NatureBang

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Naturebang: Dragon Lizards and the Gender Spectrum

Naturebang

Dragon Lizards and the Gender Spectrum

BBC Radio 4 - Naturebang, Dragon Lizards and the Gender Spectrum

Animals can be male, female... or LOADS of other things. What are they? And what about us?

Becky Ripley and Emily Knight traverse the sex and gender spectrum, making several stops along the way. With help from the birds and the bees, dragon lizards, and a tangle of DNA

Sex is simple. Or so we're taught; animals can be male or female. But even the briefest glance at the animal kingdom tells us that this simply isn't true. Some creatures have only one sex; some have three; some have none at all. Some animals are two sexes at the same time; some flip flop between them when the time is right. When evolution came to solve the problem of procreation, she did it in a myriad of mind-blowing ways.

When it comes to humans, it's even more complicated - we have this thing called Gender, too.  It's often defined as the social and cultural side of sex, distinct from the biological. But that's not the full story. Becky Ripley and Emily Knight travel back to the dawn of human culture, and into the tangled depths of our genetic code, to try and unravel why we are the way we are, and why it matters so much that we understand it all properly.

Featuring Professor Jenny Graves, geneticist at La Trobe University, and the writer and scholar Meg-John Barker.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

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Factual: Science & Nature

Making sense of what it means to be human by looking to the natural world.

Becky Ripley and Emily Knight make sense of what it means to be human by looking to the natural world... Science meets storytelling with a philosophical twist.

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