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Kayt Sukel

Author of Dirty Minds: How Our Brains Influence Love, Sex, and Relationships

Kayt is a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA), the Author's Guild and the National Association of Science Writers (NASW). She has recently returned to the United States after living abroad for six years and has just published her first book, DIRTY MINDS:  HOW OUR BRAINS INFLUENCE LOVE, SEX AND RELATIONSHIPS, an exploration of the neurobiology of love (Free Press, 2012).  

Kayt Sukel's writing credits include personal essays in the Washington Post, American Baby, the Bark, USAToday, Literary Mama and the Christian Science Monitor as well as articles on a variety of subjects for the Atlantic Monthly, Parenting, Cerebrum, BrainWork and American Baby magazines. She blogs regularly about traveling on the Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Award winning travel blog, Travel Savvy Mom; and science, love and life at the Houston Chronicle's Hearts and Minds blog.

You can often find her oversharing on Twitter as @kaytsukel.

 


Susannah Cahalan was just another ambitious New York kind of girl–a fast-rising cub reporter at the New York Post and fabulous gal about town–when something surprising happened.  She lost her […]
As I travel around and talk about the neuroscience of orgasm, there is one question I am consistently asked–usually by a particularly curious and outgoing person of the male persuasion:  […]
Have you ever sliced up a human brain? I’ll be honest:  I’ve only done it once.  I don’t remember much about it–it was a long time ago.  But I recall […]
Earlier this week, the Nobel Prize for Medicine was awarded to John B. Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka for their pioneering work in cell reprogramming. The decision was not without controversy. […]
A few weeks ago, I received a few emails and Tweets asking my opinion of Satoshi Kanazawa, an evolutionary psychologist and intelligence researcher from the London School of Economics, joining […]
When my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, I started to worry.  The diagnosis itself was scary enough.  But I must admit, I was also not looking forward to dealing […]
Thanks to the hilarious and provocative Rob Reiner film,When Harry Met Sally, there is one debate that still gets even the most reticent people taking a stand.  And, that, of […]
Several years ago, a SUNY Albany study linked unprotected sex with elevated mood in college-aged women.  The researchers surveyed nearly 300 female students about both their sexual practices and their […]
For centuries, great thinkers from philosopher John Locke to scientist Stephen Pinker have debated whether or not humans are born with innate traits like morality and empathy.  Some go with […]
I’ve been thinking a lot this week about assumptions.  Especially when it comes to trying to study bold, complicated and human constructs like love, empathy and creativity in the brain. […]
One of the most common questions I’m asked when I give lectures is how the brain differentiates love and lust.  It’s an interesting question — and as most of us […]
In the past year, there have been a few studies that suggest that volunteer work is as healthy for the aging body and brain as exercise and the right diet.  […]
Forgive me, but this is not a post about neuroscience. Rather, this is a post about conservation and loss.  Today, the Charles Darwin Research Station in the Galapagos Islands confirmed […]
Millions of people log on to Lumosity daily to flex their brain muscles–and hopefully improve memory, attention and general cognitive performance in the process.  But this brain training site has […]
Nearly two decades ago, I walked into my first Abnormal Psychology class.  Given the course title, I thought I had a pretty good handle on what the subject matter would […]
I interviewed Paul Zak, founding Director of the Center for Neuroeconomics Studies at Claremont Graduate University, for the first time two years ago.  We met for a coffee at Neuroscience […]
I’m so surprised that so many people are convinced that monogamy—heterosexual, human monogamy, in particular—is some type of biological default.
Katie Hinde is the Director of the Comparative Lactation Laboratory at Harvard University. Her research examines mother’s milk and how it contributes to infant development in humans and primates–including behavior, cognition and the brain.  Here, she discusses the effects of breast milk on behavior, what she thinks human mothers should know and the recent (and controversial) Time magazine breastfeeding cover. 
Blunt head trauma and traumatic brain injuries are well-known artifacts of war. The Brain Trauma Foundation reports that between 10-20% of Iraq veterans (approximately 150,000-300,000 individuals) suffer from some level […]
Is what I experience when I feel love qualitatively different from what a man experiences? Or what a lesbian may experience? If I consider Semir Zeki’s hypothesis that literature and art across the ages show a common substrate for love in the mind, I might suggest that descriptions of sex by male and female authors and artists are sometimes different.