Dr. Lori Marino—founder and executive director of the Kimmela Center for Animal Advocacy, as well as a neuroscientist and expert in animal behavior and intelligence—explains exactly what a neuroscientist is, and how that academic orientation informs her thinking...
Dr. Ann Weaver—an animal behaviorist conducting a pioneering, long-term, conservation-based study of free-ranging bottle nose dolphins off the coast of St. Petersburg, Florida—explains that she initially gravitated toward dolphins as an academic interest, as...
Once in a while, I set aside the chief element of the “Talking Animals” format—a long form interview with a single guest—to offer a debate or some other multi-guest panel discussion. As part of that effort, and a parallel desire to give voice to a broader array of...
Avalon Theisen—the 14-year-old Tampa environmentalist, animal advocate, and founder of Conserve It Forward—describes what Conserve It Forward is and does, and what prompted her to launch it 2010 (at age nine). She explains how the organization has evolved,...
Dr. Steven Tauber--Associate Professor and the Chair of the Department of Government & International Affairs at the University of South Florida, whose just-published book is “Navigating The Jungle: Law, Politics, and the Animal Advocacy Movement”—discusses how,...
Cheri Thompson--founder of Healing Species, a South Carolina-based program that plucks rescue dogs from shelters and places them in a school program designed to reduce aggression and bullying, while increasing empathy in those classrooms—discusses her formative...
Dr. Carl Safina — a prize-winning author, scientist and MacArthur Fellow—discusses his new book, “Beyond Words: What Animals Think And Feel,” which in the broadest of strokes, involves three big sections, in which Safina is observing the behavior of elephants at...
Indra Lahiri — founder of Indraloka Animal Sanctuary in Mehoopany, Pennsylvania, one of the few sanctuaries that houses both farm animals and other species—recalls having a close connection with animals as a child, including being that prototypical neighborhood kid...
I convened a panel of professional pet sitters—Shelley Hamilton of Perfect Pets, Glen Hatchell of Home Buddies (also a former WMNF Morning Show Host), and Nina Perino of Love All Beings Pet Sitting—to discuss various aspects of pet sitting. We had a peppy,...
Andrea Turkalo, of the Wildlife Conservation Society—and considered the world’s leading expert on forest elephants, having studied them for more than two decades in the Central African Republic (CAR)—recounts what initially drew her to the CAR nearly 30 years ago,...
