University of Toronto professor David R. Samson was awarded the 2023 Balsillie Prize for Public Policy at a private dinner in Toronto on November 28, the Writers’ Trust of Canada announced.

The $60,000 prize, now in its third year, recognizes nonfiction books that advance policy discussions about social, political, economic, and cultural topics that are relevant to Canadians. It is funded by tech entrepreneur Jim Balsillie as part of his commitment to supporting Canadian literature.

Samson, an associate professor of biological anthropology and director of the Sleep and Human Evolution Lab, won this year’s prize for Our Tribal Future: How to Channel Our Foundational Human Instincts into a Force for Good (St. Martin’s Press/Raincoast Books). In their citation, the jury lauded Samson for the book, which they called “a tour de force of how our tribal brains operate in our modern world.” The jury said that “this important contribution to our public policy toolkit explains why trust is declining across our society and why our public spaces increasingly feel hostile rather than welcoming.”

The jury, comprised of author and physician Samantha Nutt, policy expert Taki Sarantakis, and digital strategist Scott Young, said that selecting a winner this year was not easy. “We strongly think Canadians would be well-served to find space on their bookshelves for the entire shortlist,” they said. “In the aggregate, the shortlist reflects the beauty and breadth of Canadian public policy writing today and it is our shared, unanimous view that all five books deserve to be read.”

Joining Samson on the shortlist were Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans, and Avi Goldfarb for Power and Prediction: The Disruptive Economics of Artificial Intelligence; Michelle Good for Truth Telling: Seven Conversations about Indigenous Life in Canada; Ryan Manucha for Booze, Cigarettes, and Constitutional Dust-Ups: Canada’s Quest for Interprovincial Free Trade; and Max Wyman for The Compassionate Imagination: How the Arts Are Central to a Functioning Democracy.

The four finalists each received $5,000, with co-authors evenly dividing the prize money. The jury chose the shortlisted books from 43 titles submitted by 25 publishers.