Radiolab - Gonads: Sex Ed

In this episode, an edited down version of a Radiolab Presents: Gonads Live show, host Molly Webster brings together a cast of storytellers, educators, artists, and comedians to grapple with sex ed in unexpected and thoughtful ways. "Sex Ed" is an edited recording of a live event hosted by Radiolab at the Skirball Center in New York City on May 16, 2018. Radiolab Team Gonads is Molly Webster, Pat Walters, and Rachael Cusick, with Jad Abumrad. Live music, including the sex ed questions, and the Gonads theme song, were written, performed, and produced by Majel Connery and Alex Overington. Radiolab is supported in part by Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation initiative dedicated to engaging everyone with the process of science. And the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, enhancing public understanding of science and technology in the modern world. More information about Sloan at www.sloan.org. Support Radiolab today at Radiolab.org/donate.

Duration: 50m
Broadcast on: 27 Jul 2018
Audio Format: other

"Sex Ed" is an edited recording of a live event hosted by Radiolab at the Skirball Center in New York City on May 16, 2018. Radiolab Team Gonads is Molly Webster, Pat Walters, and Rachael Cusick, with Jad Abumrad. Live music, including the sex ed questions, and the Gonads theme song, were written, performed, and produced by Majel Connery and Alex Overington.

Radiolab is supported in part by Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation initiative dedicated to engaging everyone with the process of science. And the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, enhancing public understanding of science and technology in the modern world. More information about Sloan at www.sloan.org.

Support Radiolab today at Radiolab.org/donate.

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WNYC Studios is supported by WISE. WISE, the smart way to manage the currencies you need around the world. With a WISE account, you can send, spend, and receive in up to 40 currencies, with only a few simple taps. Be smart, get WISE. Download the WISE app today. Terms and conditions apply. Before we get started, just a note, this episode contains some strong language, as well as content that may not be suitable or at least ready for younger years. It is an episode about sex ed. Okay, thanks. Wait, you're listening to Radio Lab. From WNYC. Hey, I'm Molly Webster. This is gonads episode six, and it's our last episode. I'm going to go cry after this is done, but first, I want to share with you this really fun thing that team gonads did in May, and that is we did a live event on sex ed. You know, if you've been listening to this series, we have been looking at the biology of biological sex and sex determination, and one of the things we kept thinking was like, "Man, now that we know how complicated it is, like, how do we teach this stuff?" And how do we teach this stuff in a climate where people are really polarized and divided? In thinking about all this, sex ed, it just felt like more than a radio story. You know, if you bring up sex ed with anybody, they have stories. They get excited, they get animated, and it really felt like something that would live quite beautifully in a live space, in a live event. You know, almost like recreate the sex ed classes we all may or may not have gone through. So today we'll be bringing you clips of that show, and it starts with Jad Avamrod. Hello, hello, how are you guys doing? All right, so, so, so excited you were here. So, I guess I should just say welcome to radio lab sex ed. That is a sentence I never thought I would say. In the 15 years I've been doing the show, I never anticipated this moment where I'd be on stage saying that to a live group of humans. But, you know, here we are, and I grew up in Tennessee, so I actually didn't have sex ed. So, I am looking forward to learning something tonight.

Please, welcome to the stage, radio lab Molly Webster. Hello, hello, hello, hello. Woo, well, this kind of feels like my sex ed class, which was like nerve-wracking, and you're not sure how it's going to go. So, to start the night, we are going to go down south. Mississippi, 2011, the state passes a law that places some restrictions on sex ed, notably when it comes to talking about condoms. The law specifically says no instruction or demonstration on the application of the condom. So, that's Sanford Johnson. He is a sex educator in Mississippi. And so, on the one hand, you might think, no big deal, right? It's just a piece of plastic. Kids can figure out how to use it. We don't have to show them everything. But, Sanford says it's not really that easy. I will tell you a story when I was a high school teacher here in the Mississippi Delta, because the school brought in a guest, certified sex educator, to talk to the kids about sex.

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