{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"The origins of Darwin's ideas","description":"No discipline, no sphere of intellectual life, has been untouched by the work of Charles Darwin. He died in 1882 but his ideas are very much alive; they're now central to how we understand the natural world, the human mind, non-human minds, plants, biogeography, morality and emotion, culture, language, and more. But where did his ideas come from? How did they grow out of his travels, his social circle, his hobbies, his particular cast of mind?  My guest today is Dr. Janet Browne. Janet is Professor Emerita at Harvard University in the department of the History of Science. She is perhaps best known for her widely acclaimed two-volume biography of Charles Darwin. And she has now published an updated and abridged single-volume version.   Here, Janet and I talk about Darwin's life and ideas. We pick up the story during his travels on the Beagle, a five-year voyage that laid the foundation for the rest of his career. We talk about what he was reading, what he was seeing, and how these experiences helped form his most influential work, On the Origin of Species. We discuss Darwin's style as a thinker, as a naturalist, as a writer, and as an experimentalist. We touch on his relationships with contemporaries like Charles Lyell and Alfred Russel Wallace. And we consider his long\u2014and often overlooked\u2014engagements with pigeons, barnacles, plants, and worms.  I greatly enjoyed Janet's two-volume biography of Darwin, and I enjoyed this new single-volume edition just as much. So if this episode sparks your interest, I heartily recommend that you check these books out. Alright friends, on to my conversation with Dr. Janet Browne. Enjoy!   Notes 3:30 \u2013 Darwin\u2019s autobiography is available here. All of Darwin\u2019s letters are readable (and searchable) at the Darwin Correspondence Project. 11:00 \u2013 Darwin\u2019s account of his five-year stint on the HMS Beagle can be found in his book, The Voyage of the Beagle.  17:00 \u2013 Charles Lyell\u2019s Principles of Geology (Vol. 1). 27:00 \u2013 For a recently published history of Lamarck and his ideas, see here.  31:00 \u2013 For more on Darwin\u2019s interest in pigeons and pigeon breeding, see here.  34:00 \u2013 For more on Darwin\u2019s barnacle studies, see here. 40:00 \u2013 For a brief account of the relationship between Wallace and Darwin, see Dr. Browne\u2019s article here. 44:00 \u2013 Alfred Russel Wallace\u2019s The Malay Archipelago is here. Wallace\u2019s own essay on natural selection, sent to Darwin before the publication of On the Origin of Species, is here. The proceedings in which Darwin\u2019s and Wallace\u2019s first papers on natural selection appeared together. 53:00 \u2013 For a modern treatment of the concept of sexual selection, see here. For an online version of Darwin\u2019s The Descent of Man, see here. For a recent collection of essays on Darwin\u2019s Descent, including one by Dr. Browne, see here.  58:00 \u2013 Darwin\u2019s The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals.  1:03:00 \u2013 Darwin\u2019s short article, \u2018A biographical sketch of an infant.\u2019 1:08:00 \u2013 Darwin\u2019s The Power of Movement in Plants. For more about Darwin\u2019s last book, The Formation of Vegetable Mould, through the Action of Worms, see here. For more about Darwin\u2019s \u201croot-brain hypothesis,\u201d see our earlier episode. 1:14:00 \u2013 For more on Darwin\u2019s theory of gemmules and pangenesis, see here. 1:15:00 \u2013 For more on Darwin\u2019s substantial archive, see here.    Recommendations Darwin and the Barnacle, Rebecca Stott Natural Magic, Ren\u00e9e Bergland ","author_name":"Many Minds","author_url":"https:\/\/disi.org\/manyminds\/","html":"