If a Badger Dreams

What happens when science and literature don't have all the answers?

Photo Courtesy Charles Foster

Photo Courtesy Charles Foster

Charles Foster has been fascinated with animals for as long as he can remember. He wants to know what makes them tick, how they experience the world, what they dream about.

This curiosity has been all-consuming for Charles since childhood. It's a curiosity that began with a blackbird in a Yorkshire garden, and eventually resulted in a radical experiment -- an attempt to "become" a badger.

On this episode, Brooklyn-based reporter Kaitlyn Schwalje brings us Charles' story. It's a story about obsessive curiosity, and about the surprising things that can happen when you never stop asking questions.

 
My training as a veterinarian ... forced me to approach these animals in a drearily mechanistic way, which made them more difficult to understand.
— Charles Foster
 
Music on this episode includes works by Aaron Leeder.