Pet Trash Pandas

Howdy, listenerlings!! This week's episode is a fun one. Beth, The Associate Producer Idiot joins our discussion with our new friend Raffaela Lesch, PhD, who was the lead researcher in studying trends showing that raccoons are following a similar path that wolves did en route to becoming dogs. The good news, this means that trash pandas may become domesticated, possibly self-domesticated, to be pets. Ya know, little bandit masked housemates! The bad news, unless you plan to live for another 10k+ years, you likely will never own one. Does anyone have a number for a cryogenic deep freeze person? Dogtor Kent may be interested. The discussion is lively, fun, relaxed, and just an all around good time. If you want to read the nitty gritty details, check out Raffaela's research at https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12983-025-00583-1 https://www.raffaelalesch.com/