Internationally-Renowned Physician and Evolutionary Biologist Dr. Barbara Natterson-Horowitz and Animal Behaviorist and Science Writer, Kathryn Bowers, to Discuss Latest Book About Adolescent Animals and Humans
L.A. native Dr. Barbara Natterson-Horowitz will be making a one-time-only appearance at the Los Angeles Zoo on September 15 to promote her new book, Wildhood: The Epic Journey from Adolescence to Adulthood in Humans and Other Animals (book release date September 17, 2019). The Wildhood author appearance and book-signing will comprise a lecture presentation by Barbara Natterson-Horowitz and Wildhood co-author, award-winning science writer Kathryn Bowers. This is a ticketed public event, which also includes admission to the Zoo for the day; tickets are on sale now.
“The essential connection between humans and other animals is powerful and has never been more important for our species to understand,” Dr. Natterson-Horowitz says. “The Los Angeles Zoo’s leadership and commitment to animal health and conservation inspired me to journey into the world of veterinary medicine and wildlife biology.”
“We are really looking forward to this day,” says Los Angeles Zoo Director Denise Verret. “Dr. Natterson’s deep connection to the L.A. Zoo is so important to us. Her passion for our Zoo and her belief in our healthcare programs are empowering. With her second book, Barbara continues to drive innovation and disruption in order to find shared healthcare solutions for both humans and animals – and there is still so much to be learned. Her work is incredibly inspiring, and her professional endorsement of the Los Angeles Zoo validates the work we are doing every day for the health and wellbeing of our animals.”
Prior to her appearance at the Los Angeles Zoo on September 15, Dr. Natterson-Horowitz will have just returned from Stockholm where she will give the Keynote at the Nobel Assembly’s Nobel Conference. “On the opening day of the Nobel Conference, I will express my gratitude to the L.A. Zoo. The leadership of the Los Angeles Zoo recognized the importance of collaboration between experts in human and animal health. Learning from the animal experts at the Zoo, I became a better doctor and a better teacher.”
Dr. Natterson-Horowitz’s first book, Zoobiquity, was inspired by her research at the L.A. Zoo. After its publication, the Zoo hosted the first Zoobiquity Conference. “Thanks in large part to the L.A. Zoo, the Zoobiquity Conferences have been bringing together leaders in human, animal and ecological health for collaborations to benefit all of the species on our planet.”
Wildhood Book Description
With Wildhood, Harvard evolutionary biologist Barbara Natterson-Horowitz and award-winning science writer Kathryn Bowers have created an entirely new way of thinking about the crucial, vulnerable, and exhilarating phase of life between childhood and adulthood across the animal kingdom.
In their critically acclaimed bestseller, Zoobiquity, the authors revealed the essential connection between human and animal health. In Wildhood, they turn the same eye-opening, species-spanning lens to adolescent young adult life. Traveling around the world and drawing from their latest research, they find that the same four universal challenges are faced by every adolescent human and animal on earth: how to be safe, how to navigate hierarchy; how to court potential mates; and how to feed oneself. Safety. Status. Sex. Self-reliance. How human and animal adolescents and young adults confront the challenges of wildhood shapes their adult destinies.
Natterson-Horowitz and Bowers illuminate these core challenges through the lives of four animals in the wild: Ursula, a young king penguin; Shrink, a charismatic hyena; Salt, a matriarchal humpback whale; and Slavc, a roaming European wolf. Through their riveting stories—and those of countless others, from adventurous eagles and rambunctious high schooler to inexperienced orcas and naive young soldiers—readers get a vivid and game-changing portrait of adolescent young adults as a horizontal tribe, sharing behaviors and challenges, setbacks and triumphs.
About the Authors
Dr. Barbara Natterson-Horowitz is a Visiting Professor in Harvard University’s Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Professor of Medicine in the UCLA Division of Cardiology and co-director of UCLA’s Evolutionary Medicine Program. Her research is directed towards identifying natural animal models of resistance to cardiovascular and other disorders. In 2011, she co-founded the Zoobiquity Conferences, a US and international initiative bringing human and veterinary experts together to accelerate biomedical innovation. She is also a member of the Los Angeles Zoo’s Medical Advisory Board.
Dr. Natterson-Horowitz studied evolutionary biology as an undergraduate and graduate student, receiving bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Harvard. She attended UC San Francisco for medical school followed by post-graduate training at UCLA including internal medicine residency and chief residency, and cardiology fellowship with advanced training in heart failure and cardiac imaging. She has been a member of the UCLA Division of Cardiology since 1993 and served as Director of Imaging for the UCLA Cardiac Arrhythmia Group. In 2012, she published the NY Times bestselling book, Zoobiquity, which makes the case for a species-spanning approach to health. Zoobiquity was a Finalist in the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)’s Excellence in Science Books Award, Discover Magazine Best Book of 2012, and the China Times Best Book of 2012. It has been translated into seven languages and has been the common read at universities across the country.
Dr. Natterson-Horowitz is President of the International Society for Evolution, Medicine and Public Health.
Kathryn Bowers is a science journalist who has taught at UCLA and Harvard. A Future Tense Fellow at New America in Washington, DC, she was previously an editor at Zocalo Public Square in Los Angeles, a staff editor at the Atlantic Monthly, and a writer/producer for CNN International in London.