All animals use their senses to perceive the world, humans included. But not every animal senses the same thing.

In Pulitzer prize-winning science journalist Ed Yong’s 2022 book, “An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us,” he explores the way each species sees the world through its own sensory lens and explains why those differences should both delight and humble us.

“Senses always come at a cost,” Yong writes. “No animal can sense everything well.”

MPR News host Kerri Miller spoke with Yong last year about his research. It’s a fascinating conversation that we thought deserved an encore, since this April, we are celebrating animals at Big Books and Bold Ideas.

Don’t missing Yong sharing stories about why jumping spiders have eight eyes, how octopus arms operate without the brain, why Morpho butterflies have ears on their wings — and why we should gently resist the tendency to view other animals’ senses through the limited view of our own.

Guest:

• Ed Yong is an award-winning science journalist for The Atlantic where he did exceptional reporting on the pandemic. His new book is “An Immense World.”

To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above.

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It helps for a veterinarian to be an animal lover.

It doesn’t help for her to be allergic to cats.

But Karen Fine didn’t let that stop her. Nor was she cowered by the fact that, in the 1980s, when she went to vet school, almost all the students were male. She followed in her physician grandfather’s path and became a veterinarian who made house calls, “laid hands” on her patients and always took time to listen — both to the pets and the caretakers.

Fine’s new book, “The Other Family Doctor” is a collection of stories she amassed while practicing veterinary medicine. But it also functions as a memoir. She weaves in tales of her own pets: the birds, cats, and dogs who have taught her that caring for the animals in our lives can teach us to better care for ourselves.

Join MPR News host Kerri Miller as she talks with Fine about pets, mindfulness and how even vets struggle with knowing when it’s time to say good-bye.

Guest:

• Karen Fine is a holistic veterinarian who owned and operated her own house-call practice for twenty-five years. Her new book is “The Other Family Doctor: A Veterinarian Explores What Animals Can Teach Us About Love, Life and Mortality.”

To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above.

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Renown underwater photographer David Doubilet has been donning a mask and flippers and descending into what he calls “the secret garden of the sea” since he was 12. What he saw there captivated him and eventually fueled his career.

He’s photographed powerful sharks, brightly colored fish, the splendor of the coral reefs and the destruction caused by warming oceans. He’s published 12 books chronicling his work and he regularly contributes to National Geographic.

In 2006, Doubilet visited Minneapolis to showcase his work and stopped by MPR News’ St. Paul studios to chat with host Kerri Miller about his passion. We are reviving the conversation now to continue our celebration of April as Animal Month on Big Books and Bold Ideas.

Guest:

• David Doubilet is considered to be one of the best underwater photographers in the world. He’s published a dozen books and and is a frequent contributor to National Geographic.

To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above.

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Once you start looking, wolves are everywhere.

A wolf plays the the villain in “Little Red Riding Hood” and “The Three Little Pigs.” The boy who cried wolf is ultimately destroyed by his lie. A person who isolates from society is called a “lone wolf.” A dangerous mob is named a “wolfpack.”

And of course, the animals themselves are both feared and admired.

Wolves have intrigued writer Erica Berry since she was a child growing up in Oregon, where the animals enjoyed an uneasy truce with ranchers. But she believes wolves are more than what they seem — that we project our fears onto them and make them symbols of everything that terrifies us.

Her new book, “Wolfish,” examines that premise, and it’s the perfect launch of Animal Month here on Big Books and Bold Ideas.

Don’t miss this thoughtful conversation between MPR News host Kerri Miller and Berry as they talk about why our culture sees wolves as a threat, and how getting close to the wolf could help us transform our fears.

Guest:

• Erica Berry is a writer and teacher. Her nonfiction debut is “Wolfish: Wolf, Self, and the Stories We Tell About Fear.”

To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above.

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Diana Abu-Jaber’s family has deep roots in Jordan. Her father came to America after a failed marriage proposal — an act of “revenge immigration,” she laughs. And while he lived in the U.S., married here and raised a family here, his never truly left his homeland behind.

Growing up in a thoroughly Jordanian household within an American context shaped Abu-Jaber’s life. She traveled to Jordan with her family and was often startled to discover hidden aspects to her father during her visits.

It was this mix of identity and heritage, of belonging to a culture or land that one can no longer possess, that inspired her latest novel, “Fencing with the King” — so named because she learned, later in life, that her father was once a favorite sparring partner with the king of Jordan.

“It’s like he had a before and after life,” she tells MPR News host Kerri Miller on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas. “Dad was trained to spar with King Hussein, and this was something he never talked about when we were growing up. I didn’t even know he knew how to fence until I was an adult.”

Her book vividly takes readers on a journey to the modern day Middle East, where questions of displacement and reclamation, of family identity and inheritance linger. Join Abu-Jaber and Miller for a conversation about homeland, myths and legacy on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas.

Guest:

• Diana Abu-Jaber is an award-winning author and a professor at Portland State University. Her latest book, “Fencing with the King,” was just released in paperback.

To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above.

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Author Diana Abu-Jaber returns to MPR News this week.

Friday’s Big Books and Bold Ideas will feature a conversation between host Kerri Miller and Abu-Jaber about her latest novel, “Fencing with the King,” a book set in Jordan that explores family dynamics and inheritance.

It’s not the first time Abu-Jaber and Miller have talked. For this week’s blast from the past, enjoy their 2011 discussion about “Birds of Paradise,” which NPR named one of the top books of that year and won a 2012 Arab-American National Book Award.

Guest:

• Diana Abu-Jaber is an award-winning author and a professor at Portland State University. Her latest book, “Fencing with the King,” was just released in paperback.

To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Kerri Miller podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or RSS.

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Paul Harding says it’s no accident that the residents of the small interracial community he imagined for his new book are uprooted from their island home at the same time as the first International Eugenics Congress was being held in London. In fact, learning about the conference inspired him to write his book.

The seeds of “This Other Eden” are planted in the true story of Malaga Island, an isolated island off the coast of Maine that was one of the first racially integrated towns in the northeastern United States. Populated by Native Americans, freed slaves and European Americans, the inhabitants led a sheltered — some would say naïve — life, unaware of the uniqueness of their situation.

Their community was shattered in 1911, when Maine government officials inspected the island and found the mixed races offensive. All 47 residents of Malaga were evicted, and some were rehoused in institutions for the "feeble-minded."

Maine publicly apologized for this deed in 2010. But the real-life story inspired Harding to imagine what it would have been like for the inhabitants to be displaced from their own private Eden, even as the world debated how to cull the weak from the herd, and who is worthy of salvation.

Displacement is an archetype, Harding told MPR News host Kerri Miller on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas. The Israelites were forced out of Egypt, humanity out of the Garden of Eden. “It’s essentially human,” he says, “as old as humanity but also as contemporary as this morning.” Who gets to decide the norms? If some groups live on the margins, who set the boundaries? Don’t miss this thoughtful and introspective conversation.

Guests:

• Paul Harding is the author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning “Tinkers.” He is director of the MFA in Creative Writing & Literature at Stony Brook University, and lives on Long Island, New York. His new novel is “This Other Eden.”

To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Kerri Miller podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or RSS.

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When was the last time you felt awe?

For many of us, awe is the result of an experience in nature. Or maybe it’s due to a sudden chill up the spine as you listen to music or read a poem. It might be what happens when you witness selflessness or uncommon kindness in another human being, or something as simple as listening to a child laugh as they lose themselves in play.

Whatever the source, and no matter the culture, Dacher Keltner says the feeling is the same across humankind. Awe produces a humbling and inspiring emotion in our bodies when we encounter something mysterious that transcends our understanding of the world.

A researcher and professor of psychology, Keltner has spent the last few years studying awe and how it moves us. He used unconventional and imaginative methods to measure how awe shrinks a person’s sense of self. He’s talked to countless people about their experiences of awe. And he’s searched for it himself, after the death of his beloved brother.

This Friday, on Big Books and Bold Ideas, Keltner joined host Kerri Miller to talk about his new book, “Awe.” They delve into his research, talk about how music triggers wonder, and discuss how awe can help us lead healthy and happy lives, both individually and collectively.

Guest:

• Dacher Keltner is a professor of psychology at the University of California Berkeley and a founding director of the Greater Good Science Center. He hosts the podcast The Science of Happiness. His latest book is “Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life.”

To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Kerri Miller podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or RSS.

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Poet Ross Gay believes in joy. But he pays careful attention to how one defines that word.

It is not simply happiness or delight, he says in his new book “Inciting Joy.” Rather, it is what grows from the fertile soil of breaking and belonging. It is the light that emanates from us when we help each other carry our sorrows.

Gay was in St. Paul in November of 2022 to talk with MPR News host Kerri Miller for the finale of the 2022 Talking Volumes season. The evening also featured music from Minneapolis artist MAYYADDA.

Enjoy that conversation as an appetizer to what’s coming this Friday, when Miller talks with psychologist and professor Dacher Keltner about his new book that delves into the impact of another universal emotion — awe.

Guest:

• Ross Gay is a poet, an essayist, a gardener and a professor. His newest book is “Inciting Joy.”

To listen to a lightly edited version of the Talking Volumes conversation, use the audio player above. Note that it does contain some explicit language. You can also find the video on YouTube.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Kerri Miller podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or RSS.

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Many Americans are unaware that all-Black enclaves popped up and even flourished during the early 20th century. They did so by following the conviction that “separate but equal” was the only way for Black Americans to stay safe and thrive.

But as minnicks.com/about/" class="default">Jamila Minnicks points out in her gorgeous debut novel, “Moonrise Over New Jessup,” that belief was challenged by the Civil Rights movement, which championed equality more than separation.

It’s a fictionalized account of one such town, set in Minnicks’ native Alabama, and ends up being both a celebration of Black joy and an examination of the opposing viewpoints about the end of segregation in America.

This Friday, on Big Books and Bold Ideas, Minnicks joined host Kerri Miller to talk about the history of all-Black towns, why she wanted to tell their stories and how “separate but equal” was both a gift and a blow.

Guest:

• minnicks.com/about/" class="default">Jamila Minnicks is a self-declared recovering lawyer turned author. Her debut novel is “Moonrise Over New Jessup.”

To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Kerri Miller podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or RSS.

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