Ed Yong on May 6, 2026 | UCSB Arts & Lectures

“Yong succeeds brilliantly in shedding light on these alien worlds – worlds that drift around us every day, like plankton around a scallop, but whose richness and extravagant strangeness we rarely pause to examine.” The Guardian (U.K.)

“To perceive the world through other senses is to find splendor in familiarity, and the sacred in the mundane.” – Ed Yong

Bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize-winning science journalist Ed Yong invites audiences on a thrilling journey into the hidden worlds of animal senses. Based on his acclaimed book An Immense World, this eye-opening evening explores how other creatures experience sights, sounds, smells and sensations far beyond our own human perception. With humor, wonder and dazzling storytelling, the winner of the 2021 George Polk Award for science reporting reveals a planet alive with electric messages, magnetic maps and vibrations we cannot feel. Yong’s work challenges us to see the world not only as it appears to humans, but as it is through the eyes, ears and skins of other species.