Sex is Weird 5: Why does it feel good, anyway?

About this episode

This episode explores the role of pleasure in reproduction and its evolutionary significance across the animal kingdom.

What is the role of pleasure in successful reproduction? Evolution says it's mightily important: every female vertebrate has a clitoris. Snakes have two! Female pleasure has been selected for. Making sex fun and pleasurable is a biologically sensible thing to do, more sex means more potential babies. Some studies of pigs and dairy cows have found an increase of up to 6% in successful conception when the females are stimulated during artificial insemination. Sex is Weird is a series of What the Duck?! with Dr Ann Jones following the sexual evolution of the animal kingdom. Please note that this program contains adult themes and explicit language. Parental guidance is recommended. Featuring: Dr Bruno Buzatto, Flinders University, South Australia Lynette Greenwood, Dairy farmer, Victoria Associate Professor Andrew Durso, Florida Gulf Coast University, Florida Lucy Cooke, Author and Film maker Associate Professor Patty Brennan, Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts, US Emeritus Professor Susan Suarez, Cornell University, New York Production: Ann Jones, Presenter / Producer Petria Ladgrove, Producer Additional mastering: Isabella Tropiano This episode of What the Duck?! was originally…

People in this episode

Host: Dr Ann Jones

Guests: Dr Bruno Buzatto, Lynette Greenwood, Associate Professor Andrew Durso, Lucy Cooke, Associate Professor Patty Brennan, Emeritus Professor Susan Suarez

Topics covered

• sexual evolution
• animal behavior
• reproductive biology
• pleasure in reproduction
• female sexuality

Keywords

• pleasure
• reproduction
• evolution
• female clitoris
• animal sexuality
• artificial insemination
• successful conception

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Flinders University, Florida Gulf Coast University, Mount Holyoke College, Cornell University

Places: Victoria, Florida, Massachusetts, New York

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