Sex at Dawn

Exploring the evolutionary origins of modern sexuality.

Christopher Ryan, Ph.D. is co-author of Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality (HarperCollins 2010). See full bio

May 29, 2009

In Search of the Clitoral Truth

Despite what Playboy and other purveyors of fantasy would have you believe, a woman in her forties is likely to be far more sexually adventurous than an air-brushed college girl. It's a shame (and a scientific scandal) that so much of the scientific paradigm of "female sexuality" is based on this very limited, unrepresentative subject pool. Read More

May 29, 2009

Tom Brokaw Pretends to be a Journalist (and Fails)

Wealth often has a deadening effect upon the mind. Not having to worry about dollars and cents tends to make us forget that others do. Read More

May 26, 2009

Does God Favor Sexual Predators?

Despite their war-generating differences, Catholicism, Judaism, and Islam share a strange and shameful propensity to abuse children. Read More

May 14, 2009

Tortured with Ecstasy

Imagine you've got a prisoner under interrogation. Sure, you could take the Cheney/Pinochet medieval approach, but these techniques only work well on TV and in the fevered imaginations of small men with more power than intelligence. What really works is building rapport and trust, getting the prisoner to look at the situation from a different perspective. What could be better for this than some Ecstasy? Read More

April 30, 2009

How Old was "Old" 20,000 Years Ago?

Despite what nearly every expert says, once they got through infancy, most people in prehistory lived well into their 60s and even 70s, as foragers do today. Read More

April 29, 2009

Mysteries of Masturbation

Fellow PT blogger Michael Castleman recently raised the question of how common masturbation really is. He cited a study that seems to show it's less prevalent than conventionally thought. Read More

April 29, 2009

The Lucky Death of Charles Schulze

They say you should never count a man lucky until you've seen his death. Charles Schulze died a lucky man a few days ago. Read More

April 27, 2009

Colbert Nationalism

Nation, what's it mean that one of the major things making me feel proud to be American these days is the existence of a wildly popular TV show predicated upon the absurdity of feeling overly proud to be American? Read More

April 13, 2009

Pondering Pirate Perfidy

On the Somali pirate story, the American press is missing the substance entirely. Read More

April 10, 2009

Confessions of an Accidental Socialist

Given the comforts of life in Western Europe, who takes Republicans seriously when they shriek about the "Frenchification" of America? Have these guys ever been to Europe? Read More

Sex Basics

Sex is the most profound and intimate way to express your love for someone. Different people enjoy and pursue sex in different forms—as the pioneering sex researcher Alfred Kinsey put it, the only universal in human sexuality is variability itself. But within the universe of intimacy and pleasure that sex affords is a lot of room for error.

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