Jesse Bering is a research psychologist and Director of the Centre for Science Communication at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. An award-winning science writer specializing in human behaviour, his first book, The Belief Instinct (2011), was included on the American Library Association’s Top 25 Books of the Year. This was followed by a collection of his previously published essays, Why Is the Penis Shaped Like That? (2012), and Perv (2013), a taboo-breaking work that received widespread critical acclaim and was named as a New York Times Editor’s Choice. His most recent book, Suicidal, will be released in late 2018 (published in the UK as A Very Human Ending). All of his books have been translated into many different languages.

In this episode Jesse and I discuss. 1) How Jesse got into studying sexuality ; 2) The psychology of the acquisition of sexual orientations including sexual preferences and 3) The moral considerations of sexual orientations.


Show notes
Laws, D. R., & Marshall, W. L. (1991). Masturbatory reconditioning with sexual deviates: An evaluative review. Advances in Behaviour Research and Therapy, 13(1), 13–25. https://doi.org/10.1016/0146-6402(91)90012-Y

Host: Junior Okoroafor, Twitter: @JuniorOkoroafor, Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/junior-okoroafor-4b8069193/
Art Work: Charlotte Mason
Podcast Editor: Victoria Okoroafor