Meet the Neighbors: Animal Minds and Life in a More-than-Human World

by Brandon Keim Narrated by Paul Woodson

Overview

Honeybees deliberate democratically. Rats reflect on the past. Snakes have friends. In recent decades, our understanding of animal cognition has exploded, making it indisputably clear that the cities and landscapes around us are filled with thinking, feeling individuals besides ourselves. But the way we relate to wild animals has yet to catch up. In Meet the Neighbors, science journalist Brandon Keim asks: what would it mean to take the minds of other animals seriously?



In this wide-ranging exploration of animals' inner lives, Keim takes us into courtrooms and wildlife hospitals, under backyard decks and into deserts, to meet anew the wild creatures who populate our communities and the philosophers, rogue pest controllers, ecologists, wildlife doctors, and others who are reimagining our relationships to them. When we come to understand the depths of their pleasures and pains, the richness of their family lives and their histories, what do we owe so-called pests and predators, or animals who are sick or injured? Can thinking of nonhumans as our neighbors help chart a course to a kinder, gentler planet? As Keim suggests, the answers to these questions are central to how we understand not only the rest of the living world, but ourselves.



Meet the Neighbors opens our eyes to the world of vibrant intelligence just outside our doors.

Editorial Reviews

New York Times bestselling author Jeff VanderMeer

"A heartfelt and unique look at the inner life of animals and how we so often fail to understand them…Sure to be an instant classic.”

Science magazine

Scientifically convincing…A fresh, imaginative, and at times thrilling perspective on animals’ lives and on how science and ethics may work together in honoring them."

BookPage (starred review)

Awe-inspiring.”

AudioFile

This fun and evocative audiobook begins with narrator Paul Woodson’s authoritative and upbeat delivery…His performance matches the author’s ability to make learning about animals and the politics that surround them both enjoyable and inspiring.”

Ben Goldfarb

"Few writers plumb the lives of our nonhuman brethren with more sensitivity and originality than Brandon Keim…You’ll surely feel new empathy for your local raccoons, robins, and rats after reading this profound, big-hearted book."

Craig Foster

"A love letter to nature…It shows us how humans are part of the tapestry that is life, and how we can join and support the community of other nonhuman persons…This is the kind of thinking that needs to be nurtured. It gives us inspiration to respect, to care, and to be connected."

Science - Barbara J. King

"An empathetic, scientifically convincing counternarrative.… Meet the Neighbors offers a fresh, imaginative, and at times thrilling perspective on animals’ lives and on how science and ethics may work together in honoring them."

Alexandra Horowitz

"Meet the Neighbors is an indispensable companion for anyone who has ever been curious about the animals with whom we share our space. Brandon Keim’s book opens our eyes to the wonder in our midst, from the smallest bee to the wittiest coyote. What we learn should change how the law treats animals, how society treats them, and how we treat them as neighbors."

Carl Safina

"Does your love of animals fill you with wonder about how they experience being alive? And do you wonder what to do with your feelings for animals? Author Brandon Keim has filled these pages with intelligence and generosity. This is a mind-opening, heart-healing book."

Jeff VanderMeer

"A heartfelt and unique look at the inner life of animals and how we so often fail to understand them.… Sure to be an instant classic."

Sentient Media - Dayton Martindale

"A big-hearted and heavily researched exploration of what it means to treat animals with respect.… [W]ritten with humble curiosity about where these ideas might lead us."

Sean B. Carroll

"Meet the Neighbors invites each of us to reimagine how we view and treat our animal kin. Rich in behavioral insights and crafted with unstinted empathy, [it] calls for a profound cultural shift…Open minds and hearts will be rewarded."

OCTOBER 2024 - AudioFile

This fun and evocative audiobook begins with narrator Paul Woodson's authoritative and upbeat delivery of the author's many accounts of urban wildlife. Keim's description of San Francisco's coyote population, performed with an air of respect and wonder, is particularly joyful. Woodson shifts his tone as the author discusses his deadly serious new vision for wildlife science and management. Keim questions the validity of wildlife policies such as the elimination of invasive species. Woodson's serious delivery believably reflects the author's objections to having a tiny minority of politically aggressive sport hunters dictate most wildlife management decisions. His performance matches the author's ability to make learning about animals and the politics that surround them both enjoyable and inspiring. J.T. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

2024-05-04
Sage lessons in coexistence among our planet's nonhuman species.

Keim, a Maine-based nature and science journalist, wants readers to develop empathy and consideration for our “neighbors” and see them as thinking, feeling beings with whom we share much in common. The author examines the science of animal intelligence and communication, citing scientific journals as well as empirical examples from the everyday world. He supplements descriptions of animal emotion from folk stories and personal accounts with Darwinian proof that this emotion is deeply rooted in evolutionary history. For example, he notes that the sounds of a baby’s distress resonate across species. Keim extensively covers the animal rights movement and advocacy groups such as the Nonhuman Rights Project, and he provides an in-depth analysis of the case of the Bronx Zoo's Happy the elephant: Should she have been considered a "person" under the law and treated as such? The author also follows efforts by managers of "domestic tensions with urban wildlife," commonly known as "pest control." Keim presents all of this information with insight and compassion, considering our animal neighbors from not only a legal but also a moral perspective. They include not only charismatic animals on the brink of extinction, but also common creatures encountered in our everyday environments, such as frogs and squirrels. In a characteristic formulation, Keim reflects, "As different as they are from me, they're still someone, living in the first-person." Although his polemic is well supported by scientific and scholarly references, his earnest plea is firmly rooted in a layperson's language; this is a consideration of animals, wild and domestic, as our fellows, not our property. Lanas’ delightful pen-and-ink illustrations drive the point home.

A comprehensive guide to thinking of animals not as anonymous creatures, but as individuals.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940192342725
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	07/16/2024
Edition description:	Unabridged

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