John R. Miles

Human beings are wired for connection, for fairness, and for shared flourishing.

So the question before us today in this conversation is how do we move from a world of us and them to a future of all of us?

To help us explore this shift, I'm honored to welcome two friends and two of the most impactful minds working at the intersection of psychology, neuroscience, and moral philosophy.

First is my friend Rick Hansen, who's a psychologist, a senior fellow at UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center, a New York Times bestselling author, and he's also the president of the Global Compassion Coalition, something I hope all of you check out, and co-host of the Being Well podcast with his son Forrest.

And second, we have my friend, Dr. Joshua Green, who's a Harvard cognitive scientist, author of the amazing book, Moral Tribes, and co-founder of Pods Fight Poverty, which is a groundbreaking effort uniting the podcasting community, which I feel like I'm a small part of, to expand the moral circle in tangible, measurable ways.

Other podcasters who are friends of mine who are part of this are Adam Grant, Laurie Santos, Katie Milkman, and many others, Dan Harris, Dan Heath.

and others.

Today's event supports a joint event we're calling Pods Fight Poverty, which is a joint initiative with Laurie Santos, the Happiness Lab, Giving Multiplier and GiveDirectly with one bold goal, to lift three Rwandan villages out of extreme poverty through direct cash assistance that restores dignity and autonomy.

And why we're doing this is because while matching funds last,

Every hundred dollars donated becomes 150, amplifying your impact instantly.

So over the next hour, we're going to dig into why humans fall into us versus them, what science says about expanding empathy and cooperation, how compassion translates into real world action and opportunity.

This is a conversation about human potential, not just to care, but to include.

Thank you again for being here.

So with all of that,

Josh, I'm going to start out with you.

Why are human moral systems built so deeply around us versus them?

And how did that help us survive?

And how is it hurting us now?

Well, thank you for that, Josh.

And Rick, I know a lot of your work deals with compassion.