Beautiful Wild Minds with Carl Safina

Beautiful Wild Minds with Carl Safina

From See See by Ceci by Dr. Cecilia Ponce Rivera

May 13, 2026 · 1h 38m · Season 4 · Episode 7

About this episode

Carl Safina discusses the consciousness and emotional lives of various animal species, exploring themes of empathy and inter-species communication.

In this episode of See See by Ceci, Carl Safina, one of the world's most eloquent and mindful voices for the living Earth, MacArthur Fellowship laureate, and author of environmental classics including Beyond Words, Becoming Wild, and Alfie and Me, takes us on a journey across species and into the very nature of mind itself. Travel with us into the open ocean, the deep forest, and beyond, in the company of whales, wolves, elephants, and owls, and discover what consciousness looks like when we stop assuming it belongs only to us. Safina is the inaugural Endowed Professor for Nature and Humanity at Stony Brook University and founder of the Safina Center. As a scientist, he helped ban high-seas drift nets and reform U.S. fishing policy. For decades, he has been asking the questions most of us never think to pose: What is it like to be an elephant mourning a lost companion? How do sperm whale clans announce who they are in patterns of clicks as precise as Morse code? And what does a seven-year-old screech owl named Alfie, who still calls to the man who raised her, teach us about trust, love, and identity? In this wide-ranging and deeply moving conversation, Safina reflects on culture…

People in this episode

Host: Dr. Cecilia Ponce Rivera

Guest: Carl Safina

Topics covered

  • animal consciousness
  • environmental science
  • cognition
  • inter-species communication
  • empathy in animals
  • nature and humanity

Keywords

  • animal intelligence
  • whales
  • elephants
  • sperm whales
  • cognition
  • de-extinction
  • trust
  • identity

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Stony Brook University, Safina Center

Books & works: Beyond Words, Becoming Wild, Alfie and Me

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