Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that is some level of genius. It also helps that it's a long time ago, right?

It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream van plays music when it's out of ice cream.

Listen to Evil Genius on BBC Sounds.

This is the BBC.

Hello, I'm Anne McHalvoy. Thanks for downloading this Arts and Ideas podcast from the BBC's Free Thinking Team.

Now, how did you respond to that?

If you live in one of the 11 million households in the UK that owns a pet,

your reaction will probably be different to the rest who don't choose to share their living space with non-humans.

But whether you're listening to this in the company of a dog, a cat, a hamster, iguana,

or if the only other species in your home are uninvited furry creatures and some dust mites,

there will be plenty to interest you in the next 45 minutes as we explore our long-standing

and complex relationship with pets.

Joining me are John Bradshaw, founder of the International Society for Anthrozoology,

philosopher and bioethicist Jessica Pierce, historical geographer Philip Howell, and the novelist

Laura Purcell. So first let's put our own pet-owning credentials on the table.

John, you all pets. Cats and dogs are my thing. I've had them since I was a student in university,

so 45 years or so, always at least one of each. And they've always got on fine in case anyone's

wondering. Laura? Yes, I've had a budgie, a hamster and a dog. But at present, I'm a guinea pig owner. I've got three guinea pigs, two girls that live together, and a rescue guinea pig called Steve. And a guinea pig on your jumper. So you're committed. I am committed to the guinea pig. Fully committed, Philip.

I feel like a fraud because I don't have a pet. I don't have a companion animal. I used to have a cat who died. I'm more of a cat person, but I don't. I've written about dogs, but I don't own a dog. And I knew I was going to get asked, do you have a pet? Do you have a dog? And my line is that I've written two books.

One's about prostitutes. One's about dogs. I don't have a dog. Jessica,

what about you? I, at the moment, I have two dogs, Bella and Maya, and I have a cat named

Lovey. And when my daughter was younger, we had a frog, crabs, guinea pigs, rats, goldfish, betas, snake.

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