Sex and Death
The Reith Lectures
BBC
4.2 • 770 Ratings
🗓️ 18 April 2001
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Tom Kirkwood, Professor of Medicine and head of the Department of Gerontology at the University of Newcastle presents the third of five Reith Lectures investigating new insights from the frontiers of science and the choices and decisions we face in the uncharted territories of a greying world.
In this lecture Professor Kirkwood tackles the subject of sex. Does sex shorten our lives? Can it be, as some have suggested, that ageing and death are the price we pay for sex? Does it make sense to think in terms of a 'reproductive duty' to the species, leaving us surplus to requirement when duty is done? And what, if these worrying notions are true, are we to make of the post-menopausal woman? These are the questions he examines; revealing that the answers are not only reassuring, (on the whole), but also, that they tell us a great deal about the biological background to our revolution in longevity.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is a podcast from the archives of the BBC Reith Lectures. |
| 0:04.4 | This lecture in the series The End of Age, given by Tom Kirkwood, was originally broadcast in 2001. |
| 0:13.9 | Good evening. The theme of this year's Reith Lectures is Age, how we're programmed to survive, not to die. |
| 0:22.9 | We began in London with our first lecture looking at the effects of increased longevity on society. Then we traveled to New York, |
| 0:28.4 | where we learned about the role which DNA, the thread of life, plays in determining whether |
| 0:33.0 | and how we grow old. Now we've come to Edinburgh, and you'd be an unusual human being if you didn't |
| 0:39.3 | have a great interest in the two topics of our lecture here tonight. They are sex and death. |
| 0:45.7 | Why do women live longer than men and why in the whole history of evolution are we the female |
| 0:51.3 | of the human species allowed to live on long after our ability to reproduce, |
| 0:56.7 | fundamental and fascinating issues? |
| 0:59.2 | We're at the Royal Museum as part of the Edinburgh International Science Festival, |
| 1:03.6 | and our audience contains both distinguished academics and members of the public. |
| 1:08.3 | We look forward to taking questions and comments from both groups later on. |
| 1:12.3 | But first, may I ask you to welcome the Professor of Medicine |
| 1:15.0 | and Head of Gerontology at Newcastle University, |
| 1:18.1 | this year's Reith Lecturer, Tom Kirkwood. |
| 1:45.8 | Thank you. Good evening. The greatest physical asset of any of us, even those as well-endowed in other respects as Dolly Parton or Arnold Schwarzenegger, is the soft grey hemisphere that sits between our ears. |
| 1:51.2 | The human brain is a masterpiece of evolution, but it does complicate our lives, |
| 1:58.3 | and nowhere is this more apparent than when we struggle with the big questions of sex and death. |
| 2:03.6 | It could be said that the troubles started with Aristotle, who believed that each sex act had a direct life-shortening effect. We see many centuries later this troubling |
| 2:11.3 | idea surfacing in the work of the metaphysical poets. It would be hard to find gloomier expression |
| 2:17.0 | than John Dunn's mournful musing. |
... |
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