From W.H.Y.Y. in Philadelphia, I'm Terry Gross with Fresh Air Weekend.

Today, the hidden world around us, the sight smells, tastes, sounds and vibrations that are imperceptible to humans but are perceived by various animals and insects.

We talk with science writer Ed Young about his new book, An Amense World.

Also, we hear from Angela Garbis, author of the new book, Essential Labor, Mothering as Social Change.

She says raising children shouldn't be as lonely, bankrupting and exhausting as it is.

Child care shouldn't be as expensive and at the same time, young children's caregivers who are so often black and brown women, shouldn't be so underpaid.

And Justin Chang reviews two films about relationships between a younger man and an older woman.

The films were well received at this year's Sundance Film Festival and are now streaming.

After reporting on the first year of the pandemic for the Atlantic, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize, my guest, science writer Ed Young, decided he needed to take a break.

He wanted to shift his focus from the catastrophes and tragedies caused by COVID.

To a facet of the natural world, he hoped would bring some joy to his life and to his readers.

The result is his new book, An Amense World, how animal senses reveal the hidden realms around us.

It's almost like science fiction or the supernatural and that it describes the world that animals, birds and insects perceive that humans can't.

The sound smells, colors, vibrations, echoes and magnetic fields that exist beyond the limits of our senses.

He writes about animals with eyes on their genitals, ears on their knees, noses on their limbs and tongues all over their skin.

Some sensations that people perceive as pain aren't experienced as pain in certain species.

As he puts it, every animal, including humans, can only tap into a small fraction of reality's fullness.

The book is about the diversity of perception in the animal world and the limitations of our own perception.

Ed Young wrote about sensory biology before the pandemic and is now back to writing about COVID.

Ed Young, welcome back to Fresh Air.

Hi, thanks for having me.

So your book is about how every animal, including us, is enclosed within its own sensory bubble.

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