When you really think about it, sex to make babies is WEIRD! You take an outie that has to get stuck inside an innie that links into a production line of eggs to assemble a perfect tiny being. It’s so damn complicated!

So why does it work like that?

Join us at What the Duck for the first episode of a series where we figure out how living things went from splitting ourselves in half to double the population, to periodically feeling compelled to copulate in such a vigorous, sometimes highly embarrassing, manner.

Earth - this is your sexual history!

Please note that this program contains adult themes and explicit language. Parental guidance is recommended. 

This is a summer repeat of Episode One -  please find the rest of the "Sex is Weird" series here.

Featuring:

• Emeritus Professor David Siveter, University of Leicester, UK.
• Assistant Professor Emily Mitchell, University of Cambridge, UK and curator of non-insect invertebrates, University Museum of Zoology, Cambridge, UK.
• Dr Marissa Betts, geologist and palaeontologist at the University of New England, Armidale, Australia. 
• Dr Emily Willingham, biologist, journalist and author.
• Associate Professor Patty Brennan, Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts, US. 

Production:

• Ann Jones, Presenter / Producer.
• Petria Ladgrove, Producer.

Additional mastering: Isabella Tropiano and Russell Stapleton.

Thanks also to Will Ockenden, Belinda Smith, Corey Hague and Joel Werner. 

If you want to hear more "What the Duck?" episodes- please like and subscribe here.

This episode of What the Duck?! was first broadcast in September 2024 and is produced on the land of the Wadawarrung and Kaurna people.