When We Talk About Animals

Apr 11 2023 52 ep. 56 mins 3.1k
When We Talk About Animals Podcast artwork

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, Environment & Animals Program at Yale Law School and the Yale Broadcast Studio.

  Science
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Ep. 51 – Novelist Ned Beauman on venomous lumpsuckers and the price of extinction

Apr 11 2023 65 mins  
Fiction can provide the most profound, incisive truths about the absurdities of our reality. In his most recent novel, Venomous Lumpsucker, Ned Beauman, a master of finding the humor and the fantastical in even the most devastating facets of human nature, has crafted a chilling—and deeply funny—look into what our future relationship with animals might hold. Imagining a not-so-d

Ep. 50 – Australian Biologist Danielle Clode on the Extraordinary World of Koalas

Feb 21 2023 51 mins  
Upon seeing an adorable Koala sitting on an eucalyptus branch in Australia, few would expect the beloved marsupial to emit a booming bellow to alert potential mates or rivals of its presence. But this powerful roar is just one of koalas’ many surprises, which delight and astonish in Australian biologist Danielle Clode’s new book, “Koala: A Life in the Trees.” Clode expl

Ep. 49 – Dog Cognition Expert Alexandra Horowitz on the Quiddity of Puppies

Oct 05 2022 63 mins  
Most books on puppies are dog-improvement manuals, guiding readers ‘How to Raise the Perfect Dog’ or how to achieve ‘Perfect Puppy in 7 Days.’ Alexandra Horowitz’s profound and totally delightful new book is not that type of book. It’s an unprecedented look at the complex, chaotic, fascinating, and often hilarious journeys of puppies becoming the

Ep. 48 – Patrick Rose on the Fight to Save Florida’s Manatees

Aug 02 2022 62 mins  
Grazing peacefully through shallow waterways, the Florida manatee is one of the state’s most beloved creatures. Due to a multitude of compounding, human-caused crises, the last couple years have been some of the deadliest on record for manatees. Years of worsening water quality from Florida’s unfettered agricultural pollution and real estate development have resulted in increas

Ep. 47 – Poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil on writing love letters to nature

May 24 2022 56 mins  
Poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s exuberant book of essays, World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, & Other Astonishments, has unlocked protective passion for nature among readers since its release in 2020. In the book’s thirty dazzling essays, Nezhukumatathil weaves love stories about being a daughter, a partner, a mother, and a teacher with reverence for a

Ep. 46 – Paleobiologist Thomas Halliday on the Animals of Ancient Worlds

Mar 21 2022 57 mins  
The fossil record acts as both a memorial to life’s spectacular possibilities and as a warning to humanity about how fast dominance can become forgotten history, according to our guest, Scottish paleobiologist Dr. Thomas Halliday. Halliday’s research investigates long-term patterns in the fossil record, particularly in mammals. In his magnificent and daring new book “

Ep. 45 – Rob Dunn on what the laws of biology predict about our future

Feb 02 2022 60 mins  
Amid the cataclysms of the Anthropocene, an era defined by humans’ attempts to control the natural world, it’s easy to forget that we remain as subject as ever to the ecological laws that govern living things. Like the laws of physics, paying attention to our planet’s biological laws empowers us to understand how the world works and to make predictions about the outcomes of o

Ep. 44 – Rick McIntyre on the stories of Yellowstone’s greatest wolves

Nov 22 2021 85 mins  
In 1995, the U.S. government took unprecedented actions to restore the wolf population of Yellowstone National Park, which it had brutally destroyed seventy years prior. More than thirty wolves from multiple packs were captured in Canada, transported to the park, and released in a grand experiment that would become the most successful wildlife reintroduction effort in history. Our

Ep. 43 – Cynthia Barnett on our world of seashells

Sep 22 2021 63 mins  
From tiniest 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 reveal much about w

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

Aug 16 2021 50 mins  
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 shows made by animals that we’re on