Transcript for:
Exploring the Reproductive System

  • Hello, everybody. So today we get to talk about-- gosh, I think I just said that the kidneys are one of my very favorite systems ever. And I mean, I just-- I know it's true. I know that every system I talk about I'm like, but this is the best one. And the reproductive system, I mean, who cannot say this is their favorite system? I mean, it really is quite fascinating. So we can start this conversation by admiring some artwork from my son. This was done--he's now 10, and this was done five years ago when he was a little five-year- old kindergarten slime. And I was prepping for a lecture one night in the living room, and he was supposed to be asleep. And he crawls out of his bed and tromps down the stairs and comes and climbs into my lap, and of course I'm like, get away from me you stinking parasite. But he gets all cute and cuddly, you know. All right. Parasites sometimes sitting in your lap, that's okay. And he looks at the picture of what I am, you know, prepping for me anatomy--or my physio class the next morning, and he sees this. Oh, and his eyes get really big. My friends and their children all know that reproduction-- the reproductive system, all things body-- in my household we talk about everything and have since they came out of my body. And often--I mean, the number of times that I've had to call up their friend's parents and be like, "Yeah, my kids were teaching your kids about sperm and eggs today." My friends are always like, "Oh my God. What's wrong with you?" So this is the inspiring image for young Mr. Keenan who-- that made him want to create this lovely replication of sperm and eggs. It's quite nice. And it's always nice to draw my brain back to those cute, little days. He was a rather avid artist, and actually drew pictures of cadavers that he gave to his kindergarten teacher. That caused a couple of conversations as well. So the reproductive system, I'm, you know, a huge fan. It's fascinating. And we're-- it's the only system, obviously, where we divide up our conversation by male humans and female humans. And in spite of doing that--and we will carry it through-- we're going to start out by looking at gross anatomy. We're going to follow up with gamete formation. I mean, Keenan would love it. We're going to talk about how we're going to make sperm and eggs. And then we're going to talk about how--like the anatomy required to combine sperm and eggs, because really the reproductive system, that's kind of the whole point. We're going to tie it all up in the end with a conversation about how even though we spend all of this time separating out the fellas and the ladies, the fact is that we-- our similarities are a whole heck of a lot more striking than you might think. So then I had to flip a coin. You know, do the fellas go first or do the ladies go first, and that was a tough choice. And then I had to try and think of a good transition to get us in to talking about the fellas first. That was not an easy task. I don't think I was successful. All my transitions ended up being inappropriate. So let's just say, now we will talk about male anatomy.