is it better to be a human or a lizard?

Summary

Podcast Summary: Therapy Gecko – "Is it better to be a human or a lizard?"

Host: iHeartPodcasts
Date: August 29, 2025
Theme: Exploring whether it is better to be a human or a lizard, using lighthearted interviews and philosophical musings at a Brooklyn gecko zoo.

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Overview

This episode of Therapy Gecko, hosted at the quirky opening of a gecko zoo in Brooklyn, is a playful, existential examination of sentience, consciousness, and the human condition. Through interviews with visitors and reflections from the host (the unlicensed lizard psychologist himself), the show weighs the highs and lows of being human against the simple, blissfully ignorant lives of lizards.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Human vs. Lizard: The Basic Question

• Right from the start, the main question posed to guests: “Would you rather be a human or a lizard?”
  • Some answer quickly that they would rather be human; others contemplate the lizard life’s appeal.

Notable Quotes

• Participant 1:
  “Human, for sure.” (00:43)
• Interviewer:
  “There’s a lot of suffering, I think, that comes with just being conscious... We’re the only animals that know we’re gonna die. It’s an interesting burden that the human race suffers.” (00:50, 01:01)
• Narrator:
  “It made me think about whether, if given the choice, would most people prefer to keep the high highs and low lows of being human, or would they rather experience a more stable baseline as a lizard?” (01:14–02:14)

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2. Upsides and Downsides of Sentience

• Guest Reflections: Some are drawn to the simplicity and ignorance of the lizard existence, craving escape from human anxieties like poverty, hunger, unemployment, and moral corruption.

• Participant 3:
  “I want to be a lizard. I want to be a cold-blooded animal with no emotions, well cared for... One gets tired of it [being human].” (02:18, 04:04)

• Participant 4:
  “Humans are probably the least moral of the animals. They start wars, they do crimes, they do things that animals don’t...” (02:45)

• Richie:
  “With every struggle comes a lesson. With every struggle comes a newfound knowledge about something... Being a human, it has its ups and downs, but the ups are I get to live out a dream.” (06:06)

Memorable Exchange

• Interviewer:
  “Do you ever have times where you genuinely do wish that you had, like, a simple lizard brain and you didn’t have to deal with all this?” (05:59)
• Richie:
  “No, because if I had a simple lizard brain, I wouldn’t be able to do this.” (06:06)

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3. What Makes Humanity Worth It?

• Enjoyment of “higher highs”: art, creativity, travel, food, and of course, video games.
• Participant 1:
  “Video games, good food, the ability to travel more than like a 5 mile radius. What about art too? Do we know any animals that have art?” (04:35)
• On dogs making art:
  "Yeah, yeah, but the dog isn't taking the video." (04:51)
• On money worries:
  “We might feel money, but if you were a lizard, you wouldn’t have to think about money. Ever.” (05:14–05:21)

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4. Consciousness: A Burden or a Gift?

• Participant 2:
  “As humans, we’re innately aware of our own consciousness... it’s beautiful that we actually know we have a past and we know we have a future.” (06:42, 07:22)

• Participant 5:
  “We are aware of our own existence. And that’s both scary, yet beautiful.” (07:43)

• Interviewer:
  “You would take the beautiful curse over the ignorant lizard stuff a million, a million times.” (07:48)

• Narrator:
  “I liked this perspective that the knowledge we have of our own existence is a gift to be appreciated rather than a weird, scary thing to be burdened with. It’s a choice of how you want to view it.” (07:56)

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5. Simplicity and the “Lizard Brain”

• Some envy the lizard’s absence of existential worries, but others argue that it’s worth embracing struggle for the meaning and opportunities it creates.
• Participant 3:
  “Again, like I said before, one gets tired of being sentient.” (04:04, 04:09)
• Richie:
  “Simplicity sometimes isn’t a bad thing.” (05:47)

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6. Driving, Travel, and Freedom

• Participant 6 checks off human privileges: “I could drive.” (08:37)
• Interviewer:
  “It would take a whole year to walk as a lizard from here to New Mexico... lizards don’t even know that New Mexico exists.” (08:55)

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Notable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• On the existential price of human consciousness:
  “We’re the only animals that know we’re gonna die. It’s an interesting burden that the human race suffers.” — Interviewer (01:01)

• On tiredness with sentience:
  “One gets tired of being sentient.” — Participant 3 (04:09)

• On embracing the beautiful curse:
  “We are aware of our own existence. And that’s both scary, yet beautiful.” — Participant 5 (07:43)

• On staying human for simple pleasures:
  “A Red Dead Redemption 2 would be one of the reasons for me why I would want to be a human instead of a lizard.” — Interviewer (09:44)

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Important Segment Timestamps

• 00:39–01:44: Opening questions and existential framing
• 02:14–03:10: The moral and practical dilemmas of humanity vs. lizardhood
• 03:48–04:53: Things people would miss about being human
• 05:21–05:59: The host’s reflections during the event
• 06:06–06:24: Richie’s perspective on struggle and meaning
• 06:42–07:48: On consciousness as beautiful and burdensome
• 08:29–08:55: Simple freedoms: driving and traveling
• 09:32–09:52: Host’s concluding thoughts

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Conclusion

Ultimately, the episode playfully illustrates that while the simplicity of the lizard’s life offers a tempting escape from the aches of human consciousness, most guests (and the host) value the richness, creativity, and self-awareness that being human allows. Even the struggles of sentience are seen as opportunities for meaning. As the host concludes:

• Narrator:
  “Choosing to view the bigger things as beautiful instead of scary, maintaining good quality of thoughts and going to New Mexico. And at the end of the day, I would also choose to remain a human. It is an honor.” (09:52)

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The tone throughout is curious, philosophical, and gently humorous, turning a silly question—human or lizard?—into a quietly profound meditation on what makes life worth living.

Transcript

[Narrator]

Hey, folks, this is a little bonus episode that I originally filmed as a video for my YouTube channel as part of a series of these mini documentaries I'm trying to do once a month. And if you're hearing this right now, it means that you're not listening on Spotify, which means I can't upload the video on whatever podcast platform you are listening on. So you can either go to the link in the episode description to watch this as a video, or. Or you can stick around. And I have edited a version of this video that works to listen to as just audio. Okay. And with that context given, let's play the thing.

[Interviewer]

Would you rather be a human or a gecko?

[Participant 1]

Human, for sure.

[Interviewer]

Why would you rather be a human?

[Participant 1]

The human experience. I mean, would you rather be a lizard? I mean, obviously, I guess so.

[Interviewer]

Well, I was thinking about it, right, because, like, there's a lot of, like, suffering, I think that comes with, like, just being conscious.

[Participant 2]

Okay.

[Interviewer]

We're the only animals that like, like, know we're gonna die.

[Participant 1]

You good on this?

[Interviewer]

Oh, yeah, I'm good on that. We're the only animals that know we're gonna die. It's an interesting burden that the human race suffers.

[Participant 1]

Yeah. But we get way cooler stuff because of it.

[Narrator]

That is true. I got invited to the opening of a new gecko zoo that these two guys are running out of a basement in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It also happened to be right next to the Museum of Bones. This was shortly after I experienced an existential crisis that sent me spiraling into my own brain, thinking about death and consciousness and the meaning of existence. As I looked at the lizards, I thought about the blissful ignorance that comes with being a dumb animal with no thoughts. They live a purely objective life of eating, sleeping and mating. We do all that stuff too. But we have this added layer of consciousness that brings with it both higher highs and lower lows than that of a lizard. It made me think about whether, if given the choice, would most people prefer to keep the high highs and low lows of being human, or would they rather experience a more stable baseline as a lizard?

[Interviewer]

Would you rather be a lizard or a human?

[Participant 3]

I want to be a lizard. I want to be a cold blooded animal with no emotions, well cared for. Yeah, I eat bugs. It's just hard out here for humans. Poverty, hunger, unemployment. And also, we live in a hyper capitalistic society and everything is basically spectacle. And as time grows, one gets tired of it.

[Participant 4]

Humans are probably the least moral of the animals. They start wars, they do crimes, they do Things that animals don't, you know, we don't.

[Participant 5]

We'll get into politics.

[Participant 4]

We don't need to get into politics. But you know, humans are in some way corrupt, right? Whereas animals are very instinctual and they don't have to deal with those kinds.

[Richie]

Of things because they're intrinsically simpler animals. So the big scale problems that humans face are not, are not always present.

[Participant 4]

You're not going to turn on TV and be like, oh shit, that's our new president, or oh shit, that's going on in the Middle east or something. You know, geckos are very simple in that way. And I wish I had a gecko brain.

[Interviewer]

Is there anything at all that you would miss about humanity if you were a lizard?

[Participant 3]

I will miss like the process of studying and acquiring knowledge and also making things with my hands.

[Interviewer]

And do you feel as though the process of acquiring knowledge and making things and whatnot, you would give it all up to be a lizard?

[Participant 3]

Okay, I'm okay with blissful ignorance. Yeah. Just living in my own little world.

[Interviewer]

And you would acquire that, but at the cost of all the gifts that your human consciousness gives you.

[Participant 3]

Again, like I said before, one gets tired of being sentient.

[Narrator]

It's true, being sentient can be tiresome. And it's made even more difficult by the fact that we're constantly inundated with an infinite amount of information about the flaws and corruptions of our species that the lizards are blissfully unaware of. But I did talk to a lot of people who believe that despite all the crazy shit it comes with, sentience remains worth it. What kind of cool stuff do you.

[Interviewer]

Like about being a human?

[Participant 1]

Video games, good food, the ability to travel more than like a 5 mile radius. What about art too? Do we know any animals that have art?

[Interviewer]

I guess like there's like funny dog videos and stuff.

[Participant 1]

Yeah, yeah, but the dog isn't taking the video.

[Interviewer]

That's true. Would you guys rather be a human or a lizard? Human. When you stare at the lizard and you see how it like has like an absent mind, does that ever look appealing to just have no thoughts? No, honey, no. Do you enjoy the quality of your thoughts? I do. What, what kinds of things do you normally think about throughout the day? We might feel money, but if you were a lizard, you wouldn't have to think about money. Ever. Nah, it's okay.

[Narrator]

I was getting a little tired of talking about existential crap, so I took a break to go to this room where they had drinks and snacks. It was a good exercise of my human Agency.

[Interviewer]

What was his name again?

[Richie]

Richie.

[Narrator]

Richie.

[Interviewer]

Richie said that he wished he had a lizard brain. That's like a.

[Narrator]

That makes a joke.

[Interviewer]

Well, no, there is this desire to have a brain that is totally objective.

[Richie]

What he meant essentially, is that sometimes having a simpler life is. Is a lot easier. With geckos, it's very repetitive. They're very habitual. So, you know, when he said that, he just means that simplicity sometimes isn't a bad thing.

[Interviewer]

Do you ever have times where you genuinely do wish that you had, like, a simple lizard brain and you didn't have to, like, deal with all this?

[Richie]

No, because if I had a simple lizard brain, I wouldn't be able to do this. With every struggle comes a lesson. With every struggle comes a newfound knowledge about something. You know, there's no such thing as success without struggle. That's called luck. That's not success. So being a human, it has his ups and downs, but the ups are I get to live out a dream.

[Narrator]

I appreciated that this man used his higher human consciousness to embrace struggle and find a purpose that he would not give up to become a lizard. Even if that purpose, ironically, involves lizards.

[Participant 2]

Lizards have a beautiful existence, but at the same time, do they know they exist?

[Participant 5]

As humans, we're innately aware of our own consciousness. Like, look at this guy. You think he knows where this little man is right now, that he's sitting on someone's hand cosplaying as a giant day gecko?

[Interviewer]

No. Do you think that lizards are happier because they don't know that they exist?

[Participant 2]

Yes, because they're just living just here. If you're here and you don't know that tomorrow is going to bring sadness or tomorrow's going to bring pain, or tomorrow's going to bring anything, it just makes you automatically happy.

[Interviewer]

Do you think humans can develop the brain of a lizard in that sense of, like, trying to always be in the present?

[Participant 2]

You can try, like, you might have to get lobotomized or something, because how are you going to stop yourself from thinking about the future or even the past? The past and the future always haunts us. So that's part of being human. But that's the beautiful part about being human. I love knowing that I'm here. It's beautiful that we actually know we have a past and we know we have a future.

[Participant 5]

We are aware of our own existence. And that's both scary, yet beautiful.

[Interviewer]

You would take the beautiful curse over the ignorant lizard stuff a million, a million times.

[Narrator]

I liked this perspective that the knowledge we have of Our own existence is a gift to be appreciated rather than a weird, scary thing to be burdened with. It's a choice of how you want to view it.

[Interviewer]

Would you rather be a human being or a lizard?

[Participant 6]

Take a human. More freedom.

[Interviewer]

Do you think consciousness is more freedom or more restrictive? Right. Because a lizard has, like, freedom from a lot of the kind of difficulties that humans have, you know?

[Participant 6]

True. All you gotta do is eat and poop. That's it.

[Interviewer]

Right. Do you ever envy that lifestyle or would you still want to be a human?

[Participant 6]

I think I'd be a human. I could drive.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Participant 6]

Can't drive as a lizard.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, you can't drive as a lizard. Have you traveled any places recently that you really liked that you couldn't have gone to if you were a lizard?

[Participant 6]

New Mexico. It's kind of far, especially from here. To get down there, be there, just travel a whole year.

[Interviewer]

It's true. Yeah. It would take a whole year to walk as a lizard from here to New Mexico. I guess the lizards don't even want that because they don't even. Lizards don't even know that New Mexico exists.

[Participant 6]

Nah, nah.

[Interviewer]

Is there anything about being a lizard that you. You envy that you wish you could. Wish you could do? Wish you could be lizard?

[Participant 6]

I don't know, to be honest. Never thought about that.

[Interviewer]

I guess you don't have to think about it.

[Participant 6]

I'm good the way I am. No lizard.

[Narrator]

After the event, I journaled on my phone about my conclusion from these interviews. While the human experience can be very challenging, it can be improved by having purpose, appreciating the little things.

[Interviewer]

I feel like A Red Dead Redemption 2 would be one of the reasons for me why I would want to be a human instead of a lizard.

[Participant 1]

Absolutely. There you go. That's all it is.

[Narrator]

Choosing to view the bigger things as beautiful instead of scary, maintaining good quality of thoughts and going to New Mexico. And at the end of the day, I would also choose to remain a human. It is an honor.