Why Sex Matters

Professor Russell Foster and Professor Frances Ashcroft discuss The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature by Matt Ridley and Dr Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation by Olivia Judson. Series 2 Episode 9 The Red Queen is an excellent and accessible overview of sexual evolution. It discusses why sex matters, why most organisms have 2 genders, why we are not all hermaphrodite, what strategies animals employ to pass on their genes, and how sex influences the evolution of human nature. Dr Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation is written like agony aunt advice column in which all kinds of animals ask for help with their sex lives. This provides the framework for a highly entertaining and informative discussion of the evolutionary biology of sex and the extraordinary variety of ways of reproduction employed by organisms from stick insects to chimpanzees. Russell Foster is Professor of Circadian Neuroscience at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of both Brasenose College Oxford and the Royal Society of London. His research concerns our circadian rhythms – the 24-hour cycles that are part of our internal body clock - and how they are regulated by light. He is also an expert on sleep. Websites https://www.ndcn.ox.ac.uk/team/russell-foster https://www.mattridley.co.uk/