Nature’s Sexual Spectrum Breaks the Binary

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.4 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 20 August 2025

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Biologist Nathan Lents joins Science Quickly to explore the vast sexual diversity found across the animal kingdom. His new book, The Sexual Evolution: How 500 Million Years of Sex, Gender, and Mating Shape Modern Relationships, challenges the binary framework that has long shaped biological research, arguing for a more accurate and inclusive view of sex and gender. From alternative reproductive strategies to overlapping traits, this episode reveals how nature defies neat categories—and why science should, too. Recommended Reading Here’s Why Human Sex Is Not Binary This Backyard Bird Has a Lot to Teach Us about Sex Variability The Sexual Evolution: How 500 Million Years of Sex, Gender, and Mating Shape Modern Relationships, by Nathan Lents. Mariner Books, 2025 Join the #SciAmInTheWild photography challenge for a chance to win a one-year Unlimited subscription to Scientific American—plus an exclusive bundle of gadgets and gear to level up your next adventure. See the rules for entry here. E-mail us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new everyday: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for Today in Science, our daily newsletter. Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was edited by Alex Sugiura. Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck fact-check this show. The theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:00.0	Here's the truth about AI.
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0:27.8	slash UK slash AI for people. For Scientific American Science Quickly, I'm Rachel Feldman.
0:52.7	The natural world is full of sexual diversity, traits that challenge binary definitions of male and female.
0:59.7	But traditional biology has often overlooked it.
1:03.2	Researchers tend to focus on typical specimens while relegating variations to footnotes or dismissing them entirely.
1:10.5	This approach has led scientists to miss fascinating examples of alternative reproductive
1:14.8	strategies and complex social behaviors across the animal kingdom.
1:19.4	What we've often labeled as anomalies might actually represent successful evolutionary adaptations
1:24.8	that deserve serious study.
1:27.4	And these creatures could help us understand how our own species breaks the binary, too.
1:32.6	Today we're joined by Nathan Lentz, a professor of biology at John Jay College of Criminal
1:37.2	Justice.
1:38.2	His new book is called The Sexual Evolution, How 500 Million Years of Sex, gender, and mating shape modern relationships.
1:46.7	Thanks so much for coming on to chat with us today.
1:48.4	Thanks for having me.
	...

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