Let’s talk about love
Unexpected Elements
BBC
4.4 • 566 Ratings
🗓️ 14 February 2025
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Valentine’s Day is here - the one day of the year where you can be unashamedly romantic and splash out on posh dinners, flowers and chocolates for your beloved. So we dig into the science of love.
First, we find out about a monogamous rodent that has a special way of forming lifelong bonds with its partner. Next, we discover how to apply maths to your love life, before delving into the technology behind AI chatbots, and find out if a new dating app can help shine a light on the science of compatibility.
Plus, we are joined by Bianca Acevedo, a research scientist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who studies the neuroscience of love. She reveals what’s going on in our brains when we are infatuated with someone and what purpose love serves.
Presenters: Marnie Chesterton, with Tristan Ahtone and Edd Gent Producers: Alice Lipscombe-Southwell, William Hornbrook, Debbie Kilbride, Imaan Moin and Noa Dowling
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | In 2019, we began investigating the disappearance of Dr. Ruzha Ignatva. |
| 0:08.0 | I believe we are a very special network. |
| 0:10.0 | A scammer who stole billions from investors around the world. |
| 0:15.0 | She's on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list. |
| 0:18.0 | And now, we have some unmissable updates. She has money and when you have |
| 0:23.0 | money you have power. Join me, Jamie Bartlett, as the hunt for the missing crypto queen continues. |
| 0:29.5 | Listen first on BBC Sounds. This week, I was in the Belgium city of Antwerp, recording some interviews in a hospital. |
| 0:41.3 | Hospital food is interesting subject matter for the amateur anthropologist. |
| 0:46.0 | Since midway through treatment is never a great time to ask patients to try novel cuisine, |
| 0:51.5 | hospitals tend to supply the slightly retro comfort foods popular for that |
| 0:56.7 | nation. In the UK, that tends to be stodge, jelly and custard and buckets of milky tea. |
| 1:03.9 | But Belgium is different. These people invented the French fry, they didn't get the credit |
| 1:08.9 | for it, Belgium chocolates and waffles, they are also a global hub for beer. |
| 1:14.5 | So maybe I shouldn't have been surprised that in the middle of their hospital |
| 1:18.6 | was a canteen with a full-on bar serving several Belgian beers on tap |
| 1:25.1 | and more types of cake than your average patissary. |
| 1:29.4 | Someone had decided that these were the essentials. |
| 1:33.0 | And I love that. |
| 1:34.6 | I'm Marnie Chesterton from the BBC World Service. |
| 1:37.3 | This is Unexpected Elements. |
| 1:39.2 | Music. And joining me in the studio today for a science-based headline selecting loving, I have an international panel of excellent journalists. |
| 2:01.7 | We have Tristan Artoe in Helsinki, Finland. Hello. |
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