Eye-To-Eye Animal Encounters

Eye-To-Eye Animal Encounters

Author: Wisconsin Public Radio June 26, 2021 Duration: 51:51
There's a certain a kind of visual encounter that can be life changing: A cross-species gaze. The experience of looking directly into the eyes of an animal in the wild, and seeing it look back. It happens more often than you’d think and it can be so profound, there’s a name for it: eye-to-eye epiphany. So what happens when someone with feathers or fur and claws looks back? How does it change people, and what can it teach us? Human identity cannot be separated from our nonhuman kin. From forest ecology to the human microbiome, emerging research suggests that being human is a complicated journey made possible only by the good graces of our many companions. In partnership with the Center for Humans and Nature and with support from the Kalliopeia Foundation, To The Best Of Our Knowledge is exploring this theme of "kinship" in a special radio series. Original Air Date: February 08, 2020 Guests: Gavin Van Horn — Jenny Kendler — Ivan Schwab — Jane Goodall — Alan Lightman Interviews In This Hour: In The Eye Of The Osprey: A Physicist's Wild Epiphany — 100 Bird Eyes Are Watching You — The Look That Changed Primatology — Watching the Fierce Green Fire Die: Animal Gazes That Shaped Conservation Movements — The 600 Million Year History Of The Eye — 'We Are The Feast' — A Feminist Philosopher's Life-Changing Encounter With A Crocodile — How Do You Practice Kinship? A Brief Meditation — Sharing Eye-To-Eye Epiphanies With The Animal World Further Reading: "The Disruptive Eye" by Gavin Van Horn—"6 a.m. on LaSalle Street" by Katherine Cummings—"Salmon Speak ~ Why Not Earth?" by Bron Taylor—"The Eyes of an Owl" by Greg Ripley—"From Bestiary" by Elise Paschen

There’s a certain kind of conversation that doesn’t just skim the surface of a topic but wades into its complexities and contradictions. That’s the space where you’ll find To The Best Of Our Knowledge, a Peabody award-winning production from Wisconsin Public Radio. This isn’t a lecture or a simple interview series; it’s a curated exploration of the ideas shaping our world, hosted through thoughtful dialogue. Each episode brings you voices you might not otherwise encounter in the same room: a poet might illuminate a scientific concept, while a historian’s perspective could reframe a current event. You’ll hear from novelists, software engineers, activists, and philosophers-people united not by their field, but by the depth and passion they bring to their work. Listening to this podcast feels like being part of a nuanced, ongoing discussion that challenges assumptions and invites curiosity. It’s for anyone who believes that understanding culture, society, and the human condition requires looking at them from multiple, sometimes surprising, angles. The result is a consistently engaging audio experience that treats ideas as living, evolving things to be examined with care and genuine interest.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

To The Best Of Our Knowledge
Podcast Episodes
The Weird, Wild World of Mushrooms [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 51:26
We owe our past and future existence on Earth to fungi. Some can heal you, some can kill you, and some can change you forever. And the people who love them are convinced that mushrooms explain the world. Original Air Dat…
Reading While Young [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 51:49
Remember when reading still felt magical? When a book could sweep you off your feet into another world? It might be that the best way to find your way back the magic is through a kid’s book. We talk to authors about Wond…
Searching for Order in the Universe [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 51:57
When things don't go the way they're supposed to — viruses, star systems, presidents, even fish — we're often desperate to explain the chaos. In this episode, we search for order in the universe. Original Air Date: Augus…
The Power of Pleasure and Joy [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 51:35
What if the most unselfish thing you could do was to pursue pleasure? To look for delight? To feel joy? We make the case for the transformative power of joy, pleasure and delight. Original Air Date: October 12, 2019 Gues…
Living With Loneliness [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 51:51
After a pandemic year of social isolation, we knew loneliness would be a problem. But public health officials have been warning for years that in countries all over the world, rates of loneliness are skyrocketing. How di…
Music On Your Mind [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 51:43
Millions of people are caring for someone with severe memory loss, trying to find ways to connect. One of the best ways anyone has found is music. We examine the unexpected power of song to supercharge the human mind. Or…
Who Owns Seeds? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 51:45
It's easy to take seeds for granted, to assume that there will always be more corn or wheat or rice to plant. But as monocropping and agribusiness continue to dominate modern farming, are we losing genetic diversity, cul…
Decolonizing the Mind [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 51:47
Colonization in Africa was much more than a land grab. It was a project to replace — and even erase — local cultures. To label them inferior. Music, arts, literature and of course language. In other words, it permeated e…
Discovering America's Black DNA [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 52:06
DNA tests are uncovering family histories. In some cases they're also revealing mixed bloodlines and the buried history of slavery. For African Americans, this can be emotionally-charged. What do you do when you find out…