Melanie Challenger is a writer, poet and podcaster who researches the relationship between humans and the natural world. Initially working in the creative arts, Melanie soon started gaining recognition for her poems, choral works and librettos. Melanie has been a Fellow at the AHRC Centre for the Evolution of Cultural Diversity at UCL, a visiting Fellow at Durham University's philosophy department, and is currently a member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics. She also hosts the podcast Enter the Psychosphere, on diverse intelligences.
Melanie's books include On Extinction and How To Be Animal: A New History of What it Means to be Human, a work of environmental history and philosophy, where Melanie argues that the fundamental psychological struggle faced by all humans is recognising the fact we are animals.
"shows how the fact that we humans are animals has been denied and repressed, with profoundly damaging consequences for the way we live and for the planet" - John Gray