Episode Details

Konrad Lorenz won the Nobel Prize for his work on animal behavior, including his famous studies of imprinting in greylag geese. He also joined the Nazi Party, wrote papers applying his theories to racial hygiene, and spent years after the war minimizing his involvement.

This episode examines how Lorenz founded the field of ethology while carrying a political past that permanently complicated his legacy.

• His discovery of imprinting and what it revealed about instinct
• The Nazi Party membership and his writings on racial biology
• How he rebuilt his career after years as a Soviet prisoner of war
• The Nobel Prize controversy and the questions it left unanswered