What's Next — Interpretive Dance?

Writing in the New York Times' Opinionator blog, Olivia Judson says Baba Brinkman's "Rap Guide to Evolution" hip-hop lecture is "one of the most astonishing, and brilliant, lectures on evolution I’ve ever seen." Brinkman, who has a Master's degree in English, developed his evolution lecture after he began corresponding with evolutionary biologist Mark Pallen at the University of Birmingham, in the UK, reports Judson. Brinkman tells her his show is "the only hip-hop show to have been peer-reviewed." The show is made up of a series of mini-lectures delivered in rap form, and Brinkman even has the audience respond and sing along to certain parts, Judson says. Brinkman has even produced a CD for those who want to learn about evolution over and over again. "The lyrics are, for the most part, witty, sophisticated and scientifically accurate; and they lack the earnest defensiveness that sometimes haunts lectures on evolution," Judson says. "By and large, he proselytizes about evolution … by revealing the subject’s scope, from natural selection to the evolution of human culture and language." As Brinkman raps, "Darwin got it going on."