The Power of Love
Curious Cases
BBC
4.8 • 4.1K Ratings
🗓️ 7 February 2020
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Two questions about love and heartbreak in this episode for our Valentine's special edition.
Jessica Glasco, aged 29, wrote in to ask about the power of love and how it affects our brain.
Hannah tracks down Dr Helen Fisher, who conducted some of the first MRI studies on love by putting besotted couples into the brain scanner.
Adam talks to broadcaster Claudia Hammond, author of Emotional Rollercoaster, to find out how psychologists have grappled with the messy business of love. And we hear why a small furry vole was thought to hold the answer to the mystery of monogamy.
Our second question concerns the pain of heartbreak - why does our heart ache? Can emotional hurt cause physical pain? On call is our very own agony aunt, Irene Tracey, Prof of Pain Research.
Presenters: Hannah Fry, Adam Rutherford Producer: Michelle Martin
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2020.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:04.6 | MUSIC |
| 0:10.6 | I'm Dr Adam Rutherford. |
| 0:12.3 | And I'm Dr Hannah Fry. |
| 0:13.6 | And you are going to send us your everyday mysteries. |
| 0:16.5 | And we are going to investigate them. |
| 0:18.4 | Using the power of... |
| 0:19.8 | Science! |
| 0:20.5 | Science! |
| 0:21.3 | Science! |
| 0:22.2 | I like it. |
| 0:23.2 | MUSIC |
| 0:26.0 | Oh, hello! |
| 0:28.6 | It's another episode of Curious Cases. |
| 0:30.6 | Welcome, welcome, welcome. |
| 0:32.2 | MUSIC |
| 0:33.1 | You looked a bit surprised then. |
| 0:34.6 | MUSIC |
| 0:35.4 | As if we hadn't been sitting in the studio for the last hour of rehearsing this. |
| 0:38.6 | MUSIC |
| 0:39.1 | Actually, we're sitting chatting about different films that we've been seeing with our families. |
| 0:43.0 | And we almost got tolled off it away. |
... |
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