Cats vs Dogs, with John Gray and Will Self, Part 2

Intelligence Squared

News, Society & Culture, Arts, News Commentary

4.2 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 15 August 2023

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This is the second part of a two-part episode. It’s the issue that’s more polarising than politics. The world is full of animal lovers but we can’t agree on which pet is more worthy of our love – the loyal, obedient dog, or the inscrutable, capricious cat. In this episode philosopher John Gray goes up against writer Will Self to debate the age old question of which animal is superior. The debate was chaired by writer, academic and broadcaster Shahidha Bari. We’d love to hear your feedback and what you think we should talk about next, who we should have on and what our future debates should be. Send us an email or voice note with your thoughts to podcasts@intelligencesquared.com or Tweet us @intelligence2. And if you’d like to get ad-free access to all Intelligence Squared podcasts, including exclusive bonus content, early access to new episodes and much more, become a supporter of Intelligence Squared today for just £4.99, or the equivalent in your local currency . Just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, this is Jeremy Bowen, the International Editor of BBC News and I'm here because I want
0:05.1	to talk to you about an event I'm doing with Intelligent Squared on the 2nd of November in London
0:11.5	and I'm going to be talking about the more than 30 years that I've spent reporting on major
0:17.6	events in the Middle East with my great friend and colleague over many, many years just in web
0:25.6	and I'm sure we'll talk about a few other things as well, just in and I started at the BBC
0:31.5	on the same day in 1984. So if you'd like to join us either in person or online, then visit
0:41.6	IntelligentSquared.com to find out more. Welcome to Intelligent Squared. I'm Senior Producer,
0:48.4	Connor Boyle. We rejoin the second part of our two-part episode today, Cats vs Dogs.
0:53.7	Back in 2020, we gathered two outspoken thinkers to settle it once and for all. John Gray is one of
0:59.1	the UK's best-known and most popular philosophers who wrote the book, Feline Philosophy, Cats and the
1:04.1	Meeting of Life. No prizes for guessing which side he was on and Will Self, the novelist broadcaster
1:10.0	and critic who went for team dogs. Hosting the debate was the writer, academic and broadcaster,
1:14.8	Shahidabari. Now let's join the conversation once again with Shahidah opening up the debate to
1:19.3	audience questions. We've got some terrific questions and let's start with this question. I like
1:25.0	cats more but I'm concerned about their effect on the wild bird population. What do you think about
1:29.4	this? Well, I talk about that in my book a bit. There are ways of dealing with this practically,
1:34.7	they can bells can be attached to them, you can pursue policies which limit that impact. It's
1:40.8	also true by the way though that birds can be harmful, they're more likely to spread contagious
1:46.4	diseases than cats. Most animals have this feature and the big thing I think, the big thing
1:51.8	beyond this is which species, let's use the language of species just for a moment, is most
1:57.4	responsible for mass extinction. It's not cats or dogs or birds. It's the one we belong to,
2:06.2	however porous it is. So I think that's what we should be focusing on. But I take the seriousness
	...

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