Does my dog really love me? Consciousness, self-awareness, empathy, nonverbal communication, imitation, teaching, grief…. Carl Safina shows, scientifically, that in some surprising ways many nonhuman minds are rather similar to ours. They know who their friends are. They know who their enemies are. They seek status. Their lives may follow the arc of a career. Relationships define them, as relationships define us.
Carl Safina spent time working with researchers who’ve devoted decades to studying particular families of wild elephants, wolves, and killer whales. He got to know these free-living creatures as individuals, along with their children and grandchildren. Safina explores up-to-date brain studies showing new discoveries about the similarities in our consciousness, self-awareness, empathy, nonverbal communication, and the capacity for grief among nonhuman beings.
Safina is the first Endowed Professor for Nature and Humanity at Stony Brook University and is founding president of the not-for-profit Safina Center. His work fuses scientific understanding, emotional connection, and a moral call to action.