It's Friday, November 18th, 2016, and you're listening to Inquiring Minds. I'm Indravis Gontas.

And I'm Kishorehari. Each week, we bring you a new in-depth exploration of the space where science, politics, and society collide.

We endeavor to find out what's true, what's left to discover, and why it all matters.

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This summer on episode 146, I interviewed John Hargrove, who was an orchid trainer with SeaWorld,

and he had some pretty harsh things to say about the quality of animal care at the SeaWorld Parks. And a couple of my friends who are marine biologists asked me to talk to a marine

biologist or an animal behavior specialist to see if they had a different perspective. So I did that.

This week I contacted Heather Hill,

who is a marine biologist and a marine mammal specialist

at St. Mary's University in Texas,

and she herself works with some of the animals

at SeaWorld San Antonio,

where John Hargrove got his start.

We should highlight the fact that the episode with Hargrove was very divisive,

not only because some of the topics are controversial,

but a lot of our listeners pointed out that they felt as if Hargrove had an axe to grind

with a former employer.

...