Unleashed Curiosity: Dog & Cat Health, Nutrition & Vet Advice by Vital Pet Life
Aug 18, 2026 · 7 min · 8 segments
Do animals really feel things — or are we just projecting? In this episode of Unleashed Curiosity, Donie and Dr. Amber dig into a new philosophy framework out of Michigan State University that's…
Amber DaSilvaHost
Donie YamamotoHost
Scientists look for markers, things like brain structure or complex behavior, to guess whether an animal can feel things.
The hard question is: What do you do when an animal shows few or none of those markers? Does that mean it doesn't feel anything, or just that we haven't found the right test yet?
So crabs don't have much of a brain, and they don't check a lot of the usual boxes, but they pick their own shells, which is really cool.
So do they fail the test, or is the test just not built to see them? Researchers split into two camps here.
So camp one says, "No markers, no proof, probably not conscious." And camp two says, "Missing markers don't prove anything either way.
Scientists look for markers, things like brain structure or complex behavior, to guess whether an animal can feel things.
The hard question is: What do you do when an animal shows few or none of those markers? Does that mean it doesn't feel anything, or just that we haven't found the right test yet?
So crabs don't have much of a brain, and they don't check a lot of the usual boxes, but they pick their own shells, which is really cool.
So do they fail the test, or is the test just not built to see them? Researchers split into two camps here.
So camp one says, "No markers, no proof, probably not conscious." And camp two says, "Missing markers don't prove anything either way.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.
