5

For more than thirty years, Dr. Sapolsky has divided his time between the field and the lab. As a result, he can effortlessly move from a discussion of pecking orders in primate societies (human and baboon) to an explanation of how neurotransmitters work during stress—and he get laughs doing it. In fact, he chose to live with baboons because they are perfect for learning about stress and stress-related diseases in humans. Like their human cousins, baboons live in large, complex social groups and have lots of time, Dr. Sapolsky writes, “to devote to being rotten to each other.” Just like stressed-out people, stressed-out baboons have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and hardened arteries. And just like people, baboons are good material for stories. His gift for storytelling led The New York Times to suggest, “If you crossed Jane Goodall with a borscht-belt comedian, she might have written a book like A Primate’s Memoir,” an account of his early years as a field biologist. Dr. Sapolsky is a MacArthur Fellow.

MICHAEL KRASNY is the host of the KQED radio program Forum. He is also a professor of English at San Francisco State University and the author of Spiritual Envy: an Agnostic’s Quest and Off Mike: A Memoir of Talk Radio and Literary Life. His many interviews for City Arts & Lectures include Toni Morrison, Salman Rushdie, Norman Mailer, Joyce Carol Oates, and Brian Greene.

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http://www.calacademy.org/events/lectures/herbst/#030512

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