Dr Matilda Brindle

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21 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Mar 2026 last heard 28 Mar

Dr Matilda Brindle’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Mar 2026 with 1.

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All In The Mind · The psychology of masturbation · 28 Mar 2026 podcast

We are a primate.

We are a large ape, to be specific.

So a lot of the reasons that humans might masturbate are probably rooted in our evolutionary history.

And a really good strategy for these males basically is to keep themselves aroused so that if they do get a chance to mate, then they're able to ejaculate much faster and have a lower chance of getting beaten up and a higher chance of actually finishing with the female.

So lots of animals, for example, lots of species of primate have what's called a multi-male, multi-female mating system, where basically they're all mating with each other in a group.

And so in this instance, if a female is already mating with lots of males, one idea is that masturbation might actually increase arousal

And in females, they can actually use masturbation to basically be choosy about which male they're fertilized by if they're mating with multiple males.

So in humans at least, during the course of arousal, the vaginal pH becomes a lot more neutral.

Normally the vagina is mildly acidic, basically to keep out any nasty pathogens.

But the flip side of this is that if it's keeping out pathogens, then it's probably not great for sperm either.

So this is why when females become aroused, the vagina becomes basically a little bit more hospitable to sperm.

I think it's.

It's an interesting one.

For me, one of the really, really important messages that's come from this research is that masturbation is common across the animal kingdom.

It occurs in both females and males, happens in the wild as well as in captivity.

And I think this is a very strong counter to the argument put forward by some people that masturbation is abnormal or even unnatural.

Clearly, this couldn't be further from the truth.

I imagine some people will put forward the argument that, well, animals do it and we should be above animals and therefore we shouldn't do it.

But frankly, we are an animal.

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