TRC #625: Good News 2020: Global Health + Dogs Communicating With Buttons?

The year 2020 was a dumpster fire, right?  Darren gives us another instalment of his good news stories from the year, this time discussing global health. Adam does a deep dive into viral videos claiming to show dogs communicating using soundboards.

Download direct: mp3 file

Good News 2020: Global Health

Future Crunch

BBC 

WHO Malaria Report 

Good News 

Dogs Communicating With Buttons?

What About Bunny – TikTok

This Dog Can Talk In Sentences Using A Machine Her Human Created And It’s INCREDIBLE – Pupperish

hunger4words – Instagram

How Bunny the dog is pushing scientists’ buttons

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2 Responses to TRC #625: Good News 2020: Global Health + Dogs Communicating With Buttons?

  1. Interestingly–and sadly–CBS Sunday Morning just broadcast (2 May 2021) what amounts to a veritable confirmation of the “dog communication” tail…er…tale. As Adam points out, the evidence seems extremely anecdotal and unconfirmable, especially since the CBS show simply presents dogs punching buttons with their paws and then having the owner exclaim how marvelous a demonstration of “dog talk” this is.

    “I know she is an independent thinker.” (0:35)

    “When I brought Stella home I just saw these insane similarities between what she was doing to communicate to us and what toddlers do” (0:34)

    “About a month in she started saying her first words.” (0:34)

    • Adam says:

      Well morning shows are not exactly known for challenging their guests with hard hitting questions! Disappointing for sure. What’s most surprising to me is how impartial viewers can look at these demonstrations and find anything remotely convincing. We see what we want to see I suppose!

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