Midnight Sex Talk this week was a feast of information. A big thank you to clinical geneticist Dr Adam Shaw for explaining so much so clearly.

We started off by talking about The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan (1978), which I think, for a lot of people, was a seminal early introduction to incest; in literature and elsewhere. I well remember the smells from that book, and the giggles at school.

You’ll here the word consanguinity a lot. A consanguineous marriage is between any blood-related people, but not necessarily closely; it’s more accepted in some cultures than others. It improves the odds of genetic diseases in children, and the more closely related you are, the worse it gets. The basic medical conclusion is, if you’re going to have an incestuous affair, for god’s sake don’t have children.

The flipside of Genetic Sexual Attraction is called the Westermarck effect. Have a look at the studies of kibbutz children and Chinese arranged marriages, where tiny girls were sent off to the future boy-husband’s family for pre-marital conditioning. The studies tell us that familiarity breeds contempt, and after growing up together as children, most people would rather go and live in a poorly-heated shed at the South Pole than get it together as man and wife.

We also played a clip from Chinatown. If you haven’t seen it, go and get it now.

Click here to download the show!

Originally aired June 19th 2005.

“We had a packed Midnight Sex Talk on Sunday, so packed that I didn’t get a chance to go off on one about some of my past experiences. Probably just as well, really. ‘Ollie’ talked us through life of a bisexual man, and Marc from Bicon told us about this year’s bisexual shindig in Worcester, 25-29th August. Any excuse for a party – it’s not all about activism. Mind you, as we know, anyone who doesn’t have a strict gay-or-straight identity gets their share of attitude, from both sides. We all need a safe space now and again.

Emily Dubberley, very busy author of the recently published Brief Encounters – The Women’s Guide To Casual Sex, gave us the lowdown on bi-curiosity.

No show about bisexuality could avoid mentioning David Bowie, and the alleged caught-in-bed-with-Mick-Jagger story, despite the fact that his public declaration in the early seventies can be seen as a bit of a publicity stunt. Whatever whatever, he inspired a lot of people. As did Tom Robinson, who had the balls to sing about being gay long before anyone else did, and then had the even bigger balls to change direction and take the flak for it.”

And Dr Who now has a bisexual character, inter-galactic time-traveller Captain Jack Harkness. In a way, how could a time-traveller be anything other than bi? See also: Virginia Woolf’s Orlando. SpongeBob Squarepants put in an appearance, as did Top Cat.

Click here to download the show (28Mb)