The Human Evolution Blog

by Nathan H. Lents

Book: The Sexual Evolution

NathanHLents
6–9 minutes

The Sexual Evolution was published by Mariner Books (HarperCollins) on 04-Feb 2025 and by Canongate (UK) and DuMont (Germany) on 05-June, with other markets to follow.

Buy it here (USA), here (UK), here (Germany) or through IndieBound.

Reviews and Coverage:

  • Science: “…thoughtfully and delightfully written book full of illuminating and entertaining information…”
  • Publishers Weekly (starred review): “enthralling…” “…an indispensable glimpse into the queerness of animals.”
  • Kirkus Reviews: “Destined to be a go-to source in future sex and gender debates.” “informative and often very funny… “
  • Newsweek. “Q&A: Sexual Diversity Good for Animals and Humans Too, Says Author.”
  • The Times (UK): “…entertaining romp through the natural history of romping.”
  • The Guardian (UK): “…entertaining and informative romp through mating strategies in nature.”
  • Science 2.0: “A good read… you should buy it.”
  • Psychology Today: “A fascinating and eye-opening book…”
  • Science News Explores – with short video interviews!
  • Mission (Germany): “…a welcome addition…”
  • Deutschland Funkultur: ” fills a knowledge gap, not with buzzwords and ideology, but with science.”
  • The Times Literary Supplement: “provides the facts… evidence… coherent arguments.”

Buy it here or through IndieBound.

Libraries, Bookclubs, and Teachers – contact me to request a Zoom Drop-in

Book Signings, Lectures, Public Events (past):

Feature Articles (written by me):

  • Newsweek: “Empowered Females Key to Stable Primate Families. We Can Learn From Them.”
  • Free Inquiry: “Get Gender Ideology Out of Biology!”
  • Undark and Smithsonian Magazine: “Mating and Monogamy: The Tricky Sex Lives of Birds”

Interviews, podcasts, etc.

Buy it here or through IndieBound.

Libraries, Bookclubs, and Teachers – contact me to request a Zoom Drop-in

Endorsements:

“In this multilayered exploration of gender biology, Nathan Lents takes us on a wonderfully thoughtful journey through some of today’s most challenging scientific terrain. The result is a book that expertly balances the complexity of the issues and the compassion needed to navigate them, in other words, exactly the kind of guide to the subject that we all need today.”  — Deborah Blum, Pulitzer-prize winning author of Sex on the Brain, The Monkey Wars, and The Poison Squad.

“At a time when diversity is fast becoming a dirty word, The Sexual Evolution provides a powerful argument about why diversity not only exists, but wins. Lents’ scholarly tome never lectures but guides the reader through a glorious array of gender and sexual diversity from across the animal kingdom, with authority and humour. An important addition to this important genre. My copy of this book will be read many times.” – Lucy Cooke, author of Bitch: On the Female of the Species

“Leave it to Lents to remind us that yes, we have sex for many reasons, and yes, they’re often funny as hell.  Bravo!” – Cat Bohannon, author of EVE: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution

“Why do we have sex? Who do we have sex with? Good questions, and Nathan Lents has the answers. This wonderful voyage through animal, and human, sexuality, illustrates how, and why, a solid grasp of biology is so important, why sex is anything but simple, and how sexual diversity is central to understanding why we are the way that we are.”-Agustín Fuentes, Professor of Anthropology, Princeton University, and author of Sex is a Spectrum, and Race, Monogamy, and Other Lies They Told You. 

“An excellent, easy-to-read, science-based summary of what we know about the incredible array of sexual diversity among other animals. A fascinating and eye-opening book.” –Marc Bekoff, author of The Encyclopedia of Animal Behavior, Canine Confidential, and The Emotional Lives of Animals.

“A lot of people seem to think they know what science says when it comes to sex. Well, Nathan Lents has news for them. Read this book—it’s fascinating, charming, and eye-opening, with lovely ink drawings that bring the animals in its pages to life. It dispels misconceptions about life in the animal kingdom and our place in it, but most importantly it shows clearly that nature’s beautiful sexual diversity extends to all living things—especially humans.” — Joan Roughgarden, Professor Emerita of Biology, Stanford University, author of Evolution’s Rainbow and The Genial Gene

“A fascinating and important exploration of nature in all its rich, queer glory – David Farrier, author of Footprints and Nature’s Genius

“A refreshing read that puts human sexuality in perspective, without cultural dogma and indoctrination. With eye-opening stories of animal behavior, Lents highlights the fundamental role of sexual diversity for all animals—including humans. Humans are sexual creatures, but we are sexual in so many ways that do not conform to Western notions of sexuality. The Sexual Evolution tells this story, and so much more, with the clarity and urgency that it so justly deserves.” — Darrel Ray, Ed.D., author of Sex and God: How Religion Distorts Sexuality; Founder and President, Recovering from Religion

“An unnaturally good book – funny, informative and refreshingly frank. The Sexual Evolution injects a timely splash of colour into a field increasingly polarised towards black and white. A must read.” – Ed Watkins, Producer and Director of Queer Planet

“Thought-provoking, insightful, and surprisingly dirty, The Sexual Evolution brings in-depth research of natural history to contemporary gender issues” -Catherine Phipps, Lecturer in the History of Gender and Sexualities, University of Bristol

“Who knew that the coupling practices of sunfish, hyenas, birds, or whiptail lizards could be so captivating? Nathan H. Lents argues that, in the animal kingdom, diversity is key to ensuring evolutionary constancy, and sexuality in particular is unusually well suited to such flexibility and experimentation. Lents perceptively explores same-sex attraction, intersex, nonbinary and transgender behavior of many species, including humans. Animals seem not particularly self-conscious about their seemingly uninhibited actions (or its evolutionary logic), but humans are quite mindful of such behavior, governed by an array of religious, cultural, and political proscriptions. The Sexual Evolution, meticulous, amusing, and as attuned to anthropology as biology, illuminates the richness of our sex and gender diversity, expressed in various cultures throughout history, some of it enduring, some of it lost, squashed, or erased.” – Elizabeth Reis, Distinguished Lecturer in Gender Studies at The Macaulay Honors College, and author of Bodies in Doubt: An American History of Intersex

Buy it here or through IndieBound.

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