Robert Sapolsky, one of the world’s leading neuroscientists and professor at Stanford University gives a wonderful class on Human Biology investigating why we do the things we do from a biological standpoint. The entire semester long class is on youtube and is totally free – I suggest you take the whole thing! I’ll be posting lectures from his class periodically in this section. To begin: the introduction.

Sapolsky talks about the premise of the course and steers us away from categorical thinking by helping us recognize it. Then he lays the framework for how we are affected by our chemical and biological make-up. He comes up with some stunning examples in this course. For example, what do twinkies, menstruation and steroids have in common? It’s really surprising – watch and find out!

This introduction will help us in later classes as he delves deeper into the scientific study of human behavioral biology.