Animals & Insects

Novelist and dog expert Robert Calder joins the show to discuss his book "The Dogs," dog behavior, and the relationship between humans and dogs.

Dr. Alan Beck was formerly the director of the Bureau of Animal Affairs in New York, where he helped draft that city's "pooper scooper" law. A similar was recently passed in Philadelphia. Beck currently works at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Veterinary School where he heads the Center for Interaction of Animals and Society. He has researched pet/owner relationships and stray dogs and their effect on people, including the homeless. He joins the show to discuss the new law and human-animal relationships.

Comedic actress Betty White played the Sue Ann Nivens, a sex-obsessed television show host, on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Her new book about the relationship between humans and pets builds on her work for animal welfare.

Director and producer David Attenborough has made several nature programs for the BBC, documenting animals' behavior in their natural environments.

Dave Brody is an entomologist who helps directors use insects in their movies. While those films are designed to inspire fear and disgust, Brody, who by day works for the Museum of Natural History in New York City, is a great lover of insects who avoids hurting or killing the animals at all costs.

Sir David Attenborough, host and producer of the new PBS series "The First Eden," which looks at the natural history of the Mediterranean. This follows his award-winning series for PBS "Planet Earth."

Alan Beck, a leading authority on the relationships between pets and their owners. Beck is the director of the Center for Interaction of Animals and Society at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Veterinary Medicine. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

Critic Ken Tucker's disappointment in a VHS guide to blackjack dashed his dreams of becoming a professional gambler. At least he can recommend some solid home video releases to watch this summer.

David Watts continued the gorilla research of Dian Fossey after her 1985 murder. He served as a consultant on the film Gorillas in the Mist, based on Fossey's book of the same name.

Film critic Stephen Schiff says the new biopic about the late zoologist, Gorillas in the Mist, is malarkey, with a script that shies away from the most compelling parts of Fossey's story. But star Sigourney Weaver shines.

Science writer Dougal Dixon's new book speculates on what dinosaurs would have evolved into had they not gone extinct.

Critic-at-large Laurie Stone recently saw the Dian Fossey biopic. She praises the film's power and compassion, fueled in large part by star Sigourney Weaver's outstanding performance.

Folklorist Jan Harold Brunvard recently returned from a trip to New Zealand, where he learned about a curious away homeowners try to keep dogs off their lawns/

Researcher David Mech tracks and studies wolves. He was able to earn the trust of a pack in the Arctic, which granted Mech and his team unprecedented access to the animals. He witnessed the care of their pups and joined them on their hunt.

Folklorist Jan Harold Brunvand discusses the urban legend of a dead rabbit, which someone finds, cleans, and replaces in its cage.

Paleontologist Jack Horner discovered some of the most significant fossil records of dinosaurs, which suggest that the animals cared for their young and traveled in herds.

HBO will soon air the animated show Babar, about an elephant and his family. TV critic David Bianculli says the program joins the ranks of other recent, excellent children's programming like Shining Time Station and the Peter Pan musical. More importantly, his kids love it too.

Bioacoustics researcher and field recordist Bernie Krause. Krause has a new album called "Gorillas in the Mix." It features selections from new age to dance tunes. What makes the album remarkable is that every sound on it is from nature. Krause recorded and mixed together whales, apes, insects, the sound of shifting sands, and hundreds of other natural sources. Krause was a Motown session musician in the 60s, before earning a Ph.D. in bioacoustics.

Film critic Stephen Schiff reviews the new French film, "The Bear." The nature film is a huge hit in Europe, now it's opening in American theaters.

Anthropologist Richard Nelson. His new book, "The Island Within," is an account of Nelson's explorations of an uninhabited island near his Pacific Northwest home.