One Gilded Age Eccentric's Fight for the Rights of Animals

Guest: Ernest Freeberg, Professor of humanities and head of the history department at the University of Tennessee, author of "A Traitor to His Species: Henry Bergh and the Birth of the Animal Rights Movement"

Henry Bergh was a sort of super-hero—running through the streets, interrupting traffic, making arrests, all to save a mistreated horse or dog. This Gilded Age man started the Animal Rights movement.

 

Flies—How Bad Can They Be?

Guest: Erica McAlister, Senior Curator of Diptera and Siphonaptera (Flies and Fleas), Natural History Museum, London, Author of "The Secret Life of Flies (2016)" and "The Inside Out of Flies (2020)"

Flies are everywhere—there are about 17 million per every human on earth. Seen as nuisances, they’re actually pretty cool. There are thousands of species, some that haven’t even been named yet. Their impressive adaptability has allowed them to keep on keeping on in the world as they evolve in new ways to meet ecological challenges.