S22E12: The Science of Intimacy, Sex, and Love w/ Dr. Justin Garcia

S22E12: The Science of Intimacy, Sex, and Love w/ Dr. Justin Garcia

From Dateable: Your insider's look into modern dating and relationships by Yue Xu and Julie Krafchick

April 28, 2026 · 1h 25m

About this episode

Dr. Justin Garcia discusses the science of intimacy, sex, and love, exploring human connection and modern dating dynamics.

At our core, we’re not just wired for sex—we’re wired for deep connection with another human being. In this episode, we’re joined by Dr. Justin Garcia, leading sex researcher, evolutionary biologist, and Executive Director of the Kinsey Institute, who shares the science behind why humans are driven to bond, love, and seek intimacy. We explore how modern dating both supports and disrupts our natural instinct to pair bond, what choices like staying single or exploring nontraditional relationships mean in that context, and why even when connection feels hard to find it’s still fundamentally what we’re built for. To learn more about Dr. Justin Garcia follow him @drjustingarcia and go to https://kinseyinstitute.org/. Get his new book 'The Intimate Animal: The Science of Sex, Fidelity, and Why We Live & Die For Love' wherever books are sold. ---- Take our Dating Archetypes quiz: https://howtobedateable.com/ Read our book: How To Be Dateable: The Essential Guide To Finding Your Person and Falling in Love: https://howtobedateable.com/ Try the Dateable AI Dating Coach: Get personalized advice trained on our years of podcast episodes, courses and frameworks: https://studio.com/dateable…

People in this episode

Hosts: Yue Xu, Julie Krafchick

Guest: Dr. Justin Garcia

Topics covered

  • intimacy
  • sex
  • love
  • modern dating
  • human connection
  • evolutionary biology

Keywords

  • intimacy
  • sex research
  • evolutionary biology
  • modern dating
  • human connection
  • relationship choices

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Kinsey Institute

Products: The Intimate Animal: The Science of Sex, Fidelity, and Why We Live & Die For Love

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