2024-04-02
41 分钟Yuval Noah Harari is a historian best known for his book Sapiens, which has sold more than 25 million copies and been translated into 65 languages. Adam and Yuval examine the power of stories in shaping humanity’s success, discuss the tension between justice and peace, and reconsider the true purpose of studying history. Yuval’s latest book, Unstoppable Us, Volume 2: Why The World Isn’t Fair, is for young readers and it’s out now. Transcripts for ReThinking are available at go.ted.com/RWAGscripts
Ted audio collective.
Hey, everyone, it's Adam Grant.
Welcome back to rethinking my podcast on the science of what makes us tick with the TeD audio collective.
I'm an organizational psychologist, and I'm taking you inside the minds of fascinating people to explore new thoughts and new ways of thinking.
My guest today is Yuval Noah Harari.
He's the historian best known for his book Sapiens, which has sold over 25 million copies and spent more than 200 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.
Yuval has a new book for young readers, unstoppable us, volume two.
Why the world isn't fair.
In many cases, there is really a contradiction or a clash between justice and peace.
Let's start on fairness then.
Since it's the subject of the hour, maybe you can answer a question that's bothered me since I was a kid.
I remember growing up, my mom would always say, life isn't fair.
And I hated hearing that.
I think you have an explanation that might be a little more satisfying than the one that she gave.
Our ideas of fairness are usually stories invented by humans.
And the universe doesn't follow our stories.
So most concepts of fairness and justice, they are just human imagination.
And when we try to impose them on reality, it doesn't work.
Actually, some of the worst catastrophes in human history occur because humans try too hard to impose their concepts of fairness on the universe.
When you have this kind of fantasy of a perfect world and you encounter the imperfect world, there are many people who are standing in your way to accomplish this kind of perfect world, and you then begin to see them as evil because they are trying to prevent fairness, they are trying to prevent justice.