New Books in Neuroscience · New Books Network
Justin Gregg, "If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal: What Animal Intelligence Reveals About Human Stupidity" (Little, Brown, 2022)
January 18, 2026·31 min·50 clips
As heard by us
A clear, reflective conversation about what animals may understand, and what humans make of knowing death is coming.
Justin Gregg's discussion of If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal turns animal cognition into a question about the weight of being human. Dr. Miranda Melcher draws out his distinction between a basic grasp of death, where an animal can tell the living from the dead, and the more human…
Why you'd press play
Press play when animal cognition sounds like the right way to examine human mortality.
Listen to the show on