Uploaded June 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
From the Radiolab podcast: how a study about seagulls from the 1970s rocked our understanding of what’s natural in animals... and in us.
In the 1970s, as LGBTQ+ people in the United States faced conservatives whose top argument was that homosexuality is “unnatural,” a pair of young scientists discovered on a tiny island off the coast of California a colony of seagulls that included… a significant number of female homosexual couples making nests and raising chicks together. The article that followed upended the culture’s understanding of what’s natural and took the discourse on homosexuality in a whole new direction.
In this episode, our co-Host Lulu Miller grapples with the impact of this and several other studies about animal queerness on her life as a queer person.
Episode Segments:
0:00 Lesbian gulls
08:27 Queer animals
25:05 Lulu Miller learns a lesson
🎧 Subscribe to Radiolab wherever you listen to podcasts: bit.ly/3trXDLe
🔎 Subscribe to Radiolab on YouTube: bit.ly/3I9KI53
🖋 Subscribe to Radiolab’s Newsletter: radiolab.org/newsletter
🌱 Check out Radiolab's Starter Kit Playlist: bit.ly/3sX8f4P
👍 Like this video ✏️ and leave us a comment!
Follow Radiolab:
Instagram — instagram.com/radiolab
Twitter — twitter.com/Radiolab
Facebook — facebook.com/Radiolab
Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab today: radiolab.org/the-lab
Guests in this episode include: Dr. George Hunt, Molly Warner, Eliot Schrefer, Pamela Gray, Edgar Xochitl, Christine Wilkinson, John Megahan, Paul Smith, Lillian Faderman, Lulu's wife Grace.
Photo illustration Jared Bartman
From the Radiolab podcast: how a study about seagulls from the 1970s rocked our understanding of what’s natural in animals... and in us.
In the 1970s, as LGBTQ+ people in the United States faced conservatives whose top argument was that homosexuality is “unnatural,” a pair of young scientists discovered on a tiny island off the coast of California a colony of seagulls that included… a significant number of female homosexual couples making nests and raising chicks together. The article that followed upended the culture’s understanding of what’s natural and took the discourse on homosexuality in a whole new direction.
In this episode, our co-Host Lulu Miller grapples with the impact of this and several other studies about animal queerness on her life as a queer person.
Episode Segments:
0:00 Lesbian gulls
08:27 Queer animals
25:05 Lulu Miller learns a lesson
🎧 Subscribe to Radiolab wherever you listen to podcasts: bit.ly/3trXDLe
🔎 Subscribe to Radiolab on YouTube: bit.ly/3I9KI53
🖋 Subscribe to Radiolab’s Newsletter: radiolab.org/newsletter
🌱 Check out Radiolab's Starter Kit Playlist: bit.ly/3sX8f4P
👍 Like this video ✏️ and leave us a comment!
Follow Radiolab:
Instagram — instagram.com/radiolab
Twitter — twitter.com/Radiolab
Facebook — facebook.com/Radiolab
Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab today: radiolab.org/the-lab
Guests in this episode include: Dr. George Hunt, Molly Warner, Eliot Schrefer, Pamela Gray, Edgar Xochitl, Christine Wilkinson, John Megahan, Paul Smith, Lillian Faderman, Lulu's wife Grace.
Photo illustration Jared Bartman
