Justin Garcia (on the science of sex)
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Umbrella
4.6 • 69.9K Ratings
🗓️ 11 February 2026
⏱️ 142 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Justin Garcia (The Intimate Animal: The Science of Sex, Fidelity, and Why We Live and Die for Love) is an evolutionary biologist, researcher on sex and relationships, and Executive Director of the Kinsey Institute. Justin joins the Armchair Expert to discuss the unique quality that human sex is so tied to our social behavior, the physiological constraints on mating in other animals, and how sexually we are like magpies. Justin and Dax talk about why gorillas have really small testes, how the pandemic resulted in couples weathering the storms of relationship conflict, and an evolutionary explanation for how difficult it is to choose mates on a dating app. Justin explains how collecting hormone samples at a brothel in Las Vegas led him to write his book, why there’s no requirement to enter a relationship fully healed, and the social science behind love, partnership, fidelity, and heartbreak.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome, welcome, welcome to armchair expert, experts on expert. |
| 0:03.3 | I am Dan Shepard and I'm joined by Lily Padman. |
| 0:05.7 | Hi. |
| 0:06.2 | Today we have Justin Garcia-on, who is a sex researcher, an evolutionary biologist, a scientific advisor to Match.com, and executive director of the Kinsey Institute. |
| 0:17.4 | The famous Kinsey Institute. |
| 0:19.7 | This was so fun because he knows all the data on sex. |
| 0:24.7 | Sex and pair bonds, relationships. |
| 0:28.6 | He knows everything. |
| 0:29.5 | Yeah, this was endlessly fascinating. |
| 0:32.8 | I had a bazillion questions. |
| 0:35.1 | The more we talked about, the more curious I got. |
| 0:36.9 | Yeah, it's really good. He's epic. And he has a book out now. The more we talked about, the more curious I got. Yeah, it's really good. |
| 0:38.0 | He's epic. And he has a book out now called The Intimate Animal, the Science of Sex, Fidelity, and Why We Live and Die for Love, which is a phenomenal read and very eye-opening. Please enjoy Justin Garcia. |
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