Radio Show Archive

WHY WE LOVE: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love

Helen Fisher, PhD., author of WHY WE LOVE: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love, is one of the most prominent anthropologists in America. A research professor at Rutgers University, she has conducted extensive research on the evolution and future of human sex, love and marriage and gender differences in the brain and behavior.

We’ll discuss the evolutionary basis for the basic mating drives of lust, romantic love and attachment and how to gracefully move back and forth between them. Learn natural behaviors you can incorporate into your own life that can affect brain chemistry (yours and/or your partner’s) to:

  • ignite more sexual passion in a relationship,
  • enhance intimacy and make romance last,
  • help move a romance to a deeper level of attachment, or
  • more quickly get over being “dumped.”

We’ll also look at how anti-depressants can actually endanger one’s ability to fall in love and some evolutionary benefits of male and female orgasm that go beyond conception.

Listen to the Show:

  • Segment 1
    In this segment we discuss why love is considered a drive versus an emotion, and the chemical processes that occur in the brain that stimulate romantic love. You will hear why love is considered a more powerful drive than sex. Also find out what triggers romantic love in the opposite sex.
  • Segment 2
    In this session find out how to keep the passion and romance alive in the attachment stage of love. You will learn how to increase levels of dopamine in order to maintain the stage of romantic love and enhance the feelings of attachment. Also find out what not to do, if you don't want to fall in love.
  • Segment 3
    In this session we discuss the different stages a person moves through after being dumped. Find out how to accelerate the recovery process so that you can be open to the arrival of a new love in your life. Also learn how antidepressants can inhibit the romantic love drive.

Show Links:

  • "Why We Love," by Helen Fisher, PhD
    Elation, mood swings, sleeplessness, and obsession—these are the tell-tale signs of someone in the throes of romantic passion. In this revealing new book, renowned anthropologist Helen Fisher explains why this experience—which cuts across time, geography, and gender—is a force as powerful as the need for food or sleep.

    Why We Love begins by presenting the results of a scientific study in which Fisher scanned the brains of people who had just fallen madly in love. She proves, at last, what researchers had only suspected: when you fall in love, primordial areas of the brain “light up” with increased blood flow, creating romantic passion. Fisher uses this new research to show exactly what you experience when you fall in love, why you choose one person rather than another, and how romantic love affects your sex drive and your feelings of attachment to a partner. She argues that all animals feel romantic attraction, that love at first sight comes out of nature, and that human romance evolved for crucial reasons of survival. Lastly, she offers concrete suggestions on how to control this ancient passion, and she optimistically explores the future of romantic love in our chaotic modern world.

    Provocative, enlightening, and persuasive, Why We Love offers radical new answers to the age-old question of what love is and thus provides invaluable new insights into keeping love alive.

  • Click here to read "What is Love," an article by Dr. Fisher, now.