The Psychosphere

A special finale episode with groundbreaking philosophers, Alan Love, Denis Walsh, John Dupre and Helen Steward. Melanie hosts a roundtable discussion on the new science of agency in nature. How did all this intelligence emerge in the first place and why do we ignore the role of the intelligence and agency of other species in our understandings of ecosystems and evolution? Why do other animals pursue their goals and where did all this purposiveness come from in the first place. Listen in to some of the best minds approaching one of the most exciting areas of new research in science.

Cambridge University professor Nicky Clayton discusses her pioneering work on the minds of crows and other corvids. Melanie and Nicky even get round to discussing the possibility of jackdaws performing magic tricks...

Novelist and psychologist Charles Fernyhough discusses his fascinating research on the phenomena of hearing voices. Some people have a "voice in their head" and others don't. Some people "hear voices" other than their own and don't view it as a pathology. Others find it distressing. This episode considers what the research has to say about human consciousness and subjectivity.

Well-known scientist and animal advocate Carl Safina discusses his work on animal cultures with Melanie. Carl makes a case for why humans aren't the only species with cultures. Are the cultures of other species overlooked in conservation? What would it mean not to only work to save animal populations but their ways of life too?

Calum Brown is a pioneer researcher on fish cognition. He brings Melanie up to speed on the latest research on the diverse intelligences of fishes, the prejudices that still hold us back from acknowledging the mental attributes of sea creatures, and what this might mean morally.

Neuroscientist and animal advocate Lori Marino discusses the intelligence of cetaceans with Melanie, and the consequences of captivity on these extraordinary minds. Why are whales and dolphins some of the smartest animals around, and how could we reimagine a world for their wellbeing?

Melanie discusses the idea of personhood in non-human animals with science writer Brandon Keim. How can we recognize personhood in other species, and what does this mean for their moral considerability?

Bestselling author and self-confessed flint-knapping nerd, Rebecca Wragg-Sykes discusses her research on neanderthals with Melanie. Why were our fellow humans dismissed as a brute, dumb creature for so long, and what can recent research tell us about the minds of this lost but separate species of human? Rebecca is the author of Kindred: Neanderthal life, love, death and art, and her work can be found at: https://www.rebeccawraggsykes.com/

In this episode, Melanie discusses animal minds and animal ethics with Professor Francoise Wemelsfelder. Francoise is Professor of Animal Behaviour and Welfare at Scotland's Rural College. She pioneered a methodology for the study of animal expressivity (body language) and subjective experience, generally referred to as ‘Qualitative Behaviour Assessment’ (QBA). Her research focuses on the application of this method as a practical tool for welfare assessment and management in farm, zoo, and companion animals. Research interests associated with this work are animal boredom and environmental enrichment.

How smart is a slime mould? In this episode, Melanie is joined by Nirosha Murugan to discuss the weird and wonderful lives of slime moulds. Nirosha is Assistant Professor in the Health Sciences department at Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada, where she studies tissue biophysics and cancer biology. In her prior work, she studied regenerative biology and comparative cognition, with a focus on slime moulds, an almost unclassifiable set of single cell organisms, famed for their seemingly paradoxical abilities to be intelligent in the absence of a brain... You can learn more about Nirosha here.

This week, Melanie is joined by plant scientist Paco Calvo to discuss the intelligence of the greenery that surrounds us. Are plants intelligent and how can we understand or study this? Paco is the head of the MINT (Minimal Intelligence) lab and a leading figure in the philosophy of plant behavior and signalling (plant neurobiology). He is also a philosopher concerned with issues at the intersection of plant biology and cognitive science. He is the author of the book Planta Sapiens: Unmasking Plant Intelligence (2022).