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Conflicted: A History Podcast

The Kinsey Report – Part 3

Conflicted: A History Podcast

Zach Cornwell

Education, History, Society & Culture

4.8610 Ratings

🗓️ 10 March 2024

⏱️ 94 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In January of 1948, Alfred Kinsey releases his first book, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, igniting a firestorm of controversy across the United States. As the Professor scrambles to capitalize on his newfound fame and pen a sequel, his methodology comes under attack from skeptical academics and religious conservatives. Meanwhile, Kinsey’s research team at the Institute of Sex Research embarks on a series of increasingly bizarre – and politically dangerous – sexual adventures.  SOURCES: Allen, Judith A. The Kinsey Institute: The First Seventy Years. 2017. Brenot, Phillipe. The Story of Sex. 2016.  D’Emilio, John. Freedman, Estelle. Intimate Matters: The History of Sexuality in America. 1988. Donna J. Drucker, “‘A Noble Experiment’: The Marriage Course at Indiana University, 1938-1940,” IMH September 2007 https://www.jstor.org/stable/27792817?read-now=1&seq=7#page_scan_tab_contents Gary, Brett. Dirty Works. Obscenity on Trial in America’s First Sexual Revolution. 2021. Hardy, Gathorne. Sex: The Measure of All Things: A Life of Alfred C. Kinsey. 1998. Hegarty, Peter. Gentlemen’s Disagreement. 2013. Jones, James H. Alfred C. Kinsey: A Life. 1997. Wimpee, Rachel. Iacobell, Teresa. “Funding a Sexual Revolution: The Kinsey Reports.” Jan 9 2020. Rockefeller Archive Center. https://resource.rockarch.org/story/funding-a-sexual-revolution-the-kinsey-reports/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello and welcome to Conflicted, the history podcast where we talk about the struggles that shaped us,

0:05.3

the tough questions that they pose, and why we should care about any of it. Conflicting is a member of

0:10.1

the Evergreen Podcast Network. And as always, I'm your host, Zach Cornwell. You are listening to the

0:15.6

third and final episode of a series on the life, work, and cultural impact of Dr. Alfred Kinsey.

0:21.6

Now that we've reached the final leg of our story, I'd like to take a moment and just say,

0:25.6

thank you. I am fully aware that for longtime listeners of the show, this topic is a bit of a

0:30.3

departure from our usual bread and butter. Typically, we're talking about military conflicts,

0:34.9

political struggles, and social upheavals. So a three-part labor of love

0:38.6

on a troubled sexologist from the 1940s is definitely off the beaten path. Or maybe it's the

0:43.5

beaten-off path. Anyway, I know it's unconventional, it's challenging, and it's definitely not

0:48.1

for everyone. So if you're here at the finish line, I appreciate you sticking with me. Hopefully,

0:52.5

you've been able to find some value and insight in this weird little topic. I certainly have. But all that said, the story is not over yet. Far from it, actually. Believe it or not, things are about to get even crazier in Bloomington, Indiana. But before we land this bird, let's take a look back at what we covered last time, so we can dive back in with a fresh understanding of the story threads we've already established. In the Kinsey Report Part 1, we got to know

1:15.5

Alfred Kinsey as a man. In part 2, we got to know him as a scientist. Last episode, we opened with

1:21.5

a discussion of Kinsey's first scientific specialty, the North American Galwasp. This flightless,

1:26.8

terminally boring bug dominated Kinsey's

1:28.9

imagination for the first two decades of his academic career. In many ways, it was his claim to fame.

1:33.8

At the time, he was the world's foremost, and probably only expert on the gall wasp. But Kinsey's

1:38.6

obsessive approach to collecting, categorizing, and characterizing that humble insect would have a

1:43.7

profound influence

1:44.7

on how we studied sexual behavior. By the time Kinsey set his sights on sex, he was determined

1:49.6

to amass more data on it than anyone in the history of the world. Well, after a mercifully short

1:54.3

discussion of the gall wasp, we zipped forward in time to 1938. By that point, Kinsey was teaching

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