22 thinkers, books, and ideas connected to this field.
Thomas Sowell's 1998 study examining how conquests shaped the conquered cultures — analyzing the British, African, Slavic, and American Indian experiences to argue that cultural outcomes depend less on exploitation and more on what specific cultural capital conquering and conquered peoples respectively brought to the encounter.
Ed Catmull's 2014 book about building and maintaining Pixar's creative culture — from the founding through Toy Story, the Disney acquisition, and beyond — structured as a manual for how to manage creative people without killing their creativity.
American Jungian analyst who has written on the intersection of Jungian psychology with religious traditions — particularly Christianity and Judaism — exploring how depth psychology illuminates and is illuminated by religious experience.
Rousseau's 1758 essay responding to d'Alembert's suggestion that Geneva should establish a theatre — arguing that theatre corrupts republican virtue because it teaches spectators to enjoy other people's passions vicariously rather than engaging in civic life, and specifically that comedy corrupts by making vice entertaining.
American social psychologist at Columbia Business School whose Tribal: How the Cultural Instincts That Divide Us Can Help Bring Us Together examines how tribal psychology shapes behavior and how understanding cultural instincts can build cross-group cooperation.
American editor and author — wife of Norman Podhoretz — who wrote some of the most pointed cultural criticism of 1970s feminism from a conservative perspective — editor at Basic Books and other publishers.
American executive who worked at Google, Facebook, and Lambda School and Quip — known for writing 'Give Away Your Legos' — her essay on the psychology of scaling organizations (what happens to individuals as a company grows and roles specialize away from generalists).
Vivek Ramaswamy's 2022 argument — that American culture has become defined by victimhood identity across both political parties, and that reclaiming civic identity requires moving beyond victim narratives.
Malcolm Gladwell's 2008 argument — that extraordinary success depends on hidden advantages (birth dates, cultural legacies, 10,000 hours of practice) rather than individual merit — the best-selling popular examination of the social context of success.
Iain M. Banks's 1988 Culture novel — about Jernau Gurgeh, the Culture's greatest game player, who is sent to play the Empire of Azad's defining game — considered the best entry point to the Culture series and the most intellectually satisfying Banks novel.
Yuval Noah Harari's 2011 (English 2014) grand history of Homo sapiens — tracing the cognitive, agricultural, and scientific revolutions in a single accessible narrative — the best-selling popular history of the last decade.
American low-cost airline founded by Herb Kelleher in 1971 — which built the point-to-point, no-frills model that disrupted the hub-and-spoke majors — and whose employee-first culture became the most studied example of culture as competitive strategy in business.
Louise Perry's 2022 feminist critique of the sexual revolution — arguing that liberalized sexual norms have primarily benefited men, that women's genuine interests lie closer to traditional norms around sex and commitment, and that feminist sexual liberation was a mistake.
David Landes's 1998 account of global economic development — arguing that cultural factors (curiosity, work ethic, property rights, rule of law) rather than geography explain why some nations are rich and others poor — the most prominent counter to Diamond's geographic determinism.
Joseph Henrich's 2020 argument that WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic) people are psychological outliers in the history of humanity — and that the Catholic Church's medieval marriage policies created the nuclear family that produced WEIRD psychology.
American fashion and culture magazine founded in 1892 — transformed into the world's most powerful fashion publication by Anna Wintour beginning in 1988 — serving as the definitive arbiter of fashion trends and launching the careers of designers and photographers.
A book on the dysfunction of modern institutions and systems — referenced in the Lenny's Podcast context.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization — a UN specialized agency promoting international cooperation in education, science, and culture, with influence over global education standards and curriculum frameworks.
Charles Murray's inventory of human achievement in the arts and sciences — using historiometric methods to identify the most significant contributors across history and examine what conditions produced them.
International membership organization founded in 1966 to study and recreate medieval European history through reenactment — combat, crafts, period clothing, and culture.
Chairman of Fiat and the most stylish man in the world according to virtually every fashion authority — the Italian industrialist who embodied the synthesis of industry, culture, and personal elegance.
The DarkHorse Podcast is hosted by evolutionary biologists Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying, covering evolutionary biology, cultural criticism, COVID-19 controversies, and heterodox perspectives on science and society. It became prominent after the Evergreen State controversy and grew significantly during COVID for challenging mainstream pandemic narratives.