logo
episode-header-image
Jan 2023
29m 16s

What do you think you are? Part two

Bbc World Service
About this episode

There’s growing scientific evidence that many animals are not only conscious but they possess a more profound sense of self. They can learn by experience and make decisions that depend on a sense of the future - in other words they are “sentient” beings with the capacity to feel pain, pleasure and emotions. In the second part of this two-part series, Sue Armstrong reports on the latest scientific research into the minds and consciousness of animals and the ethical implications this has on animal welfare and our relationship with animals.

Up next
Today
A church without Walls
Pastor Jane Codrington grew up in a conservative faith environment before leaving the institutional church to found We Are Church - a community for those excluded by traditional structures. Set within a quiet, gated Johannesburg neighbourhood reflecting the city’s wealth and soci ... Show More
26m 29s
Apr 25
Inside the Mugabe dynasty
Late Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe died in 2019, but in the years before and since his death, his three children with his former wife, Grace, consistenly made headlines for all the wrong reasons. In April 2026 Bellarmine Mugabe pled guilty to a firearms offence in South Afri ... Show More
26m 29s
Apr 11
Bringing India's daughters back home
In India, official figures suggest that one in three women experience domestic violence. In 2023, police registered over 130,000 cases of marital abuse and more than 6,000 women were killed in disputes relating to dowries. Despite these high numbers, societal attitudes to domesti ... Show More
26m 29s
Recommended Episodes
Jun 2020
Do animals have consciousness?
<p>What exactly it means to be conscious has long been a question of profound debate amongst philosophers, and more recently, scientists. There are no easy answers, and it gets even trickier when you start asking whether animals are conscious: how can you find out about their sub ... Show More
36m 43s
Nov 2019
E27: Talk To The Animals | Consciousness Anywhere Podcast: Shannon O'Hara & Suzy Godsey
Have you ever wondered what it would be like if you could talk to animals? What if it was actually possible? Access Consciousness offers a class called Talk to the Animals, in which you can learn what it is to have a different connection with animals. Suzy Godsey teaches this cla ... Show More
29m 48s
May 2022
David M. Peña-Guzmán, "When Animals Dream: The Hidden World of Animal Consciousness" (Princeton UP, 2022)
Are humans the only dreamers on Earth? What goes on in the minds of animals when they sleep? When Animals Dream: The Hidden World of Animal Consciousness (Princeton UP, 2022) brings together behavioral and neuroscientific research on animal sleep with philosophical theories of dr ... Show More
42m 59s
Nov 2021
Les animaux sont-ils doués d'empathie ?
tail spinning
1m 57s
Nov 2021
Animal Minds
<p>In this hour of Radiolab, stories of cross-species communication.</p> <p>When we gaze into the eyes of a wild animal, or even a beloved pet, can we ever really know what they might be thinking? Is it naive to assume they're experiencing something close to human emotions? Or is ... Show More
59m 9s
Apr 2023
#113 — Consciousness and the Self
Sam Harris speaks with Anil Seth about the scientific study of consciousness, where consciousness emerges in nature, levels of consciousness, perception as a “controlled hallucination,” emotion, the experience of “pure consciousness,” consciousness as “integrated information,” me ... Show More
1h 44m
Jun 2019
Our Animal Instincts
<p>Does living with animals really make us healthier? Why do we eat some animals and keep others as pets? This week on <em>Hidden Brain</em>, we talk with psychology professor Hal Herzog about the contradictions embedded in our relationships with animals.</p><br/> <p>Hosted by Si ... Show More
48m 52s
Nov 2022
Why humans and other primates care so much about fairness, with Sarah Brosnan, PhD
Questions of fairness, justice and morality might seem unique to humans. But research suggests that non-human animals notice inequality as well. Dr. Sarah Brosnan, of Georgia State University, talks about how non-human primates and other animals react to unfair situations, why we ... Show More
34m 15s
Sep 2023
What is consciousness?
<p>It's pretty obvious to each of us that we are conscious, as we go about our days and feel the experience of just ‘being ourselves'. But how do we know that someone else is conscious? </p><p>It’s something we lose during dreamless sleep, under anaesthesia or in a coma. But wha ... Show More
36m 42s