*UPDATED* – Holy shit you guys this was a monster – I was sick of telling the story about the time I masturbated in the woods with a bunch of strangers, but I managed to get it out of me finally in an entertaining and hopefully enriching way for you, and I’ve added some educational tidbits too because I felt cheap and gross* just talking about sex stuff without also giving you something neat to think about. I discuss the neurochemistry of connection, how our brains develop the ability to manage those chemicals, and how we can actively change the structure of our brain by hugging people and cumming on their faces. Probably not so much that last thing. Thank you, as always for listening!
*Note – the main reason I felt (and still feel) cheap and gross about the podcast is that I’ve realised in hindsight, and after talking to Victoria about it, I’ve come across very cynical, sarcastic, and judgemental, despite repeatedly saying that I wasn’t trying to be a cunt, I still was… Victoria is coming back on the podcast to discuss this episode, and some of the major projecting I’m doing (unfairly) to the other girls because I felt like a dickhead doing something so far out of my comfort zone. It’s their fault I’m uncomfortable, right? I’m sorry, also, if you’re one of those girls and I turned you into a cartoon for the sake of being “funny” – I can’t know why anyone does anything, and it was unkind of me to caricatureize real people who can’t defend themselves.
 
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Show Notes:
STUDY REFERENCES
Note: The link for each study is at the BOTTOM of each list of points/extracts. Eg: the first 6 points can be found in the study listed at #7.
BEHAVIOURAL IMPACTS OF STRESS IN UTERO AND SEPARATION AFTER BIRTH

Changes in behaviour – risk taking and less cautious compared to others reared normally.
Stressed moms raised their kids normally, but their sons had the same shitty risk-taking behaviour from the stress their mom had. Once raised by a control mom, they could reduce the effects, so it might be in their milk etc.
makes the animals unable to carefully evaluate unknown territories, and assess risk. We show further, that these alterations are transmitted to the following generation even in the absence of  any further exposure to stress.
The mild behavioral deficits resulting from unpredictable MS alone are more pronounced when separation is aggravated by concomitant unpredictable maternal stress, suggesting that stress has a cumulative effect on behavioral responses. Unpredictability of MS is also likely to exacerbate the behavioral defects, consistent with the previous observation that chronic stress in adult rats or mice is more detrime...