Token Skeptic 234 - On Animals, Language, Koko and Wish Fulfilment

The idea that animals have the potential to talk is an alluring one; from the mathematical stunts of Clever Hans, to research on parrots, dolphins and chimps - just look at viral BBC footage of a gopher yelling "Alan". It's interesting, exciting and even cute - but is it really true that animals have language? After the recent passing of Koko the Gorilla, I spoke to Daniel Midgley about the hopes we have about being the next Dr Dolittle, and just how realistic those hopes are. Daniel is a lecturer in applied linguistics at Edith Cowan University, and at the University of Western Australia, as well as a presenter on the popular language podcast Talk the Talk. ****************************** A quick note about supporting the podcasts! Check out – and consider becoming a Patreon for these shows. Theme songs "Leap Second" by Milton Mermikides, of Additional ambient music from Jukedeck – create your own at jukedeck.com. Tremendous thanks to my Patreon supporters – they are: Stephen, Steven, Andrew, Troy, Jacqueline, Brooke, Gerry, Dr*T, Josh, Linley, Gold and Iggy. Make sure you check out the bonus content on Patreon and as always, you can join them by heading to patreon.com/kyliesturgess (and check out the Talk the Talk podcast too!). Please leave positive comments and reviews on iTunes and consider supporting the show via visiting Tokenskeptic.org – and I'd love to get your feedback via tokenskeptic@gmail.com.

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Token Skeptic 234 - On Animals, Language, Koko and Wish Fulfilment is an episode from Token Skeptic Podcast by Kylie Sturgess.

This episode is 15:22 long.

This episode was published on Jun 28, 2018.

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