Dog Talk ® (and Kitties Too!)

#974A: Holistic veterinarian Dr. Robert Silver has spent decades studying and using functional mushrooms to treat many pet ailments — just as Chinese medicine has employed them for human healing over centuries. His book “There’s a Mushroom for That!” gathers his lifetime of knowledge about mushrooms and cannabis for other veterinarians and pet owners to reference.

#974B: Every Anglophile (British or otherwise) loves the magazine "Country Life,” which takes readers inside grand country estates across the UK. The publication’s editor, Agnes Stamp, talks about the huge delicious book she has created called “The Country Life Book of Dogs,” which brilliantly juxtaposes views inside these houses and the dogs who live there — in life and in art. 

#973B: Elaine Ostrander, a canine genomics expert, was on the team that sequenced Tasha’s genome, the first purebred dog studied twenty years ago. She and her colleagues at the NIH have been studying the DNA of many dog breeds since then, discovering which genes are responsible for what physical and health characteristics, allowing them to guide dog breeders in making  decisions to avoid naturally occurring diseases, knowledge which is valuable for human disorders, too.

#973A: Kennedy Green was the #1 Junior Pekingese handler in the USA in 2025 (having just turned 12), working with Dr. Kelly Fishman, an integrative sports medicine veterinarian, who both talk about what it takes to keep Lincoln, a special breed of toy dog, in top physical condition, to compete in the 150th Westminster Dog Show.  

#972A: Marc Bekoff, the renowned ethologist, talks about his long personal and professional relationship with the late Jane Goodall, and how important it is that we hold on to her messages of hope and perseverance in caring about animals and the planet, especially through the Roots and Shoots program of the Jane Goodall Foundation.

#972B: Brad Bolman’s book “Lab Dog: What Global Science Owes American Beagles,” takes the long view of the Beagle dog, chronicling its whole history as a breed and how people turned what they had bred as a hunting companion into a “lab rat” to be turned out in the tens of thousands for research. 

#971A: Dog trainer and author Ineke Vander AA in Belgium discusses how she developed her scientifically-backed theory of “highly sensitive” dogs in her groundbreaking book “Dogsitivity: a Guide to Living With Highly Sensitive Dogs.”

#971B: Greger Larson, the Director of the Paleogenomics & Bio-Archaeology Research Network at the School of Archaeology at Oxford University, returns to discuss whether wolves were ever introduced into the breeding of German Shepherd Dogs — which was adamantly opposed by early breeders around WW II in Germany. They were purists against hybridization with wolves — although it would have been to the dogs’ health advantage.

#970A: Jonathan Balcombe, a biologist and ethologist with a doctorate in animal behavior, has studied and written books about all manner of non-human creatures: “Pleasurable Kingdom,” “Second Nature,” “The Exultant Ark,” “What a Fish Knows” and “Superfly.”

#970B: Dr. Doug Mader explains the different ways that pet owners can fill prescriptions for and why they need to understand the value of backup support if their pet has side effects from a drug or gets better before all the pills are taken. Is it best to fill a prescription at the vet clinic? An online store? The local pharmacy? How many pills are necessary? What about refills?  

#969A: Greger Larson, Director of the Palaeogenomics & Bio-Archaeology Research Network of the School of Archaeology at Oxford University, tells the amazing true history of how cats found their way into human society in Egypt, where travelers making a pilgrimage to the tombs needed to present a mummified cat as an offering — so local entrepreneurs bred them on an island in the Nile in order to mummify them and sell them to the pilgrims.

#969B: When Sherri Franklin first rescued old dogs from the San Francisco city shelter and brought them to her own home, nobody wanted senior dogs. Now, two decades later, she is stepping down as the leader of Muttville, arguably the nation's most vibrant and successful rescue nonprofit for senior dogs, leaving behind 600 regular volunteers, 80 foster homes, thousands of oldster dogs happily adopted from its own cage-free campus, vibrant with senior humans hanging out in Cuddle Club along with visitors from around the world. 

#968A: Dr. Elsey started his company on behalf of cats, who cannot speak for themselves. He innovated litters to solve Out-of-Litter-Box problems and then created a revolutionary food called CleanProtein to meet their health and nutritional needs — a lifetime of work on behalf of the kitties.

#968B: Sindhoor Pangal in Bangalore India — anthrozoologist and author of "DOG KNOWS: Learning How to Learn From Dogs" — laments about the current crisis for the "streeties" — also called Free Living Dogs — who are facing wholesale extermination in a misguided bureaucratic legal attempt to control rabies by destroying millions of dogs who people care for and care about across the vast country of India.

#967A: Tracie shares her awe and admiration for Dwayne Betts, who, as a result of being incarcerated as a teenager, discovered the power of reading in prison. He came out to become a lawyer and a published poet, founding Freedom Reads in 2020. The nonprofit has put custom made wooden libraries into over 560 prisons nationwide, transforming the lives of many prisoners. His pandemic puppy Taylor, a little Jack Russell Terrier, became Dwayne’s bridge to connect with people in his community with dogs being their common ground. Tune in to hear what Tracie discovers when she boldly proclaims her belief that Dwayne should win a MacArthur “Genius” Grant. NOTE: Donations to Freedom Reads help finance his ongoing libraries, and purchases of his book of poetry Doggerel allow his publisher WW Norton to send the paperback edition to the libraries.

#967B: Rebecca Van Laer's memoir “Cat” is a slim little book that speaks volumes about the life the author spent as a child feeling closer to cats than to humans and explores how her relationships with her cats have been the through line in her life.  She also shares her opinion that referring to a kitty as your “baby” does a disservice both to cats and human children.  

#966A: Katya Lidsky, author of “Be Your Dog’s Best Friend: the Benefits of Mutual Bonding and Relationship Building,” discusses what we can learn from our bond with dogs to improve our interactions with humans.

#966B: Dr. Lisa Radosta, one of the rare board certified veterinary animal behaviorists, discusses the issue of early spay/neuter and how it affects both physical and emotional development — and what is lost when a dog does not have the opportunity to fully grow mentally and physically.

#965A: Melanie Kaplan wrote “Lab Dog: a Beagle and His Human Investigate the Surprising World of Animal Research” after adopting Hammy, a Beagle “retired” from being a research subject. She wanted to find out how tens of thousands of Beagles were bred for often pointless and cruel experiments — done at University veterinary colleges, funded by US government agencies — and how all humans can contribute to reducing (eliminating?!) the use of dogs in research facilities.

#965B: Sy Montgomery’s fourth book about octopuses (yes, not “octopi!”) “Secrets of the Octopus,” is filled with stunning National Geographic photographs and brimming with anecdotes and scientific discoveries about the multitude of abilities and superior intelligence of these otherworldly creatures, who are having their moment in the sun.