Mockingbirds
Darwin hated peacocks because he couldn't explain their excess beauty. He likely would have hated mockingbirds for the excessive complexity of their songs. Where many birds are content with a few simple chirps, mockingbirds learn hundreds of sounds from other birds and animals and mix them together using sophisticated musical techniques, the kind human musicians often employ. Their songs go far, far beyond anything necessary to find food, defend territory, or attract a mate. Why do they do it?
Guests:
David Rothenberg, author, composer, musician, and Distinguished Professor of Humanities & Social Sciences at the New Jersey Institute of Technology
Dave Gammon, Professor of Biology, Elon University
Learn more about David's work at his website: https://davidrothenberg.wordpress.com/
2022-04-13
49 min
Available Results
Generated results are saved to the knowledge database for reuse and search.
No generated results are available for this episode yet.
Extract Knowledge
Pick what you want extracted first. Model, scope, and chapter options appear after a template is selected.
Generated results for public episodes are saved to the knowledge database so they can be reused and searched later.
Transcript
No transcript is available for this episode yet.
Sign in to generate a transcript for review.
Sign in
Chapters
No chapters available.