Strange Country Ep. 288: Talking Dolphins

Strange Country

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:

GRECO, JOANN, and Benjamin Franklin. “The Psychonaut You Never Heard Of – The Pennsylvania Gazette.” The Pennsylvania Gazette, 20 June 2017, https://thepenngazette.com/the-psychonaut-you-never-heard-of/. Accessed 12 August 2024. Greenwood, Arin. “What It Means To Say A Dolphin Committed Suicide.” HuffPost, 13 June 2014, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/dolphin-commits-suicide_n_5491513. Accessed 14 August 2024. Houghton, Gerard A. “John Lilly.” The Guardian, 5 October 2001, https://www.theguardian.com/news/2001/oct/05/guardianobituaries.highereducation. Accessed 14 August 2024. Jones, Tom, et al. “The Ketamine Secrets of 'Ecco the Dolphin.'” VICE, 16 March 2015, https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-ketamine-secrets-of-segas-ecco-the-dolphin-347/. Accessed 14 August 2024. Kabil, Ahmed. “Meet the psychedelics-obsessed scientist who wanted to learn dolphins' language.” Medium, 28 November 2016, https://medium.com/timeline/neuroscience-doctor-drugs-lsd-c17d5e84c653. Accessed 14 August 2024. 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.