How can our connections with animals transform our mental, physical, and spiritual lives? Journalist and author Richard Louv presents perspectives from his book Our Wild Calling, exploring the future of human/animal coexistence. He asserts that sharing our lives with animals can serve as an antidote to a growing epidemic of human loneliness, and help us tap into the empathy required to preserve life on Earth.

Louv shares interviews with researchers, theologians, wildlife experts, indigenous healers, psychologists, and others to show how people are communicating with animals in ancient and new ways; how dogs can teach children ethical behavior; how animal-assisted therapy may transform the mental health field; and what role the human/animal relationship plays in our spiritual health. He reports on wildlife relocation and on how the growing populations of wild species in urban areas are blurring the lines between domestic and wild animals. Join Louv as he makes the case for protecting, promoting, and creating a sustainable and shared habitat for all creatures—and building something that many of us long for in the age of technology: real connection.

Richard Louv is a journalist and the author of ten books, including Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, The Nature Principle, and Vitamin N. Translated into twenty languages, his books have helped launch an international movement to connect children, families, and communities to nature. He is co-founder and chair emeritus of the nonprofit Children & Nature Network, which supports a new nature movement. Louv has written for the New York Times, Outside magazine, Orion Magazine, Parents, and many other publications.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle and North Cascades Institute.