Dog Talk ® (and Kitties Too!)
DOG TALK® features Tracie Hotchner's interviews with authors, pet experts and animal welfare advocates from around the world, discussing practical and philosophical issues regarding our relationships with dogs, cats, other pets, wildlife and the natural world.The show broadcasts from WLIW FM 88.3 in Southampton, the only NPR station on Long Island, reaching from the East End across Long Island into Southern Connecticut and Westchester.
The show’s theme song is “Mmm My Best Friend” by Sophie B. Hawkins from her album TIMBRE.
Episodes
958 episodes
Poems To Make Your Heart Sing (some with dogs!)
#1006B: K.T. Landon's “Abide” poetry collection won the 2025 Richard Snyder Prize and hearing her read from this collection of wonderfully, powerfully accessible poems will make it clear why she got that honor.
Veterinary Experts Deployed for National Disasters
#1006A: Dr. Deb Zoran Texas A&M director of VET (Veterinary Emergency Team) which she also teaches to 4th year veterinary students — also serves on the FEMA Incident Support Team as a DVM specialist supporting the working canines deployed t...
Please Do NOT Get a Frenchie!
#1005B: Mariclare Carey-Jones made the film “Pierre’s Tale” as a cautionary story of the terrible physical ailments the breed has as they have become so popular, hoping to spare others the pain and suffering her beloved Frenchie Pierre went thr...
Robo Stars Again in the Newest Timber Creek K-9 Mystery
#1005A: Margaret Mizushima's “Fighting Edge,” her 11th Timber Creek K-9 mystery, has Robo, the detection/apprehension dog, who is the star of the series, at the center of the action in this wonderfully complex set of mysteries.
The NYC Animal Care Centers Have Come a Long Way
#1004B: Katy Hansen of the NY ACC (the beneficiary of the NYC premiere of the NY Cat Film Festival Sept 26th) talks about all the great shelters the city has built (or is building) in the boroughs and how the many cat rescue groups flourish in ...
Giants of the Valley — 16 Irish Wolfhounds (and Counting!)
#1004A: Nick Trumble talks about his delightful film "Giants of the Valley," premiering in the 11th Annual NY Dog Film Festival, about a fabulously eccentric English family who own 16 Irish Wolfhounds, along with a number of other dogs, and the...
Guardian Angels for Dogs Discarded in the Vegas Desert
#1003B: Filmmaker Francesco Valentinuzzi talks from Italy about why he made the documentary “Dumped,” to celebrate the unusual group of dog rescuers who save discarded and lost dogs in Las Vegas. It will be featured in the 11th Annual NY Dog Fi...
Older Pets Get Their Day at SeniorPetCon!
#1003A: Dr. Monica Tarantino, founder of the Senior Dog Veterinary Society, is putting on a day of virtual education and support to empower the parents of senior dogs and cats on September 12th and a deeper dive (with CE credits) for veterinari...
The Dog Who Brings Barcelonians Together
#1002B: Barcelonian filmmaker Tora Meder Bird crafted a film about a dog bringing a community together in “Diego” (premiering in the 11th Annual NY Dog Film Festival September 27th in NYC) and says she had “love heart eyes” for Diego the minute...
The Canine Star of a Novel in Egyptian Tombs
#1002A: Brian Patrick Duggan talks about the historical background to his rollicking historical novel “Thunder in the Valley of the Queens,” with archaeologists and soldiers intersecting in Egypt during wartime — featuring a Saluki in a pivotal...
Love in Their Hearts
#1001B: Ethologist Marc Bekoff's newest book, “Love in Their Hearts,” explores the emotional lives of many different animals and, while it is aimed at young adults, all humans can appreciate and learn from it.
The Secret to Conquering Cancer is to Prevent It
#1001A: Dr. Kendra Pope is an oncologist who also practices alternative medicine in helping pets and their people navigate cancer, with a special emphasis on how nutrition plays a part in maintaining a healthy immune system — especially a home-...
Animals Are More Than a Toaster
#1000B: Victoria Shroff KC (Kings Counsel) is an Associate Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics in the UK, who practices and teaches animal law in British Columbia, Canada, where they have changed the law locally so that companion anim...
Should Your Chubby Labrador Take Ozempic?
#1000A: Dr. Ernie Ward, whose own nonprofit the Association for the Prevention of Obesity in Pets has been raising awareness for decades about the harm to pets of being overweight, discusses the current interest in giving GLP-1 drugs to dogs an...
The Magic Elixir: CBD Hemp Oil
#999B: Sue Adams (a licensed veterinary technician at Ellevet Sciences in Maine, who supports veterinarians and dog owners calling for guidance on the right product and dose-by-weight for mobility and anxiety issues) talks about the life-changi...
Your Dog is Eavesdropping!
#999A: Dr. Shany Dror's research at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna has shown that the learning vocabulary of some extraordinary dogs who can learn the name of a vast number of different toys is like that of an 18-month-old todd...
The Human-Canine Bond Looks the Same Around the Globe
#998B: Dr. Juliane Brauer from the University of Jena in Germany led a team of researchers across every continent to study differences in relationships between people and their dogs — yet they found striking global universal similarities in tha...
How Animals Shape the Human Mind
#998A: Michael Bond's book “Animate: How Animals Shape the Human Mind” looks at the earliest depictions of the way animals affect human thinking in the cave paintings of Southern France, trying to understand Ice Age people through "visual paleo...
Freida the Chihuahua Eats Like a Queen (with IVI blend)
#997B: Jennifer Palencia — the Director of Operations at the Penn Club of New York — has a culinary degree from Johnson & Wales, skills she has put to good use home-cooking for her little Chi-Chi Freida, who now gets a truly balanced health...
Saying Goodbye to Beloved Senior Goldens
#997A: Peggy Frezon’s book of support and wisdom “Goodbye to a Good Dog: Healing, Comfort, and the Hope of Heaven After the Loss of Your Dog” comes from years of adopting senior citizen Golden Retrievers and learning how to accept the Rainbow B...
Treat the Joint, Not the Whole Dog!
#996B: Dr. Jennifer Fletcher Eckenrode, a canine rehabilitation veterinarian at her own Paws in Motion clinic in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, discusses her extensive expertise in pain management and rehabilitation, in particular her firsthand expe...
A Guide Dog Helped Her See Herself
#996A: Deni Elliott’s memoir “Catching Sight: How a Guide Dog Helped Me See Myself” is a touching saga of someone losing her sight, fighting against it, then discovering how Guiding Eyes For the Blind dogs change their peoples’ lives on the ins...
A Miracle Drug for Cats With HCM
#995B: Dr. Heather Davis explains how hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) was previously untreatable in cats until they developed Felycin®-CA1, the first weekly therapy developed for cats with this heart problem affects one-third of senior cats.&...
A Book That Makes Maggots Seem Marvelous — Really!
#995A: Dr. Dino Martins speaks from Kenya about his book “Hidden Creatures: Luscious Leeches, Bashful Botflies, and the Wondrous, History-Shaping World of Parasites,” and his extraordinary life discovering these creatures and more around the wo...