Ep 117: David Samson | Understanding our tribe drive and how to use it for good

Rethinking Communication

We live in a world where the individual is celebrated and held up as the first and last option, and reliance on others is shamed and degraded in many ways.

Yet, it goes against who we are and who we are made to be.

We’re tribal.

We work best in small groups, sharing resources and working together to solve problems.

But what happens when this tribe drive goes haywire?

David Samson believes our bent towards tribalism has its negative consequences, but it can be overcome, and tribalism and understanding the ways we work together as humans can actually be a good thing, if we pay attention to it.

David is an associate professor of biological anthropology at the University of Toronto, and the author of the book Our Tribal Future: How to channel our foundational human instincts into a force for good.

As you’ll hear from David and as he writes in his book, no one is immune from the biases, notions, and tribal bents that govern your worldview, and by extension, how you aim to solve problems. Accepting this, and then critically examining how this has shaped your perception of reality, can be an unlock to communicating across differences and divides, and to actually solving real challenges and issues.