4 - Emily Anthes on Clones, Cyborgs, and Sado-Masochistic Cows

Emily Anthes is a science journalist and writer based in Brooklyn. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Nature, Scientific American, and many other outlets. She has also appeared on far more prominent shows than this one, including NPR’s Fresh Air, PBS News Hour, and BBC Radio. Her 2013 book Frankenstein’s Cat explores the cutting edge of bioengineered animals.

We get into some pretty wild territory this episode (pun intended), covering:

A few chapters from her upcoming book The Great Indoors: what our dust says about ourselves, the ideal workplace, amphibious houses, and humane prisons (if there is such a thing).

We spend the bulk of our conversation on topics from her book Frankenstein’s Cat, including: cloning, the tension between expensive innovations in animal treatment and more cost effective ways of helping animals, whether biodiversity matters, bringing back the wooly mammoths, sado masochistic cows, animal cyborgs, the ethics of animal testing, CRISPR babies, and human animal hybrids

Show notes:

A (questionable) article claiming China has been engaging in decades of eugenics (and a criticism of that article)

Academic paper on the prevalence of Scandinavian pretrial solitary confinement

An article I wrote about the Brooklyn jail with no heat or power

The German man who asked to be eaten (warning: very gross)