We're honored to have Dr. Sam Wilkinson stop by the Book Drop Mic to talk about his powerhouse debut: What Evolution and Human Nature Imply About the Meaning of Our Existence. Tune in and learn why this is one of the spring's buzziest books. Can science, faith, religion and human nature all dance well together?
Buy Sam's book:
https://www.amazon.com/Purpose-Evolution-Nature-Meaning-Existence/dp/1639365176/
Learn more about Sam's work:
https://samueltwilkinson.com/
Learn more about Jason:
http://www.jasonfwright.com
About the book:
In Purpose, Yale Professor Samuel Wilkinson tells the story of how recent discoveries from a variety of scientific disciplines—ranging from evolutionary biology to cognitive psychology—suggest there is an overall purpose for human existence. At the same time, Purpose summarizes the latest science from these fields in an attempt to answer some of the deep questions about human nature: Are we ultimately selfish or altruistic? Do we have free will? What is at the root of human happiness? How can a society simultaneously maximize individual happiness and communal well-being? Purpose makes the case that our innate desire to seek for meaning, purpose, and ultimately God, is not at odds with science and evolution.
This podcast is brought to you by InkVeins, your source for book publicity, promo, press releases and more. Text 540-212-4095 for more information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello, hello world.
Hey there, welcome to the BookDrop Mic brought to you by
InkVeins, your source for bookpublicity, promo and press
releases.
This is Jason.
How are you?
Quick reminder that SkaarDakota is now available for
pre-order on Amazon and my goodfriend Kirby Heyborn just
delivered to me the audio andhis performance is just
(00:25):
ridiculous.
It is so good You're going tolove it.
Check it out on Amazon.
We'll have the links, of course, to all those good things.
All right, I'm really curiousabout today's guest.
I've known this particularinterview was coming for quite
some time.
I suspect this will be one ofour more listened to episodes of
the show.
I joke a lot.
(00:47):
If you've ever been to an eventwith me assigning a devotional,
whatever, you know that I liketo joke that I am never the
smartest person in the room, butthere are only two people in
the room.
I'm still not the smartestperson in the room ever.
I'm not sure I'm the smartestperson in the room if I'm alone,
to be quite honest.
But I don't think today's guestcan say that because I suspect
(01:08):
there are not many rooms wherehe is not the brightest.
I mean that as a compliment.
His name is Sam Wilkinson andhe is on the show today.
How are you, sam?
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Good, I'm doing well.
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Okay To call you Sam.
Do you like Samuel?
Do you like Dr Wilkinson?
What?
Speaker 2 (01:24):
do you like?
Sam is just perfect.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Dr Sam, anyone call you Dr Sam, I like that Not too
often.
No, they should.
They should.
All right, sam.
Your new book, a Purpose whatEvolution and Human Nature Imply
About the Meaning of OurExistence, is one of the most
interesting nonfiction titles Ihave seen in a long, long time.
(01:52):
Folks, the reviews for thisbook are off the charts.
I'm going to share one that Iparticularly loved because I
love this other author.
Here's what he said anessential book by every measure,
beautifully written, superblyresearched and life changing.
You will never think of yourlife or the earth, or the
(02:15):
purpose of each in the same wayagain.
That's Greg McEwen, new YorkTimes bestselling author of
Effortless Essentialism.
Two books that I absolutelylove, two of my actually
favorite, maybe nonfictiontitles of all time.
Do you know, greg, by the way?
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Well, he was kind enough to endorse my book.
I went on his podcast a couplemonths ago.
Very kind and generous of himto provide that a few surprise,
as he did.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Yeah, he's terrific.
Those two books are justfabulous.
I have recommended those booksoften.
All right, before we dive intoyour title, tell us a little bit
about you, your background andwhy this book right now.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Yeah, I'd be happy to .
I am an academic.
I'm an associate professor atthe Yale School of Medicine,
lived up here in Connecticut andbeen here for 12 years, coming
up on 12 years with my family.
I've wanted to write this bookfor some time.
It's been almost 15 years sinceI made a fairly you know it was
(03:24):
almost a singular type decision.
I'm gonna write this book aboutthis particular topic and it
stemmed really from kind of acrisis of meaning that I had as
a first year medical student.
I was fortunate to attendmedical school at Johns Hopkins
in Baltimore, Maryland, and thatfirst year there there were a
lot of questions swirlingthrough my head.
(03:45):
Some of this had to do with thewhat I would say is perceived
conflict between science and thesense that I have, that most of
us have, that life has valueand meaning and purpose.
And after a period of intensereflection and study, I came to
(04:06):
a conclusion that I thought wasvery satisfying personally and I
decided to eventually write abook.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
When you say, eventually, write a book.
How long has it been since yousaid how about page one?
Let's go.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Well, I tried to write a little bit right then
and there I was again.
I was a first year medicalstudent.
This was again, it's about 15years, it was 2009.
And at some point I had to putit on the shelf, just because
medical school is intense.
Within within about a half ayear or so, we had our first
(04:45):
children, who were twins twinsin the midst of medical school
and all these other things.
So I put it on the shelf for alittle over a decade and I
picked it back up again as I hada little bit more flexibility
in my time and effort as a, as a, as a faculty, and picked it up
really right before COVID.
(05:06):
And so there was a maybe abouttwo or so years, a little more
than two years during COVID,where I really was intensive in
my effort and picking this backup and and was able to, to you
know, conclude, conclude thisproject and and you know what's
coming to to launch here in thenext couple of weeks and and I'm
(05:28):
I'm excited about it.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
So I love, I love to put people on the spot with
their elevator pitch, the you,you sort of tease this a few
minutes ago, but this is a thisis a big topic, it's a big it's.
It's a big book, thematicallyright.
But on Amazon or Barnes andNoble or in Target when you're
walking or browsing or scrollingpast books, you've got a few
(05:50):
seconds to catch somebody.
What do you tell somebody inthat quote unquote elevator
pitch in 30 seconds or lessabout the book and why they need
it?
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Well, for me, it is trying to bring together these
two, in some cases verydifferent, worldviews through
which we see existence.
When we turn to sciencequestions like what is the
purpose of life?
Where do I find meaning?
A lot of times, science doesn'thave satisfactory explanations,
(06:21):
and so a lot of us turn toreligion or philosophy to answer
these questions, and my goalhere is to bring those together
and show how, not only are theynot in conflict, but they are
mutually reinforcing.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
So you and I were talking before we began taking
here today.
We both served in some similarleadership positions in our
faith, which has put us in a lotof counseling situations
one-on-one with church membersthrough the years.
In those discussions, how oftenobviously without violating
anyone's confidentiality howoften did someone sit down and
(07:00):
erase some of these questionswith you about this balance
between science and faith anddid that impact your writing?
Speaker 2 (07:10):
It tends to happen.
In my experience it tends tohappen more among young people,
particularly those who are inthe trenches of a university
education.
That seems to be when thiscomes to the forefront.
If it does Not.
Everyone struggles with this.
Some people just they don'treally see that conflict.
(07:30):
But among surveys of, say,young people who have grown up
in a religious environment, thisis the number one or two thing
as to why they are prone todrift away from a religious
upbringing.
There's kind of a tie betweenthe perceived conflict of
science and faith, as well as aperception that religious
(07:54):
leaders or people are acting inways that are hypocritical,
which that's hard to get awayfrom.
Human nature is full ofcontradiction.
It's a prominent theme amongyoung people, especially those
immersed in a university setting.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Are you hoping that people will?
I mean, there must be some partof you that hopes someone picks
up the book whose faith isperhaps a little thin right now
and they read through it andthey say you know what, maybe
it's worth another shot.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Yes, I think that is exactly what I would hope.
I don't want to be overlyoptimistic and say, well, I'm
going to convert the world withthis book.
But there's a phrase that Ireally like from a man named
Austin Fair, who was acontemporary and colleague of CS
Lewis, who said essentiallythat argument can't create faith
(08:47):
, but the lack of argument candestroy faith.
And so you know, most people'sfaith is it's not grounded in
science.
A lot of it's grounded inpersonal, very intimate
experiences that people have had.
But if they have this onslaughtof logical argument that tears
that down and they don't haveany sort of defense for it, I
(09:09):
think that can be a recipe forlosing your faith.
So I wouldn't say this is anapologetics book.
Apologetics is kind of thedefense of faith, but in a way
it could be framed that I mostlysee this as a science book and
again, in a way that reinforcesmy conviction that there is a
purpose to our existence and apurpose to life, and that one of
(09:32):
them is to kind of choosebetween conflicting desires
within us have you had feltexperience, support from your
community up there.
A number of my colleaguesdefinitely know that I'm writing
this.
I don't know the extent to theyknow the extent to which the
book gets into this, so it'll beinteresting to see how it is
(09:56):
received.
But I think it's a culture herewhere it's there's a lot of
respect for different viewpointsand so I haven't had anyone say
oh you know, you believe in God, what are you doing at Yale?
No, maybe people think that,but no one said that to my face.
So you know it'll beinteresting, especially as we
(10:17):
get into the specifics of humannature.
That is sometimes where thingscan get a little bit, you know,
interesting and differentperspectives can evoke strong
feelings in people of differentkind of backgrounds and
ideologies.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Well, I want to share this other real quick, this
other endorsement that jumpedout at me from an aim folks
might recognize.
If you struggle to reconcilefaith and reason, Sam
Wilkinson's profound bookpurpose was written for you.
You will be left with anunderstanding of the guiding
forces behind human evolutionand behavior from Arthur Brooks
(10:56):
just down the road at Harvard.
Is that true?
Will I be left with anunderstanding of the guiding
forces between human?
I mean, that's a testimonial,my friend.
That's the big leagues rightthere.
When Brooks says something likethat about your debut book,
something's happening.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Well, I hope you will .
Really there are.
If we want to get into thespecifics, there were two kind
of key things when I started towrite this book, or before I
started to write it, that werereally bothersome to me about,
and when we talk about theconflict between science and
faith, a lot of what we what alot of us mean is the theory of
(11:35):
evolution.
Right, it's been controversialbasically for the century and a
half since it was formallydescribed by Charles Darwin, and
there were two key aspects tome that were really kind of
bothersome, that I now see askind of an incomplete
understanding of it and when wekind of have a fuller picture
(11:58):
again, can be very much inharmony, if not reinforcing,
with this sense that there's agreater purpose to our existence
.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
I want to talk a little bit about your agent.
Mark is a good friend of mine,Mark Gottlieb.
How has it been working withhim?
Speaker 2 (12:15):
It's been great.
He's very responsive, veryquick at getting back to me when
I have a question or any sortof need and, yeah, he's just
been a very, very responsiveagent, especially for a first
time book author.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Yeah, no, he's great and he's got that reputation for
being really hands on and greatwith debuts like this.
So a shout out to Mark atTrident anyone who's looking to
land that first agent with thatfirst deal Mark is someone you
might want to reach out to andpitch.
All right, what's next for you?
I know it's hard because thisbook is, you know, drops this
(12:55):
week, but I mean you can askGreg about this with his book.
You don't write an only book,right?
You write a first book, sowhat's the second book?
What are you working on?
Speaker 2 (13:05):
I don't know.
So you know I'm not a full-timeauthor.
Most of my time is spentconducting research.
My specialty is in mentalhealth and I spend quite a bit
of time conducting clinicaltrials to help develop and
refine treatments to improvepeople's depression and so forth
.
I you know I'm gonna see howthis book goes.
(13:27):
If it goes all right and youknow I don't get canceled I will
probably write another one,probably along the same lines of
.
The mysteries and complexitiesof human nature are really
intriguing to me and obviouslyvery connected with what I do as
a profession.
(13:47):
So yeah, I likely will writeanother one, but I'm still in
the pre-planning stages of that.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Well, I'll be excited to see what comes next.
And if you're listening and youhave ever wondered about this
dance between faith and scienceand religion and history and
evolution and human nature andall these things and how they
(14:18):
work together, I hope that youwill.
I hope you'll pick this up andI've said before I say it all
the time if you don't thinkyou're even going to have time
to read the book right now,that's fine.
Buy it now anyway and it's okayif it's on your shelf for a
little while.
It's really important toauthors, particularly with the
first book, that we get outthere and support the book
(14:39):
opening week with pre-orders orjust buying it on the day it
drops.
It's also beneficial to anauthor trying to get a book out
there and in bookstores and thealgorithms of Amazon they really
promote and tend to kind oflift up books that have some
mojo behind them at the verybeginning.
I hope that folks will givethis a look.
(15:00):
I appreciate the opportunity tochat with you a little bit today
Again.
I think there are people in mylife with whom I have had
significant, lengthyconversations about faith, their
faith, why it has perhaps wanedand with no judgment from me, I
(15:23):
hope, ever some suggestions forthem on how they might find it
again and perhaps come to peacewith this relationship between
science and faith.
They're going to be getting acopy of this book, sam.
They're going to be getting acopy of this book.
I think this is perfectly timedin today's pretty divided and
(15:45):
chaotic world.
I predict this book is going tobecome a powerful tool for a
lot of folks and I'm very happy,honored even to be a part of
this early discussion about thisproject.
Congrats, by the way.
It's a big deal right, it's abig deal your debut book.
I hope you feel good about theaccomplishment.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Thank you, thanks very much.
It's been a long road, but it'sbeen a satisfying one.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Awesome.
Well, folks, thanks for tuningin to the book drop Mike brought
you by Inkvames, excited Aftera little bit of a hiatus.
Now we've got a whole slew ofnew books dropping this spring,
excited to get in to the studioand to talk about them again.
Links to all of Sam's good work, the things he's doing and, of
course, the link to Amazon inthe show notes.
All right, that's it, sam.
(16:30):
Thanks, get back to work, wouldyou?
Thanks, thanks.
Hello, hello world.
Hey there, welcome to the BookDrop Mic brought to you by
InkVeins, your source for bookpublicity, promo and press
releases.
This is Jason.
How are you?
Quick reminder that SkaarDakota is now available for
pre-order on Amazon and my goodfriend Kirby Heyborn just
delivered to me the audio andhis performance is just
(00:25):
ridiculous.
It is so good You're going tolove it.
Check it out on Amazon.
We'll have the links, of course, to all those good things.
All right, I'm really curiousabout today's guest.
I've known this particularinterview was coming for quite
some time.
I suspect this will be one ofour more listened to episodes of
the show.
I joke a lot.
(00:47):
If you've ever been to an eventwith me assigning a devotional,
whatever, you know that I liketo joke that I am never the
smartest person in the room, butthere are only two people in
the room.
I'm still not the smartestperson in the room ever.
I'm not sure I'm the smartestperson in the room if I'm alone,
to be quite honest.
But I don't think today's guestcan say that because I suspect
(01:08):
there are not many rooms wherehe is not the brightest.
I mean that as a compliment.
His name is Sam Wilkinson andhe is on the show today.
How are you, sam?
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Good, I'm doing well.
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Okay To call you Sam.
Do you like Samuel?
Do you like Dr Wilkinson?
What?
Speaker 2 (01:24):
do you like?
Sam is just perfect.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Dr Sam, anyone call you Dr Sam, I like that Not too
often.
No, they should.
They should.
All right, sam.
Your new book, a Purpose whatEvolution and Human Nature Imply
About the Meaning of OurExistence, is one of the most
interesting nonfiction titles Ihave seen in a long, long time.
(01:52):
Folks, the reviews for thisbook are off the charts.
I'm going to share one that Iparticularly loved because I
love this other author.
Here's what he said anessential book by every measure,
beautifully written, superblyresearched and life changing.
You will never think of yourlife or the earth, or the
(02:15):
purpose of each in the same wayagain.
That's Greg McEwen, new YorkTimes bestselling author of
Effortless Essentialism.
Two books that I absolutelylove, two of my actually
favorite, maybe nonfictiontitles of all time.
Do you know, greg, by the way?
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Well, he was kind enough to endorse my book.
I went on his podcast a couplemonths ago.
Very kind and generous of himto provide that a few surprise,
as he did.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Yeah, he's terrific.
Those two books are justfabulous.
I have recommended those booksoften.
All right, before we dive intoyour title, tell us a little bit
about you, your background andwhy this book right now.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Yeah, I'd be happy to .
I am an academic.
I'm an associate professor atthe Yale School of Medicine,
lived up here in Connecticut andbeen here for 12 years, coming
up on 12 years with my family.
I've wanted to write this bookfor some time.
It's been almost 15 years sinceI made a fairly you know it was
(03:24):
almost a singular type decision.
I'm gonna write this book aboutthis particular topic and it
stemmed really from kind of acrisis of meaning that I had as
a first year medical student.
I was fortunate to attendmedical school at Johns Hopkins
in Baltimore, Maryland, and thatfirst year there there were a
lot of questions swirlingthrough my head.
(03:45):
Some of this had to do with thewhat I would say is perceived
conflict between science and thesense that I have, that most of
us have, that life has valueand meaning and purpose.
And after a period of intensereflection and study, I came to
(04:06):
a conclusion that I thought wasvery satisfying personally and I
decided to eventually write abook.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
When you say, eventually, write a book.
How long has it been since yousaid how about page one?
Let's go.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Well, I tried to write a little bit right then
and there I was again.
I was a first year medicalstudent.
This was again, it's about 15years, it was 2009.
And at some point I had to putit on the shelf, just because
medical school is intense.
Within within about a half ayear or so, we had our first
(04:45):
children, who were twins twinsin the midst of medical school
and all these other things.
So I put it on the shelf for alittle over a decade and I
picked it back up again as I hada little bit more flexibility
in my time and effort as a, as a, as a faculty, and picked it up
really right before COVID.
(05:06):
And so there was a maybe abouttwo or so years, a little more
than two years during COVID,where I really was intensive in
my effort and picking this backup and and was able to, to you
know, conclude, conclude thisproject and and you know what's
coming to to launch here in thenext couple of weeks and and I'm
(05:28):
I'm excited about it.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
So I love, I love to put people on the spot with
their elevator pitch, the you,you sort of tease this a few
minutes ago, but this is a thisis a big topic, it's a big it's.
It's a big book, thematicallyright.
But on Amazon or Barnes andNoble or in Target when you're
walking or browsing or scrollingpast books, you've got a few
(05:50):
seconds to catch somebody.
What do you tell somebody inthat quote unquote elevator
pitch in 30 seconds or lessabout the book and why they need
it?
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Well, for me, it is trying to bring together these
two, in some cases verydifferent, worldviews through
which we see existence.
When we turn to sciencequestions like what is the
purpose of life?
Where do I find meaning?
A lot of times, science doesn'thave satisfactory explanations,
(06:21):
and so a lot of us turn toreligion or philosophy to answer
these questions, and my goalhere is to bring those together
and show how, not only are theynot in conflict, but they are
mutually reinforcing.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
So you and I were talking before we began taking
here today.
We both served in some similarleadership positions in our
faith, which has put us in a lotof counseling situations
one-on-one with church membersthrough the years.
In those discussions, how oftenobviously without violating
anyone's confidentiality howoften did someone sit down and
(07:00):
erase some of these questionswith you about this balance
between science and faith anddid that impact your writing?
Speaker 2 (07:10):
It tends to happen.
In my experience it tends tohappen more among young people,
particularly those who are inthe trenches of a university
education.
That seems to be when thiscomes to the forefront.
If it does Not.
Everyone struggles with this.
Some people just they don'treally see that conflict.
(07:30):
But among surveys of, say,young people who have grown up
in a religious environment, thisis the number one or two thing
as to why they are prone todrift away from a religious
upbringing.
There's kind of a tie betweenthe perceived conflict of
science and faith, as well as aperception that religious
(07:54):
leaders or people are acting inways that are hypocritical,
which that's hard to get awayfrom.
Human nature is full ofcontradiction.
It's a prominent theme amongyoung people, especially those
immersed in a university setting.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Are you hoping that people will?
I mean, there must be some partof you that hopes someone picks
up the book whose faith isperhaps a little thin right now
and they read through it andthey say you know what, maybe
it's worth another shot.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Yes, I think that is exactly what I would hope.
I don't want to be overlyoptimistic and say, well, I'm
going to convert the world withthis book.
But there's a phrase that Ireally like from a man named
Austin Fair, who was acontemporary and colleague of CS
Lewis, who said essentiallythat argument can't create faith
(08:47):
, but the lack of argument candestroy faith.
And so you know, most people'sfaith is it's not grounded in
science.
A lot of it's grounded inpersonal, very intimate
experiences that people have had.
But if they have this onslaughtof logical argument that tears
that down and they don't haveany sort of defense for it, I
(09:09):
think that can be a recipe forlosing your faith.
So I wouldn't say this is anapologetics book.
Apologetics is kind of thedefense of faith, but in a way
it could be framed that I mostlysee this as a science book and
again, in a way that reinforcesmy conviction that there is a
purpose to our existence and apurpose to life, and that one of
(09:32):
them is to kind of choosebetween conflicting desires
within us have you had feltexperience, support from your
community up there.
A number of my colleaguesdefinitely know that I'm writing
this.
I don't know the extent to theyknow the extent to which the
book gets into this, so it'll beinteresting to see how it is
(09:56):
received.
But I think it's a culture herewhere it's there's a lot of
respect for different viewpointsand so I haven't had anyone say
oh you know, you believe in God, what are you doing at Yale?
No, maybe people think that,but no one said that to my face.
So you know it'll beinteresting, especially as we
(10:17):
get into the specifics of humannature.
That is sometimes where thingscan get a little bit, you know,
interesting and differentperspectives can evoke strong
feelings in people of differentkind of backgrounds and
ideologies.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Well, I want to share this other real quick, this
other endorsement that jumpedout at me from an aim folks
might recognize.
If you struggle to reconcilefaith and reason, Sam
Wilkinson's profound bookpurpose was written for you.
You will be left with anunderstanding of the guiding
forces behind human evolutionand behavior from Arthur Brooks
(10:56):
just down the road at Harvard.
Is that true?
Will I be left with anunderstanding of the guiding
forces between human?
I mean, that's a testimonial,my friend.
That's the big leagues rightthere.
When Brooks says something likethat about your debut book,
something's happening.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Well, I hope you will .
Really there are.
If we want to get into thespecifics, there were two kind
of key things when I started towrite this book, or before I
started to write it, that werereally bothersome to me about,
and when we talk about theconflict between science and
faith, a lot of what we what alot of us mean is the theory of
(11:35):
evolution.
Right, it's been controversialbasically for the century and a
half since it was formallydescribed by Charles Darwin, and
there were two key aspects tome that were really kind of
bothersome, that I now see askind of an incomplete
understanding of it and when wekind of have a fuller picture
(11:58):
again, can be very much inharmony, if not reinforcing,
with this sense that there's agreater purpose to our existence
.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
I want to talk a little bit about your agent.
Mark is a good friend of mine,Mark Gottlieb.
How has it been working withhim?
Speaker 2 (12:15):
It's been great.
He's very responsive, veryquick at getting back to me when
I have a question or any sortof need and, yeah, he's just
been a very, very responsiveagent, especially for a first
time book author.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Yeah, no, he's great and he's got that reputation for
being really hands on and greatwith debuts like this.
So a shout out to Mark atTrident anyone who's looking to
land that first agent with thatfirst deal Mark is someone you
might want to reach out to andpitch.
All right, what's next for you?
I know it's hard because thisbook is, you know, drops this
(12:55):
week, but I mean you can askGreg about this with his book.
You don't write an only book,right?
You write a first book, sowhat's the second book?
What are you working on?
Speaker 2 (13:05):
I don't know.
So you know I'm not a full-timeauthor.
Most of my time is spentconducting research.
My specialty is in mentalhealth and I spend quite a bit
of time conducting clinicaltrials to help develop and
refine treatments to improvepeople's depression and so forth
.
I you know I'm gonna see howthis book goes.
(13:27):
If it goes all right and youknow I don't get canceled I will
probably write another one,probably along the same lines of
.
The mysteries and complexitiesof human nature are really
intriguing to me and obviouslyvery connected with what I do as
a profession.
(13:47):
So yeah, I likely will writeanother one, but I'm still in
the pre-planning stages of that.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Well, I'll be excited to see what comes next.
And if you're listening and youhave ever wondered about this
dance between faith and scienceand religion and history and
evolution and human nature andall these things and how they
(14:18):
work together, I hope that youwill.
I hope you'll pick this up andI've said before I say it all
the time if you don't thinkyou're even going to have time
to read the book right now,that's fine.
Buy it now anyway and it's okayif it's on your shelf for a
little while.
It's really important toauthors, particularly with the
first book, that we get outthere and support the book
(14:39):
opening week with pre-orders orjust buying it on the day it
drops.
It's also beneficial to anauthor trying to get a book out
there and in bookstores and thealgorithms of Amazon they really
promote and tend to kind oflift up books that have some
mojo behind them at the verybeginning.
I hope that folks will givethis a look.
(15:00):
I appreciate the opportunity tochat with you a little bit today
Again.
I think there are people in mylife with whom I have had
significant, lengthyconversations about faith, their
faith, why it has perhaps wanedand with no judgment from me, I
(15:23):
hope, ever some suggestions forthem on how they might find it
again and perhaps come to peacewith this relationship between
science and faith.
They're going to be getting acopy of this book, sam.
They're going to be getting acopy of this book.
I think this is perfectly timedin today's pretty divided and
(15:45):
chaotic world.
I predict this book is going tobecome a powerful tool for a
lot of folks and I'm very happy,honored even to be a part of
this early discussion about thisproject.
Congrats, by the way.
It's a big deal right, it's abig deal your debut book.
I hope you feel good about theaccomplishment.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Thank you, thanks very much.
It's been a long road, but it'sbeen a satisfying one.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Awesome.
Well, folks, thanks for tuningin to the book drop Mike brought
you by Inkvames, excited Aftera little bit of a hiatus.
Now we've got a whole slew ofnew books dropping this spring,
excited to get in to the studioand to talk about them again.
Links to all of Sam's good work, the things he's doing and, of
course, the link to Amazon inthe show notes.
All right, that's it, sam.
(16:30):
Thanks, get back to work, wouldyou?
Thanks, thanks.
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