100 WVIA Way
Pittston, PA 18640

Phone: 570-826-6144
Fax: 570-655-1180

Copyright © 2025 WVIA, all rights reserved. WVIA is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

What Does Animal Madness Teach Us About Our Own?

Part 4 of the TED Radio Hour episode Animals And Us.

About Laurel Braitman's TED Talk

From compulsive bears to self-destructive rats, science historian Laurel Braitman studies animals with mental health issues and asks what we can learn from them.

About Laurel Braitman

Laurel Braitman is a science historian who wants to know: Why is your cat so sad? For her book Animal Madness, she delves into the history of mental illness in animals, revealing a world of parrots that pluck themselves, cats with PTSD and donkeys with deep neuroses. Braitman holds a Ph.D in history and anthropology of science from MIT and works as an affiliate artist at the Headlands Center for the Arts.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

NPR/TED Staff