Think for yourself. Subscribe to The Free Press today: https://thefp.pub/3DmLpLi Nicholas Wade is a former science writer for The New York Times and author of several books on human evolution, including A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race, and Human History and his new book, The Origin of Politics: How Evolution and Ideology Shape the Fate of Nations. Today, I invite Wade on to discuss some of the toughest topics in modern science: the controversial territory of race and genetics, and whether there are fundamental genetic differences between right-wingers and left-wingers. We also dig into the fertility crisis. Birth rates across the developed world have collapsed below replacement level, and no country except religious Georgia has figured out how to reverse the trend. Wade explains why modern economic progress makes having children less appealing, and why the breakdown of the family matters. Finally, we talk about how the modern nation-state stamped out tribalism, why the academic establishment refuses to engage honestly with genetics research, what evolutionary psychology tells us about foreign policy, and much more. Whether you find Wade’s evolutionary framework persuasive or not, the conversation raises questions that most political leaders and academics prefer to ignore. 00:00 – Intro & episode setup (guest + themes) 01:25 – Conversation starts 01:53 – Nicholas Wade’s background & books 03:01 – What the Human Genome Project unlocked 04:07 – Race, genetics & population clustering 11:21 – Census categories, medicine & the use/misuse of race data 15:10 – The Troublesome Inheritance controversy 17:55 – New book thesis: evolution’s imprint on politics 21:19 – The kibbutz experiment & abolishing the family 22:55 – China’s market reforms, incentives & productivity 26:40 – Nepotism, meritocracy & suppressing tribalism 30:04 – From old tribes to modern political “tribes”? 32:16 – Atomization, family ties & fertility worries 34:45 – Left vs. right through an evolutionary lens 36:57 – Genetic “nudges” behind political attitudes 37:50 – Israel’s birthrates, Amish growth & demographics 42:56 – Why birth rates are falling (Coleman’s theory) 46:42 – Religion, Georgia’s baby boom & incentives 48:56 – Foreign policy: human nature, war & the need for order 53:09 – Are monarchies more stable than democracies? 57:08 – Tribalism as a barrier to state-building & democracy 58:55 – Wrap-up & where to find the book