X & Y | Radiolab Presents: Gonads Episode 3

In the third episode of our miniseries that plunges into the mysterious world of human reproduction, science pushes back against the century-old notion that X equals girl and Y equals boy, and wonders: are we who we think we are?
A lot of us understand biological sex with a pretty fateful underpinning: if you’re born with XX chromosomes, you’re female; if you’re born with XY chromosomes, you’re male. But it turns out, our relationship to the opposite sex is more complicated than we think.
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Radiolab Presents: Gonads is a multi-episode journey deep into the parts of us that let us make more of us. Senior Correspondant Molly Webster explores the primordial roots of our drive to reproduce, introduces a revolutionary fertility procedure that sounds like science fiction, reveals a profound secret about gender that lives inside all of us, and calls on writers, educators, musicians, artists and comedians to debate how we’re supposed to talk to kids about sex.
This episode was reported by Molly Webster and produced by Matt Kielty. Scoring, original composition and mixing by Matt Kielty and Alex Overington. Additional production by Rachael Cusick and editing by Pat Walters. The “Ballad of Daniel Webster” and “Gonads” was written, performed and produced by Majel Connery and Alex Overington.
Special thanks to Erica Todd, Andrew Sinclair, Robin Lovell-Badge and Sarah S. Richardson. Plus, a big thank you to the musicians who gave us permission to use their work in this episode - composer Erik Friedlander, for "Frail as a Breeze, Part II," and musician Sam Prekop, whose work "A Geometric," from his album The Republic, is out on Thrill Jockey.
Radiolab is supported in part by Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation initiative dedicated to engaging everyone with the process of science. And the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, enhancing public understanding of science and technology in the modern world.
Illustration by Jasu Hu [www.jasuhuart.com]
Video by Michael Snyder, Kim Nowacki and Andrea Latimer.