From tiny cowries to giant clams, seashells have gripped human imaginations since time immemorial. In her magnificent new book, The Sound of the Sea, journalist Cynthia Barnett tells the epic history of humanity’s interactions with shells and the soft-bodied animals who make them. These stories of how we have treasured, traded, plundered, and coveted shells … Continue reading Ep. 43 – Cynthia Barnett on our world of seashells →

When We Talk About Animals

Ep. 43 – Cynthia Barnett on our world of seashells

Most of us land-lubbers assume that light-making among ocean creatures is an exotic and rare phenomenon. But that’s wrong. The majority of animals in the ocean, which means the majority of animals on the planet, are capable of making light. From top to bottom, the ocean is teeming with unforgettably beautiful and extraordinarily diverse light … Continue reading Ep. 42 – Edie Widder on the ocean’s spectacular light →

Ep. 42 – Edie Widder on the ocean’s spectacular light

Hedgehogs, despite being consistently voted the most beloved mammal in the United Kingdom, have suffered great population losses as industrial agriculture and other human impacts destroy their hedgerow habitats. Our latest guest, Hugh Warwick, has studied, celebrated, written about, and fought to protect hedgehogs for more than 30 years, leading a groundswell of local and … Continue reading Ecologist Hugh Warwick on Loving Your Hedgehogs →

Ecologist Hugh Warwick on Loving Your Hedgehogs

In “Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction,” science journalist Michelle Nijhuis chronicles the history of the wildlife conservation movement through the stories of the extraordinary people — both legendary experts and passionate amateurs — who shaped its evolution and expanding ambitions. Nijhuis introduces us to the Swedish scientists who devised the … Continue reading Ep. 40 – Michelle Nijhuis on the history of the wildlife conservation movement →

Ep. 40 – Michelle Nijhuis on the history of the wildlife conservation movement

In 1968, Dr. Bernie Krause was leading a booming music career. A prodigiously talented musician and early master of the electronic synthesizer, Krause was busy working with artists like the Doors and the Beach Boys and performing iconic effects for blockbuster films. Then Warner Brothers commissioned him to create an album incorporating the sounds of … Continue reading Ep. 39 – Bernie Krause on saving the music of the wild →

Ep. 39 – Bernie Krause on saving the music of the wild

In the long months we’ve all been confined to our homes, many people have become reacquainted with the vibrant life just outside their doors, finding unexpected joy, companionship, and hope through partaking in the cycles of love and loss that happen in the skies and yards around us. It is this wonder to be found … Continue reading Ep. 38 – Margaret Renkl on discovering wonder, grief, and inspiration in backyard nature →

Ep. 38 – Margaret Renkl on discovering wonder, grief, and inspiration in backyard nature

Are plants intelligent? Can they think? Can they hear, see, feel, smell and taste? Throughout history, most Western philosophers and scientists answered those questions with a resounding “no.” Plants have long been treated as passive, inanimate objects that form the backdrop to our active lives, rather than highly sensitive organisms with intelligence and agency of … Continue reading Ep. 37 – Monica Gagliano on plant intelligence and human imagination →

Ep. 37 – Monica Gagliano on plant intelligence and human imagination

In 2013, a sperm whale washed up dead on Spain’s southern coast. In its ruptured digestive tract, scientists found an entire flattened greenhouse that once grew wintertime tomatoes, complete with plastic tarps, hoses, two flower pots, and a spray canister. The whale also contained an ice cream tub, mattress parts, a carafe, and a coat … Continue reading Ep. 36 – Rebecca Giggs on the world in the whale →

Ep. 36 – Rebecca Giggs on the world in the whale

As Dr. Joseph Drew Lanham writes in his beautiful and deeply moving memoir, The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature, from his earliest days growing up in the piedmont forests and fields of Edgefield, South Carolina, he dreamed of flight. This fascination with the aerial journeys of the blue jays … Continue reading Ep. 35 – J. Drew Lanham on finding ourselves magnified in nature’s colored hues →

Ep. 35 – J. Drew Lanham on finding ourselves magnified in nature’s colored hues

Born in Paris to an African-American GI and a French woman at the end of World War II, Dr. Daniel Pauly rose from a difficult and extraordinarily unusual childhood in Europe to become one of the most daring, productive, and influential fisheries scientists in the history of the field — and the first to illuminate … Continue reading Ep. 34 – Dr. Daniel Pauly on why overfishing is a Ponzi scheme →

Ep. 34 – Dr. Daniel Pauly on why overfishing is a Ponzi scheme

As wildlife across Canada face unprecedented pressures from climate change and industrial development, Indigenous Peoples, who have relied upon and managed these animals for millennia, are leading the way on ensuring their protection. From Newfoundland and Labrador to the Yukon Territory, groundbreaking Indigenous-led protection initiatives are ensuring Canada’s treasured species like the boreal caribou and … Continue reading Ep. 33 – Valérie Courtois on Indigenous-Led Land and Wildlife Stewardship →

Ep. 33 – Valérie Courtois on Indigenous-Led Land and Wildlife Stewardship

Amid the systematic cruelties and alienating conditions which define our factory farm system, Farm Sanctuary stands out as an exemplar of human kindness. Over the past thirty years, Farm Sanctuary — co-founded and led by our guest, Gene Baur — has rescued thousands of farm animals from short, tortured lives in industrial confinement and allowed … Continue reading Ep. 32 – Gene Baur on changing hearts, minds and laws about farm animals →

Ep. 32 – Gene Baur on changing hearts, minds and laws about farm animals

The repercussions of the international wildlife trade, which is a primary driver of our planet’s biodiversity crisis, have recently hit close to home. With the society-altering impacts of Covid-19, which scientists think originated in wild animals, and the cultural storm around the Netflix hit “Tiger King,” the true cost of the wildlife trade and the … Continue reading Ep. 31 – Zak Smith on ending the international wildlife trade →

Ep. 31 – Zak Smith on ending the international wildlife trade

Roughly two-thirds of emerging infectious diseases — including COVID-19 and almost all recent epidemics — originate in the bodies of animals. Microbes have spilled over from animals to humans for time immemorial, but, as our species dominates the biosphere and transforms the frequency and nature of human-animal interactions, the rate at which microbes are jumping … Continue reading Ep. 30 – Sonia Shah on how animal microbes become human pandemics →

Ep. 30 – Sonia Shah on how animal microbes become human pandemics

In an age where almost everything we eat is produced outside of public view, whistleblowers are critical to maintaining the integrity of our food systems. These principled insiders are often the first people to warn the public — often at grave personal cost — when food is unsafe, when workers face inhumane conditions, when food … Continue reading Ep. 29 – Amanda Hitt on Why the Animal Agriculture Industry Needs Whistleblowers →

Ep. 29 – Amanda Hitt on Why the Animal Agriculture Industry Needs Whistleblowers

When We Talk About Animals is a series of in-depth conversations with leading thinkers about the big questions animals raise about what it means to be human. Supported by the Law, Ethics & Animals Program at Yale Law School, Yale University’s Human Nature Lab, and the Yale Broadcast Studio.

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When We Talk About Animals

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