Why are humans so cooperative – and what do we have in common with other social species? Is cooperation the key to human flourishing or might cooperation be our eventual downfall? Join Nichola Raihani as she illuminates the role of cooperation in the human story: why we live in families, why women experience the menopause and why we routinely help complete strangers. We’ll also explore the dark side of cooperation, looking at how cooperation creates victims, where cooperation fails, and why we sometimes cheat. Nichola will also introduce us to other cooperating species, from the pied babblers of the Kalahari to the cleaner fish of the Great Barrier Reef. She will guide us on an exhilarating, far-reaching and thought-provoking journey through all life on Earth, with profound insights into what makes us human and how our societies work.

Nichola Raihani is a Royal Society University Research Fellow and Professor in Evolution and Behaviour at UCL. Her group’s research focuses on the evolution of social behaviour in humans and non-human species. She has been widely published in scientific journals, won the 2018 Philip Leverhulme Prize in Psychology for her research achievements, and was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology in 2018. Her book, The Social Instinct is available from all good bookshops and was awarded the Humanist Society’s Voltaire Medal (2021)