136. The World’s Most Controversial Ornithologist

People I (Mostly) Admire

Richard Prum says there's a lot that traditional evolutionary biology can't explain. He thinks a neglected hypothesis from Charles Darwin — and insights from contemporary queer theory — hold the answer. Plus: You won't believe what female ducks use for contraception.

• SOURCE:
  • Richard Prum, professor of ornithology, ecology and evolutionary biology at Yale University.

• RESOURCES:
  • "Stop Your Populist Grandstanding Over Wendy’s ‘Surge Pricing’," by Catherine Rampell (The Washington Post, 2024).
  • "Dynamic Pricing Tech May Brighten Retail Bottom Lines and Put Consumers in the Dark," by Kristin Schwab and Sofia Terenzio (Marketplace, 2024).
  • Performance All the Way Down: Genes, Development, and Sexual Difference, by Richard Prum (2023).
  • The Evolution of Beauty: How Darwin's Forgotten Theory of Mate Choice Shapes the Animal World — and Us, by Richard Prum (2017).
  • "Duck Sex and the Patriarchy," by Richard Prum (The New Yorker, 2017).
  • "Dinosaur Feathers Came before Birds and Flight," by Richard Prum and Alan Brush (Scientific American, 2014).
  • "How Chickens Lost Their Penises (And Ducks Kept Theirs)," by Ed Yong (National Geographic, 2013).
  • "Media Attacks Duck Genitalia Research," by Emma Goldberg (Yale Daily News, 2013).
  • "Mate Choice and Sexual Selection: What Have We Learned Since Darwin?" by Adam G. Jones and Nicholas L. Ratterman (PNAS, 2009).
  • "Development and Evolutionary Origin of Feathers," by Richard O. Prum (Journal of Experimental Zoology, 2002).
  • The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe without Design, by Richard Dawkins (1986).
  • "Display Behavior, Foraging Ecology, and Systematics of the Golden-Winged Manakin (Masius chrysopterus)," by Richard Prum and Ann Johnson (The Wilson Bulletin, 1987).
  • The Selfish Gene, by Richard Dawkins (1976).
  • The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, by Charles Darwin (1871).

• EXTRAS:
  • "Is Gynecology the Best Innovation Ever?" by People I (Mostly) Admire (2024).
  • "The Price of Doing Business with John List," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2022).