logo
episode-header-image
Oct 2022
35m 49s

Why am I gay?

Bbc World Service
About this episode
Human sexuality comes in many forms, from exclusively heterosexual to exclusively homosexual. But seeing as homosexuality creates apparent reproductive and evolutionary disadvantages, listener Ahmed from Oslo wants to know: why are some people gay? CrowdScience presenter Caroline Steel examines what science can - and can't - tell us about the role of nature ... Show More
Up next
Oct 3
Why are some animals black and white?
Listener Jude in Canada wants to know why some animals are black and white. Why do zebras risk being so stripy? Why do pandas have such distinct marking? And do they have something in common? Presenter Caroline visits Pairi Daiza, a zoo in Belgium. Together with her guide for the ... Show More
27m 2s
Sep 26
Answers to even more questions
Sometimes in science, when you try to answer one question it sparks even more questions. The CrowdScience inbox is a bulging example of that. We get tons of new questions every week and many of those are following up on episodes we’ve made. Sometimes you want us to go deeper into ... Show More
26m 28s
Sep 19
Do birds understand us?
CrowdScience listener David is a bird whisperer. On his family farm in Guinea, he would mimic the call of the black-headed weaver. He could replicate it so well that the birds would fly in close, curious to find out who was calling. David has been wondering if he was actually com ... Show More
26m 29s
Recommended Episodes
Oct 2022
Nobel Prize 2022: The science behind the winners
For the scientific community, the Nobel Prize announcements are an important part of the yearly science calendar. The award is one of the most widely celebrated and gives us a moment to reflect on some of the leading scientific work taking place around the world. This year’s winn ... Show More
57m 18s
May 2023
Episode 188: Where Does Our Sexual Orientation Come From?
Where does a person's sexual orientation come from? Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of studies have attempted to answer this question. This research suggests that there isn’t a simple explanation and that two people might develop the same sexual orientation for very different reason ... Show More
31m 22s
Jun 2023
Babbage: Understanding same-sex attraction in people
Same-sex attraction is found in many animals—but, like all animal behaviours, it can be complicated and difficult to study. The underlying biological mechanisms, however, are of great interest for understanding human health, genetics and evolution. Researchers know there is no su ... Show More
46m 25s
Mar 2023
The Science of Testosterone || Carole Hooven
Today we welcome Dr. Carole Hooven. For the past six years, she served as a lecturer and co-director of undergraduate studies at Harvard’s department of Human Evolutionary Biology. She has received numerous teaching awards, and her popular Hormones and Behavior class was named on ... Show More
1h 10m
Jun 2015
19: Why We Love, Lust, and Live
A leader in the psychology of human mating, and an expert on both the cultural and biological foundations of love, Helen Fisher shares science-backed information on attraction, mate selection, infidelity, the neuroscience of love and the effects of culture on our biology. There’s ... Show More
43m 49s
Apr 2019
Nicholas Christakis || The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society
"We should be humble in the face of temptations to engineer society in opposition to our instincts. Fortunately, we do not need to exercise any such authority in order to have a good life. The arc of our evolutionary history is long. But it bends toward goodness." -- Nicholas Chr ... Show More
56m 6s
Feb 2020
#5 - On History, Media and the Gay Identity
In the first part of this episode, I present some historical facts on changes within the psychological profession with regards to the classification of homosexuality. I also present some history about the gay liberation movement as well as popular misinformation circulating nowad ... Show More
1h 20m
Mar 2023
815: James Cantor | Exploring the Complexities of Sexual Orientation
Dr. James Cantor (@jamescantorphd) is a clinical psychologist and sexologist whose research centers on the development of sexual interests, including sexual orientation and paraphilias. He maintains the Sexology Today blog, which focuses on the current state of sex research. What ... Show More
1h 27m
Jul 2023
Rahil Roodsaz, "Sexual Self-Fashioning: Iranian Dutch Narratives of Sexuality and Belonging" (Berghahn Books, 2022)
Sexuality and gender have come to serve as measures for cultural belonging in discussions of the position of Muslim immigrants in multicultural Western societies. While the acceptance of assumed local norms such as sexual liberty and gender equality is seen as successful integrat ... Show More
36m 8s