Lectures hit different when you’re not pressured by grades.

i've completed the full cycle of procrastination, going so far into the depths of not doing homework that i end up taking a stanford intro class on youtube

For 11 years I've been coming back to this. It is still one of the most profound learning experiences available. Sapolsky its truly one of the finest human gems we had a chance to share time with on this planet.

I hope he’s still teaching. He is a wonderful professor, and I can tell he enjoys his work.

The fact that we can access this lecture without having to attend Stanford is mind-blowing. What a time to be alive!

"yeah i took a class at stanford"

The book by him, which he didn't say the name of, is the Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers (he mentions it again in lecture 3)

I'm Brazilian and I was feeling a little bit down for lacking money to study abroad using my university program. However, here I am watching this astonishing lecture. I loved this professor and I feel so excited to learn again🥺🤩

Just pointing put, someone wrote 57 minutes of subtitles for a lecture. Shout out to you my guy.

when you procrastinate so much you start watching lecture videos💀

🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation: 00:00 📚 The course starts by illustrating a scenario of abnormal behavior, highlighting the potential influence of genetics. 01:26 🧬 Genetic influence on sexual orientation, prenatal events affecting political opinions, and using biology to understand religious beliefs are discussed. 03:17 🌡️ Certain events, like having a period, brain tumors, junk food consumption, and steroid use, have been used as defenses in murder cases due to hormonal impacts. 06:34 💔 Body's physiological state can dramatically affect brain functions, and vice versa. 08:30 📊 Humans simplify complex problems by categorizing information, but this can lead to oversimplification and misunderstanding. 11:20 🎨 The example of colors and language differences demonstrates how categories affect perception and memory. 15:08 📞 Categorization affects our ability to accurately recall sequences, like phone numbers. 17:52 🐔 The example of subway stops shows how categories influence interpretation and prediction. 21:18 🧠 The course aims to explore the complex relationships between physiological processes and behavior, avoiding oversimplified explanations. 23:44 🔍 The course structure involves tracing behaviors back through various factors, including hormones, development, genetics, and evolution. 24:13 🧬 Behavior is influenced by biological factors such as hormones and genes, leading to the interaction of endocrinology and genetics. 25:35 🤔 Challenge: Avoid falling into categorical thinking while analyzing complex behaviors and influences. 27:02 🧠 Historical figures in psychology and biology exhibited flawed categorical thinking, underestimating the complexity of human behavior. 32:43 🌍 Human behaviors are characterized by their varying levels of similarity and uniqueness compared to other species. 36:59 🔄 Recognize moments when humans share ordinary physiology with other animals but use it uniquely for empathy, compassion, and stress response. 40:16 💬 Humans exhibit behaviors that are unparalleled in the animal kingdom, such as language use and complex sexual practices. 43:07 📚 The course is designed for students with diverse backgrounds, and additional catchup sections will be provided for those unfamiliar with certain topics. 45:31 🧠 Behavioral biology is relevant in various aspects of life, from decision-making to understanding mental health, making informed choices important. 46:00 ⏰ Weekly sections, midterm, and final exams will structure the course, with breaks provided during class for convenience. 46:29 📚 Two assigned books: One by the instructor (optional), another is "Chaos" by James Gleick. 47:23 🌪️ "Chaos" challenges reductionism; behavior is complex like a cloud, not a clock. 48:49 📖 Lectures on chaos and complexity, readings available online, varying levels of depth. 50:45 🖥️ Course materials online, lecture notes, Q&A, office hours, sections for different backgrounds. 52:39 🗂️ Utilize skilled TAs, regular and advanced sections, evolving sections for different needs. 53:07 ⏰ Class is five units due to heavy class time, taped lectures available online. 54:04 📆 Midterm on May 3rd (7:30 PM), final on June 4th (5:15 PM), multiple-choice format due to class size. 55:29 🧠 Midterm focuses on basic understanding, final emphasizes interdisciplinary thinking. 56:54 🕒 Final clarification on exam timings.

First of all, i can't properly express how grateful I am that I live at the age of moder technology - that I am able to attend such a great lecture while cooking in God forgotten country, to laugh along those students, to come to new approaches and views beside them. I really do hope that the professor knows that making this available to everybody is act of unbelievable kindness. Secondly, lectures like his make me remember why I love learning so much; why I always should stay curious about things around me even though my own college years are gone. And third thing? I am a teacher, too, and I aspire to be the same way this man is - full of humor, kind, knowledgeable and approachable, truly making people to want to seek the knowledge, to think. Once again, thank you, from the very bottom of my heart.

This just made me realize that I really haven’t had that many good teachers in my life

This is the thing that KZfaq needs to recommend more often and not about celebrities or bloggers babbling about their freaking stuffs.

As someone who possessed neither the academic skills nor the financial means to attend a prestigious university as a young adult, it is not lost on me now at age 51 just how absolutely incredible it is that the entirety of the world's knowledge is available to me with just a few clicks. I will never not be in awe of it.

I'm Egyptian And I Think this course just changed the way I think about how my brain works Thank you, prof. Sapolsky and thank Stanford, for a moment I really hoped that I was born and raised in California and joined this university, but I'm grateful for finding out this course is free online

this guys looks exactly like what you'd expect a professor of human behavioral biology would look like

No “uh’s” or “um’s” from this guy. Brilliant speaker.

This guy is a seriously gifted educator.

As always, the difference between enjoying a subject and not enjoying a subject is the way it's presented, and whether or not it's presented with actual genuine passion. Clearly, Robert is doing a fantastic job here. Kudos and praise to him. Many thanks for making this publicly available, it's what all universities should do with all their subjects.

stanford: really hard to get into and 70k per year. also stanford: giving out their most interesting course for free on youtube. people in 2021: we're bored so yeah we're here.

you know a class is good when a 15 year old boy watches it voluntairily on his pc in his free time

Every human should listen to this entire series. It gives you so much insight into human anthropology, behavior etc. These videos are pretty old at this point but nonetheless pertinent. I think Sapolsky is still alive and there's absolutely nothing boring about listening to him, he keeps things moving right along, and a bit of humor gets thrown in here and there. I'm so thankful this series was conserved for humanity.

What a brilliant opening. Elaborates on a scenario and brings attention to the mystery of it's reasons. Then presents a number of interesting proposals in quick succession, establishing the kind of things that are to be discussed in the lectures and implicitly saying these are to be discussed later on. He executes it so well.

I'm not even taking this class and I'm stressed about the midterm

Whenever he starts to explain something and you dont fully get what that really means in real life, he goes „let me give you an example“ and thats just brilliant!

I watched I think all 24 or 25 of his lectures and even seen Robert on some fairly resent podcasts. He is very informative, intelligent, and has an entertaining style to teaching an interesting subject(s) that could be dry and boring if attempted by others. Great job!!!!!

This is education. Encouraging responsible, deep & wide thought

I'm not only in awe of his knowledge, but about his speaking skills as well. This was 1 hour of him constantly speaking without using any 'uuuhs', stopping words or hesitations in forming sentences...like he was reading out a book! Insanely good

honestly, Its crazy how much easier information is retained when you voluntarily seek it. When i was in school i would have never listened to this and would have been dying to get out of there. Now that i have the ability to learn on my own time I retain and look for information on a much higher level. Incredible.

Absolutely mind-blowing. What an incredible communicator this professor is. Thank you for sharing this freely with the world!

Just love to hear this professor. Would have loved to have him when I was in college. He loves to teach and loves people, relates really well with his students. And highly intelligent and has a unique interesting personality.

The basic quality of a teacher is to provoke interest in his/her students on the subject if not it's their first failure, Here's one guy who really did that, absolutely riveting!

Imagine going to university and actually getting lecturers of this calibre

I listened to this course twelve years ago when I was still a college student, he's really an awesome teacher.

These lectures changed my life , I watched it three times now

This lecture is an example of how you are drawn to certain subjects in school solely because of the way it was taught. One can develop interest in any discipline just by learning from the good teachers. God bless you for making these lectures publicly available.

I started watching this playlist some five years ago... I'm now a grad student... in neuroscience. Sapolsky... this very video, actually... was my first introduction to the field... that field became my life. Returning to this is a crazy experience.

While living and studying in North America, I was so lucky to have professors like Mr. Sapolsky. While I was working for HP, Stanford folks would come around regularly on our campus to offer many post graduate programs. I was too busy at work to take that on, but I was lucky enough to work with and work for some folks who had graduated from these programs. Some of the best people I ever worked with who had incredible level of understanding. The education system that makes such lectures possible makes a great nation, albeit with all it's short comings. I now live in South Asia and the quality of education is so poor it's beyond explanation. You have people who were 10 levels below mediocre, graduating and teaching at the same institution. It's pathetic.

This has popped up on my recommended since 2015 or so… and I never watched it until now. Wow… what a shame. This guy is great!

The fact that this is available to anyone who has an internet connection is what it means to be truly connected to the rest of the world and its knowledge. and also, this guy probably kills it at social gatherings.

What a good lecturer. Tone changes, speed changes, jokes in interval, all while delivering succinct info

In a 2013 systematic review of menstrual synchrony, Harris and Vitzthum concluded, "In light of the lack of empirical evidence for MS [menstrual synchrony] sensu stricto, it seems there should be more widespread doubt than acceptance of this hypothesis" (pp. 238-239).[8] The experience of synchrony may be the result of the mathematical fact that menstrual cycles of different frequencies repeatedly converge and diverge over time and not due to a process of synchronization,[6] and the probability of encountering such overlaps by chance is high.[13]

Thankful that this is posted for everyone to access. There's nothing like the feeling of hanging onto every word of an incredible lecturer, especially when we don't have to worry about taking notes or grades!

I didn't even graduate high school, but I'm here attending at Stanford.

The fact that the fall semester just finished and I was stressing out about school so happy it's finally over, then the next day I'm sat here voluntarily watching this whole thing speaks volumes to how good this professor is

I am listening to this lecture totally out of curiosity and I find the lecture extremely informative, and enlightening. His interesting delivery of the lectures made me think about why I haven't done my major in human behavioral biology! I find the topic extremely interesting and I am gonna finish listening to all the lectures in this lecture series. Thank you for making the knowledge easily accessible.

Deeply absorbing series of lectures by a master of exposition - thank you Stanford for sharing. KZfaq is an amazing resource and repository of knowledge; we are very lucky to have it.

“And you get a bagel with cream cheese” this man not only taught his class but he rewarded and fed them, now that’s a legend.

This is the guy in every natural disaster/apocalyptic movie that makes an earth-shattering discovery that no one pays attention to; everyone dismisses him because he's a philosophical lecturer with a hippie beard -- but then the main hero notices something off, investigates and finds him, and together they make up the brains/brawn duo that saves the day. Bada-bing bada-boom.

Love this series on the site. Thank you to Stanford for keeping these up. And THANK YOU Robert Sapolsky for sharing your knowledge to those willing to listen!

I’ve watched a few of his lectures. I like him. Smart guy. He seems not just genuine and entertaining but friendly too. I wish there were more professors / teachers like this.

I have been watching this video for 40 minutes right now. A: I do not study at Stanford B: I do not study anything related to biology C: I have a thermodynamics exam tomorrow

I accidentally clicked on this, but I'm just going to act like I walked into this class, sat down and played it cool.

Omg genuinely EVERY lecture for this class is on this channel that’s genuinely amazing you can actually learn what people are paying thousands to learn just by KZfaq madness

This guy knows how to hold lectures with people actually listening and it shows is experties in that exact field

This guy gave a lecture at my high school. A decade later, I still vividly remember it. One of the smartest men I've ever heard speak.

if all my professors were like this guy, i’d die happy.

This is awesome! Thank you for making it available to everyone!😊👍

"Fall into categorical thinking and you can do unspeakable damage in a realm of science that makes the difference." - Professor

Can this guy teach everything? He is so concise, calm and articulated. He makes me want to go back to school.

I am a Stanford grad. Biology of Behavior with Sapolsky was my favorite class. High recommendation to "take" this class here on youtube. And you won't have to take notes or do the readings or take the exams either...just absorb the information.

Been holding out on this one for a while. I see why this was recommended. This lecture is mind-opening.

Bro i am a science student but after hearing his lecture, i am like am i doing right?, its so informative. Nobody will discuss this topic and background of how human change.

Published 10 years ago -- and it has just hit 10M views. Thank you to Dr. Sapolsky and Stanford for sharing the most valuable of knowledge with us.

Me in college: trying to get the hell out of there as soon as possible. Me, 15 years later: wishing I was in college, watching lectures on KZfaq for fun.

I'd forgotten how much I love psychology and education. This is a wonderful course

The lecture was delivered 12 years ago, and I didn’t find it back there. I was 16 then, and I dreamed of devoting myself to neuroscience. But I didn’t see this lecture and I chose the popular economics course. See you in 12 more years to see if I still regretting my choice, because now I do.

I would turn up for every single one of Robert Sapolskys lectures. The guy is the definition of an engaging educator.

mom would be so proud knowing me attended a Stanford (online) course, with 100% scholarship (bc it's free)

I took this class two years ago and found myself rereading my notes from the class on my flight back home. Here I am watching the lectures again, this time not for a grade, but just as entertaining 🎉

Man, I was just sitting here wishing I could afford to go back to school and here pops up a series of 50+ lectures from the university I dreamed of going to as a little kid. Life is cool sometimes.

Limiting access to knowledge is how society breeds elitism. Thank you for posting this .

I'm so grateful for living in an era where this kind of content is available like this. I'm from Brazil and I wouldn't be able to listen to this amazing classes if Stanford and professor Sapolsky weren't so kind to make it available online. Thank you.

Thank you for sharing this. Thank you so very much! It is so exciting to be sitting-in this class at 74 years of age. I can hardly wait to experience the person I will be when I have absorbed what I have learned here.

I didn't have an opportunity to go to university but like the saying goes, he who wants to learn Will always find a teacher but in this matter the Stanford university has just given me the kindness that I didn't deserve but they only offered it for free.thank you so much from Zambia

"When you put up boundaries, you have trouble seeing how similar things are on either side of it" Damn

When you were just planning to have a quick look but you can't stop watching 🤓

It could be fascinating how valuable information could be presented online, yet don’t look for it and so you don’t find it. Finally in the quest of looking for a proper question which resulted in finding this video. Thank you for sharing. You’ve got my focus.

I got more from this lecture than I did in my 4 year undergraduate degree...

"If the human brain was so simple that we could understand it, it would be so simple that we couldn't"

"Hippos would be repulsed by this" is my new favorite argument comeback

Thank you. Working through my own issues, and I really appreciate listening to your lecture. I really enjoyed listening.

Just finished watching the whole video. I just wanna comment how strange it is to me right now, and how I'm so lucky to be alive during this age. I'm doing laundry at 2 am outside in the slums of a third world country-a graduating high school student majoring in performing arts, listening to a stanford course introduction to behavioral biology...what a time to be alive.

*me trying to watch something calm before sleep* The teacher: think about your death

Now I understand why people pay so much for those universities. 10 minutes of this man has given me more information than 80% of all my teachers.

Thank you for sharing this content with people who were not lucky to attend those prestige colleges❤

I have no idea why KZfaq has been recommending me this video for 5 years now but I'm finally watching it.

This camera guy does not get enough credit. Like damn the professor was pacing back and forth for an hour and the guy followed him the whole way through.

I've fallen asleep many times watching other videos but then when I wake up I always seem to end up in this video or another lecture from him

Took me over a year to finish this course, read chaos and went down that rabbithole too! Best course I've ever done!!

My dude gives stand up comedy routines and lectures simultaneously

If I had my ADHD diagnosis and a tutor with this passion 15 years ago, my life would be very different today.

I really enjoy watching this, he’s creative in his teachings. I hope there’s more instructors like you,

This was a really good session zero. The approach makes sense and I'm convinced I'm going to enjoy this series.

I am an extremely old senior citizen and did not have the $$$ to attend college. Now I can say I attended a class at Stanford As the saying goes it's never to late to learn something. I found this quite interesting. Thank you for being alive to learn something on the internet and U Tube.

162,000 views. He taught more people with this KZfaq video, than his entire career as a professor. This should be the standard.

Ive watched his lectures for about 8 years. I am always reminded what a treasure the professor is.

I don't know how I found this. This guy is amazing. What a Teacher!

For everyone asking, the two books are: 1) Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers by Robert Sapolsky 2) Chaos: Making New Science by James Gleick I know the Zebra book, is the one he wrote that he talks about here because he references it briefly at the beginning of the third lecture.