In this bonus episode Claudia talks to Captain Paul Watson about the concept of interference. They discuss his recent book Hitman for the Kindness Club as well as how he uses strategies of “aggressive nonviolence” to combat what he calls “the economics of extinction.” They also touch on the destructiveness of the fishing industry and factory farming for the oceans and the future of the planet. Date Recorded: 3 October 2023. Captain Paul Watson is a marine wildlife conservation and environmental ...
Oct 16, 2023•1 hr
In this episode Claudia talks to public health expert Hope Ferdowsian about Phoenix Zones, a concept that captures places and practices that advance the rights, health, and well-being of people, animals, and our shared environments. They discuss how crises present opportunities for change as well as how humans and animal who have experienced trauma show capacities for resilience when they are afforded with liberty, autonomy, and dignity. Date Recorded: 21 September 2023. Hope Ferdowsian is a pro...
Oct 09, 2023•1 hr 1 min
Podcaster and philosopher Josh Milburn is on the Animal Turn to talk about his latest book and how the concept of justice is central to imagining a future world in which the rights of animals are respected. Claudia and Josh discuss the political turn in animal ethics, some of the tensions between animal rights and veganism, as well as the role cellular agriculture might play in a future zoopolitical world. Date Recorded: 6 July 2023. Josh Milburn is a Lecturer in Political Philosophy in the divi...
Jul 31, 2023•1 hr 25 min
Yamini Narayanan is back on the show, this time to talk to Claudia about her book Mother Cow, Mother India. They focus their discussion on the concept of “Mother” and what it means for cows in India. They touch on the implications of cows being sacralised as mothers of the Hindu nation and what cows’ daily lives, as mothers, are like. Date Recorded: 25 April 2023. Yamini Narayanan is an Associate Professor of International and Community Development at Deakin University, Melbourne. Her new book M...
Jun 14, 2023•1 hr 6 min
In this bonus episode Claudia talks to Danielle Clode about her recent book on koalas. They talk about koalas’ incredible bodies and some of their social dynamics, including koalas unique digestive and reproductive systems and their long-distance bellows. Date Recorded: 10 April 2023. Danielle Clode is a biologist and natural history author based at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia. Danielle grew up in the fishing town of Port Lincoln in South Australia before sailing around the coast ...
Jun 01, 2023•56 min
Claudia discusses wonder with Jules Howard, author of the book Wonderdog . Using his book a backdrop, they discuss how dogs have influenced (and been influenced) by science. Topics include everything from evolution, to love and responsibility. Ultimately they marvel at how much there is we still don’t know about the creatures we share the world with. Date Recorded: 31 March 2023. Jules Howard is a UK-based zoological correspondent, science writer and broadcaster who writes for the Guardian, BBC ...
Apr 19, 2023•1 hr 4 min
In this bonus episode Claudia talks to Carol Kline and Jes Hooper about why it is important to think about animals in relation to tourism. They touch on some of the ways animals are included in tourism and how to guard against unwittingly contributing to animal suffering. A key feature of this episode is giving an overview of the Emerging Voices for Animals in Tourism Conference. Date Recorded: 27 January 2023. Carol Kline is a Professor and the Director of the Hospitality and Tourism Management...
Feb 23, 2023•1 hr 5 min
In this final episode of the season Claudia talks to Amanda Bunten-Walberg and Oliver French, two fellow graduate students with interests in biosecurity. They delve into some the core themes in the season (including questions about scale, reproduction, and power) as well as some of the difficulties for thinking about biosecurity and animals. Date Recorded: 27 January 2023 Amanda (Mandy) Bunten-Walberg (she/ her) is a PhD Candidate at Queen's University's School of Environmental Studies. Her rese...
Feb 20, 2023•1 hr 37 min•Season 5Ep. 10
In this episode Claudia speaks to Nina Jamal about One Health. They discuss the changing definition of One Health and its significance for biosecurity and animals. They spend time thinking through the challenges and opportunities, particularly at the level of national and international policy. Date Recorded: 1 December 2022 Nina Jamal is leading FOUR PAWS’ efforts on Pandemics & Animal Welfare and campaign strategies. Before taking on that role and since 2013, Nina led the International Camp...
Jan 24, 2023•1 hr 10 min•Season 5Ep. 9
Claudia talks to Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka about community led conservation. They discuss her work with gorillas in Bwindi National Park and how helping them involves working together with the community through health initiatives, efforts to create better livelihoods, and paying attention to food security. Date Recorded: 23 November 2022 Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka is Founder and CEO of Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH), an award-winning NGO that protects endangered gorillas and other wildli...
Jan 09, 2023•1 hr 20 min•Season 5Ep. 8
In this episode Claudia chats to Chi Mao Wang about “the politics of domestication” which involves talking about the global-agri food industry, the meatification of diets in east Asia, and how this has resulted in increasing biosecurity measures in Taiwan. This leads them to a discussion about the westernization of domestication and the significance of decoupling the eating of meat from ideas of civilization. Date Recorded: 4 November 2022 Chi-Mao Wang is an Assistant Professor at the Department...
Dec 19, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Season 5Ep. 7
Claudia talks to Camille Labchuk about the two recent legal cases at Smithfield and Excelsior which involved animal activism on pig farms in North America. They discuss how biosecurity is used as a means of creating ag-gag laws, the relative absence of biosecurity considerations in the cases, and the legal exceptionalism animal farms enjoy in Canada. Date Recorded: 27 October 2022 Camille Labchuk is an animal rights lawyer and executive director of Animal Justice —Canada’s only animal law advoca...
Dec 04, 2022•1 hr 9 min•Season 5Ep. 6
Claudia talks to Thomas Hartung about animal testing in pharmacology and toxicology. They discuss how animal testing involves a weighing of values as well as some of the disruptive technologies that are providing alternatives to animal testing – including stem cell technologies and artificial intelligence. Date Recorded: 5 October 2022 Thomas Hartung , MD PhD, is the Doerenkamp-Zbinden-Chair for Evidence-based Toxicology in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering at Johns Hopkins ...
Nov 21, 2022•1 hr 13 min•Season 5Ep. 5
Claudia talks to Christos Lynteris, an anthropologist with a long history of researching some of the interconnections between animals and disease. In this episode they focus on rats and the third plague pandemic highlighting how rats went from being understood as in relation to others to being cemented as a vilified species in the spread of disease. Date Recorded: 29 September 2022 Christos Lynteris is Professor of Medical Anthropology at the University of St Andrews. His research focuses on the...
Nov 14, 2022•1 hr 12 min•Season 5Ep. 4
Claudia talks to Lauren van Patter about the concepts of feral and invasive species. They touch on the differences between the two concepts and consider how issues of colonization, reproduction, and human control lead to the categorization of some animals as biosecurity threats. Date Recorded: 21 September 2022 Dr. Lauren Van Patter is the Kim & Stu Lang Professor in Community and Shelter Medicine in the Department of Clinical Studies at the Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph. ...
Oct 31, 2022•1 hr 14 min•Season 5Ep. 3
In this episode Claudia talks to Jeff Sebo about bioethics and how it straddles both health and environmental ethics. They touch on some of the grounding principles of bioethics and how these principles frequently neglect to account for animals. They further discuss why a consideration of animals is necessary to achieve health and environmental justice. Date Recorded: 16 August 2022 Jeff Sebo is Clinical Associate Professor of Environmental Studies, Affiliated Professor of Bioethics, Medical Eth...
Oct 23, 2022•1 hr 14 min•Season 5Ep. 2
Claudia launches season 5 of The Animal Turn with a conversation on biosecurity with Steve Hinchliffe, a renowned geographer. They discuss how biosecurity is centered on the idea of keeping life safe and how this often operates through spatial logics of trying to keep threats out. They touch on how animals are often blamed for biosecurity threats, questions about whose lives are kept safe, and the various walling work that is done under the banner of biosecurity. Date Recorded: 21 September 2022...
Oct 17, 2022•1 hr 22 min•Season 5Ep. 1
In this bonus episode Claudia talks to Jamie Woodhouse about his podcast Sentientism. Most of the episode is concerned with sentientism as a concept and they talk about some of the tensions and opportunities guests on Jamie’s show have flagged. Date Recorded: 26 September 2022 Jamie Woodhouse is working to develop Sentientism (“evidence, reason and compassion for all sentient beings”) as a worldview and as a global movement. He hosts the Sentientism Podcast and YouTube and has published articles...
Oct 12, 2022•1 hr 7 min
In this bonus episode Claudia talks to Alice Crary and Lori Gruen about their recent book “Animal Crisis: A New Critical Theory.” They touch on what inspired the book and spend most of the conversation focused on what “Critical Animal Theory” means. It is a timely and theoretically dense conversation. Date Recorded: 1 August 2022 Alice Crary is University Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the New School, where she is a co-founder and steering committee member of the Collaborative for Clim...
Sep 18, 2022•1 hr 13 min
Just a quick "episode" to give you an update on what's been happening with The Animal Turn: 1) Season 5 of Biosecurity will be launched in October 2) In the meantime you can look forward to some bonus content coming your way 3) If you would like to get involved in the Animal Turn (unfortunately there is no pay) feel free to email Claudia (info@theanimalturn.com) A.P.P.L.E Animals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities. Disclaimer: This post con...
Sep 16, 2022•5 min
In this final episode of Season 4 two graduate students, Hannah Hunter and Bailey Hilgren, chat with Claudia about some of the core themes and tensions to emerge from the season. This includes a focus on sound methodologies, such as issues with how we collect animal sounds to how (or even indeed whether) there is something special about sound in trying to understand the lives of animals. Date Recorded: 2 May 2022 Bailey Hilgren is a musicologist and sound studies scholar about to begin a PhD in ...
May 24, 2022•1 hr 16 min•Season 4Ep. 10
Claudia talks to conservationist and ecologist Gloriana Chaverri about the numerous and diverse ways in which bats communicate. This bonus episode deviates from the usual focus on concepts to a more sustained focus on this large order of animals Date Recorded: 29 March 2022 Gloriana Chaverri is an Associate Professor at the Golfito campus of the University of Costa Rica. She is also a Research Associate at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Her research with bats first focused on the t...
Apr 25, 2022•1 hr 1 min0
Claudia talks to Denise Herzing about her decades of fieldwork with Atlantic Spotted Dolphins in the Bahamas. They touch on some of what she has learnt about dolphins in the wild and the ways in which they communicate using sound. They also talk about the significance and challenges of doing extended field studies. Date Recorded: 23 March 2022 Denise Herzing is the Founder and Research Director of the Wild Dolphin Project. Denise has spent decades working with Atlantic spotted dolphins in Bahami...
Apr 12, 2022•1 hr 9 min•Season 4Ep. 9
In this episode Claudia chats to Rachel Mundy about the concept “Sonic Specimen” they talk about the historical categorisation of sound illustrates some of the ways in which humans and animals have been hierarchically thought of. They touch on how this has shaped and is shaped by the institutional production of knowledge also hinting at the usefulness of related concepts like “animanities” and “translation”. Date Recorded: 10 March 2022 Rachel Mundy is an Associate Professor of Music in the Arts...
Mar 23, 2022•1 hr 24 min•Season 4Ep. 8
Claudia talks to Jeremy Gordon about the concept “Republic of Noise”. They discuss the relationship between noise and politics and think through how noise might be used as a tool that enables listening and democracy. They “riff” with each other trying to think through the tensions between noise and harmony as well as whose sounds are considered pleasant or not and how that shapes how one belongs to place. Date Recorded: 9 February 2022 Jeremy Gordon is an Assistant Professor of Communication Stu...
Mar 07, 2022•1 hr 24 min•Season 4Ep. 7
Claudia talks to Eva Meijer about voice as a concept that helps us to think about animal sounds and practices in a more politicised way. Eva touches on how a broader conception of politics and voice allows for a more nuanced actions in response to animals and the lives they are trying to lead. They also touch on the usefulness of a variety of languages, mediums, and disciplines in becoming proficient in listening to animals. Date Recorded: 25 January 2022 Eva Meijer is a philosopher and writer. ...
Feb 21, 2022•1 hr 19 min•Season 4Ep. 6
In this episode Claudia talks to musicologist Martin Ullrich about animals and music. Together they touch on the multiple ways in which music and animals intersect from how animals inspire human music, to how animals make and listen to music, and the ethics of more-than-human musical encounters. They find that the focus on animals and music destabilizes anthropocentric understandings of both culture and aesthetics. Date Recorded: 15 December 2021 Martin Ullrich studied piano in Frankfurt and Ber...
Jan 31, 2022•1 hr 10 min•Season 4Ep. 5
In this episode Claudia talks to Cheryl Tipp about sound archives, how they are managed and the ways in which animal studies scholars might use them in trying to research animals. Together they think about why some sounds are included in national archives more than others as well as how recordings of nature and animal voices are valued. Date Recorded: 1 December 2021 Cheryl Tipp is the British Library’s Curator of Wildlife & Environmental Sounds. With a background in zoology and library serv...
Jan 17, 2022•1 hr 18 min•Season 4Ep. 4
In this episode Claudia continues the focus on methodology as it relates to animals and sound. This time Mickey Vallee joins The Animal Turn to talk about the concept of bioacoustics and how using bioacoustics methods alters the ways researchers relate to their research subjects – who are often animals. They discuss some of the theory and ideas circulating bioacoustics generally and Mickey’s experiences more specifically. Date Recorded: 26 October 2021 Mickey Vallee is an associate professor of ...
Nov 29, 2021•1 hr 19 min•Season 4Ep. 3
In this episode Claudia talks to Jonathan Prior about sonic methods and together they try to explore the ways in which methods such as recording, sound walking, and listening could help animal studies scholars better understand and appreciate the animals and worlds they are most concerned with. Date Recorded: 12 October 2021 Dr Jonathan Prior is a lecturer in Human Geography at Cardiff University, Wales. His research and publications take an interdisciplinary approach, spanning environmental phi...
Nov 11, 2021•1 hr 30 min•Season 4Ep. 2
