Love this episode. Lulu's story was great. I believe that the question who are you, at this stage in our human intelligence, must be asked both scientifically and philosophically- one without the other is just lacking. Poor Charlie indeed, but Im wondering how much like charlie I am in my nice fenced suburban yard.

I love Radiolab, passionately, Lulu Miller is one of my favorite personas on the show and I'm a certifiable dog person.

All that said, I was psyched to come across the Charlie story. Still, as much as the piece was well written and well presented, somehow I missed the 'science' part of the story. A well-narrated tale of a woman reflecting on the loss of her beloved dog and tragically, it was indeed. A tale of a domestic animal pondering wildness, well, somehow I felt like I missed something and perhaps I did.

If Charlie was less like Toto and more of a young, rogue, husky-ish fella, hard to keep home, hard to temper his predator nature and definitely more closely genetically linked to his wild coyote cousins, I definitely would be on-board with questioning his longing for wildness and the possibility of him heading off into the woods to join their band.

While on its own the piece missed the mark for me, it could serve as a fabulous opener to a really interesting science piece on the domestication of animals and where the line between wild and domestic is drawn and where its rather blurry.

Just a suggestion...

i second rose's thoughts on this. This wasn't really radiolab-ish.

Such a touching story! Thank you for sharing!

That was so sweet

I still have tears running down my cheeks.... :-(

Poor Charlie..

I love Radiolab, but I listen to it for a thoughtful approach to novel science topics, not for personal stories that end with unsatisfying speculation. As evocative as the dog story was, it didn't belong in the episode. Please, I want more Radiolab and less TAL!