This is Part 1 of a five part conversation with Dr Susan Friedman. Dr Friedman is one of our favorite guests on this podcast. She’s a professor emeritus in the psychology department at Utah State University. She’s been a long-time member of the Clicker Expo Faculty and she runs the very popular on-line course Behavior Works: Learning and Living with Animals. In part 1 Susan shares with us her most recent project - the Behavior Works Zoo School which you can read about at BWZS.org.

This four part conversation grew out of a wonderful afternoon’s conversation that I had with Susan in the Fall of 2025. I had just finished editing the podcast interview that Dominique and I did with Rick Hester and Amy Schilz from the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.

I was telling Susan how much I had enjoyed the conversation and how impressed I was with both Rick and Amy. They are both part of Susan’s Behavior Works team. Susan’s mentoring was very much in evidence, and that prompted a great discussion about teams and team building. I knew our conversation had to be a podcast. The timing for recording this conversation could not have been more perfect. Susan and her Behavior Works Team has just launched their newest project - Zoo School. So in this episode in addition to talking about why teams matter, Susan introduces us to the Behavior Works Zoo School.