Animals

Dr. Steven Amstrup—chief scientist for Polar Bears International, a polar bear conservation organization; before joining PBI, he was a research wildlife biologist with the United States Geological Survey at the Alaska Science Center in Anchorage,...

Nellie McKay—the singer-writer-actor-animal advocate who first appeared on “Talking Animals” in April of 2004, when her debut album, “Get Away From Me,” was generating rave reviews and buzz galore, partly propelled by “The Dog Song,”...

Dan Piraro—creator of the innovative, acclaimed, and much-beloved comic strip, “Bizarro,” which he’s drawn for more than 35 years, and in which animals (talking, and otherwise) often play a central role—surveys in a new "Talking...

Dr. Matt Johnson—a professor at Humboldt State University, in the school’s Department of Wildlife, who’s overseeing an extended research study gauging the effectiveness of using owls, versus rodenticides, to remove rodents from nearby Napa Valley...

Dr. Dani McVety-Leinen and Ross Taylor—founder of Lap of Love Veterinary Hospice, and one of two filmmakers who created the documentary “The Hardest Day,” respectively—discuss in a “Talking Animals” interview how the film was conceived,...

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...

Dr. Lisa Wiese—associate professor of Nursing at the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing at Florida Atlantic University (FAU), and co-author of a study conducted recently at FAU, which found that interacting with a robotic...

Ellen Quinlan—executive director of the Darbster Foundation (& Darbster Rescue), whose chief mission involves plucking cats and dogs from crowded south Florida shelters, and finding homes for them in the adoption-friendly New England area, with...

On the morning of Dec. 15, I once again set aside the customary “Talking Animals” format to deliver the Annual Christmas Animal Song special—that is, a show almost entirely devoted to Holiday-oriented animal tunes. As...

Dee Boersma—a biologist and professor at the University of Washington who’s been studying penguins for decades, including Galapagos penguins for 50 years; in a piece some years ago examining her research and extensive field work,...

Susan Kurowski—executive director of the Pets for the Elderly Foundation (PFE), which covers a portion of the adoption fee for seniors, 60-years-old or older, adopting a shelter dog or cat from one of PFE’s participating...

Dr. Jennifer Conrad—a veterinarian, founder of The Paw Project, and a tireless crusader against declawing cats for many years; I first interviewed her about it on “Talking Animals” in 2005, and she’d already been working...