Bestiaries and Beyond

Arts & Ideas

BBC

Society & Culture

4.2 • 598 Ratings

🗓️ 14 December 2022

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Are animals a human invention? What is a lama like? Do plants have sex? Was Amelia Earhart eaten by crabs? These are just some of the questions posed by Shahidha Bari and addressed by her guests Katherine Rundell, Dan Taylor, Helen Cowie and Stella Sandford, as they trace the history of human conceptualisations of animals and the natural world. From the Medieval tendency to draw moral lessons from animals, to Linnaeus' attempts to organise them into taxonomies, via Darwin's abolition of the distinction between humans and animals, to the sense of wonder at the natural world needed to orient us towards tackling ecological crises. Plus, the growing area of plant philosophy and how it overturns the history of western metaphysics.

Producer: Luke Mulhall

Transcript

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0:00.0	Can I just say?
0:01.5	You're about to listen to a BBC podcast.
0:04.0	It's such a wonderful listen.
0:05.6	So nice.
0:06.5	There are loads more like it on BBC sounds.
0:08.8	Different paces, different heights.
0:10.6	The roof is buckling.
0:11.9	Where you can also listen to live sports commentary.
0:14.2	It's right foot goes for goal.
0:16.7	And then enjoy even more podcasts full of analysis and reaction to the big stories.
0:21.7	The stat that is astonishing is they ended with the lowest amount of possession.
0:25.2	And she's had to live with that.
0:26.8	So if you love sport, a passion, it's almost like a religion.
0:29.7	Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:31.7	Sort of expecting that every week now.
0:35.8	BBC Sounds, music, Radio, podcasts.
0:39.3	Hello, we're fighting like cats and dogs on today's Arts and Ideas podcast about, well, cats and dogs,
0:45.7	and probably also wombats and lamas too as we discuss the invention of animals.
0:51.0	We'll also be learning about the sex of plants.
0:54.0	Come cultivate your mind in wild ways
0:56.7	with me Shahidabari and my guests just after this.
1:01.8	Hello, I'm Jess Gillum. I play the saxophone and I really think you should subscribe to my
	...

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