Episode 3 Desire | The Feelings Lab

In this week’s episode of The Feelings Lab, we discuss the emotion of desire. Join our returning hosts Dr. Alan Cowen, Danielle Krettek-Cobb, Dr. Dacher Keltner and Matt Forte with special guest Monét XChange, the entertainment spitfire and first double crown winner from “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” having earned the title Miss Congeniality on Season 10 and become the first queen of color inducted into the Hall of Fame after winning All-Stars 4.

From Georgia O’Keeffe’s sensual flower paintings, to Apple’s iMac “yum” ads and the infamous Carl’s Jr. Paris Hilton burger campaign, we discuss the vast spectrum of desire, the inherent politics and mysticism embedded in the emotion, its evolution, and its impact on culture.

Begin by hearing Dr. Alan Cowen and Dr. Dacher Keltner explain the physiology of desire and addiction and how our brains behave in a cycle of reward and response.

Performance is often about expressing desire, but not all desire is sexual. A little later in the episode, hear our guest Monét X Change speak about challenging her own performances to evoke a desire borne out of mysticism and magic.

The desire for food and sex is found throughout the animal kingdom—from fruit flies to capuchin monkeys—with parallels in physiology and behavior. Hear Dr. Alan Cowen share some hilariously odd scientific experiments that illustrate these findings.

All this and more can be found in our full episode, available on Apple and Spotify

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