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Science Quickly

The evolutionary riddle of the kiss

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.41.4K Ratings

🗓️ 13 February 2026

⏱️ 14 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

With Valentine’s Day around the corner, kissing may be on your mind. But why do we kiss? In this episode of Science Quickly, evolutionary biologist Matilda Brindle joins host Kendra Pierre-Louis to uncover the evolutionary roots of kissing. We trace kissing back 21.5 million years and learn how it’s common among primates and what that tells us about how kissing may have evolved among humans. Plus, we also unpack recent findings that hint that humans and Neandertals may have once locked lips. Recommended Reading: Kissing May Have Evolved 21.5 Million Years Ago E-mail us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new every day: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for our daily newsletter. Science Quickly is produced by Kendra Pierre-Louis, Fonda Mwangi, Sushmita Pathak and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was edited by Alex Sugiura, with fact-checking by Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:45.4

For scientists, For Scientific American Science Quickly, I'm Kendra Pira Lewis, in for Rachel Belmont.

0:55.8

There's something about a good kiss that can stick with you, that can give you butterflies even decades later.

0:57.8

For the past few weeks, we've been asking listeners to share stories with us about their

1:01.1

most memorable kiss.

1:02.9

And the minute you asked about the most memorable kiss, I went back to 1980 when I was

1:09.0

17 years old.

1:10.3

That's Carrie from New Orleans.

1:11.6

And I went on a couple dates with my brother's friend who at the time was a ticket scalper, which was, ooh, taboo back then.

1:18.6

And he was my brother's friend, which was like a double taboo.

1:21.6

So I think there might have been a little bad point influence involved, but honestly it was just a very sweet well-timed kiss i mean it wasn't too

1:32.7

soft it wasn't too mushy it wasn't too hard it wasn't too without getting graphic moist it was just right

1:41.8

the right amount of time the right amount of time, the right amount of tongue, sorry. And that was a long time ago.

1:49.3

So it's been in my little brain cells for a little while. And I like to think about it every once in a while.

...

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