The mid-20th century was heady times full of LSD, and a NASA flush with cash, which is how we get to today's story about a scientist trying to get dolphins to speak English. Strange Country co-hosts Beth and Kelly talk about Dr. John C. Lilly, inventor of the sensory deprivation tank and dolphin whisperer, whose plans for dolphin communication veered off in a strange direction when one volunteer started giving Peter the dolphin a helping hand, if you catch our meaning.
Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands.
Cite your sources:
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Rapp, Joshua. "Just How Intelligent Are Dolphins?" Discover Magazine, 26 March 2021, https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/just-how-intelligent-are-dolphins. Accessed 13 August 2024.
Riley, Christopher. "The dolphin who loved me: the Nasa-funded project that went wrong." The Guardian, 8 June 2014, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jun/08/the-dolphin-who-loved-me. Accessed 14 August 2024.
Schreiber, Dan. "Will We Ever Speak Dolphinese?" The Theory of Everything Else: A Voyage Into the World of the Weird, HarperCollinsPublishers, 2023, pp. 161-173.
