Alfie and Me: What Owls Know, What Humans Believe

When the ecologist Carl Safina took in a wounded baby screech owl, he expected that she’d be a temporary guest, soon to be released. But the tiny creature - named Alfie - took a long time to heal. Carl and his wife Patricia could never have predicted that when Alfie was finally able to live free, she would choose to establish her territory with their home at its center, attract a wild mate, and raise her babies right outside his studio window. Nor could they have guessed that the Covid-19 pandemic would grant the time to form a profound bond with Alfie. As in his book ALFIE & ME: What Owls Know, What Humans Believe, Safina relates how Alfie pulled Carl and Patricia into her world. The relationships they formed prompt us to rethink the human place in nature. Safina explores what could be gained by connecting at a deeper level, as other cultures did around the globe over millennia - and what we lose through our particular culture’s self-imposed exile from the rest of life on Earth.

Speaker: Carl Safina, Author