When I was in college, I took a course called “Human Sexuality.”

I went to a small college, so most classes ranged from 10 to 30 students.

Unsurprisingly, Human Sexuality was so wildly popular with 18 to 22-year-olds that it got to 200 students every single year.

We studied the biology, history, and anthropology of human sexuality. We watched porn (yes, really). We had guest lectures from a former prostitute, an HIV-positive man, and a devout member of the BDSM community, among others.

But one of the most enlightening and fascinating parts of the course was reading Sex at Dawn, a book by Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jethá on the evolution of monogamy (or lack thereof) and what that means for how we approach relationships and sexuality.

That book shifted my perspective on sex and monogamy, and I would highly recommend it to everyone.

Or, if you’d like the abridged version, Christopher Ryan does an excellent job summarizing the key ideas in this fascinating TED Talk: