Please Explain: Science of Love
Friday, February 08, 2008
-
-
Please Explain
In Please Explain, we set aside time every Friday afternoon to get to the bottom of one complex issue. We'll back up and review the basic facts and principles of complicated issues across a broad range of topics — history, politics, science, you name it.
More
Rutgers anthropologist Dr. Helen Fisher is author of Anatomy of Love: A Natural History of Mating, Marriage, and Why We Stray and Why We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love. University of Illinois at Chicago biologist Dr. C. Sue Carter is co-director of UIC's Brain Body Center.
Weigh in: Do you believe that love at first sight is an actual physical occurrence? Have you experienced it?
Guests:
Dr. Helen Fisher
About The Leonard Lopate Show
Host Leonard Lopate lets you in on the best conversations with writers, actors, ex-presidents, dancers, scientists, comedians, historians, grammarians, curators, filmmakers, and do-it-yourself experts.
Hosted by Leonard Lopate
Sign up for the Book Club e-newsletter.
Features
- 2010 Tony Award Winners
- 25 Years of Lopate
- AIDS: Then & Now
- Backstory
- Guest Hosts
- Guest Picks
- How Did Politics in America Get So Weird?
- Please Explain
- Summer Stuff
- The Big Picture
- The Gurus of How-To
- The Leonard Lopate Show Book Club
- The Lodown
- The Word Maven: Patricia T. O'Conner
- Tributes
- Underappreciated
- Underreported
- Web Extras
Show Archive
Show Archive
Comments [12]
Correction! When we talk about acquired characteristics (including genes) being heritable, it's not Linnaeus (who classified organisms and is considered the father of taxonomy) who's being vindicated, but Lamarck!
How do you know if you are one of the people who cannot form pair bonds? What can you do about it?
what a wonderful show Leonard! I am going out to buy your guest's book today!
Does marijuana effect the way one might experience love?
If once we understand all the science behind the love, will love poetry cease to exist?
Listening to the guests I get a saddness when I remember the joy of romantic love.
Does one's chemistry change as one gets older? Could this explain the way people begin to lose interest in each other at menopause and middle age?
Have you tested "love" via parent and child's love or child's love for parent?
I'd like to hear the addiction to the crazy-obsessive love talked about. I find that many of my friends are simply addicted, and unable to proceed to the more stable love. They need their fix. They have nothing but intense, short affairs which always end in disappointment. Many find eventually that if they're not going crazy-obsessed over someone, they lose interest. This leads to the way women say things like "I only have good sex with bad men. The good men are boring in bed." I maintain that they're simply not getting their fix, and wouldn't know true love from their... elbow.
i have definitely experienced love at first sight. We were both unavailable and it wouldn't go away.
BTW, sorry for my previous off-topic post. I thought this was a science show. Regardless, yes I have experienced love at first sight. I think Eric Berne wrote interesting things on this topic but generally speaking I don't believe what he wrote. I prefer to think that love is a mystery.
I think the attraction happens unconsciously(mind), then takes on a biological/chemical process in the brain. A mind/body reaction. It has happened to me and it felt as if my conscious mind was not in the driver's seat (not my ego, but my unconscious - the id).
Leave a Comment
Register for your own account so you can vote on comments, save your favorites, and more. Learn more.
Please stay on topic, be civil, and be brief.
Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments. Names are displayed with all comments. We reserve the right to edit any comments posted on this site. Please read the Comment Guidelines before posting. By leaving a comment, you agree to New York Public Radio's Privacy Policy and Terms Of Use.