On the NPR TED Radio Hour, Sunday 23rd August, Newstalk FM

'Seven Deadly Sins' 

Lust

Christopher Ryan says that human beings are sexual omnivores and hopes that a better understanding of sexual fidelity may end discrimination, shame and unrealistic expectations. 

Christopher says that we should cross 'Lust' off the list of Seven Deadly Sins becauase "lust isn't harmful, how can we tell someone not to feel lust?"

He argues that human sexuality has mainly evolved as a way of establishing social systems. "If you look at the old testament line 'Thou shall not covet his neighbours wife'..if you read it in context, his wife is considered his property. So sexual monogamy is an institution designed to protect the property of the father or the husband, not a response to any evolved tendencies."

So, by resisting the sin of lust, are we undermining our own human nature?

Gluttony

"The human body needs a certain amount of nourishment and calories to survive and when you start exceeding those for the enjoyment of eating, you are starting to invade the territory of Gluttony." 

Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett explains how he realized that not only did he have to lose weight but so did his entire city. 

Sloth

Is it fair to say that people who fail to vote, who are apathetic about local politics, are lazy sloths?

Activist Dave Meslin says political apathy is a disconnect from our negative feelings towards corporate governments. "It's a sense of hopelessness, which is so different to apathy."

He argues that 'Greed' can be a cure for 'Sloth' and that the best way to get people voting is to make the issues personal -when its in your self interest to participate in the system, you will.

Essentially, some of the Seven Deadly sins can be appropriate, the trick is knowing when and in what measure. 

Wrath

Why do certain places in America seem to be more violent than others?

While looking at the problem of gun violence, Dr. Gary Slutkin noticed a familiar pattern; "When you look at Bangladeshi neighbourhoods you see where the cholera clusters are", in the same way you can see gun violence clusters in American cities. 

Gary wondered 'what if gun violence could be treated like a contagious disease?' His program, Cure Violence, aims to do just that, with real results.  

Gary explains how he uses the same treatment in combating epidemics to cure contagious violence.

Greed

Nick Hanauer is a "hard worker, reasonably smart and has repeatedly been in the right place in the right time." He developed a tech company that sold to Microsoft for 6.4 billion dollars, putting him in the top .01% of America's richest.

He says that "greed is absolutely a sin" and now it's time for millionaires to wake up and look at the income inequality around them.

The growing gap between rich and poor, that is fueled by greed, is getting worse everyday. "Inequality is at historic highs. If wealth, power and income continue to concentrate at the very top, our society will change from a capitalist democracy to a neo feudalist rentier society like eighteenth century France- you know France before the revolution and the mobs with the pitchforks."

He warns that if economic inequality is not lessened in our society, "the pitchforks will come." But he also has a plan to prevent the pitchforks, which is simply an increase in minimum wage.

Envy

Parul Sehgal, an editor at The New York Times Book Review, says literature would hardly exist without the 'grim thrill' of envy. She says as dangerous as it can be, envy can teach us a lot about who we are and what we really want.

She claims Envy in inevitable, "its a deep, deep part of what it means to be human.. a survival mechanism." But can envy be a catalyst for self improvement and change? A positive quality and not necessarily a sin?

Pride

'Know-it-All' Ken Jennings is well acquainted with pride from his experiences of winning the Jeopardy game show 74 times in a row. 

In 2009 the game show called Ken back in, this time to compete against supercomputer Watson. He reveals how losing to a computer crushed his pride. "I felt obsolete, like a factory worker of the 80's seeing a robot who can now do his job on the assembly line."

But while Ken was feeling demoralised, the audience was likely enjoying every minute. "We love to see smug people get what's coming to them."

When does pride, and all the seven deadly sins, exceed credibility and reach into transgression? 

The TED Radio Hour, Sunday's from 6pm on Newstalk 106-108 FM. 

Listen back to 'Seven Deadly Sins' here.