It was an interresting interview.
I'm still somewhat wondering who really claims that animals don't have consciousness. Except for old philosophers like René Descartes I don't know anyone who olds such an extreme view (animals beeing like robots or zombie).
Myself I see things like a continuum. We are at the end of the spectrum, with the langage, but animals (with feelings and sensations and some raisoning skills) do have a consciousness at a lesser degree (apes beeing really close to us of course, and so on).
The assumption in Alex discourse is that Psi is relevant for understanding consciousness, and I disagree with him about that. Susan Blackmore wrote a very interresting article about this:
"Why psi tells us nothing about Consciousness" Why psi tells us nothing about Consciousness