There's a certain a kind of visual encounter that can be life changing: A cross-species gaze. The experience of looking directly into the eyes of an animal in the wild, and seeing it look back. It happens more often than you’d think and it can be so profound, there’s a name for it: eye-to-eye epiphany. So what happens when someone with feathers or fur and claws looks back? How does it change people, and what can it teach us?

Our friends at the Center for Humans and Nature have some suggested follow-up reading, if you enjoy this episode:

"The Disruptive Eye" by Gavin Van Horn

"6 a.m. on LaSalle Street" by Katherine Cummings

"Salmon Speak ~ Why Not Earth?" by Bron Taylor

"The Eyes of an Owl" by Greg Ripley

"From Bestiary" by Elise Paschen

Original Air Date: February 08, 2020

Guests:

Gavin Van Horn — Jenny Kendler — Ivan Schwab — Jane Goodall — Alan Lightman

Interviews In This Hour:

In The Eye Of The Osprey: A Physicist's Wild Epiphany — 100 Bird Eyes Are Watching You — The Look That Changed Primatology — Watching the Fierce Green Fire Die: Animal Gazes That Shaped Conservation Movements — The 600 Million Year History Of The Eye — 'We Are The Feast' — A Feminist Philosopher's Life-Changing Encounter With A Crocodile — How Do You Practice Kinship? A Brief Meditation

Further Reading:

"The Disruptive Eye" by Gavin Van Horn—"6 a.m. on LaSalle Street" by Katherine Cummings—"Salmon Speak ~ Why Not Earth?" by Bron Taylor—"The Eyes of an Owl" by Greg Ripley—"From Bestiary" by Elise Paschen