Kayt Sukel
Author of Dirty Minds: How Our Brains Influence Love, Sex, and Relationships
Kayt is a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA), the Author's Guild and the National Association of Science Writers (NASW). She has recently returned to the United States after living abroad for six years and has just published her first book, DIRTY MINDS: HOW OUR BRAINS INFLUENCE LOVE, SEX AND RELATIONSHIPS, an exploration of the neurobiology of love (Free Press, 2012).
Kayt Sukel's writing credits include personal essays in the Washington Post, American Baby, the Bark, USAToday, Literary Mama and the Christian Science Monitor as well as articles on a variety of subjects for the Atlantic Monthly, Parenting, Cerebrum, BrainWork and American Baby magazines. She blogs regularly about traveling on the Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Award winning travel blog, Travel Savvy Mom; and science, love and life at the Houston Chronicle's Hearts and Minds blog.
You can often find her oversharing on Twitter as @kaytsukel.
The chemical, oxytocin, that makes us want to cuddle, also makes us very suspicious of out-groups, people who are not in our relationship.
What’s become clear is that, like romantic love, pregnancy is something that changes the risk and the reward processing circuit of the brain.
Couples that stay together tend to have very highly correlated levels of oxytocin.
Everyone has a unique odor print that is built on your immune system genes and that is one of the things that attracts you to a partner.
A broken heart isn’t something that should be discounted.
I can go with my gut and sort of feel a situation out. And I think that’s rather liberating.
As much as I would like to argue that fathers’ biological commitment to pregnancy is very little, they do go through some changes.
As a society, we have so many hang-ups about sex. If we would address that head on, we’d have a lot less problems related to it. It’s just part of […]
I have friends who I’ve known since they were 12, and they wanted to be moms and that was going to be the focus of their life. I wasn’t in […]
Is neural signature going to tell you how much in love you are? Probably not.
The stories come in surprising ways. An unexpected confession over a meal or a few drinks. A warning, perhaps, to keep your distance from a particular person before a conference. […]
A few years ago, Lay’s Potato Chips threw down the gauntlet in a new advertising campaign: “Bet you can’t eat just one!” It was a clever slogan–and had a clever […]
Did you see that photo of sharks allegedly swimming in a mall in Kuwait? Or the video of the eagle grabbing a baby in Montreal? Both must have been shared […]
Could monitoring the activity of a brain region called the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) help law enforcement officials predict which violent criminals are likely to re-offend? A recent study out […]
Nearly 10 years ago, the Supreme Court outlawed the death penalty for crimes committed by minors in Roper v. Simmons. Justice Anthony Kennedy, representing the majority opinion, wrote: First, as […]
One of the best things I read this week was a piece by Vaughan Bell in the Guardian entitled, “Our Brains, and How They’re Not as Simple as We Think.” […]
You’ve heard it time and time again: marriage is good for your health. Studies have shown that married folks not only live longer but also enjoy better health than their […]
I have a friend who suffers from chronic pain. She has tried meditation, acupuncture, opioids, yoga and all manner of other remedies. Chances are, if anyone, anywhere, has said something […]
What secrets might one single biological pathway be harboring? The RAS family of proteins have a unique role. They act as a sort of relay, an on/off switch, if you […]
Ludwig van Beethoven is credited with saying, “Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.” And while some may argue the point, there’s certainly been a good bit […]
Last week, I had the honor of speaking at the second Computation + Journalism Symposium hosted by my alma mater, the Georgia Institute of Technology. The basic question asked by […]
In the 80’s classic movie, FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH, experienced high school ingenue Linda Barrett tells her younger friend Stacy Hamilton that she should just lose her virginity already. […]
A few weeks ago, I was in line at the grocery store and overheard the following exchange. “The cop gave her a ticket for texting and driving. She wasn’t speeding […]
A good friend–I’ll call her Tandy here–is a huge fan of meditation. She spends a good hour each day practicing “mindfulness.” She credits her practice with a more calm demeanor, […]
There’s a pervasive notion that a monogamous relationship is the ideal. Certainly, that’s what most Americans have been hearing for as long as they can remember. A committed, loving relationship […]
It’s that time of year again. My gym is chock full of New Year’s resolutioners–hogging treadmills and filling up space in already tight Zumba classes, desperate to lose a few […]
It’s the end of the year–which means I’m reflecting on all manner of things. It’s been an incredible year for me. DIRTY MINDS: HOW OUR BRAINS INFLUENCE LOVE, SEX AND […]
Every moment we walk around in this big, bad world, our brains somehow make sense of the environment around us. They manage, somehow, to process an incredible amount of visual […]
The American Gut Project is an open-source, community effort to better understand the diversity of our microbiomes.
Have you gotten a measure of your attention skills on a site like Lumosity? Has a physician recommended that your elderly parent give software like BrainHQ a try? Then you are already part of the booming Digital Brain Health market . . .