At Length with Frans De Waal

At length with Steve Scher. - The House of Podcasts

“Mama’s Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell us About Ourselves” by Frans De Waal raises a troubling question that challenges humans place in the world. If animals, from mice and fish to apes and birds, have emotional intelligence, can recognize happiness or distress in themselves and in others, then aren’t we humans obligated to at least allow them to live decent lives. Science, unyoked from the stimulus-response view of animals as automatons is discovering that animals order their worlds as we do, around fairness, power and accommodation with one another. Knowing this, will we make a place for animals on the planet?