Koko

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Sep 24, 2026

Comic Book Club

Comic Book Club Bonus: Eliot Rahal

Sep 24 · 2 Mentions

Top 5%

Eliot RahalGUEST

3:11

Um, and, uh, I was just talking with friends, and we were just, like, chatting, uh, about, like, fun ideas.

Eliot RahalGUEST

3:18

And, um, you know, I just remember thinking, like, we were joking around, and I remember thinking about, like, Koko the gorilla.

Eliot RahalGUEST

3:25

I'm like, "Oh, wouldn't it have been funny if, like, Koko was, like, you know, actually, like, a horrible con artist or something like that?"

Alex ZalbenHOST

3:31

[laughs]

Eliot RahalGUEST

3:31

"And, like, was just, like, leading that person on the entire time." Um, and, like, that kind of escalated, like, into what it became, right? Um, like, I just paused for a mo- I'm like, "Oh, did I just give away the entire series almost?" And then I'm like, "No, this is coming out afterward"-

Natural World Explored

About That Time We Taught A Gorilla To Speak...

Sep 23 · 10 Mentions

BenHOST

0:00

This is Koko the gorilla, probably the world's second most famous gorilla.

BenHOST

0:04

In the 1970s, some researchers took a baby gorilla, raised her like a person, and taught her to speak, and the rest is history.

BenHOST

0:13

Thanks for watching.

BenHOST

0:14

I'm Ben.

BenHOST

0:15

Yeah, so here's the thing, we didn't teach Koko how to speak, but for about 40 years, a huge chunk of the world thought that we did.

BenHOST

0:23

Recently, researchers have begun using an AI to see if sperm whales have a language of their own or not.

BenHOST

0:29

If it turns out that whales, like every other non-human animal, don't have their own language, it's worth asking, can we just give them ours? Turns out we've tried a lot.

8 MINS LATER

BenHOST

8:19

It has effect on the validity of all the things we're trying to learn about whether or not nature or nurture are the key to unlocking another animal's ability to produce complex language.

Major Spoilers Comic Book Podcast

Major Spoilers Podcast #1190: Camp Hero Academia

Sep 23 · 2 Mentions

Stephen SchleicherHOST

2:29

Crimes Against Nature is this kind of really bizarre story about Dr. Kermit Grodin and his client, his only client, an ape, uh, called Amigo.

Stephen SchleicherHOST

2:41

Uh, Amigo is one of those, uh, kinda like Koko the gorilla sign language apes.

Rodrigo LopezHOST

2:45

Mm-hmm.

Stephen SchleicherHOST

2:45

Except that Amigo is a movie star, and Amigo is up for an Academy Award, the first non-human to ever be nominated for an Academy Award.

Stephen SchleicherHOST

4:57

Okay?

Rodrigo LopezHOST

4:57

Mm-hmm.

Stephen SchleicherHOST

5:00

Who is this for? I think if you are a fan of Tiger King or Every Which Way But Loose, or if you're a fan of Koko the ape and absurd humor and situations, I think you will enjoy this comic.

Stephen SchleicherHOST

5:10

I had just issues with, you know, situations that seem like... [laughs] You know, we see the, the mansion that Amigo and, and Kermit live in, and there's, like, underwear and, um, battle axes and food wrappers and drug paraphernalia everywhere, and I'm just like, "Okay, that's telling us a lot about what's going on." Not my brand of humor or my, you know, brand of, of what I would want in a story, uh, of this type.

Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the science of language.

146: Beyond Words (with Karen Stollznow)

Sep 17 · 1 Mention

Top 10%

Karen StollznowGUEST

52:19

Well, uh, yes and, and no.

Karen StollznowGUEST

52:21

I mean, certainly if we look at, uh, recent attempts like, uh, Koko to learn sign language, or Koko the gorilla, uh-

Daniel MidgleyHOST

52:29

Mm-hmm

Karen StollznowGUEST

52:29

... and attempts with chimpanzees, I mean, these studies go back to the, the previous century where chimpanzees have been raised as babies, uh, often alongside human babies as well, to see how, uh, if they can possibly develop language, develop words.