The Deal with Animals with Marika S. Bell
The Deal with Animals with Marika S. Bell

The Deal with Animals with Marika S. Bell

Marika S. Bell

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Episodes

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Humans interact with animals every day of our lives: diet, wildlife, clothes and even medicines, are all intersections we often don’t think about.  This is a podcast about the interactions and connections between humans and non-human animals. Our mission is to make research more accessible to the public while sharing the voices and lived experience of our human connection with animals.

Recent Episodes

139. Spring Special! With Dr. Patricia McConnell on on Solving Murders and Herding Dogs
APR 6, 2026
139. Spring Special! With Dr. Patricia McConnell on on Solving Murders and Herding Dogs
The is the Spring Special Episode! Transcript McConnell describes learning the craft of fiction, developing protagonist Maddie McGowan, for her recently released murder mystery, 'Away To Me'. The conversation also explores what herding teaches about partnership and training without leashes, how breed and context affect behavior, and what she hopes the next generation of trainers advances.Guest Bio: Patricia McConnell, PhD, CAAB is an internationally renowned animal behaviorist and author whose acclaimed books, including The Other End of the Leash, For the Love of a Dog, and The Education of Will, have sold more than 1.2 million copies. She saw clients whose dogs had serious behavioral problems for twenty-five years, and spoke around the world about canine training and behavior. A former adjunct professor in Zoology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, her nationally syndicated radio show, Calling All Pets, played in more than 110 cities for 14 years and her television show, Petline, aired on Animal Planet for two and a half years. Her debut novel, Away to Me, is her first venture into fiction, and has received rave reviews. She lives with her husband, Jim Billings, her Border Collies Skip and Maggie, and a spoiled flock of sheep on a farm in Southern Wisconsin, and can be found online at PatriciaMcConnell.com.Book Recommendations: The Salt Stones: Seasons of a Shepherd's Life by Helen WhybrowRelated Links: Book Recommendations: The Salt Stones: Seasons of a Shepherd's Life by Helen WhybrowRelated Links: Spring Special 2025Spring Special 2022Ep. 82 Expanding Understanding of Canine Behaviour with Suzanne ClothierTDWA BlogGuest Book Recommendations List TDWA BlogGuest Book Recommendations List
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39 MIN
138. Crows, Cuckoos, and the Evolution of Avian Communication with researchers Kaeli Swift and Will Feeney
MAR 9, 2026
138. Crows, Cuckoos, and the Evolution of Avian Communication with researchers Kaeli Swift and Will Feeney
Episode 6 of Series 15: Animal Communications - Transcript (linked)I’m joined by Dr. Kaeli Swift and Dr. William Feeney to explore how birds learn from one another—sometimes within a species, sometimes across species lines. From crows passing along reputations to magpies inheriting the neighbourhood’s opinion of a cuckoo in seconds, we dive into the fast, social, and surprisingly nuanced ways information moves through bird communities, and what these systems reveal about communication, cooperation, and survival.Guest Bios: William Feeney currently works as a Research Fellow at Griffith University in Australia and at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Germany. His PhD focused on understanding the ecology and evolution of cuckoo-host arms races in Australia, and since finishing his PhD he has continued working on this as well as predator-prey relationships in coral reef fishes. His current work is split between working on fishes and birds, and in particular at two long-term projects in Australia.Dr. Kaeli Swift is a research scientist with the University of Washington. For the past 5 years she has lived and worked on the remote island of Tinian, where she studies the ecology of the endemic Tinian monarch. She received her PhD from the University of Washington where she studied crow funerals.Book Recommendations: Will's Recommendation- Letters to a young Scientist by EO Wilson, Kaeli's Recommendation- Any local birding book you can find! Here is one for England and EuropeRelated Links: Episode 2 of Series 13, Sex and AnimalsEpisode 1 of Series 13, Sex and Animals
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54 MIN