Ep. 7 - Octopus Obsession

Nothing blows the human mind quite like octopus intelligence. Lisa and Ann investigate the powerful charm of the octopus brain. Filled with fascinating facts and the story behind the story of the riveting inter-species love affair in My Octopus Teacher, this episode shows why the octopus has such a suction grip on our imagination. Even if you've read Sy Montgomery’s The Soul of an Octopus and watched the 2021 Academy Award Winning documentary, My Octopus Teacher, you will learn a lot more about the strange and wondrous cephalopod mind. 

Want to follow up on our sources or watch any of the videos we mention? Go to ThisAnimalLIfe.com and click on Show Notes. 

Erlich, Pippa. “Hot Docs 2020 Women Directors: Meet Pippa Ehrlich – “My Octopus Teacher” by Cody Corrall. Women and Hollywood. June 3, 2020.

Erlich, Pippa, featured in “Why 'My Octopus Teacher' Directors Brought in an 'Octopus Psychologist' for Their Doc.” by Steve Pond. The Wrap. April 12, 2021.

Foster, Craig. Interviewed in “Filmmaker Finds an Unlikely Underwater Friend in ‘My Octopus Teacher.’  Fresh Air, NPR, October 15, 2020.

Foster, Craig, filmmaker. My Octopus Teacher, Netflix Documentary, 2020.

Foster, Craig. Sea Change Project. Website.

Godfrey-Smith, Peter.  Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness. Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 2016.

Godfrey-Smith, Peter. Interviewed in “What Can an Octopus Teach Us About Consciousness?” When We Talk About Animals, podcast. Episode 2.

“Legging it: Evasive octopus who has been allowed to look for love.” By Kathy Marksoz. Independent. February 14, 2009

Mather, Jennifer, featured in “Octopuses at Work and Play: Jennifer Mather and Cephalopod Cognition.” Women You Should Know. By Dale Debakcsy. Nov, 14, 2018.

Mather, Jennifer. “What’s in an octopus’s mind?” Animal Sentience 26(1), 2019.

Montgomery, Sy. The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness. Atria Books, 2015. 

Nagel, Thomas. “What is it like to be a bat?” The Philosophical Review. 83 (4), 1974. [Link to Wikipedia page]

Octolab TV: Octolab.Tv a series of videos of octopus experiments,  most of them an octopus with mirrors, an octopus reacting to a wig, and they take suggestions online.

Scheel, David, featured in “Octopus: Making Contact,” PBS Nature, Season 38, Episode 1. Oct. 2019. 

Von Uexküll, Jakob, Wikipedia page with Umwelt.