Latest / Stuff You Should Know / Would A Love Drug Be Ethical?
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey,
- 0:11Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's Chuck
- 0:13Speaker 1: and Jerry's here too, and this is stuff you should know.
- 0:18Speaker 1: I got no little MOONI joke for this to start.
- 0:21Speaker 2: Right, let's dive into love drugs.
- 0:23Speaker 1: Okay, well, Chuck, would you ever take a love drug
- 0:27Speaker 1: if they were available? No?
- 0:32Speaker 3: But based on the couple of people that were sort
- 0:36Speaker 3: of highlighting on who have been researching this kind of thing,
- 0:39Speaker 3: it's definitely something I think has more merit than when
- 0:43Speaker 3: you just think about quote unquote love drug.
- 0:47Speaker 1: Yeah, I saw. I think it was a new scientist,
- 0:49Speaker 1: even some very legitimate science magazine source was saying like,
- 0:54Speaker 1: these things are going to be around in ten years.
- 0:57Speaker 1: So there's a group of philosophers, especially an ethicist named
- 1:02Speaker 1: Julian Savilesque from oh I think he's from Oxford, and
- 1:08Speaker 1: then another guy named Brian Erp who I also believe
- 1:11Speaker 1: is from Oxford. They have kind of been hitting this
- 1:14Speaker 1: hard and actually came out with the book called Love Drugs,
- 1:16Speaker 1: colon the Chemical Future of Relationships. I think in Europe
- 1:22Speaker 1: it's called Love is the Drug, which is a roxy
- 1:25Speaker 1: music reference. If I'm not mistaken, and they're at the
- 1:28Speaker 1: center of this whole talk. But one of the cool
- 1:30Speaker 1: things about when a philosopher puts a book out there's
- 1:33Speaker 1: other philosophers that critique it and interesting like alternative thoughts
- 1:39Speaker 1: and explanations and stuff like that. And this is no
- 1:42Speaker 1: different from anything else. But what Sevillesque and Erp are
- 1:47Speaker 1: basically saying is these things are coming and here's how
- 1:51Speaker 1: they could work, and here's what to look out for
- 1:54Speaker 1: and how they can help. And that's essentially the basis
- 1:56Speaker 1: of this episode.
- 1:58Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure, this comes with some caveats at the beginning,
- 2:02Speaker 3: chiefly because they use the word love drug, and that's
- 2:05Speaker 3: a that's a term that means a lot of things
- 2:08Speaker 3: to everybody that you might ask across different cultures, even
- 2:13Speaker 3: within the same culture Situationally, love can mean something different
- 2:18Speaker 3: to to to anybody. So the first thing to kind
- 2:23Speaker 3: of know is that there's not anyone out there saying like, hey,
- 2:26Speaker 3: love is just a phenomenon. That's because of the chemicals
- 2:30Speaker 3: in your brain. Like I think even the most hard
- 2:33Speaker 3: hearted philosopher will say, or chemists will say, like, yeah,
- 2:38Speaker 3: there are chemicals that work in the brain that that
- 2:41Speaker 3: you know, release all kinds of hormones and things that
- 2:43Speaker 3: make us feel certain ways, and it factors in, but
- 2:46Speaker 3: like there's also this indefinable thing that will never be
- 2:51Speaker 3: able to like understand and control through a medication.
- 2:54Speaker 1: Yeah, I think what they're what they're getting at. Then,
- 2:57Speaker 1: from that point on, so they're saying, yes, we agreed,
- 3:00Speaker 1: love is not just biochemical, but there are a lot
- 3:04Speaker 1: of biochemicals involved in the feeling of love, and whatever
- 3:08Speaker 1: love is, it's associated with these chemicals. So if we
- 3:11Speaker 1: can manipulate these chemicals, perhaps we can jack the feelings
- 3:15Speaker 1: of love up or create love, or strengthen love. That's
- 3:20Speaker 1: kind of like the position they're coming from. And so
- 3:23Speaker 1: from that point on, just accepting that love has some
- 3:26Speaker 1: sort of biochemical basis to it or signature to it.
- 3:30Speaker 1: They then moved on to the work of an anthropologist
- 3:32Speaker 1: named Helen Fisher, who had dedicated essentially her career to
- 3:38Speaker 1: love basically, and she divided love into essentially three parts.
- 3:43Speaker 1: And this sounds really familiar to me. There's no way
- 3:46Speaker 1: we haven't talked about this before, have we did? It
- 3:48Speaker 1: seem familiar to you.
- 3:51Speaker 3: Just feeling that way about you and Jerry and my
- 3:54Speaker 3: wife and my daughter.
- 3:55Speaker 1: Okay, well let's get to it. Lust. Oh well, never mind,
- 3:59Speaker 1: clearly you felt about me and Jerry. Romantic attraction sometimes
- 4:04Speaker 1: and then attachment, I think is the one you're talking about.
- 4:07Speaker 3: For sure, those are the three stages. A lot of
- 4:10Speaker 3: people will say that those occur in that order. Fisher
- 4:15Speaker 3: is like, no, it can occur in really any order
- 4:18Speaker 3: and then fall back out of order and back into order, which,
- 4:22Speaker 3: you know, I kind of agree with that notion, but
- 4:26Speaker 3: she does say that, you know, these are the things
- 4:29Speaker 3: that package together as what we would look around the
- 4:33Speaker 3: world at and agree on as romantic love, like a
- 4:36Speaker 3: long term love relationship.
- 4:38Speaker 1: Yeah, and when you look around the world, it's expressed
- 4:41Speaker 1: in different ways, sometimes very privately, sometimes there's PDA, like
- 4:45Speaker 1: it's just different culturally. But if you strip all that
- 4:48Speaker 1: stuff away, you're going to find those three stages essentially,
- 4:52Speaker 1: or those three parts of that package. Not everybody agrees
- 4:55Speaker 1: with that. A psychologist named Lisa Diamond from the UNI
- 5:00Speaker 1: University of Utah, which by the way, if you're ever
- 5:02Speaker 1: bored and you want to learn about epigenetics, go to
- 5:05Speaker 1: the University of Utah site. I think I've mentioned this before.
- 5:08Speaker 1: They have a world class, user friendly epigenetics website. It's amazing.
- 5:14Speaker 1: But anyway, Lisa Diamond believes in more of a split
- 5:18Speaker 1: attraction model, and she says sex and romantic attraction they
- 5:23Speaker 1: are independent biologically, they're functionally independent. They don't depend on
- 5:27Speaker 1: one another, and therefore Helen Fisher's wrong about this whole
- 5:30Speaker 1: thing being a single package.
- 5:32Speaker 3: Yeah, and she's got some points, and she can point
- 5:35Speaker 3: to some studies that seem to back this up. One
- 5:38Speaker 3: of which that she cites on the RAG is that
- 5:41Speaker 3: sixty one percent of women and thirty five percent of
- 5:44Speaker 3: men have reported that they've experienced infatuation without a need
- 5:48Speaker 3: for sex. So that certainly makes sense. But if you
- 5:54Speaker 3: look at sex and romance and love in the way
- 5:58Speaker 3: that the culture of a lot of the world looks
- 6:01Speaker 3: at it, at least that three part chemical formula from
- 6:05Speaker 3: Fisher carries a lot of common sense weight, I think.
- 6:09Speaker 3: And we're going to look at some of these chemicals now,
- 6:13Speaker 3: including at first testosterone and estrogen, of course, which drive
- 6:17Speaker 3: the libido.
- 6:19Speaker 2: That's sort of the first bucket.
- 6:20Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the last part right right. The next one, Chuck,
- 6:24Speaker 1: would be the attraction part, or the romantic attraction and
- 6:28Speaker 1: that that's associated with a bunch of different ones, dopamine, nouropenephrine,
- 6:33Speaker 1: which increases arousal and attention, cortisol, which is interesting, but
- 6:38Speaker 1: it totally makes sense when you think about it. Cortisol
- 6:41Speaker 1: stress symptoms include things like racing heart and sweating palms.
- 6:47Speaker 1: Another one serotonin. Serotonin regulates mood and keeps out intrusive thoughts.
- 6:56Speaker 1: So when there's a dysregulation of serotonin, those things can
- 6:59Speaker 1: kind of weep in and you can feel intense, intense
- 7:03Speaker 1: feelings and think about nothing else but the person you're
- 7:06Speaker 1: romantically attracted to. And you put all those things together,
- 7:10Speaker 1: and you've got the chemistry, the brain chemistry essentially of
- 7:15Speaker 1: romantic attraction, the thing that's beyond just lost the thing
- 7:18Speaker 1: or you want to be with that person.
- 7:21Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure.
- 7:22Speaker 3: And when you have that initial attraction and then it
- 7:25Speaker 3: settles in to just sort of normal relationship status, I
- 7:29Speaker 3: guess that puppy love sort of wears off. Those are
- 7:32Speaker 3: chemical reactions as well. That cortisol that shot up and
- 7:35Speaker 3: the lack of serotonin, those kind of level off, and
- 7:37Speaker 3: that's why you level off.
- 7:40Speaker 2: It's very sad, but it happens.
- 7:41Speaker 1: So what about attachment.
- 7:43Speaker 3: Attachment is oxytocin. That is one that we've talked about
- 7:48Speaker 3: a lot on the show. Also one of this very
- 7:51Speaker 3: closely related vasopressin, which is the one that males and
- 7:56Speaker 3: male mammals at least is most important for bonding. And
- 8:00Speaker 3: this is you know, when you have sexual intercourse or
- 8:04Speaker 3: maybe some other kind of intimate contact. Hugs, even a
- 8:07Speaker 3: good hug, can release some oxytocin, so well other things
- 8:11Speaker 3: that you can do like hugging kissing other people, and
- 8:15Speaker 3: that's when your empathy and your trust and your feelings
- 8:17Speaker 3: of safety are really going to ramp up.
- 8:20Speaker 2: And that's a big deal. That's how you become attached.
- 8:24Speaker 1: Right And so evolutionarily speaking, caring for offspring is facilitated
- 8:31Speaker 1: by oxytocin in a lot of ways. There's a tremendous amount. Remember,
- 8:35Speaker 1: oxytocin is like in part responsible for breast milk production,
- 8:42Speaker 1: Like there's a huge increase of it during labor and delivery.
- 8:46Speaker 1: It's a big deal. But it also has to do
- 8:49Speaker 1: with pair bonding with mates, the people who come together
- 8:53Speaker 1: and reproduce to create that offspring. To put it really biologically,
- 8:58Speaker 1: so there's a question it's not just granted science that
- 9:03Speaker 1: humans are pair bonding mammals like say prairie boles, which
- 9:07Speaker 1: we'll talk about in a minute, but as insofar as
- 9:11Speaker 1: we are, the oxytocin has a lot to do with that,
- 9:16Speaker 1: I think, is what I'm trying to say. So much
- 9:18Speaker 1: so that people call that the love drug.
- 9:21Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure, Like if you google love drug, you'll
- 9:23Speaker 3: probably run across that pretty quickly.
- 9:25Speaker 2: That or ecstasy, yeah, which we'll also get to. So
- 9:29Speaker 2: one of the other big caveats.
- 9:30Speaker 3: And I imagine like every lecture that Sabilesque and Erp
- 9:34Speaker 3: probably give start off with them saying, by the way,
- 9:39Speaker 3: when we're talking about a love drug or a love potion,
- 9:42Speaker 3: we're not talking about what you've seen in movies and
- 9:46Speaker 3: stories and fairy tales. When like some losers attracted to
- 9:51Speaker 3: like the hottest person in their class and so they
- 9:54Speaker 3: spike their drink and all of a sudden that person
- 9:57Speaker 3: thinks they're gorgeous and that you have a winning person sonality.
- 10:01Speaker 2: They were like, we're not talking about that at all.
- 10:03Speaker 3: There's not a way to do that, and even if
- 10:06Speaker 3: there was, that's ethically not it's dangerous to even talk
- 10:10Speaker 3: about something like that. But what we're talking about is
- 10:15Speaker 3: people that are in relationships, who are in long term
- 10:18Speaker 3: partnerships or marriages to use, potentially use these drugs to
- 10:25Speaker 3: give them some boosts when they need it to and
- 10:28Speaker 3: increase those feelings, not necessarily take them back to like
- 10:32Speaker 3: the puppy love stage, but not not do that, right.
- 10:37Speaker 1: I say, we take a break and we'll come back
- 10:38Speaker 1: and talk a little more about that. How about that.
- 10:41Speaker 2: Yes, it's great, We'll be right back.
- 11:09Speaker 1: Okay, Chuck. So where we left off, we're basically saying
- 11:11Speaker 1: that savillsqu and ERP and all of them are like,
- 11:14Speaker 1: we're not. You can't create love out of nothing at all,
- 11:17Speaker 1: as air supply would have put it for these love drugs.
- 11:21Speaker 1: These again generally hypothetical theoretical love drugs, but you could
- 11:25Speaker 1: use them to help people who want to stay together
- 11:28Speaker 1: but for one reason or another have lost the attachment
- 11:33Speaker 1: that they once had that could help people a lot.
- 11:37Speaker 1: And that's kind of what they're pointing to, is like
- 11:40Speaker 1: the main use of something like a love drug if
- 11:43Speaker 1: we ever come up with one.
- 11:45Speaker 3: Yeah, And they'll also say things like, hey, if you
- 11:48Speaker 3: think we sound like human monsters for trying to sort
- 11:51Speaker 3: of regulate or increase these good time feelings by the
- 11:55Speaker 3: use of drugs. Like, what do you think happens when
- 11:58Speaker 3: a married couple this been married for twenty five years
- 12:02Speaker 3: and are a little sick of each other they go
- 12:03Speaker 3: on a sweet, awesome vacation or go out and have
- 12:06Speaker 3: a couple of drinks together and at a nice dinner.
- 12:09Speaker 3: It's basically the same thing that we're talking about, is like,
- 12:13Speaker 3: those are things that people are accepting as a way
- 12:18Speaker 3: to do that in your marriage, and we're just talking
- 12:20Speaker 3: about doing it in a way that's just a little
- 12:22Speaker 3: more dialed in and scientific.
- 12:24Speaker 1: Exactly. You can take a love drug or you can
- 12:26Speaker 1: go to PF Chang's your choice, but the result's gonna
- 12:30Speaker 1: be the same. You're gonna fall right back in love,
- 12:32Speaker 1: right Yeah, sure, so yeah, that is a question. Though
- 12:36Speaker 1: it's kind of like, Okay, well wait a minute, what
- 12:38Speaker 1: if we're not if humans aren't actually pair bonded, if
- 12:41Speaker 1: we're not evolutionarily meant to be monogamous, then it does
- 12:45Speaker 1: kind of seem to be at least counter evolutionary to
- 12:51Speaker 1: take a drug to stay together. I mean, what if
- 12:53Speaker 1: that's like, you know, that's a signal that boredom is
- 12:57Speaker 1: a signal that you need to find a different relationship
- 13:00Speaker 1: or move on from the other one. I mean that
- 13:02Speaker 1: might be true in some cases, but there's also plenty
- 13:05Speaker 1: of cases too where people are not functionally able to
- 13:11Speaker 1: be attached as they want to be to their mates
- 13:15Speaker 1: in a relationship, say people with autism, people with ADHD.
- 13:19Speaker 1: They might want to be in that relationship, but they're
- 13:22Speaker 1: not bringing it like they need to. That's a good
- 13:25Speaker 1: example of how of supporting a monogamous relationship essentially, rather
- 13:30Speaker 1: than just forcing somebody to stay in by drugging them.
- 13:34Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure.
- 13:35Speaker 3: And also like, even though this might fly in the
- 13:39Speaker 3: face of evolution, because I think they even say that,
- 13:42Speaker 3: you know, it seems like evolutionarily, we're supposed to get together,
- 13:46Speaker 3: have a kid, and stick around together for about four
- 13:49Speaker 3: years to get that kid going in life, and then
- 13:52Speaker 3: that's it, evolutionarily speaking. But they're quick to point out like,
- 13:55Speaker 3: there are a lot of benefits to long term coupling.
- 13:59Speaker 3: You know, it's good for your mental health. You know
- 14:02Speaker 3: that studies have shown that it can be good for
- 14:05Speaker 3: your mental health and physical health and overall well being.
- 14:08Speaker 3: So and people are doing it anyway, you know, they're
- 14:11Speaker 3: not like trying to rewrite this. People are staying married anyway,
- 14:16Speaker 3: So they're saying, why don't we give people better tools
- 14:19Speaker 3: in a clinical setting is like part of couple's therapy,
- 14:23Speaker 3: so they can connect on a level that they haven't
- 14:26Speaker 3: in a while.
- 14:26Speaker 1: Yeah, you can make a case like, evolutionarily speaking, we
- 14:30Speaker 1: should be beating up people who have different hair color
- 14:32Speaker 1: than us, but we don't do that because we've agreed
- 14:35Speaker 1: as modern society that's in the past. Evolutionarily speaking, you
- 14:39Speaker 1: can make the same thing for monogamous relationships even if
- 14:42Speaker 1: we didn't evolve to. Socially speaking, we've decided as humans
- 14:46Speaker 1: we're kind of into that kind of thing, So why
- 14:48Speaker 1: not use a drug to support that when needed? That's
- 14:51Speaker 1: what they're saying. That's what they're saying.
- 14:53Speaker 2: And also they're pointing out things. These guys make a
- 14:56Speaker 2: lot of good points, Yeah, have to say.
- 14:58Speaker 1: And also so does Livia by the way, who helped
- 15:00Speaker 1: us out with this one.
- 15:02Speaker 3: Yeah, Lyvia weight in on some stuff and I thought
- 15:04Speaker 3: it was all like super valid and smart. But they
- 15:07Speaker 3: also point out things like, hey, you know, we're on
- 15:10Speaker 3: a bunch of anti love drugs, Like a lot of
- 15:13Speaker 3: these SSRIs that people are taking are lowering their sex drive,
- 15:18Speaker 3: maybe dampening their feelings and sort of dulling their feelings,
- 15:21Speaker 3: which is going to affect their partner. And the medical
- 15:24Speaker 3: community is like prescribing this stuff to individuals when people
- 15:30Speaker 3: aren't just individuals. They're in partnerships and marriages where the
- 15:37Speaker 3: whole family needs to be considered with stuff like this,
- 15:39Speaker 3: and the medical community doesn't look at it that way,
- 15:42Speaker 3: and they should.
- 15:43Speaker 1: Yeah, And they're using the opportunity and discussing love drugs
- 15:47Speaker 1: to point out that we should be doing this with
- 15:50Speaker 1: other drugs that are already in wide use, like you said, SSRIs,
- 15:55Speaker 1: like drugs that impact the way that you interact with
- 15:58Speaker 1: other people for good or ill. This has to be
- 16:01Speaker 1: considered and it should be considered as part of the
- 16:03Speaker 1: love drug too, right. I think that's essentially what they're saying.
- 16:07Speaker 3: Yeah, Yeah, as well as like, hey, you don't just
- 16:10Speaker 3: have to use these drugs to treat a disease, Like
- 16:14Speaker 3: why not use these drugs for people that don't have
- 16:17Speaker 3: any disease to actually enhance their life in their romantic life.
- 16:21Speaker 1: That's a huge one too, because what they're essentially saying.
- 16:24Speaker 1: I watched a couple of lectures by Brian Erp and
- 16:28Speaker 1: he kind of really hit on this in one of them.
- 16:30Speaker 1: He was basically saying, like, we have this a society,
- 16:34Speaker 1: at least American society, we have this really weird dichotomous
- 16:40Speaker 1: view of drugs. Right, drugs that are made by pharmaceutical companies,
- 16:47Speaker 1: that are prescribed by doctors aoka, but we only use
- 16:52Speaker 1: those to treat maladies. When you start to use those
- 16:55Speaker 1: same drugs that are pharmaceuticals and prescribed to improve something
- 17:00Speaker 1: that we've already agreed is a good enough baseline, now
- 17:04Speaker 1: you're entering into the realm of recreational drugs, and we
- 17:08Speaker 1: as a society are basically like, we're not cool with
- 17:10Speaker 1: recreational drugs. And that's what Sevillski and one of the
- 17:14Speaker 1: other points they're taking the opportunity to point. I was like,
- 17:16Speaker 1: that doesn't make any sense morally ethically. Why would you
- 17:20Speaker 1: not use something that can improve something that to make
- 17:24Speaker 1: you happier, to make you feel closer to your mate,
- 17:26Speaker 1: even if you're already doing good enough. And I think
- 17:29Speaker 1: that's a really good point too. But the other part
- 17:33Speaker 1: of that point is there's a concern that we would
- 17:36Speaker 1: if we start creating love drugs. Then, as a society,
- 17:41Speaker 1: we would expect pharmaceutical companies to come up with some
- 17:44Speaker 1: malady that these need to treat or else they're not
- 17:48Speaker 1: going to go anywhere, So we need to come up
- 17:51Speaker 1: with something like hypo lovia or something like that, where
- 17:55Speaker 1: we're just not that good at loving, so we need
- 17:57Speaker 1: these pills. And now all of a sudden we have
- 17:59Speaker 1: late like you're not very good at loving. There's a
- 18:02Speaker 1: new label for somebody, just because we can't be like
- 18:05Speaker 1: this in and of itself is a good thing. We
- 18:08Speaker 1: don't have to medicalize it.
- 18:10Speaker 3: Yeah, don't take love a cell if you have a
- 18:13Speaker 3: bad reaction to love a cell.
- 18:14Speaker 1: That's right.
- 18:17Speaker 2: That's a little inside joke for our live show fans, right.
- 18:19Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure, which we'll be releasing that not too
- 18:22Speaker 1: far from now, I would guess.
- 18:23Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, probably end of the year ish fall, late.
- 18:27Speaker 1: Fall, let's see, let's see yeah, late fall.
- 18:31Speaker 3: All right, So you know what kind of drugs are
- 18:33Speaker 3: we talking about? You know, who knows what's coming down
- 18:36Speaker 3: the line. If we're looking at what's in front of
- 18:38Speaker 3: us right now, we can talk about a few things
- 18:41Speaker 3: we've already talked about. Booze alcohol is a drug, and
- 18:45Speaker 3: alcohol is a drug that has already used for this.
- 18:50Speaker 3: They use this, Sabelescu and you know, and use this
- 18:52Speaker 3: as an example of like the potential, like, hey, someone,
- 18:56Speaker 3: it's fine if someone goes out and has a couple
- 18:58Speaker 3: of drinks on a first date to sort of relax
- 19:01Speaker 3: them and make them a little more socially maybe less awkward,
- 19:05Speaker 3: if that's how they might feel. And you know, again
- 19:08Speaker 3: they're saying, like this is what we're talking about.
- 19:10Speaker 2: We're already doing it with booze.
- 19:12Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that. Yeah, that's a great smart thing
- 19:15Speaker 1: to point out, because it's like, oh, okay, well you
- 19:18Speaker 1: just disarmed me, savillsqu that's a point to you. They
- 19:22Speaker 1: also point out that we have sex drugs in rock
- 19:25Speaker 1: and roll, like viagra is a sex drug taking testosterone
- 19:30Speaker 1: low t Ask Frank what's his name, He'll tell you
- 19:34Speaker 1: the ladies are gonna like it too. These are libido
- 19:38Speaker 1: boosting chemicals or erection producing chemicals, and the point of
- 19:41Speaker 1: them is to have more or better sex. Right, And
- 19:45Speaker 1: so Savillsque and ERP and their ilk aren't saying like
- 19:49Speaker 1: that's a love drug. They're saying these drugs can help
- 19:51Speaker 1: facilitate the things that produce feelings of love, say, like
- 19:55Speaker 1: the release of oxytocin that comes from sex, so indirectly tho,
- 20:00Speaker 1: those are already love drugs that are on the market.
- 20:03Speaker 2: Wait, who's Frank so and so.
- 20:05Speaker 1: Frank he's a Hall of Fame MLB slugger from the
- 20:10Speaker 1: nineties maybe early two thousands.
- 20:12Speaker 2: Oh oh, Frank Thomas.
- 20:14Speaker 1: Yes, he does those ads with Doug Flutie.
- 20:17Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I've seen those. I forgot about those.
- 20:20Speaker 1: And he does that creepy like she's gonna love it too.
- 20:23Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a little creepy, but also like, well they
- 20:27Speaker 3: got paid for those.
- 20:28Speaker 2: Never mind. Yeah, I was gonna say good for them
- 20:30Speaker 2: for like, you know, for taking the mantle of men
- 20:33Speaker 2: with low TI, but uh.
- 20:36Speaker 3: So, good for them. So you mentioned prairie vols earlier.
- 20:45Speaker 3: Prairie vols are are great little rascals. They're good comps
- 20:49Speaker 3: for human behaviors when it comes to mating and bonding
- 20:54Speaker 3: and stuff like that. They bond in ways that are
- 20:57Speaker 3: kind of like us in our marriages. So they bond
- 21:01Speaker 3: initially too because of sex, because that oxytocin is released,
- 21:05Speaker 3: kind of like we do. When they're bonded, they like
- 21:09Speaker 3: to spend time with one another. They nest and make
- 21:11Speaker 3: homes together, they care for their offspring together, they work together.
- 21:15Speaker 1: They go to the farmers market together.
- 21:18Speaker 2: Yeah, they go to the farmer's market.
- 21:19Speaker 3: They buy those light up roses at traffic stops, people
- 21:23Speaker 3: buy those.
- 21:24Speaker 1: Sure, I thought it was just some sort of ploy
- 21:27Speaker 1: for something else.
- 21:29Speaker 3: Like there's you know, a kilo of cocaine in the
- 21:32Speaker 3: bottom of that bucket, right, or.
- 21:34Speaker 1: They want you to like come meet their friend the leader.
- 21:37Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, exactly.
- 21:38Speaker 3: Well maybe this I've never bought them, but they've done
- 21:41Speaker 3: lab experiments where they have been ministered oxytocin to females
- 21:46Speaker 3: and then the vasopressin for the males, and it caused
- 21:50Speaker 3: them to bond just like they would if they had mate.
- 21:52Speaker 3: It without mating, and if they block those chemicals, they
- 21:56Speaker 3: don't form the bonds. So it's kind of you know,
- 21:59Speaker 3: it's not direct, but it's kind of like sitting right
- 22:01Speaker 3: there saying hello, this works.
- 22:03Speaker 1: Yeah, And I mean again, prairie rolls are definitely pair
- 22:07Speaker 1: bonded species, and humans aren't necessarily, But the fact that
- 22:12Speaker 1: all of those brain chemicals do the same things to
- 22:15Speaker 1: them that they appear to do to us, that's pretty
- 22:18Speaker 1: it is a useful model for sure. And oxytocin again,
- 22:22Speaker 1: we're going to keep hitting that because there's a good
- 22:24Speaker 1: reason why people call it the love drug. And there's
- 22:27Speaker 1: already available on the market intra nasally taken like one
- 22:32Speaker 1: of those nasal sprays that you squeeze. It's oxytocin. It's
- 22:37Speaker 1: available in that form, and it shouldn't cross the blood
- 22:40Speaker 1: brain barrier, but it does something. It actually does have
- 22:44Speaker 1: an effect. Studies have shown like this actually has an
- 22:47Speaker 1: oxytocin like effect on the people who use it. They
- 22:51Speaker 1: think maybe if it doesn't actually cross the blood brain barrier,
- 22:54Speaker 1: just raises the general level of the oxytocin in your system.
- 22:57Speaker 1: Who knows. But from that people have proposed uses of
- 23:02Speaker 1: this stuff that's already on the market in ways that
- 23:06Speaker 1: are not quite love but more kind of tap into
- 23:09Speaker 1: the idea that you can build trust with somebody through
- 23:12Speaker 1: oxytocin and that if you dose them with that, they
- 23:15Speaker 1: will have to trust you.
- 23:17Speaker 3: And here's the other thing about oxytocin is there have
- 23:19Speaker 3: been a lot of studies on this stuff, kind of
- 23:22Speaker 3: like the early two thousands is when all this got
- 23:25Speaker 3: heavily researched. You know, the early beginning of it, and
- 23:29Speaker 3: a lot of those results were, you know, pretty astounding,
- 23:32Speaker 3: but a lot of those studies also can't be replicated now,
- 23:35Speaker 3: so you know, experts are now saying, like, hey, all
- 23:39Speaker 3: those all those early studies about oxytocin, we really need
- 23:42Speaker 3: to kind of pump our brakes a little bit, not
- 23:45Speaker 3: saying completely discount it, but like let's just do more research.
- 23:49Speaker 1: Yeah, and like some of those some of those uses
- 23:52Speaker 1: that were proposed that go beyond love. There was an
- 23:54Speaker 1: Air Force major named David Dethiths who in two thousand
- 23:59Speaker 1: and seven roe to Master's thesis on using oxytocin spray
- 24:03Speaker 1: for things like hostage negotiation and riot control to establish
- 24:07Speaker 1: immediate like trust with the police or the military or whatever.
- 24:11Speaker 1: And of course all of this is theoretical, but that's
- 24:14Speaker 1: exactly what Savelesque and ERP and the people that are
- 24:16Speaker 1: with them are trying to do. They're saying, like, this
- 24:19Speaker 1: stuff could be coming and we need to talk about
- 24:21Speaker 1: like how it's fraught and how it could be useful.
- 24:24Speaker 1: And that's a good example of how it's fraught. You
- 24:26Speaker 1: don't want people controlling you or making you trust them,
- 24:29Speaker 1: even though you probably shouldn't just because they've dosed you
- 24:33Speaker 1: with oxytocin, if that ever really becomes possible.
- 24:37Speaker 3: Yeah, And you know, sablesco will also say, like, you know,
- 24:44Speaker 3: it seems to help out in some positive ways, but
- 24:46Speaker 3: also some negative ways, and experts will chime in and say, well, yeah,
- 24:51Speaker 3: but in a very limited way, like introducing this, you know,
- 24:57Speaker 3: in a not a fake way. But I guess what
- 24:59Speaker 3: would it be called x genous way to your body.
- 25:02Speaker 3: Just go out and take a hike and do some exercising,
- 25:07Speaker 3: or give someone a hug. And that's about the same
- 25:10Speaker 3: effect that you're you're going to be getting by introducing it,
- 25:12Speaker 3: you know, exogenous genously.
- 25:15Speaker 1: Yeah, exogynously.
- 25:18Speaker 2: I like that. I like it the first time.
- 25:20Speaker 1: I kind of do too, actually, But the great thing
- 25:22Speaker 1: about a intrannasal oxytocin sprays you don't have to give somebody.
- 25:26Speaker 2: A hug, right exactly.
- 25:29Speaker 1: And then also MDMA we said, is something that comes
- 25:32Speaker 1: up a lot when you search love drug and for
- 25:35Speaker 1: good reason too. I mean, it does some wacky stuff
- 25:38Speaker 1: to your brain chemistry, including massive releases of oxytocin, dopamine, neuropinephrine, cortisol, serotonin,
- 25:46Speaker 1: all the stuff that Helen Fisher was hammering, create lust,
- 25:51Speaker 1: romantic love, attachment, all that stuff gets released to varying
- 25:56Speaker 1: degrees when you take MDMA. It also makes you grow
- 26:00Speaker 1: your teeth like crazy. And so people have said, okay,
- 26:03Speaker 1: this could conceivably be used therapeutically in some form, and
- 26:07Speaker 1: especially before it was outlawed in nineteen eighty five, people
- 26:10Speaker 1: were already studying it like that. They were using it
- 26:13Speaker 1: in therapeutic settings like couple's therapy.
- 26:16Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure.
- 26:18Speaker 3: And then when studies come out to say, you know,
- 26:21Speaker 3: when you take MDNA, you're more connected, you're more loving
- 26:25Speaker 3: to people, There's a greater bond when it comes to
- 26:28Speaker 3: even like casual conversations. They it seemed like everything seems
- 26:33Speaker 3: more meaningful. Someone might also say, yeah, but the same
- 26:37Speaker 3: thing happens when you take methmphetamine. It's just impacting instead
- 26:41Speaker 3: of oxytocin, it's impacting dopamine and nora epinephrine. And like
- 26:46Speaker 3: you said, since eighty five, DNA MDMA sorry, has been
- 26:52Speaker 3: banned for study in therapeutics, but it is It is
- 26:57Speaker 3: still used in different countries a lot of times with
- 27:01Speaker 3: people at PTSD diagnoses and in couple's therapy to pretty
- 27:06Speaker 3: great effect.
- 27:07Speaker 1: Yeah, I was reading there's some couple's therapists, kind of
- 27:11Speaker 1: rogue couples therapists who are like, I can't tell you
- 27:13Speaker 1: to go buy MDMA, and I certainly can't tell you
- 27:17Speaker 1: where to go buy it, but I can tell you
- 27:18Speaker 1: that if you have it on you and you show
- 27:21Speaker 1: up to this particular place, we're going to be having
- 27:23Speaker 1: a retreat where you and your wife would be able
- 27:26Speaker 1: to take this in a therapeutic setting. So people are
- 27:28Speaker 1: still trying it, and anecdotally they report, especially compared to methamphetamine,
- 27:34Speaker 1: there's a lasting effect of like the attachment that can
- 27:37Speaker 1: be produced by MDMA that lasts beyond, you know, the
- 27:40Speaker 1: experience of being on MDMA. So it could conceivably be
- 27:44Speaker 1: used as such. But I think if there's you know,
- 27:47Speaker 1: if we can isolate oxytocin and you can use that,
- 27:50Speaker 1: I would guess we were probably going to go more
- 27:53Speaker 1: in that direction than MDMA.
- 27:55Speaker 3: And if you have cash, you might see my office
- 27:59Speaker 3: manager in the parking lot.
- 28:01Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know anything about it.
- 28:03Speaker 1: Right, Sharky was that the office manager? Yeah, with loads
- 28:09Speaker 1: of m d m A. Let's take our second break
- 28:12Speaker 1: and we'll come back and talk about the opposite of this.
- 28:14Speaker 1: How about that?
- 28:15Speaker 2: Let's do it all right?
- 28:40Speaker 3: So back to Sabelescu and herb It's fun to say,
- 28:45Speaker 3: what kind of singing do are they?
- 28:47Speaker 2: Oh, let's see.
- 28:51Speaker 1: I think one of them plays the organ and the
- 28:53Speaker 1: other one plays the saxophone. Really low key, mellow stuff.
- 28:59Speaker 2: Okay, that sounds pretty good. Okay, all right.
- 29:02Speaker 3: So another thing that they propose, like you mentioned before,
- 29:06Speaker 3: the break is the opposite of that. Maybe some drugs
- 29:10Speaker 3: that help you get away from the feeling of love.
- 29:15Speaker 3: Let's say you're in a relationship that is toxic or complicated,
- 29:20Speaker 3: or even abusive, and you have a hard time leaving
- 29:23Speaker 3: because you have this attachment that you just can't let
- 29:26Speaker 3: go of to your abuser or to your toxic friend
- 29:30Speaker 3: or loved one. And maybe if you are stuck in
- 29:34Speaker 3: that loop, we can design drugs to give you the.
- 29:39Speaker 2: Courage to get out of that.
- 29:40Speaker 1: Yeah. I also saw in one of those lectures that
- 29:43Speaker 1: gave some other examples of how this could be useful
- 29:46Speaker 1: anti love drug. Essentially, if you're a pedophile seeking help achievement,
- 29:51Speaker 1: it could be useful for that. If you are involved
- 29:54Speaker 1: in an incestuous relationship, you don't want to be it
- 29:58Speaker 1: could be helpful for that. If you're committing adultery and
- 30:01Speaker 1: you love the person, but you really love your spouse
- 30:03Speaker 1: even more, it could be useful for that. And then lastly,
- 30:07Speaker 1: if you are selling those electric roses on the side
- 30:10Speaker 1: of the road, it can help you stop loving your
- 30:13Speaker 1: cult leader as well. So there's a lot of other
- 30:17Speaker 1: uses for it too that you just wouldn't think of,
- 30:20Speaker 1: But when you do think of it, you're like, actually,
- 30:22Speaker 1: it would be great to have a drug for those
- 30:24Speaker 1: people that need that kind of help. And one of
- 30:27Speaker 1: the other great things about this is that there's no
- 30:31Speaker 1: real downside to that. Like there's a there's a lot
- 30:34Speaker 1: of objections as we'll see to the idea of creating love,
- 30:37Speaker 1: but how can you object to breaking harmful love? There's
- 30:42Speaker 1: really no problem with that. That's kind of like, that's
- 30:45Speaker 1: probably the best or least objectionable use of a drug
- 30:50Speaker 1: that has to do with an effect on love, you.
- 30:52Speaker 3: Know, Yeah, for sure, it's probably no surprise that there's
- 30:56Speaker 3: been a lot of criticism about all of this stuff.
- 30:59Speaker 3: That was a German ethicist named Savin Niom in twenty
- 31:04Speaker 3: fourteen that got wind of what Sabellascu and urp're doing.
- 31:08Speaker 2: And they said, you know.
- 31:09Speaker 3: What, I don't even know if this counts if it's
- 31:14Speaker 3: essentially synthetic, Like, it's not, it's not real. It's not
- 31:19Speaker 3: these innate characteristics that people develop in a natural, organic way.
- 31:25Speaker 3: It's it's a chemically mediated sort of thing that you're designing.
- 31:29Speaker 1: Yeah, and you could see him being like, Okay, that's
- 31:32Speaker 1: a that's a pretty obvious objection, but he laid it
- 31:35Speaker 1: out pretty well and essentially said, like what this focus
- 31:40Speaker 1: is on is you know all of the things that
- 31:44Speaker 1: a loving attachment can produce, like health and lower depression,
- 31:48Speaker 1: and you know, a stable environment for the kids, Like
- 31:53Speaker 1: those are the goods that you guys are focusing on.
- 31:55Speaker 1: What if we stop looking at love like that and
- 31:57Speaker 1: look at it as love is intrance good in and
- 32:00Speaker 1: of itself. It doesn't matter what other great effects it has.
- 32:04Speaker 1: Love itself is good enough. Then if you're producing that chemically,
- 32:10Speaker 1: even though you're creating all of these great side effects
- 32:12Speaker 1: like stability in the house or you know, just good times,
- 32:16Speaker 1: it's still it's not love. You can't say that it's
- 32:19Speaker 1: it's love. That's that's ultimately what his objection is.
- 32:22Speaker 3: Yeah, there's another guy from cal State, a guy named
- 32:25Speaker 3: Jacob Blair, another philosopher who talk about you know, he
- 32:29Speaker 3: just imagines two people in a relationship, and he's saying, well,
- 32:33Speaker 3: here's the thing, though, is one's love for the other
- 32:36Speaker 3: doesn't depend on the actual true characteristics of that person
- 32:40Speaker 3: and like who they really are. And like, I hear
- 32:43Speaker 3: what you're saying, urb and sablesco about like, yeah, but
- 32:47Speaker 3: you know, romantic dinners it's the same thing, and alcohol
- 32:50Speaker 3: is the same thing. But he argues back that, like, yeah,
- 32:54Speaker 3: but you can't go to romantic dinners every night and
- 32:56Speaker 3: just have three or four drinks every night to keep
- 33:00Speaker 3: that you know, quote unquote genuine love going.
- 33:04Speaker 2: It's not like a good comp.
- 33:05Speaker 1: Who can afford to go to PF Chang's every single night.
- 33:09Speaker 1: Not me, man, nobody, not even the owner PF Chang
- 33:12Speaker 1: himself couldn't afford that. So there's another objection to what
- 33:18Speaker 1: Jacob Blair and saven Niholm were saying in defense of
- 33:23Speaker 1: Sevillscue and by a Montreal ethicist named Heishim or Heikim
- 33:29Speaker 1: Narr Hichim Narr. Hei Chim Narr argues that even if
- 33:36Speaker 1: you're just producing something that's not actual love, those side
- 33:43Speaker 1: effects that are good are could be enough to keep
- 33:47Speaker 1: you around so that you are still experiencing all the
- 33:51Speaker 1: stuff that that love produces. And so if it's not
- 33:54Speaker 1: actual love, you could still conceivably appreciate the other person
- 34:00Speaker 1: and characteristics that make you love them. And so the
- 34:04Speaker 1: whole thing kind of becomes hurly burley at that point.
- 34:07Speaker 1: And really, what's the problem. Are you guys just being
- 34:10Speaker 1: philosophers being philosophers, I think is what Nar was saying.
- 34:14Speaker 3: Yeah, there's there's definitely a lot of that for everybody
- 34:18Speaker 3: who is a philosopher, you know.
- 34:19Speaker 2: Yeah, sure, that's just the nature of the beast.
- 34:22Speaker 1: So really they love to argue and put up weird
- 34:25Speaker 1: situations to prove their point.
- 34:28Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, that's just the deal.
- 34:30Speaker 3: There's a bioethicist named Peter Harrison Kelly who went about
- 34:37Speaker 3: it and arguing it in a little bit different way,
- 34:40Speaker 3: which is the notion of something like oxytocin being a
- 34:42Speaker 3: love drug. You know, it all depends on this notion
- 34:46Speaker 3: that that attachment is a feeling, like it's a drive
- 34:51Speaker 3: that you have. And he said, I don't think it's
- 34:53Speaker 3: that that that that's the case. Actually, it's not like, Uh,
- 34:59Speaker 3: you don't had this drive to constantly feel this way
- 35:02Speaker 3: toward a person, Like you have these hormones that may
- 35:05Speaker 3: encourage that, but you already have to have that attachment
- 35:09Speaker 3: in place to begin with. But I mean, it seems
- 35:13Speaker 3: like that's kind of what RB and Sabelescu are saying though, right.
- 35:17Speaker 1: Yeah, I didn't one hundred percent understand what the issue
- 35:20Speaker 1: that Harrison Kelly was raising was that Urp and sablesk
- 35:25Speaker 1: you didn't agree with like you were saying, like they're
- 35:27Speaker 1: saying like, yeah, you can't create this out of the blue,
- 35:30Speaker 1: but you can support it. I guess what he was
- 35:33Speaker 1: saying is more he disagrees with Helen Fisher's idea, like
- 35:36Speaker 1: you were saying that it's a drive, like you can't
- 35:38Speaker 1: compare attachment to hunger, Like attachment is its own thing,
- 35:42Speaker 1: it's separate from all that. So you're not boosting attachment.
- 35:46Speaker 1: You're boosting the trappings of attachment. The feelings that you
- 35:49Speaker 1: get from attachment are being boosted, But don't make any
- 35:53Speaker 1: mistake that you're actually boosting attachment itself. Yeah, is what
- 35:57Speaker 1: he's saying, That it's it's more than just some sort
- 36:00Speaker 1: of biochemical dribe so yeah, in a way, he's certainly
- 36:03Speaker 1: arguing and at the same time supporting their point.
- 36:06Speaker 3: I think, yeah, I think, I think I agree, that's
- 36:09Speaker 3: exactly what you're saying. And then you know, of course
- 36:12Speaker 3: we have to talk finally about the fact that you know,
- 36:15Speaker 3: these kind of things in the wrong hands. You know,
- 36:17Speaker 3: we've talked about spiking a drink or something like that
- 36:20Speaker 3: being just an awful thing to do.
- 36:24Speaker 2: Conversion therapy.
- 36:25Speaker 3: I could definitely see this getting into the hands of
- 36:27Speaker 3: people who think they could use it to convert lg
- 36:31Speaker 3: BTQ people like, you know, hey, let's just go put.
- 36:36Speaker 2: Two people in a room.
- 36:37Speaker 3: Together of you know, put a man and a woman
- 36:40Speaker 3: there together and give them this drug and see if
- 36:43Speaker 3: that cures them.
- 36:43Speaker 1: That kind of thing exactly. Yeah, there's a lot of
- 36:47Speaker 1: ways that it can be misused, and I think Erp
- 36:49Speaker 1: and Seveleski were criticized as basically saying, like, no, you
- 36:52Speaker 1: just make sure that you regulate them and make sure
- 36:54Speaker 1: that the that they're prescribed correctly, and they were definitely
- 36:59Speaker 1: called out as naive for suggesting that that's the only
- 37:01Speaker 1: way that they would be used. So, yeah, that is
- 37:03Speaker 1: definitely something that makes it fraud for sure, I agree, fraud.
- 37:07Speaker 1: You got anything else about love drugs coming soon? Now?
- 37:12Speaker 2: It seems like it's coming soon in some way or another.
- 37:15Speaker 1: Yep, for sure. And if you want to know more
- 37:18Speaker 1: about love drugs, just wait, I guess, and see what
- 37:21Speaker 1: happens and see if you can get your doctor to
- 37:23Speaker 1: prescribe them. And in the meantime, it's time for listener mail.
- 37:29Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm gonna call this.
- 37:30Speaker 3: I'm glad I got this email because I've been getting
- 37:33Speaker 3: this wrong all these years. What with this song title?
- 37:36Speaker 1: Okay?
- 37:37Speaker 2: Or I guess the singer?
- 37:39Speaker 3: Hey, guys, listen to the episode on Share one of
- 37:41Speaker 3: you mentioned and it was me Chuck working at retail
- 37:45Speaker 3: at Christmas. It was at the gap and repeatedly hearing
- 37:48Speaker 3: the song Santa's Got a brand New Bag by James Taylor,
- 37:52Speaker 3: which you know you corrected me in the moment. Obviously
- 37:55Speaker 3: it's James Brown, he said. James Brown is also incorrect.
- 37:59Speaker 3: The song is clear and homage to James Brown. It
- 38:02Speaker 3: is actually by a bunch of white kids from Detroit
- 38:04Speaker 3: called Bob Seger, and the last heard, Oh wow, yes
- 38:09Speaker 3: that Bob Seger.
- 38:10Speaker 2: He says.
- 38:11Speaker 3: The title is socket to me Sanna, and it was
- 38:13Speaker 3: released in nineteen sixty six on the Cameo Parkway Records label,
- 38:18Speaker 3: Probably my favorite Christmas song. In twenty eighteen, in anthology
- 38:21Speaker 3: of Last Heard Singles from sixty six to sixty seven
- 38:24Speaker 3: was released I believe the first time they've been compiled
- 38:26Speaker 3: in one place. This is also an unrelated R and
- 38:29Speaker 3: B funk song. Oh, there is also an unrelated R
- 38:32Speaker 3: and B funk song called Socket to Him Sanna by
- 38:34Speaker 3: Joe Chanal circus sixty eight. That's worth a listen. And
- 38:37Speaker 3: of course James Brown does have a Christmas album with
- 38:39Speaker 3: some pretty great tunes, and he died on Christmas Day.
- 38:43Speaker 1: I didn't know thousand and six. Yeah, yeah, wow, that
- 38:46Speaker 1: are some deep cuts. Who is that?
- 38:48Speaker 3: I didn't even bother looking at any of this stuff up,
- 38:50Speaker 3: So I hope Kevin Schneider is right. He certainly comes
- 38:53Speaker 3: across as confidence, so I believed every word.
- 38:55Speaker 1: Yep, same here, Kevin. Thank you for mesmerizing us with
- 38:58Speaker 1: your musical novel. And if you want to be like
- 39:01Speaker 1: Kevin and mesmerize us, take your best shot. You can
- 39:05Speaker 1: send it off to Stuff Podcast at iHeartRadio dot com.
- 39:11Speaker 3: Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio for
- 39:14Speaker 3: more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts,
- 39:18Speaker 3: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.