WEBVTT - S01 Episode 6 Extra: The Ultimate Price 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:02.760 Membership, peace, apply after free trial, cancel anytime. Can I 0:00:02.800 --> 0:00:04.920 be real with you for a second. That goal you 0:00:05.000 --> 0:00:08.280 have to exercise and eat better? You really can do it, 0:00:08.440 --> 0:00:11.200 but nobody is going to do it for you. Nobody 0:00:11.320 --> 0:00:13.280 is going to push you out of bed to work out, 0:00:13.680 --> 0:00:16.239 Nobody is going to make you eat better. But here's 0:00:16.239 --> 0:00:19.800 the thing. Nobody has to because you can do it 0:00:19.960 --> 0:00:22.440 if you have the right tools and a community that 0:00:22.520 --> 0:00:26.120 cares about helping you get results. And that's us beach Body. 0:00:26.320 --> 0:00:28.760 Two and a half million people each doing the Beach 0:00:28.800 --> 0:00:31.960 Body program that fits our own goals. 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For 0:01:15.680 --> 0:01:18.240 the weeks in between episodes, we look at the stories that, 0:01:18.319 --> 0:01:20.600 for one reason or other, didn't make it into the show. 0:01:21.800 --> 0:01:25.039 In last week's episode, Demons in Suburbia, we looked at 0:01:25.040 --> 0:01:27.640 the tragic story of Michael Taylor, and in the process 0:01:27.760 --> 0:01:30.800 touched on the notion of free will. The degree to 0:01:30.800 --> 0:01:33.080 which any of us can be truly held accountable for 0:01:33.160 --> 0:01:37.600 our actions is a complex and controversial subject. For one 0:01:37.600 --> 0:01:40.400 man in particular, it became an obsession for which he 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:44.880 would ultimately give his life. The story of Maverick academic 0:01:45.000 --> 0:01:56.360 George R. Price is nothing short of astonishing. Born close 0:01:56.400 --> 0:01:59.120 to New York City in nineteen twenty two, George was 0:01:59.200 --> 0:02:02.280 raised single handedly by his mother after the premature death 0:02:02.280 --> 0:02:04.640 of his father when George was only four years old. 0:02:05.480 --> 0:02:09.200 Despite an impoverished childhood exacerbated by the Great Depression, the 0:02:09.280 --> 0:02:11.840 precocious George went on to graduate with a degree in 0:02:11.919 --> 0:02:15.200 chemistry from the University of Chicago before taking a teaching 0:02:15.200 --> 0:02:19.320 post at Harvard. At some point, George met and fell 0:02:19.360 --> 0:02:23.240 in love with Julia Madigan, a devout Roman Catholic. The 0:02:23.280 --> 0:02:26.160 pair were married and later had two daughters, Anne Marie 0:02:26.200 --> 0:02:30.399 and Kathleen. For many, the relationship seemed a strange fit 0:02:30.600 --> 0:02:34.240 due to George's equally devout atheism. It was a contention 0:02:34.320 --> 0:02:37.520 that would ultimately prove irreconcilable, and the pair divorced in 0:02:37.639 --> 0:02:42.160 nineteen fifty five. By his mid forties, George had become 0:02:42.280 --> 0:02:46.640 deeply unsatisfied, despite working a number of prestigious jobs. What 0:02:46.800 --> 0:02:49.840 drove George more than anything, according to author Arren Harmon, 0:02:50.200 --> 0:02:54.120 was a desperate desire to achieve greatness. For George, his 0:02:54.320 --> 0:02:57.160 was an obviously superior intellect, but one that had yet 0:02:57.160 --> 0:03:01.240 to establish the notoriety it deserved. But all that was 0:03:01.280 --> 0:03:06.200 about to change. Whilst working for ib M, George became 0:03:06.240 --> 0:03:10.160 convinced that colleagues were unfairly profiting from his ideas. Then, 0:03:10.280 --> 0:03:13.400 in nineteen sixty six, George was left paralyzed after a 0:03:13.440 --> 0:03:17.480 botched operation to remove a tumor from his thyroid. One night, 0:03:17.720 --> 0:03:21.120 lying in bed, George became convinced that something had to change. 0:03:21.840 --> 0:03:25.040 In nineteen sixty seven, George decided to abandon his family 0:03:25.120 --> 0:03:27.920 and New York City, brought a flight to London, and 0:03:28.000 --> 0:03:33.840 went in search of greatness three and a half thousand 0:03:33.919 --> 0:03:37.840 miles away. A shy and lonely evolutionary biologist was spending 0:03:37.840 --> 0:03:40.400 his night sat on a bench at London's Waterloo Station, 0:03:40.640 --> 0:03:45.400 scribbling furiously into a notebook. Now a widely celebrated academic 0:03:45.560 --> 0:03:49.360 considered by Richard Dawkins to be the greatest biologist since Darwin, 0:03:49.760 --> 0:03:53.320 at the time, William Donald Hamilton was an impoverished academic 0:03:53.400 --> 0:03:55.600 with little more than a two one degree in genetics 0:03:55.640 --> 0:03:58.240 to his name. He had chosen to work in the 0:03:58.280 --> 0:04:01.560 station because being surrounded by all the waiting passengers made 0:04:01.640 --> 0:04:06.440 him feel less alone. From that humble bench in the station, 0:04:06.760 --> 0:04:09.640 Hamilton devised what would later become one of the greatest 0:04:09.720 --> 0:04:15.360 vindications of Darwinism. Although somewhat crude and unpolished, Hamilton's early 0:04:15.440 --> 0:04:20.000 equations suggest as something truly startling in an idea later 0:04:20.080 --> 0:04:24.960 popularized Dawkins's a selfish gene Hamilton had discovered that altruistic 0:04:24.960 --> 0:04:28.400 behavior was nothing but a biological function designed to better 0:04:28.400 --> 0:04:32.640 the survival of your own personal gene pool. The theory 0:04:32.800 --> 0:04:36.080 known as kin selection helps to demonstrate, for example, why 0:04:36.160 --> 0:04:39.520 colonies of bees are largely populated by sterile workers that 0:04:39.560 --> 0:04:43.400 would otherwise be expected to die out or indeed why 0:04:43.400 --> 0:04:46.440 a bee will decide to sting, sacrificing its life in 0:04:46.480 --> 0:04:53.440 the process. Are you always taking care of your family? 0:04:53.760 --> 0:04:56.120 Do you often take care of others and not yourself. 0:04:56.720 --> 0:04:59.400 Now it's time to take care of yourself, to make 0:04:59.440 --> 0:05:03.440 time for you deserve it. Teledoc gives you access to 0:05:03.480 --> 0:05:06.400 a licensed therapist to help you get back to feeling 0:05:06.440 --> 0:05:10.760 your best to feeling like yourself again. With teledoc, you 0:05:10.760 --> 0:05:13.560 can speak to a licensed therapist by phone or video. 0:05:14.040 --> 0:05:17.320 Therapy appointments are available seven days a week from seven 0:05:17.400 --> 0:05:21.160 am to nine pm local time. If you feel overwhelmed 0:05:21.200 --> 0:05:25.760 sometimes maybe you feel stressed or anxious, depressed or lonely, 0:05:26.360 --> 0:05:29.120 or you might be struggling with a personal or family issue, 0:05:29.520 --> 0:05:34.839 teledoc can help. Teledoc is committed to facilitating great therapeutic matches, 0:05:35.120 --> 0:05:37.720 so they make it easy to change counselors if needed. 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:42.800 For free teledoc therapy is available through most insurance or employers. 0:05:43.560 --> 0:05:47.080 Download the app or visit teledoc dot com Forward slash 0:05:47.200 --> 0:05:53.760 Unexplained podcast today to get started. That's teladoc dot com 0:05:53.800 --> 0:06:03.400 slash Unexplained podcast. Having arrived in London some months before. 0:06:03.600 --> 0:06:06.960 According to arn Harmon, Price had been living a solitary existence, 0:06:07.040 --> 0:06:09.719 shuffling around from one late library to another when he 0:06:09.760 --> 0:06:14.360 came across Hamilton's equations. What he discovered shocked him. Deeply 0:06:15.640 --> 0:06:17.839 Convinced there must have been a flaw in his reasoning, 0:06:18.000 --> 0:06:23.159 Price quietly set about disproving Hamilton's theory. Much to his horror, 0:06:23.520 --> 0:06:26.039 not only did he find the theory correct, but he 0:06:26.120 --> 0:06:29.680 also found a way to improve it. At an extension 0:06:29.680 --> 0:06:32.560 of Darwin's survival of the Fittest theory, what is now 0:06:32.600 --> 0:06:35.520 known as the Price equation allows us to understand the 0:06:35.560 --> 0:06:40.280 competition between groups rather than individuals, but most specifically, how 0:06:40.279 --> 0:06:43.360 the behavior of selfish individuals will compromise the fitness of 0:06:43.400 --> 0:06:48.280 the group overall. Furthermore, it could be suggested that all 0:06:48.320 --> 0:06:51.800 behavioral traits are merely mechanisms that ensure the survival of 0:06:51.839 --> 0:06:54.599 that group, be it your family or the genes that 0:06:54.760 --> 0:06:58.520 make up the individual. In other words, what we think 0:06:58.520 --> 0:07:01.120 of as love may be nothing more than a carefully 0:07:01.200 --> 0:07:07.800 orchestrated process of self interest. Within months of formulating Price's equation, 0:07:08.000 --> 0:07:11.480 Georges granted a fellowship at the University College London, who 0:07:11.520 --> 0:07:13.880 became a well respected member in his new field of 0:07:13.920 --> 0:07:19.280 evolutionary biology. Price also began to work closely with William Hamilton, 0:07:19.440 --> 0:07:22.160 whose work he had originally set out to disprove, and 0:07:22.320 --> 0:07:25.520 later Price would team up with acclaimed biologist John Maynard 0:07:25.560 --> 0:07:29.160 Smith to develop the evolutionary stable strategy commonly known as 0:07:29.240 --> 0:07:32.320 E S S. Drawing on the earlier work of the 0:07:32.360 --> 0:07:35.880 mathematician John Nash. The strategy helps to explain why some 0:07:35.920 --> 0:07:38.720 species of snakes tend not to use their poisonous fangs 0:07:38.720 --> 0:07:41.680 on each other, or why male reindeers antlers are more 0:07:41.720 --> 0:07:48.320 decorative than dangerous. Price had, without doubt, achieved everything he 0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:51.200 had craved. Not only had he gained the respect of 0:07:51.240 --> 0:07:55.320 his peers, but his legacy was also secured. But something 0:07:55.480 --> 0:07:59.960 was deeply wrong. Perhaps it was the guilt of abandoning 0:08:00.040 --> 0:08:02.200 his own family on the other side of the Atlantic, 0:08:02.520 --> 0:08:05.360 or merely the enormity of his discovery, but Price had 0:08:05.360 --> 0:08:10.240 become profoundly unsettled. If altruism was just a biological conceit, 0:08:10.560 --> 0:08:13.440 then a true love and kindness, what many would consider 0:08:13.480 --> 0:08:17.440 the fundamental elements of what is good, are essentially meaningless. 0:08:25.520 --> 0:08:28.360 It isn't known exactly when or how it happened, but 0:08:28.520 --> 0:08:30.880 one night, walking past a church in the area of 0:08:30.920 --> 0:08:35.120 Marylebone in London. The atheist George Price found himself entering 0:08:35.160 --> 0:08:37.880 the building. By the time he came out, he was 0:08:37.920 --> 0:08:42.840 a completely changed man. From that moment, George devoted himself 0:08:42.880 --> 0:08:46.440 to a severe form of Christian asceticism, believing he had 0:08:46.480 --> 0:08:48.959 been put on earth by God to teach human beings 0:08:49.000 --> 0:08:51.600 the true meaning of love. He proceeded to rid himself 0:08:51.600 --> 0:08:54.960 of all money and possessions. Everything he had he gave 0:08:55.000 --> 0:08:57.720 to those whom he felt needed it more, even offering 0:08:57.760 --> 0:09:01.240 up his apartment to the homeless. In essence, George wanted 0:09:01.240 --> 0:09:04.000 to disprove his own theory, to show that kindness and 0:09:04.040 --> 0:09:08.960 love could transcend genetic predisposition, but self sacrifice was possible 0:09:09.000 --> 0:09:15.319 without ulterior motive, and that his will was ultimately his own. Hamilton, 0:09:15.440 --> 0:09:18.000 who had grown close to Price, was quick to notice 0:09:18.040 --> 0:09:22.960 the worrying signs of mental deterioration. The descent was rapid. 0:09:24.400 --> 0:09:27.920 On January sixth, nineteen seventy five, George sat alone in 0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:30.680 a North London squad surrounded by little more than a 0:09:30.760 --> 0:09:35.280 solitary mattress. In a final act of defiance, the fifty 0:09:35.280 --> 0:09:37.520 two year old George took a pair of nail scissors 0:09:37.600 --> 0:09:42.679 to his throat. Minutes later, this strange, brilliant and extraordinary 0:09:42.720 --> 0:09:51.640 man was dead in what is no doubt a tragic 0:09:51.720 --> 0:09:54.480 end to a deeply troubled mind. It is nonetheless a 0:09:54.559 --> 0:09:57.240 story of startling relevance, living as we do in a 0:09:57.320 --> 0:10:00.199 time where iron Randian notions praising the benefit It's a 0:10:00.320 --> 0:10:04.960 self interest and greed have never been more questionable. And 0:10:05.160 --> 0:10:08.839 what then, of selfless love? For those who might also 0:10:08.920 --> 0:10:12.280 despair at the implication of Price's equation. You could do 0:10:12.360 --> 0:10:14.480 worse than to take a quiet stroll down to a 0:10:14.520 --> 0:10:17.880 small corner of the city of London. Hidden part way 0:10:17.880 --> 0:10:20.960 between Saint Paul's Cathedral and the Museum of London, you 0:10:21.040 --> 0:10:25.720 may find yourself stumbling upon Postman's Park. Once inside, towards 0:10:25.800 --> 0:10:29.839 the back, you'll find the Watts Memorial to Heroic self Sacrifice. 0:10:30.960 --> 0:10:34.559 Unveiled in nineteen hundred, the beautiful monument commemorates the lives 0:10:34.559 --> 0:10:38.880 of sixty two selfless individuals who sacrifice themselves attempting to 0:10:38.920 --> 0:10:42.800 save others, people such as twelve year old David Selves 0:10:42.920 --> 0:10:47.640 from Woolwich. On September twelfth, eighteen eighty six, David fought 0:10:47.679 --> 0:10:51.520 desperately to save his playfellow from drowning when he too succumbed, 0:10:52.040 --> 0:10:55.400 sinking below the waters, clasping his friend in his arms. 0:11:00.160 --> 0:11:03.600 All elements of Unexplained are produced by me Richard McClain smith. 0:11:03.960 --> 0:11:06.440 Please subscribe and rate the show on iTunes, and feel 0:11:06.440 --> 0:11:08.640 free to get in touch with any thoughts or ideas 0:11:08.640 --> 0:11:11.520 regarding the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you 0:11:11.600 --> 0:11:13.520 have an explanation of your own you'd like to share. 0:11:14.280 --> 0:11:17.000 You can reach us online at Unexplained podcast dot com 0:11:17.120 --> 0:11:56.680 or on Twitter at Unexplained Pod. Now. It's time to 0:11:56.720 --> 0:12:01.000 take care of yourself. To make time for you. Teledoc 0:12:01.080 --> 0:12:04.080 gives you access to a licensed therapist to help you 0:12:04.120 --> 0:12:07.480 get back to feeling your best. Speak to a licensed 0:12:07.520 --> 0:12:11.080 therapist by phone or video any time between seven a 0:12:11.280 --> 0:12:14.320 m To nine p m Local time, seven days a week. 0:12:14.920 --> 0:12:19.760 Teledoc Therapy is available through most insurance or employers. Download 0:12:19.800 --> 0:12:23.480 the app or visit teledoc dot com. Forward Slash Unexplained 0:12:23.520 --> 0:12:27.319 Podcast to day to get started. That's t e l 0:12:27.400 --> 0:12:31.160 a d oc dot com Slash Unexplained Podcast