RECORDED ON AUGUST 12th 2022.
Dr. Justin Gregg is a Senior Research Associate with the Dolphin Communication Project and an Adjunct Professor at St. Francis Xavier University, where he lectures on animal behavior and cognition. Originally from Vermont, Dr. Gregg studied the echolocation abilities of wild dolphins in Japan and the Bahamas. He is the author of If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal: What Animal Intelligence Reveals About Human Stupidity.

In this episode, we focus on If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal. We first talk about Nietzsche’s thoughts on other animals. We go through several aspects of animal psychology, including intelligence, an understanding of causality, deception and lying, an understanding of death and time, norms and morality, consciousness and self-awareness, and prognostic myopia, and we talk about some of their drawbacks. We ask if there is a relationship between biological complexity and evolutionary success. We talk about what is psychologically unique in humans. Finally, we discuss if the planet is better off with us, and the goal of the book.