Let's talk about sex - John Bohannon and Black Label Movement
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0:46 - 0:49Let's talk about the facts of life.
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0:49 - 0:52You remember that conversation you had when you were a kid
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0:52 - 0:53about sex
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0:53 - 0:55or drugs
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0:55 - 0:58with your parents or some trusted adult?
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0:58 - 1:00Probably not
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1:00 - 1:01because it's a myth.
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1:01 - 1:03You don't talk to kids about that stuff.
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1:03 - 1:05It's just so embarrassing.
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1:09 - 1:11And, hey, maybe that's OK.
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1:11 - 1:13We've been outsourcing the facts of life for decades.
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1:13 - 1:15We spend billions of dollars on it.
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1:15 - 1:18So, why talk to kids when you can just turn on the TV?
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1:18 - 1:22I learned about drugs from an egg and a frying pan:
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1:22 - 1:24"This is drugs,
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1:24 - 1:25and this is your brain on drugs.
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1:25 - 1:26Pssssssss.
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1:26 - 1:28Any questions?"
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1:28 - 1:30Yeah, actually, I did.
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1:30 - 1:32But it's not about questions.
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1:37 - 1:38It's about data.
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1:39 - 1:41In the 1980's when I was growing up,
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1:41 - 1:43those data were terrifying parents:
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1:43 - 1:471% of high school seniors had try heroin,
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1:47 - 1:4812% hallucinogens,
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1:48 - 1:4912% tranquilizers,
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1:49 - 1:5117% cocaine,
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1:51 - 1:5326% stimulants,
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1:53 - 1:56and over 50% of us had tried marijuana.
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1:56 - 1:58It was an epidemic!
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1:58 - 1:59At least, that's what they told us.
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1:59 - 2:03And marijuana was the gateway drug, leading to all the harder stuff.
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2:03 - 2:07Of course, 92% of us were drinking alcohol,
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2:07 - 2:10and that was killing more of us than all drugs combined.
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2:10 - 2:13But, nevermind, it's legal.
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2:13 - 2:15So we declared war on drugs!
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2:15 - 2:17Nancy Reagan was our general.
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2:17 - 2:21All drugs will kill you, so just say, "No!"
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2:21 - 2:22Just say, "No!" to pot.
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2:22 - 2:24Just say, "No!" to cocaine.
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2:24 - 2:27Just say, "No!" to everything.
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2:28 - 2:29So simple!
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2:29 - 2:31If you want to save kids,
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2:31 - 2:33you have to scare the hell out of them!
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2:33 - 2:36And we spent ridiculous amounts of money doing that.
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2:36 - 2:40Soon that war on drugs spread to become a war on sex.
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2:40 - 2:44We were pushing abstinence on kids to fight AIDS.
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2:44 - 2:47And when all the data finally came home,
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2:47 - 2:48guess what:
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2:49 - 2:51completely ineffective.
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2:51 - 2:56We love big solutions to big problems, don't we?
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2:56 - 2:58What if the facts of life don't work that way?
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2:59 - 3:04What if the experience of having that conversation can't be mass-produced?
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3:04 - 3:06What if it can't be scaled up?
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3:07 - 3:09Well, that would be very frustrating for everyone in this industry, wouldn't it?
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3:09 - 3:12And, many of them are really trying to help.
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3:12 - 3:13Who, then?
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3:13 - 3:15Us.
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3:15 - 3:17We have to talk to kids.
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3:17 - 3:19Openly and honestly.
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3:19 - 3:21But are we ready to be honest?
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3:22 - 3:23I don't think so.
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3:24 - 3:26We mythologize childhood.
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3:28 - 3:30Mine was in Stone Mountain, Georgia,
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3:30 - 3:34a completely typical 1980's American suburb.
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3:34 - 3:38For the parents, a wholesome paradise of bridge parties and tennis games.
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3:38 - 3:43For us kids, we were all working on a secret research project,
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3:43 - 3:46and our laboratory was in the woods after school,
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3:46 - 3:48under the covers during sleep-overs,
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3:48 - 3:50really, any opportunity we could take
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3:50 - 3:53to peel off our clothes and investigate.
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3:53 - 3:55What were these things,
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3:55 - 3:55bodies?
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3:55 - 3:57What do they do?
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3:57 - 3:58We had to figure them out
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3:58 - 4:00and that's childhood.
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4:00 - 4:02It's not just fun and games,
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4:02 - 4:05it's actually a Manhattan project of nakedness.
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4:05 - 4:08And then you walk into your first class in middle school,
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4:08 - 4:10and the bomb goes off.
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4:11 - 4:12You are not just a body any more.
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4:15 - 4:17Oh no, now you are grotesque.
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4:18 - 4:21That's when the suffering really starts.
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4:22 - 4:24So, yeah, talk to kids.
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4:24 - 4:27But if you are not honest about your own experiences first,
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4:27 - 4:30everything you say smells like bullshit.
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4:31 - 4:34Don't worry, you can practice
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4:35 - 4:37and you should start by talking to the one kid you definitely know:
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4:37 - 4:39you.
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4:40 - 4:42What kind of kid were you?
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4:42 - 4:44What troubled you?
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4:45 - 4:48For me, it was age 13.
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4:48 - 4:50That was the worst year.
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4:50 - 4:53I was obsessively curious about sex
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4:53 - 4:56and also deeply ashamed by it.
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4:56 - 4:59It wasn't my only problem, of course, not by a long shot,
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4:59 - 5:02but it was the beginning of a downward spiral.
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5:02 - 5:04And my bad luck was to hit bottom
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5:04 - 5:08while watching "The Wall" by Pink Floyd,
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5:08 - 5:11which is a bad idea for a miserable 13-year old high on weed.
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5:11 - 5:14So, that night, for whatever reason,
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5:14 - 5:18it seemed like good idea to shave off my eyebrows,
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5:18 - 5:22and then try to kill myself by swallowing all the pills in the bathroom,
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5:22 - 5:25which was not at all fatal,
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5:25 - 5:27but everyone noticed the eyebrows.
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5:27 - 5:30And that made middle school extra fun.
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5:30 - 5:33So, what was your low point?
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5:33 - 5:37And if you could build a time machine to travel back and talk to that kid,
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5:37 - 5:39what would you say to yourself?
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5:39 - 5:41For me, it was easy.
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5:41 - 5:43All I really needed was someone to reassure me
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5:43 - 5:46that somehow I was a normal part of the universe.
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5:46 - 5:49But I didn't feel like I could talk to anyone.
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5:49 - 5:52And yet weirdly, I fully expected a time traveler
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5:52 - 5:53to materialize at any time
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5:53 - 5:55because I was a geek.
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5:55 - 5:57I didn't know if it would be my unborn son
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5:57 - 5:59or a T-101 cyborg.
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6:00 - 6:02But either one would be awesome!
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6:18 - 6:23Hey, it's me, yourself from the future, in the year 2012.
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6:23 - 6:27I have crucial information for you, but not about the future, about the past,
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6:27 - 6:30a billion years in the past, when this planet was covered with nothing but cells
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6:30 - 6:32and all they did was fight, eat, and divide;
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6:32 - 6:34fight, eat, and divide.
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6:34 - 6:36Except for one.
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6:37 - 6:39And that's your ancestor.
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6:39 - 6:41This cell enslaved other ones,
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6:41 - 6:44but master and slave became one.
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6:44 - 6:46And then those cells invented sex,
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6:46 - 6:48and then they invented the first bodies
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6:48 - 6:50with each cell doing a different job,
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6:50 - 6:50some smelling,
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6:50 - 6:52some moving,
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6:52 - 6:54some eating.
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6:54 - 6:58And the job of sex went to a special cell called the gamete.
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6:59 - 7:02And those bodies became giant.
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7:08 - 7:11The distance to the next body was vast so they had to swim.
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7:11 - 7:15Most would be lost and die so they were mass-produced.
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7:15 - 7:19Soon the oceans were a non-stop riot of sex and death
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7:19 - 7:24until 500 million years ago, when the first beast crawled onto land.
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7:33 - 7:35Land is hard
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7:35 - 7:38because bodies are heavy.
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7:38 - 7:40And the sun kills gametes.
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7:40 - 7:41To keep them safe,
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7:47 - 7:49so deep inside of a body,
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7:49 - 7:51the mother builds a tiny ocean.
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7:54 - 7:58Outside are events of unimaginable violence.
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7:58 - 8:00Whole new forms of life are being created
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8:00 - 8:02only to be wiped away.
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8:02 - 8:06Millions of years are flashing by.
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8:06 - 8:09But in here, it's always the same.
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8:11 - 8:12Peace.
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8:14 - 8:15Just peace.
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8:18 - 8:21Maybe we will never know why,
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8:21 - 8:25but of all the possible bodies that have appeared on this planet,
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8:25 - 8:26it was this one,
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8:26 - 8:28bilaterally symmetric,
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8:28 - 8:30warm-blooded,
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8:30 - 8:31bigger than a mouse,
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8:31 - 8:33smaller than a horse,
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8:33 - 8:352 legs, 10 toes,
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8:35 - 8:37no tail,
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8:37 - 8:39big brain,
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8:39 - 8:40language,
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8:40 - 8:42technology,
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8:42 - 8:43and civilization
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8:43 - 8:46rising and falling for thousands of years.
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8:49 - 8:52And here you are,
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8:52 - 8:53a 13-year old human
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8:53 - 8:56perplexed and embarrassed about sex.
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8:56 - 8:59That's what I came here to tell you:
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8:59 - 9:04we don't know why sex evolved nor why it persists.
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9:04 - 9:07Why don't we just clone ourselves like all life did a billion years ago?
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9:07 - 9:08It's so much more efficient.
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9:08 - 9:12We would all have babies, no mates.
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9:12 - 9:17It could be that children who are genetically different from each other are protected from disease.
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9:17 - 9:21And that is still our best guess.
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9:21 - 9:25So be comforted to know that even in the distant future,
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9:25 - 9:27in the year 2012,
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9:27 - 9:30we still don't know what sex is for.
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9:30 - 9:32It is perplexing.
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9:33 - 9:35You shouldn't be embarrassed by it.
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9:36 - 9:39Sex is a beautiful puzzle.
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9:41 - 9:43And without it, you simply would not be here.
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10:03 - 10:05By the way,
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10:05 - 10:08be nice to your little sister.
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10:08 - 10:12She's your best friend. You'll see.
- Title:
- Let's talk about sex - John Bohannon and Black Label Movement
- Description:
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View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/let-s-talk-about-sex-john-bohannon-and-black-label-movement
What would you tell your younger self about sex if you could? (Starting with the big question: Why does it exist in the first place?) Mixing talk and dance, John Bohannon and Black Label Movement explore why sex exists -- and implore adults to talk honestly to the kids in their lives about the confusion and joy of human sexuality.
Talk by John, dance by Black Label Movement, and music by Jelloslave.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TED-Ed
- Duration:
- 10:43
Jenny Zurawell edited English subtitles for Let's talk about sex - John Bohannon and Black Label Movement | ||
Bedirhan Cinar approved English subtitles for Let's talk about sex - John Bohannon and Black Label Movement | ||
Bedirhan Cinar accepted English subtitles for Let's talk about sex - John Bohannon and Black Label Movement | ||
Bedirhan Cinar edited English subtitles for Let's talk about sex - John Bohannon and Black Label Movement | ||
Andrea McDonough edited English subtitles for Let's talk about sex - John Bohannon and Black Label Movement | ||
Andrea McDonough edited English subtitles for Let's talk about sex - John Bohannon and Black Label Movement | ||
Andrea McDonough added a translation |