Comedians Interview Experts: Talking with Dolphins with Brian Furey and Diana Reiss

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  Tickets for Comedians Interview Experts: Talking with Dolphins with Brian Furey and Diana Reiss

  This show is exactly what it says. Every week one of your favorite comedians interviews an expert on a topic they've always wanted to know more about. Every Sunday come hear the funniest interviews about neuroscience, astrophysics, mental health, and more! Have you ever wondered: if animals could talk, what would they say? And whether or not this question is actually answerable by science? This week Brian Furey interviews Diana Reiss about animal cognition and Reiss's "conversations" with dolphins using an interactive underwater keyboard. **Brian Furey** is an actor and comedian best known for his characters in the Grand Theft Auto games and for his Museum Tours series where he improvises voiceovers of classical paintings for over a million followers across platforms. He is also a principle performer on And Scene and creator of New York’s longest running conservation themed comedy show, Drunk Planet Earth. Follow him at @morathanenough and @drunkplanetearth. **Dr. Diana Reiss** is a marine mammal scientist and cognitive psychologist. She is a professor in the Psychology Department at Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY) and the Graduate Center (CUNY) and the past Director of Hunter’s Animal Behavior and Conservation Graduate program. Dr. Reiss received a PhD in 1983 in Speech and Communication Sciences from Temple University and had additional graduate training in Physiological Acoustics and Animal Behavior at the Laboratoire de Physiologie Acoustique, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Centre National de la Recherche, CNRZ/INRA, Jouy-en-Josas, France. Her career included being the founder and Director of the dolphin research program at Marine World Africa USA, the Osborn Laboratories of Marine Science at the New York Aquarium of the Wildlife Conservation Society, and the National Aquarium. Her research focuses on dolphin cognition and communication and the evolution of intelligence and she conducts research with dolphins in the field and aquaria to provide a rich perspective on their abilities. She pioneered the use of an interactive underwater keyboard system with dolphins that afforded them choice and control and enabled the investigation of their spontaneous vocal learning abilities. Reiss and her colleagues have done groundbreaking studies demonstrating that bottlenose dolphins, Asian elephants and beluga whales possess the advanced cognitive ability for mirror self-recognition previously considered unique to humans and great apes. She is currently also conducting research into the cognitive and communicative world of cephalopods in collaboration with Dr. Marcelo Magnasco (The Rockefeller University) and Dr. Brenda McCowan (UC Davis) on dolphin cognition and communication at The Roatan Institute for Marine Sciences in Roatan, Honduras. Dr. Reiss served as a member and then an advisor to of the AZA’s Animal Welfare Committee and has worked with AZA’s Conservation and Governmental Affairs directors on marine mammal policy issues. She also served as a science advisor for the California Marine Mammal Rescue Center and her professional efforts also included the rescue and rehabilitation of stranded marine mammals including the rescue of Humphrey, the Humpback whale that wandered into the San Francisco Bay area in1985. As a member of the rescue team, Dr. Reiss worked with NOAA and NMFS and she conducted he successful acoustic playback operation that helped lead the whale back out into the open ocean. Dr. Reiss is a co-founder and Trustee, with Peter Gabriel, Vint Cerf, and Neil Gershenfeld, of the Interspecies Internet, a think-tank to accelerate the understanding of animal and interspecies communication. Reiss applies her research to advocating for global protection for cetaceans. Her work includes past efforts other scientists that led to dolphin-safe tuna labels. Dr. Reiss’s work has been published in numerous international and national journals, science magazines, television programs, and newspaper articles. In her book The Dolphin in the Mirror, released in 2011, she shares her personal and professional experiences with what she calls “magnificent minds in the water.” Hosted by **Brielle DeMirjian**

  Upcoming Dates

  • Sun Dec 13
    7:30 PM tickets for Sun Dec 13Add Sun Dec 13 at 7:30 PM to itinerary

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