Episode Overview

Podcast: Something You Should Know
Host: Mike Carruthers
Episode Title: Unlocking Your Primal Intelligence & The Tug-of-War Between Competition and Cooperation
Date: August 25, 2025

This episode explores two major topics:

1. Primal Intelligence: What it is, how it differs from artificial intelligence, why it's crucial for navigating life’s uncertainty, and practical strategies for strengthening it—featuring Angus Fletcher, Professor of Story Science at Ohio State.
2. Competition vs. Cooperation: A discussion of human social evolution, why we juggle self-interest and teamwork, and what this means in everyday life—featuring Jonathan Goodman, social scientist and author.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Surprising Facts about Cell Phone Batteries

• Timestamps: [03:36 – 07:20]
• Lithium-ion batteries last longer when not fully charged or depleted. Frequent partial charging is better than charging to 100% and repeatedly running down to 0%.
• Heat is detrimental to batteries—avoid wireless charging and high-heat environments.
• “If you follow the most basic rules of thumb, don’t charge it all the way up and then let it go all the way to empty and avoid exposing your phone to heat. And you should do fine.” (Mike Carruthers, 07:14)

2. Unlocking Primal Intelligence

Guest: Angus Fletcher, Professor of Story Science at Ohio State; author of Primal: You Are Smarter Than You Know
Timestamps: [08:12 – 31:28]

What is Primal Intelligence?

• Primal intelligence is the ancient, inborn capacity of the human brain to improvise, adapt, and act wisely in chaos and uncertainty.
• Consists of intuition, imagination, emotion, and common sense—not data-driven calculation.
• Contrasts with artificial intelligence: unlike computers, we act smartly with little information.
  • “What’s extraordinary about the human brain is that it can be very, very smart with very, very little information. And that’s because it possesses powers like intuition, imagination, and common sense.” (Angus Fletcher, 08:44)

Why Is It Important?

• Modern education and work environments can dull primal intelligence by training us to always wait for “the right answer.”
  • “Modern school teaches you not to act unless you have the right answer…the first thing you learn if you’re in a classroom is that there is an answer, and the teacher has it.” (C, 10:22)
• Rising anxiety and anger in adults and students coincide with this diminishing natural intelligence.

How Does Primal Intelligence Work?

• Story thinking: Our brains think in narrative, not just logic or pattern matching. Exceptional action often comes from spotting exceptions or surprises, not following precedent.
• Example: Nikola Tesla doubled down on an exception (AC current)—creating radical innovation.

Engaging Primal Intelligence

• It can be trained and enhanced by deliberately stepping into uncertainty and responding to stress with action (making a plan), rather than dissociation (e.g., meditation or mindfulness techniques that merely calm, not solve).
  • “What your brain wants when it’s stressed is not something to remove the threat. What it wants is a plan to be able to deal with the threat itself.” (C, 16:22)

Practical Steps to Build Primal Intelligence

• For children:
  • Bring real-life problems into classrooms; brainstorm and test multiple solutions.
  • Help children interpret their emotions as signals (e.g., anger means you’ve got only one plan—consider alternatives).
• For adults:

  • Spend time daily with things you don’t understand—dwell on surprises rather than dismissing them.

  • Reflect on moments of positive surprise (to combat shame, burnout, grief).

  • When stressed, make your own plan rather than seeking external answers.

  • “The first thing that we encourage adults to do is spend a little more time every day dwelling on things that they don’t understand, suspending their judgments.” (C, 24:35)

  • “The more you kind of get in this habit of responding to stress and panicking…and anxiety by making plans, the more effective you are in your daily life.” (C, 28:03)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On personal experience:

  • “I have my PhD from Yale. I spend all my time reading books, and I’m always acting very stupid…I realized a lot of that was because when I was confronted with something that I didn’t know…my first response was panic.” (C, 27:04)
  • The key is learning to default to plan-making when stressed, not panic or passivity.

• “In combat, there are no perfect plans, there are just plans that work.” (General Patton, relayed by Angus Fletcher, 28:22)

3. The Competition-Cooperation Balance

Guest: Jonathan Goodman, social scientist, University of Cambridge; author of Invisible: How We Evolve to Compete in a Cooperative World
Timestamps: [32:04 – 52:32]

Are Humans Cooperative or Competitive?

• We’re wired for both—our environments and evolution demand teamwork and self-advancement.
  • “We evolved to work effectively in our groups for our own self betterment, whether that’s at the expense of others or not.” (D, 43:36)

The “Invisible Rivalry”

• Much competition is masked as cooperation—people appear helpful while advancing their own interests.
  • “It’s those people who are effective at appearing cooperative for the group’s benefit, but also behaving like opportunists when they have a chance to do so…it’s those people who are always going to get ahead in society.” (D, 36:06)
• Example: Psychopaths in corporate environments—often skilled at masking motives, rising to positions of power.

Implications & Self-Reflection

• Realism: Awareness guards against blind trust or excessive cynicism.
• The challenge: Who do you trust, and how can you tell?
  • Social and cultural signals evolve to help us judge trustworthiness.
• Scarcity vs. Abundance: In environments with fewer resources, people may act more selfishly—but social capital (being liked or reciprocated) also matters.
  • Examples: Airplane storage wars, pandemic hoarding, yet also increased cooperation among the needy in tough times.

Take-Home Message

• Be realistic—assume the capacity for opportunism is universal and learn to judge trust carefully.
  • “If we recognize that that’s going to happen at every level in society, it teaches us that we need to be extremely discerning about how we place trust in others.” (D, 51:22)

4. Quick Intel: Pet Obesity

• Timestamps: [52:37 – 54:02]
• Key Fact: Over half of US cats and dogs are overweight, mainly because their owners overfeed them.
  • Solution: Feed pets proper portions, be vigilant about gradual weight gain.

Timestamps for Key Segments

| Segment | Guest/Host | Timestamps | |-----------------------------------------------|----------------|-----------------| | Cell Phone Battery Tips | Mike Carruthers| 03:36 – 07:20 | | Primal Intelligence Intro & Main Discussion | Angus Fletcher | 08:12 – 31:28 | | Competition vs. Cooperation Debate | Jonathan Goodman| 32:04 – 52:32 | | Pet Obesity Fact | Mike Carruthers| 52:37 – 54:02 |

Notable Quotes (with Attribution & Timestamps)

• “What’s extraordinary about the human brain is that it can be very, very smart with very, very little information. And that’s because it possesses powers like intuition, imagination, and common sense.”
  — Angus Fletcher (08:44)

• “Modern school teaches you not to act unless you have the right answer…the first thing you learn if you’re in a classroom is that there is an answer, and the teacher has it.”
  — Angus Fletcher (10:22)

• “What your brain wants when it’s stressed is not something to remove the threat. What it wants is a plan to be able to deal with the threat itself.”
  — Angus Fletcher (16:22)

• “It’s those people who are effective at appearing cooperative for the group’s benefit, but also behaving like opportunists when they have a chance to do so…it’s those people who are always going to get ahead in society.”
  — Jonathan Goodman (36:06)

• “If we recognize that that’s going to happen at every level in society, it teaches us that we need to be extremely discerning about how we place trust in others.”
  — Jonathan Goodman (51:22)

Summary Takeaways

• Primal intelligence is your superpower for acting smart in uncertainty—nurture it by embracing wonder, making your own plans, and responding to stress with action, not avoidance.
• Human nature is a constant balancing act between competition and cooperation—be aware of opportunism (in yourself and others) and invest in learning whom—and how—to trust.
• Small choices (from charging your phone to feeding your pet) can have long-term impacts—use “primal” practical wisdom daily.