What we can learn about parenting from the animal kingdom

About this episode

The episode explores parenting strategies in the animal kingdom and what humans can learn from them.

Becoming a parent is undoubtedly one of the biggest events that can occur in any of our lifetimes – suddenly we have a tiny living being to take care of that demands the majority of our thoughts, time and attention. Of course, this can at times feel overwhelming and often leads us to look for help and advice from our parents, grandparents or close friends. But what strategies do parents in the animal kingdom use to raise their young, and is there anything we humans can learn from them? As part of our Nature's Unsung Heroes miniseries, we’re joined by science writer Elizabeth Preston to talk about her latest book, The Creatures’ Guide to Caring – How Animal Parents Teach Us That Humans Were Born to Care. She tells us how orca grandmothers pitch in to help with the raising of their grandchildren, how in some species of monkeys the father takes on most of responsibility for taking care of their offspring, and how we can learn so much more about ourselves as humans by paying deeper attention to the wider world we live in. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

People in this episode

Guest: Elizabeth Preston

Topics covered

• parenting
• animal behavior
• human development
• science
• nature
• caregiving

Keywords

• parenting
• animal kingdom
• orca grandmothers
• monkey fathers
• care
• human behavior

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Our Media

Books & works: The Creatures’ Guide to Caring

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