The Science of Sex

Latest Episodes:

#11 – Sex During AND After Pregnancy Dec 07, 2017

Show notes

We love talking about sex, but what about sex during pregnancy and after childbirth?

Earlier this year, a review paper was published summarizing what we know from research about sexual behaviors during pregnancy and the year after childbirth. They combed through 56 empirical studies published in the academic literature since 1996, and found that, in general, there was a gradual decline in vaginal intercourse over the course of pregnancy and the first couple of months post-childbirth. This week we were able to interview the lead author on this paper, Dr. Sofia Jawed-Wessel, and discuss these findings and everything else she knows about sex during and after pregnancy.

About Our Guest

Dr. Sofia Jawed-Wessel is an Assistant Professor in the School of Health and Kinesiology at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) and the Associate Director of the Midlands Sexual Health Research Collaborative. She got her PhD in Health Behavior from the School of Public Health at Indiana University Bloomington, and her research focuses on the sexual health of women and couples as they transition into parenthood. Her 2016 TEDxOmaha talk “The lies we tell pregnant women” has being viewed over 3 million times.

Don’t Miss This Week’s Foreplay…

This week’s foreplay brought some good news in terms of the sexual misconduct we have been talking about these past few months. After many representatives have been accused of assault and/or harassment, the House voted to approve required, annual anti-sexual harassment training for lawmakers and aides. Read article here.

Curious about your sexual performance stats? A British company has developed a “smart condom” called the i.Con that tracks your sexual performance and can detect certain STIs. This device is actually not a physical condom, but rather a ring worn around the base of the penis in addition to a condom. The device will be released in January and already has a large amount of preorders. Read full article here.

A couple driving in Washington decided to get frisky while a 3-month-old sat in the backseat — and crashed their car into a tree. 23 year old Michael Tonkin was driving drunk when his intoxicated girlfriend decided to climb on top of him naked — causing him to miss a curve and collide with a tree. After the crash, Michael and and Daisy Laroque, 23, emerged from the car naked, witnesses told troopers. The baby was hospitalized, but is doing just fine according to doctors. Read article discussed here.

Afterglow

A social worker recently wrote an article talking about her experience seeing more and more teens coming out as transgender “out of the blue.” There are a few reasons why this could be so listen now for our take on the matter!

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#10 – How Common Are Sexual Problems? Nov 30, 2017

Show notes

How common are sexual problems and when should they be cause for concern?

On this week’s episode, Joe and Dr. Zhana speak with Dr. Kirstin Mitchell about her research on sexual function and dysfunction. Dr. Mitchell is a Senior Research Fellow at the MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow, where she leads a theme of research on Families and Intimate & Sexual Relationships. We spoke with her about a few studies that she has published in regards to sexual dysfunction.

About Our Guest

Over the last 3 years, several studies have been published on the sexual functioning and dysfunction among UK residents. They are all based on the Natsal-3, a nationally representative sample of over 15,000 men and women aged 16–74 years in Britain. The questions included everything from lack of interest in sex, orgasm difficulties, erection and lubrication difficulties, dissatisfaction with and distress about their sex lives, discrepancy in sex drive between partners, and seeking help.

Don’t Miss This Week’s Foreplay…

This week’s foreplay steered back into our discussion about sexual assault when we talked about the accusations against NBC’s Matt Lauer and the investigation by Variety. Lauer was fired from the network on Wednesday after a complaint was made about his behavior in the workplace. There is no news on whether the network will honor his $25 million contract that is not set to expire until the end of 2018. Read article discussed here.

Afterglow

The President of Wilfrid Laurier University has officially apologized to teaching assistant Lindsay Shepherd for a meeting where faculty members reprimanded her for showing students a video clip of a debate involving controversial professor Jordan Peterson. The clip was of a debate regarding gender-neutral pronouns. Read article here.

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#9 – Is Porn Bad for Your Marriage? Nov 21, 2017

Show notes

Can porn negatively impact a marriage?

This week on The Science of Sex, Joe and Dr. Zhana went deeper into a rather controversial topic involving the impact that watching pornography can have on marital quality and longevity. They interviewed Dr. Samuel L. Perry, an assistant professor of sociology and religious studies at the University of Oklahoma, about two of his recent studies, both of which included nationally representative samples of married US adults that were followed over several years.

One study, published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, found married persons who watched porn more often in 2006 reported significantly lower levels of marital quality 6 years later in 2012, after controlling for initial levels of marital quality and other relevant factors. The second study, published in the Journal of Sex Research, found that the probability of divorce roughly doubled for married Americans who started watching porn in the 2-year period between the two survey waves, while discontinuing pornography use between survey waves was associated with a lower probability of divorce, though only for women. So not only was porn use linked to lower marital satisfaction, but also actual divorce.

Read study discussed here.

About Our Guest

For more of Dr. Perry’s work, you can read his book, Growing God’s Family: The Global Orphan Care Movement and the Limits of Evangelical Activism, in which explores American evangelical activism surrounding adoption and foster care. He is currently finishing a second book on how pornography shapes the lives of American evangelicals.

Don’t Miss This Week’s Foreplay…

We warmed up with a little Foreplay about the latest accusations of sexual assault in the media. TV host and sports broadcaster Leeann Tweeden accused Senator Al Franken of groping her in her sleep on a 2006 USO tour, and Terry Crews publicly named Adam Venit, the high-powered talent agent, he claims groped him at an industry party.

On a more positive note, Germany’s highest court ruled that the nation’s government must introduce a third gender for the categorization of people who do not identify as either male or female, or are born with ambiguous sexual anatomy. The decision by the Federal Constitutional Court means that the legislature must add the new status to all civil documents, or dispense with gender identification altogether. Read full article here.

Afterglow

We closed this weeks episode with some Afterglow about infidelity. In her new book State of Affairs: Rethinking Infidelity, Esther Perel says that since the 90s, the rate of married women who have cheated has increased by 40 per cent. The rates among men, however, have not changed. Speaking of cheating, a new study has pinpointed exactly when such behavior is most-likely to occur in a marriage. Published in the Journal of Sex Research, the data reveals women are most likely to cheat between six and ten years of being in a relationship, and men are most likely to do so after 11 years.

Rethinking Infidelity

When is cheating likely to happen

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#8 – What happens to women’s brains when they orgasm? Nov 15, 2017

Show notes

What is really going on in the female brain before, during, and after an orgasm?

This week, Joe and Dr. Zhana talk to Dr. Nan Wise, who published a study in the Journal of Sexual Medicine that disputed past research of brain scans of women during orgasm. Originally, researchers found deactivation of brain regions leading up to or during orgasm, but this recent study found that this might not be true. Instead, across 10 female participants that were either masturbating or being stimulated by their male partners while in the fMRI machine, brain activity gradually increased leading up to orgasm, peaked at orgasm, and then decreased. The activated brain regions included sensory, motor, reward, frontal cortical, and brainstem regions.

About Our Guest

Dr. Nan Wise, a licensed psychotherapist, cognitive neuroscientist, certified sex therapist, board certified clinical hypnotherapist, and certified relationship specialist with three decades of experience. Her research at Rutgers University has addressed gaps in the scientific literature regarding the neural basis of human sexuality, and has as a result, garnered international attention.

Don’t Miss This Week’s Foreplay…

Everyone is talking about allegations made against Louis C.K. by five women. The comedian issued an apology, but top networks, including FX, Netflix, TBS, and HBO, have cut ties with him, and The Orchard, the distribution company for his film, I Love You, Daddy, dropped the film just one week before its scheduled release. We also touched on the allegations made against Roy Moore, the Senate candidate from Alabama. The Washington Post reported that a woman claims that Roy Moore had sexual contact with her when she was 14 years old and he was a 32-year-old district attorney in 1979. Three other women told the Post that Moore, who’s now 70, pursued them when they were teenagers, one of them 16, another 17 and another 18, and he was in his early 30s. Finally, according to a new study, you shouldn’t be fooled by the movie and TV scenes through the years where a character dies from a heart attack during sex. There’s almost NO CHANCE it’s going to happen to you. Doctors studied 4,557 cases of sudden cardiac arrest between 2002 and 2015. And they found that only 34 of those happened during sex or within an hour afterward. That’s 0.7%. And only two of the 4,557 cases were women. Read article discussed here.

Afterglow

Harvard’s annual “Anal Sex 101” class, is a class where participants got to learn the ins and outs of anal sex. The class instructor Natasha told the future leaders of America, “Not all men have penises, not all women have vaginas … the butthole is the great sexual equalizer. All humans have a butthole…” We couldn’t agree more! Read more here.

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#7 – Asexuality 101 Nov 09, 2017

Show notes

We often talk about issues regarding the gay, lesbian, and bisexual communities, but what about those who identify as asexual?

On the latest episode, Joe and Dr. Zhana talk to Lara Greaves about an interesting yet rarely discussed topic: asexuality and its relationship to mental health. In March of this year, Lara Greaves authored a study on asexuality published through the Archives of Sexual Behavior. Using data from a nationally representative sample, the researchers found that 0.4% of people self-identified as asexual. Compared to straight folks, self-identified asexuals were (1) more likely to be women and (2) substantially less likely to be cisgender. They were also (3) in a serious romantic relationship, or (4) a parent. Contrary to some past research, asexuals didn’t differ from heterosexuals in terms of other demographic variables (such as ethnicity, socioeconomic status, education, and religiosity), nor in their mental, physical, or social health and wellbeing.

About Our Guest

Lara Greaves is a student in her last month of a PhD in the School of Psychology at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Her research is broadly in the area of social psychology and includes everything from indigenous voter turnout to the psychological recovery of earthquake survivors. One of her particular interests is in sexual orientation. Her work so far has explored the different identity terms used across a large, national sample of New Zealanders, personality differences and similarities across sexual orientation, asexuality, pansexuality, the characteristics of those who cannot or will not answer sexual orientation questions, and the intersectionality of gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation.

Don’t Miss this Week’s Foreplay…

After allegations against him were found to be true, Kevin Spacey has reported checked into a luxurious $36,000 per month sex rehab center in Arizona, the Daily Mail reports. This trend of men in Hollywood atoning for their past actions continued with Ben Affleck speaking to the Associated Press, saying he’s “looking at [his] own behavior and addressing that and making sure [he’s] part of the solution.” Affleck told Fox that he will donate all future residuals from Weinstein or Miramax projects to independent film initiatives and to victims of sexual assault. While these high profile men are being consistently outed for their behavior, the same thing is happening in the everyday workforce. A rheumatologist in Canada, Dr. Martin Lee, lost his medical license after being found guilty of sexually abusing two patients, including one woman he questioned about her sex life and the size of her husband’s penis. Earlier this year, a committee of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario found Lee guilty of sexually abusing two patients, including one woman to whom he showed a gay porn magazine before asking her about sadism and masochism. Read full article here.

Afterglow

In this episode’s Afterglow we discussed a rather extreme reaction to teen sex. A school district in Oregon recently told their teachers and staff that if they learn or merely suspect a student is sexually active, they must report it to law enforcement or state officials. According to Oregon law, anyone under 18 years old cannot legally give consent, meaning all sexual activity between minors is considered sexual abuse. The district claimed the policy is for the teenagers’ safety, but I have a much different opinion, as you can probably guess. Read more here.

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#6 – How to get a Ph.D. in Threesomes Nov 03, 2017

Show notes

Is it really “not gay if it’s in a threeway?”

In episode 6, Joe and Dr. Zhana speak with Dr. Ryan Scoats, a man who according to the New York Post “got his PhD in threesomes.” Earlier this year, Dr. Scoats co-authored a study that showed a cultural willingness for heterosexual men to participate in not just FMF threesomes (involving two women), but also MFM threesomes (involving two men). Scoats and his co-authors “argue that this threesome experience is a component of cultural progression toward a more liberal, recreational culture of sexuality that encourages play and experimentation instead of a procreative model of sexuality.”

About Our Guest

Dr. Scoats got his BA (hons) and masters of research from the University of Bath, and his PhD in sociology from the University of Winchester, studying under Professor Eric Anderson. He is currently a researcher at Birmingham City University in the faculty of Health, Education and Life Sciences, and his research focuses on masculinities, sports cultures, sexualities, identity, consensual non-monogamy, and, obviously, threesomes. To keep up with Dr. Scoats’s research, follow him on Twitter!

Read the NY Times article on Dr. Scoats here.

Don’t Miss This Week’s Foreplay…

We started off with some heavier Foreplay, in which we discussed the recent allegations of sexual misconduct made against Kevin Spacey, by Rent star, Anthony Rapp. In a response to the accusations, Spacey, more or less, came out of the closet, an action he has since been heavily criticized for. On a lighter note, we also discussed pegging, a sex act that is becoming more and more popular, not just in the bedroom, but also in TV and film.

Afterglow

Finally, in Afterglow we went back to heavier topics, discussing Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s decision to reverse many Obama-era guidelines in regards to Title IX, the federal law dealing with campus sexual assault. You might be surprised to hear my thoughts on this, so tune in now! Read more here.

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#5 – Are Millennials more or less sexually permissive than their parents? Oct 27, 2017

Show notes

Are Millennials really the “hookup generation”?

In this week’s episode, Joe and Dr. Zhana talk to Dr. Brooke Wells, an associate professor and director of the PhD program in Human Sexuality at Widener University, about four of her published studies that reveal surprising information about Millennials’ sexual behaviors and attitudes.

Millennials were shown to more more accepting of premarital and same-sex sexual activity, and they were more likely to engage in same-sex sexual behavior, however, contrary to the popular belief that Millennials are a more sexually liberated generation, these studies show that Millennials are actually even less accepting of extramarital sex compared to previous generations. They also, on average, are more likely to have fewer partners or be entirely sexually inactive and have sex fewer times per year than both Baby Boomers (born 1945-1964) and Generation Xers (born 1965-1981).

Don’t Miss this Week’s Foreplay…

On this episode’s Foreplay, we discuss some good news for the transgender and gender non-binary folks the new California law recognizing Nonbinary as a third gender option on drivers licenses and birth certificates as well as Playboy’s first transgender playmate.

Trans Playmate

California’s third gender law

Afterglow

During Afterglow, we talk about a recent study published by Coventry and Oxford University claiming that having sex at old age can make you more intelligent. Read more here.

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#4 – Unlocking the Secrets of the Female Orgasm Oct 20, 2017

Show notes

Dr. Zhana and Joe talk to a doctor who’s been called “The Vagina Scientist.”

Dr. James Pfaus and his team published an article attempting to resolve the controversy surrounding clitoral versus vaginal orgasms and we break it down in this episode of “The Science of Sex.”

Also on the show, Zhana and Joe talk about the skyrocketing STI rates in seniors and the survey that says 40% of couples don’t sleep in the same bed!

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#3 – Brains of promiscuous men are different than those of monogamous men? Oct 13, 2017

Show notes

A recent study out of UT Austin found that the brains of highly promiscuous men processed romantic information differently than the brains of highly monogamous men. This was not the case with sexual information – both groups processed those similarly.

Dr. Zhana and Joe discussed the study with lead researcher, Dr. Lisa Dawn Hamilton.

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#2 – Real Life? Artificial Intelligence can determine a person’s sexual orientation Oct 06, 2017

Show notes

The 2nd Science of Sex Podcast episode is out! Joe and Dr. Zhana speak with Dr Michal Kosinski (Stanford University) about his controversial study on Artificial Intelligence being able to distinguish gay from straight faces. They address a lot of the misconceptions people had about the methods and conclusions of this study as well as the moral dilemmas around it. There were a lot of questions and we are really excited to have gotten the answers to some of those! Some really fascinating stuff in there! (And we also discuss robot sex, going “commando”, and Hugh Hefner). Hope you listen, subscribe, and share!

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