What Chimpanzees Reveal About How We Connect and Divide with Aaron Sandel

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Primatologist Aaron Sandel has spent over a decade studying the Ngogo chimpanzees, witnessing one of the largest known chimp communities split into two factions. In this episode, Aaron joins Brené and Adam to explore what chimpanzees can teach us about friendship, conflict, belonging, and human nature. He shares what he learned from watching these chimps show affection, navigate dominance hierarchies, and face the effects of division within their own community. Aaron also reflects on what it was like to watch chimps he knew by name turn against one another, while exploring the surprising depth of bonds between chimpanzees. Together, they explore the parallels between chimpanzee behavior and the ways we harmonize, polarize, and build communities in our own lives.

Meet the guest

Image of Aaron Sandel smiling, sitting on a step, wearing a black long sleeve shirt with an image of a banana on it.

Aaron Sandel is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin and a Co-Director of the Ngogo Chimpanzee Project. He received his PhD in Anthropology from the University of Michigan.

Sandel studies our closest ape relatives to understand social bonds and the emotions that animate them. Since 2012, he has studied wild chimpanzees at Ngogo in Kibale National Park, Uganda. This was the largest group of chimpanzees known to scientists. But in 2015, the group became polarized, and by 2018 it had split into two distinct groups. Chimpanzees from one group began attacking and killing chimpanzees from the other group. Sandel’s research has focused on describing the shift from “friend” to “foe.”

Show Notes

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