Perrin Ireland

speaker

296 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Aug 2026 last heard 3 Aug

Perrin Ireland’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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How to Be a Better Human · Why should you care about animal sex? (w/ Perrin Ireland) · 3 Aug 2026 podcast

Honestly, I handed copy to the College Hill Independent about a new jellyfish study.

And my editor, Rachel Blatt, said, OK, this is OK, but can you draw it?

And I went and made my first science comic.

And I've been translating journal papers by making science comics ever since.

And then got to go do that at NRDC, the Natural Resources Defense Council, for 10 years in conversation with policy advocates and lawyers.

And the mission the entire time has been, I'm comfortable in these spaces asking these people questions.

But just inviting people in to what is happening behind closed doors in these labs, that is life-changing for me.

People respond in a very human way to animal sex and to stories about animal sex, which is their right.

It just happens to be the case that I think then a whole rich conversation can unfold.

So I think people should care about how animals get their rocks off because animals are sexual geniuses.

when we think about how animals have sex, how they reproduce and how they have non-reproductive sex or how they asexually reproduce or any combination of the above, which many animals are partaking of all different versions of that in one lifetime.

We learn so much about life's genius at making more of itself and how good life is at continuing to live, which again, during a six mass extinction is a balmy salve for despair and hopelessness and the way that the powers that be, in my opinion, would like us to disconnect and disinvest from the fates of our more than human kin.

The other thing I would say is that, you know, I think that it's, for me, it's a pleasurable invitation.

Like I'm a child of the 90s, so I only ever grew up

in a conversation about extinction already.

And for me, taking pleasure in learning about animals when there's so much shame and guilt associated with the fates of animals right now is a really important resilience tool.

But the last thing I'll just say is I also think when we learn about the sexual diversity of animals, we learn sexual diversity is a form of biodiversity.

And I think it liberates our minds and maybe allows us to be better partners, not only to biodiversity, but also to the sexual diversity in humans that is so under attack right now.

This book is an argument that it can feel good to learn hard things and

We are allowed to have a good time learning hard things.

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