Evolutionary psychiatry offers evolutionary explanations for the range of mental health conditions identified by psychiatry today. The Evolving Psychiatry podcast provides interviews, insights and an introduction to evolutionary psychiatry, with guest appearances from leading academics and psychiatrists.
Why Hadn't I Heard of This? | Adam Hunt | Evolving Psychiatry #62
Everyone's heard of evolutionary theory, but very few have heard of it being applied to mental health and disorder. Why? In this episode, Adam covers the scientific and structural reasons for this state of affairs.Adam Hunt, PhD, is a postdoctoral researcher at the Evolution, Mental Health and Behaviour lab at the University of Cambridge. He is also Founding Chair of the Foundation for Evolution and Mental Health, an Executive Committee Member of the Evolutionary Psychiatry Special Interest Group of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Communications Chair for the International Society of Evolution, Medicine and Public Health, and host of the 'Evolving Psychiatry' podcast.This podcast is financially supported by the Human Ecology Group of the Institute of Evolutionary Medicine at the University of Zurich.
5 Jul 2026
Skeptic of Psychiatric Diagnoses | Sami Timimi | Evolving Psychiatry #61
Are mental disorders such as ADHD 'real'? Should we be using medication? Sami Timimi comes from a 'critical psychiatry' perspective which questions these fundamental assumptions in psychiatry.Dr Sami Timimi is a retired consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist, psychotherapist, and author. A Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, he has been one of the UK’s most prominent voices in critical psychiatry, writing extensively on childhood, psychotherapy, psychiatric diagnosis, medicalisation, behavioural problems, and cross-cultural mental health. His books include Searching for Normal, Insane Medicine, Naughty Boys, and The Myth of Autism. His work challenges narrowly biomedical models of distress and argues for more contextual, relational, and culturally informed approaches to mental health care.This podcast is financially supported by the Human Ecology Group of the Institute of Evolutionary Medicine at the University of Zurich.
21 Jun 2026
Evolution in Therapy and Society | Daniel Glass & Niruban Balachandran | Evolving Psychiatry #60
Working out the evolved structure of the mind will have implications across therapy and society. Which directions are most promising? Daniel J. Glass, PhD, is a board-certified clinical psychologist whose clinical work focuses on anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, phobias, and evidence-based psychotherapies, including cognitive behavioural therapy, exposure-based approaches, and acceptance-based interventions. His academic interests centre on the application of evolutionary theory to clinical psychology, including how evolutionary perspectives may inform the understanding, classification, and treatment of mental disorders.Niruban Balachandran is co-leader of PsychTable, an open-science project dedicated to classifying and evaluating evidence for evolved psychological adaptations. His work focuses on organising claims about the evolved mind in a rigorous and transparent way, with relevance for psychology, public understanding, policy, and the broader behavioural sciences.Together, Daniel Glass and Niruban Balachandran bring complementary perspectives on the relationship between evolutionary theory and psychotherapy: one grounded in clinical practice, and the other in the systematic classification and evaluation of evolutionary psychological evidence.This podcast is financially supported by the Human Ecology Group of the Institute of Evolutionary Medicine at the University of Zurich.
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YouTube views
25,663
Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
4 ratings
Spotify
4.8 / 5
26 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 61 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
68
Social presence
0
YouTube
85
Engagement
51
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