Monkey Business - Robin Dunbar, Dave Gorman and Jo Setchell

Monkey Business - Robin Dunbar, Dave Gorman and Jo Setchell

From The Infinite Monkey Cage by BBC Radio 4

December 17, 2025 · 43 min

About this episode

The episode explores the secrets of love, lust, and friendship in primates with a panel of experts.

In perhaps the monkiest Infinite Monkey Cage episode there’s ever been, Brian Cox and Robin Ince attempt to uncover the secrets of love, lust and friendship in primates. Swinging by to offer a hand (or tail) are evolutionary psychologist Robin Dunbar, anthropologist Jo Setchell, and comedian Dave Gorman. Together the panel explores Dunbar’s number in monkeys – the idea that the number of friendships an individual can maintain correlates with brain size – with the very creator of the theory! They ask whether monkeys feel love the way we do, why some species remain strictly monogamous but others don’t, and what we could learn about ourselves through studying them. Robin goes bananas for bonobo fashion, while Dave couldn’t give a monkey’s about finding an aftershave to complement his natural smell. Series Producer: Mel Brown Researcher: Alex Rodway Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem A BBC Studios Production

People in this episode

Hosts: Brian Cox, Robin Ince

Guests: Robin Dunbar, Jo Setchell, Dave Gorman

Topics covered

  • primates
  • friendship
  • love
  • evolutionary psychology
  • monogamy
  • Dunbar's number

Keywords

  • monkeys
  • friendships
  • evolution
  • bonobos
  • psychology
  • anthropology
  • Dunbar's number

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: BBC Radio 4, BBC Studios

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