#900B: Mustapha Khan, an Emmy-Award winning director and Brooklyn College Film School professor, talks about his film “Freddie Bear’s Lovely Day,” set to Bill Withers iconic tune, which he will be there to see in person at the 9th Annual NY Dog Film Festival premiering in NYC October 24th. 

#900A: Carol Borden of Guardian Angels Medical Service Dogs explains how dogs can distinguish the chemical components of emotions, particularly the scent of PTSD for which they can be trained as service dogs — about which her organization made a film for the Purina Dog Chow Service Dog Salute category of the upcoming NY Dog Film Festival.

#896A: Peter Abrahams is back with another dog-driven mystery novel in his renowned Chet & Bernie mystery series — as fun as ever!

#856B: Renowned pet nutrition expert Dr. Ryan Yamka and Tracie make mincemeat (sic) of the recent press release that “vegan cat diets are better for cats” who are obligate carnivores. Sure they can, Dr. Yamka says, so long as the kitties can hunt, catch and eat birds and mice, the way they did in the “research study!"

#856A: Jordan Holt from Camping with Dogs talks about the founder’s book “Every Dog Deserves an Adventure” which grew from a powerful Instagram page to a community of dog lovers with a shared lifestyle.

#855C: Sassafras Lowrey’s piece in the New York Times “What We Can Learn from European Dog Culture” makes some interesting points about cultural differences seen through a canine lens.

#855B: Dr. Deborah Aronson is a veterinarian who is an end-of-life specialist, offering in home euthanasia and also professionally trained in pastoral care so she can tend to the emotional needs of her human patients while consulting on palliative care for “silver whiskered patients.” 

#855A: Grant Hayter-Menzies talks about his memoir “Freddie: The Rescue Dog Who Rescued Me” and how their two-way street of unconditional love got them both through the tough times.

#855C: Bob Bryant Mission discusses his K9 Rescue that rehabilitates, repatriates and [when appropriate] finds homes with former military K9 handlers for MWDs whose military service has ended.

#855B: Tracie talks to trainer Annie Phenix — author of “Positive Reinforcement for Aggressive and Reactive Dogs” — about dog-on-dog attacks and the horror of a pack of German Shepherds kept by a bookstore owner on the Upper East Side of New York, who allowed her dogs to terrorize small dogs and finally to kill one.

#855A: Ethologist Jessica Pierce’s new book “Who's a Good Dog? How to Be a Better Human” exhorts us to meet a dog where they stand. Accept them for who they are — appreciate the neuro-diversities of dogs as we now do with children. 

#853C: Kate Foster in Australia discusses how she and her son are both autistic, which inspired her to write “All the Small Wonderful Things.”

#853B: Nationally acclaimed pet nutrition expert Ryan Yamka debunks myths about pet foods — particularly that “senior” foods and “keto diets” have no basis in nutrition science, says the man who in 2020 won the Pet Science Pet Industry Disruptor Award.

895B: Linda Kohanov, author of “The Tao of Equus,” describes a similar magic of communication we can have with dogs, and how we can transfer her principles of Wu Wei (not doing, not forcing, not striving) from our relationship with horses to that with dogs. 

#853A: From England, Sarah Brown talks about her newest book “The Hidden Language of Cats: How They Have us at Meow” and how cats actually only meow to people, not other cats!

#852B: Wendy Wen talks about being a woman entrepreneur in the pet industry, carefully buying brands like Bocce's Bakery, Ark Naturals, and Super Snouts to infuse them with venture capital and help them grow to the next level, while retaining the original founders and team behind those companies.

#852A: Widely respected political author and columnist Matt Bai talks about his recent opinion piece in the Washington Post entitled "Master and Commander: Biden's Dog Troubles Hint at a Larger Problem," about the multiple uncontrolled biting attacks by Biden's German Shepherd Commander, which Tracie views as irresponsible and immoral dog ownership and which Bai views as the danger and seduction of entitlement that can come with sitting in the Oval Office. 

#851B: Peta Hitchens in Australia talks about her movie "Filming Dogs" that will be in the upcoming 8th Annual NY Dog Film Festival, and the question she asks herself and others who have performing dogs: "Do they really want to be doing this or are you doing it for yourself?"

#851A: Pilley Bianchi talks about her book "For the Love of Dog" and growing up as the "sibling" of the world's most brilliant dog — Chaser — who knew over 1,000 words. She encourages everyone to "use their dogs' brilliant minds to play," and magnify our bond and appreciation of them.

 #850A: Cate Conte is back with another cozy kitty-infused mystery, this time with ghosts, a psychic, and deaths in a haunted house on Halloween. 

 #850B: Francesco Marciuliano has written “Oh. It’s You. Love Poems by Cats,” another hilarious collection of poems inspired by (and theoretically penned by) his own cultured kitties. He is giving a copy as a gift to everyone who buys tickets for the Meow Party, as well as to the filmmakers coming to the 6th Annual NY Cat Film Festival premiere. 

 #850C: Lynn Hightower, the author of the thriller “A Beautiful Risk” — which is also a book about loss and grief — talks about how this book morphed into her column on grief for Psychology Today. [She generously bought copies of her book for the doggy swag bags for the filmmakers coming to the NYC premiere of the 8th Annual NY Dog Film Festival.] 

#849C: Kathleen Donnelly talks about her second book in the National Forest K-9 series and how her own experience with search dogs makes the human-canine bond so realistic (and the danger so scarier!)

#849B: Brian Patrick Duggan talks about his innovative new book, “Horror Dogs: Man’s Best Friend as Movie Monster,” and the years of research and passion that went into unearthing all the movies ever made in which dogs are depicted as you’ve never thought of them before: as “man’s scariest” friend.

#895A: Director Les Owen discusses his short film “One Mind,” which celebrates the relationship between a veteran with PTSD and his specially trained service dog — one of the semi-finalists being considered for the new Service Dog Salute category of the upcoming 9th Annual NY Dog Film Festival, presented by Purina Dog Chow  

#849A: Director Kim Best won the first-ever Visionary Award in 2022 for having had a film (and sometimes two!) in every NY Cat Film Festival since the first year. She talks about yet again having two of her films selected for this year’s 6th Annual Festival —  “Insomnia” and “Seen at Last” — and what inspires her.

#848C: Rick DuCharme talks about the Community Cat Clinic he opened in Georgia — with more to come — that offers accessible services and fees to cat owners and community cat protectors who previously did not have affordable or geographically accessible care.

#848B: Dog trainer Annie Phenix (author of “Positive Training for Aggressive and Reactive Dogs”) discusses the apparent ignorance of President and Jill Biden about what is acceptable canine behavior — since they now have a second German Shepherd that is repeatedly biting Secret Service members and other staff at the White House.  

#848A: Hersch Wilson discusses the special ways that living alongside dogs can expand our view of the universe in his book “Dog Lessons: Learning the Important Stuff from Our Best Friends.” 

#847C: Spencer Williams — the owner of the dog toy company West Paw — talks about the safety element to their toys being made of non-toxic, recyclable FDA approved material, and Tracie congratulates him for celebrating their 10th anniversary as a “B corp.”

#847B: Dr. Doug Mader — Tracie’s co-host on their podcast Exotic Pets — discusses the value of routine annual exams at the veterinarian whether for dogs, cats or snakes!

#847A: Pilley Bianchi talks about her book describing growing up alongside Chaser — probably the most famous dog in modern times, the Border Collie her father taught more than 1,000 words.

#846C: Robin Joy Meyers talks about how she and her husband developed a brand new kind of fabric that captures pet hair and dirt - while being elegant and luxurious to the touch — and how they made it into Magic Fabric throws to protect furniture and beds from snuggling dogs and cats.

#846B: Dr Craig Clifford, who previously spoke about the Take C.H.A.R.G.E Registry, returns to consider whether food, environment, genetics or something else can be blamed for the ever-higher incidence of cancer in dogs.

#846A: Ross Scarbro from Wondercide discusses the products they have created with natural “plant power” to repel and kill fleas and ticks without exposing your pets to toxic chemicals.

#894B: Anne Marie Farage-Smith’s book “How to Heal from Pet Loss and Different Forms of Grief” offers wisdom and support for coping with the often surprisingly powerful grief that accompanies the death of a pet.

#845C: Dr. Angie Johnston — Director of Boston College Canine Cognition Center & Social Learning Lab — returns to talk about how they are studying learning from watching how kids and dogs learn differently. And it may be that dogs are actually smarter than children at some things!

#845B: Stephanie Volo, who is the Chief Impact Officer for Earth Animal, talks about how the toy company West Paw (one of the first pet businesses to be a B Corp) created the “Funnl” to hold Earth Animal’s unique No Hide dog chew — “a partnership for good,” as she describes it, “for the betterment of animals, people & the planet.”

#845A: Tracie is so happy to catch up with Dr. Clive Wynn, who she interviewed years ago as author of “Dog is Love,” and who is the director of the Canine Science Collaboratory at Arizona State University, who is happy to have many other “canine scientists'  following in his footsteps.

#844C: LeeAnn Wagner from the Suitical company — which originated in the Netherlands —  talks about the unique products that cover a dog or cat’s body for healing from wounds or surgeries instead of the dreaded “cone of shame” disliked by pets and owners alike. 

#844B: Nancy Peterson of the National Kitten Coalition talks about the challenges and successes in groups across the country rescuing kittens, but she urges people not to disturb little kittens in a nest because their mother is surely looking after them — and it gives them a better chance of survival.

#844A: Tracie was surprised to learn that yet another prestigious college has dog studies — the Yale Center Canine Cognition Lab. She talks to Dr. Zachary Silver, who got his degree and is leaving to start a dog studies program at Occidental College, where he will be a professor, finding the study of co-evolution with dogs and awareness of their social cognition endlessly fascinating.

843C: Veterinary oncologist Dr. Craig Clifford talks about the Take C.H.A.R.G.E cancer registry and how doctors and scientists are doing comparative oncology research into similarities between some cancers common to children and canines to benefit both species.

843B: Dr. Rupal Tewari is a stem cell scientist and veterinarian who speaks to Tracie from her BioCraft laboratory in Vienna, Austria (via her professional progression from India to Italy) about the challenges and rewards of creating cultured mouse meat and chicken meat as future sources of protein for pet foods.

843A: Katie Haegele talks about her art-infused stories in her book “Cats I’ve Known: On Love, Loss, and Being Graciously Ignored” and also her Cat Zine series, creating some of the most delightful tales Tracie has encountered about the feline-canine bond.

#842C: Ace Tilton is a fascinating person, who worked in a mortuary before following their love of dogs into a home euthanasia business with their veterinarian husband. Then they wrote this book — “The Little Book of Dog Care: Expert Advice on Giving Your Dogs Their Best Life” — which grew out of a lifelong love of dogs, offering advice and anecdotes from a unique perspective. 

#89A: Dr. Andy Roark is what Tracie calls a Physician Philosopher, dispensing humorous insights to other veterinarians (and the rest of us!), with a weekly blog Tracie eagerly anticipates for his musings into the joys and burdens of being human — like his recent one “No One Cares About Your Broccoli” that they discuss. (Tracie knows she has a lot of company in Andy’s fan club — his podcast “Cone of Shame” has had over one million listens!)

#842B: Tena Lundquist and her twin sister Tama are the heroines of this documentary about the terrible plight of tens of thousands of homeless dogs in Houston. Tena talks about how they and a few determined animal-lovers are working to change animal welfare in their city.

#842A: Lynn Hightower’s riveting thriller has a brave and valiant dog at the center, whose devotion gets the heroine through the deepest loss and grief — and jeopardy.

#841C: Dr. Geraldine Deitheim describes how she and other veterinarians use cold laser for pain control and healing in pets.