All posts in Primates

Steven M. Wise, founder and president of the Nonhuman Rights Project

Steven M. Wise—founder and president of the Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP); an attorney, author, and legal scholar, Wise is leading NhRP’s pioneering effort to free an elephant named Happy from the Bronx Zoo through a writ of habeas corpus, aiming to change her status from “thing” to “legal person”—reviews NhRP’s legal gambit when we previously spoke in 2013, when the organization was focusing its efforts on chimpanzees. Read more…

Kitty Block, President and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States

Kitty Block—President and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), as well as CEO of Humane Society International, HSUS’ global division—discusses getting a precocious start working in animal welfare, in that her Mom was an animal activist. Read more…

Caitlin O’Connell, author of “Wild Rituals: 10 Lessons Animals Can Teach Us about Connection, Community, and Ourselves”

Caitlin O’Connell—a noted scientist who’s spent much of her career studying elephants and their communication, and author of several books, most recently “Wild Rituals: 10 Lessons Animals Can Teach Us about Connection, Community, and Ourselves”—addresses some of her varied professional pursuits, including a NASA project that involved the Space Station, that had prompted me, tongue partly in cheek, to dub her “a Renaissance Woman.” Read more…

Brian Hare, co-author of “Survival of the Friendliest: Understanding Our Origins and Rediscovering Our Common Humanity”

Brian Hare —a professor in Evolutionary Anthropology, Psychology, and Neuroscience at Duke University, where he founded the Duke Canine Cognition Center, and co-author (with Vanessa Woods) of “Survival of the Friendliest: Understanding Our Origins and Rediscovering Our Common Humanity”—explains why, as a self-described “dog guy,” creator of the Canine Cognition Center, and who’s previous book (also co-written with Woods) was “The Genius of Dogs,” the new book, in defying reasonable expectations, is not a dog book. Read more…

Carl Safina, ecologist, author of “Becoming Wild: How Animal Cultures Raise Families, Create Beauty, and Achieve Peace”

Owing to the coronavirus pandemic and the ongoing Stay at Home order, I produced and recorded this show remotely from home, the ninth program prepared this way at the Talking Animals corporate headquarters in Jupiter Farms, Florida, and likely the way the broadcasts will come together thru mid-June. Tentatively, we’re due back in studio on June 24.

Carl Safina —the ecologist and author of several books, most recently “Becoming Wild: How Animal Cultures Raise Families, Create Beauty, and Achieve Peace”—addresses the relationship between the new book, and his previous one, “Beyond Words.” Read more…