Raccoons Are the Real AI Threat, w/Suzanne MacDonald

In our last episode, we talked about the hows and whys of engineering dogs to look like humans, and the consequences of monkeying around with nature. That got us thinking of an interview we did back in 2021 with Suzanne MacDonald, a psychologist at Toronto's York University who studies animal intelligence. She's become, for better or worse, an expert on one species vying with humans for control of our cities: the raccoon.

In this episode, we ask whether we're creating a new, smarter species, one trash can at a time, whether squirrels have a hoarding problem, and who the biggest jerk in the animal kingdom is. The answer may surprise you (but probably not).

Plus, some reader mail ... sort of. (For the record, we're pretty thorough in our consideration of "Don't Look Up" and asteroid mining.)

Put on your mask, and dabble some food for thought in the stream of consciousness with us.