1525627693
The Animal Turn

Advertise on podcast: The Animal Turn

Rating
★★★★★
5
from
7 reviews
This podcast has
119 episodes
Language
English
Explicit
No
Date created
2020/07/29
Latest episode
2026/10/12
Average duration
91 min.
Release period
28 days

Description

Animals are increasingly at the forefront of research questions – Not as shadows to human stories, or as beings we want to understand biologically, or for purely our benefit – but as beings who have histories, stories, and geographies of their own. Each season is set around themes with each episode unpacking a particular animal turn concept and its significance therein. Join Claudia Hirtenfelder as she delves into some of the most important ideas emerging out of this recent turn in scholarship, thinking, and being.

Unlock The Animal Turn podcast Email contact info,
Listeners & Audience details

Email contact information

Direct podcast contact details

Listeners

Audience numbers & engagement insights

Audience details

Podcast Insights

Podcast episodes

Check latest episodes from The Animal Turn podcast


S9E6: Municipal Records with Frederick L. Brown
2026/10/12
In this episode we continue our focus on methodology by talking with Frederick L. Brown about how he used municipal archives to conduct his more-than-human history of Seattle. We discuss everything from petitions to bylaws, pound records, council minutes, public health reports, property tax assessments, and city directories.  Topics Covered: why urban animal history matters and why cities are always more than humanhow Seattle’s city archives make animal searching possible through indexinga quick taxonomy of archives including government, historical societies, companies, and personal collectionswhy archives are not neutral and how bias enters through preservation practicessalmon, treaty rights, racial covenants as tools of spatial powerSanborn insurance maps, council minutes, and the money logic behind record keepingFrederick’s next book on importing European songbirds and the challenge of scattered sourcesAnimal highlight: Kingston dogs, shifting freedom, and changing control over timeDate Recorded: 2 April 2026 Frederick L. Brown is an independent scholar, book indexer, and retired National Park Service historian. He received his Ph.D. in history from the University of Washington. He is the author of the award-winning book, The City is More Than Human: An Animal History of Seattle (University of Washington Press, 2016). He is currently finishing up the manuscript for his second book, Birds of Home: How House Sparrows, Starlings, and Other European Songbirds Became American (University of Washington Press, 2027). He divides his time between Seattle, Washington, and Corvallis, Oregon. Featured:  The City is More Than Human by Frederick L. BrownBirds of Homeby Frederick L. Brown The afterlives of the lively commodityby Kathryn Gillespie Taming Manhattanby Catherine McNeurThe Salmon People Podcast with Sandra Bartlett on The Animal TurnBiodiversity Heritage LibraryNewspapers.comDogs on the Move on StonesAnimal Highlight: “Dogs on the Move” Credits: Sponsor: Animals in Philosophy, Politics, Law and Ethics (A.P.P.L.E)Guests: Frederick L. BrownHost: Claudia HirtenfelderEditing and Production: Claudia HirtenfelderEpisode Artwork: Rebecca ShenContent Creation and Support: Herre de Bondt and Carlo SalzaniAnimal Highlight: Stones Walking TourSound Effects: Epidemic SoundBed Music: Gordon ClarkeLogo: Jeremy JohnA.P.P.L.EAnimals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show The Animal Turn is hosted and produced by Claudia Hirtenfelder and is part of the  iROAR Network. Learn more on our website.
S9E5: Historical Methods with Jennifer Bonnell and Sean Kheraj
2026/10/05
In this episode we switch gears toward considering historical methods. Sean Kheraj and Jennifer Bonnell come onto the show to discuss their edited book Traces of The Animal Past and together with Claudia they delve into some of the ways environmental and animal histories differ as well as some of the key methods scholars interested in them can use.   Topics Covered: animal history versus environmental historysearching for animals in the archive borrowing tools from natural and social sciences to widen primary sourceswriting as a method domesticated versus wild animal historiesIndigenous perspectives that reframe animals as relations and obligationsAnimal Highlight: Goats in Kingston, OntarioDate Recorded: 20 March 2026 Jennifer Bonnell is the author or co-editor of four books, including Reclaiming the Don: An Environmental History of Toronto’s Don River Valley, released in second edition by the University of Toronto Press in 2024, and Stewards of Splendour: A History of Wildlife and People in British Columbia, published by the Royal BC Museum in 2023. Her current book project explores efforts by nineteenth and early twentieth-century beekeepers to protect pollinator habitats in the Great Lakes Region. Jennifer teaches Canadian and environmental history at York University. Sean Kheraj is a professor of Canadian and environmental history at Toronto Metropolitan University. His research examines a range of topics in environmental history including the role of non-human animals in nineteenth-century urban environments and the development of long distance oil pipelines in twentieth-century Canada. Featured:  Traces of the Animal Past: Methodological Challenges in Animal History edited by Jennifer Bonnell and Sean KherajInventing Stanley Park by Sean KherajReclaiming the Don by Jennifer BonnellKicking over the Traces? Freeing the Animal from the Archive by Sandra Swart Occupational Hazards: Honeybee Labour as an Interpretive Device in Animal History by Jennifer BonnellHearing History through Hoofbeats: Exploring Equine Volition and Voice in the Archive by Lindsay Stallones MarshallWho is a Greyhound? Reflections on the Non-Human Digital Archive by Susan Nance  Accessing Animal Health Knowledge: Popular Educators and Veterinary Science in Rural Ontario by Jody HodignsTuffy's Cold War: Science, Memory, and the US Nay's Dolphin by Jason ColbyThe Elephant in the Archive by Nigel RothfelsMaking Tracks: A Grizzly and Entangled History by Colleen Campbell by Tina LooSpatial Analysis and Digital Urban Animal History by Sean KherajEpilogue: Combinations and Conjunction by Harriet RitvoAuroraby Kim Stanley RobinsonGerms, Seeds, and Animals by Alfred CrosbyEntertaining Elephants by Susan Nance Animal Biographies by Eric BaratayCattle's Experiences of Colonialism by Michael GloverA left-handed blow: Writing the History of Animals by Erica Fudge The History of Animals in the Present Moment by Erica Fudge Venus in Two Acts by Saidiya Hartman Baleen whale cortisol levels reveal a physiological response to 20th century whaling by Stephen J. TrumbleA Biologist Remembers by Karl von FrischInsectopedia by Hugh RafflesSignal GroupAnimal Highlight: Regimental goats   Quotes: “But what can a text like this tell us about this cat? How did it feel about playing such a role in the emergence of the alliance between the French and the Wendat in the early years of the French empire in North America? What was its experience of the environments of New France? How did it adapt to the new setting? Where did it sleep?” – Sean Kheraj and Jennifer Bonnell, Traces of The Animal Past “All honest convictions deserve respect, except the presumptuous assertion that there is nothing higher in the world than the mind of man.” – Karl von Frisch “He knows his bees do not speak as humans. He knows their language is less but also more than his own, and he knows his new discipline allows space only for the less. Where within the rationality of his science can he find a language to communicate a difference for which no words exist? Where can he find a language in which to understand the absence of language as something other than a lack?” – Hugh Raffles Credits: Sponsor: Animals in Philosophy, Politics, Law and Ethics (A.P.P.L.E)Guests: Jennifer Bonnell and Sean KherajHost: Claudia HirtenfelderEditing and Production: Claudia HirtenfelderEpisode Artwork: Rebecca ShenContent Creation and Support: Herre de Bondt and Carlo SalzaniAnimal Highlight: Stones Walking TourSound Effects: Epidemic Sound, You Tube Bed Music: Gordon ClarkeLogo: Jeremy JohnA.P.P.L.EAnimals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show The Animal Turn is hosted and produced by Claudia Hirtenfelder and is part of the  iROAR Network. Learn more on our website.
S9E4: Segregation with Jules Skotnes-Brown
2026/09/28
Jules Skotnes-Brown joins Claudia on the show to discuss how segregating logics were used to govern humans and animals in South Africa’s history. This includes everything from Addo’s elephants being driven, enclosed, and “tamed”, to Kalahari San people being policed inside a national park and managed through rations and confinement.  Topics Covered:  The difference between environmental history and animal history   Defining segregation as a ideological and material connections rather than direct comparisons Addo elephants labelled vermin then reclassified as a rare “race” worth preserving Kalahari San people policed through park rules, hunting bans, arrests, and rationing The spectrum from pest to protected as a tool of governance and population control Plague, sanitation, and health departments as engines for forced removal and spatial separation How metaphors of infestation travel from animals to humans and back again Animal highlight: pigs in Kingston, waste policy, hog cholera, and urban bylaw changeDate Recorded: 16 October 2025 Jules Skotnes-Brown is a historian of animals, disease, and knowledge production in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He is the author of Segregated Species: Pests, Knowledge, and Boundaries in South Africa, 1910-1948, which won the Royal Historical Society’s First Book Prize in 2025. He is currently writing a second book on the global history of rats, plague, and capitalist infrastructure in the twentieth century. Jules completed his PhD at University of Cambridge History and Philosophy Science in 2020. Jules is a Wellcome Trust Research Fellow at University of Liverpool and PI of the Wellcome Trust funded research project 'Conserving Global Health: Biodiversity Protection and the Prehistory of Planetary Health' (2026-2031). The project will explore the historical engagements, collaborations and frictions between conservation theories and practices and international, global, and planetary health in the long twentieth century. In so doing, it will provide a prehistory of Planetary Health. Featured:  Segregated Species: Pests, Knowledge, and Boundaries in South Africa, 1910–1948 by Jules Skotnes-BrownThe Kruger National Park: A Social and Political Historyby Jane CarruthersWhat Was It Like to Be a Cow? History and Animal Studies by Erica Fudge The History of Animals in the Present Moment by Erica FudgeAfro-Dog: Blackness and the Animal Question by Bénédicte BoisseronVenus in Two Acts by Saidiya HartmanVermin Beings: On Pestiferous Animals and Human Game by Clapperton Chakanetsa MavhungaNecropolitics by Achille MbembeThe Sanitation Syndrome by Maynard Swanson Elephants in Africa by Frank MellandThe Global War Against the Rat and the Epistemic Emergence of ZoonosisScurrying seafarers: shipboard rats, plague, and the land/sea borderby Jules Skotnes-BrownSulphuric Utopias: A History of Maritime Fumigationby Lukas Engelmann and Christos LynetrisStones: Animal Histories of Kingston by Claudia HirtenfelderPigs Peace SanctuaryThe Animal Turn Signal GroupOther episodes of The Animal Turn S5E4: Epidemiological Dividual with Christos Lynteris Season 8: Animals and MediaAnimal Highlight: “Eat Like a Pig”: Separating pigs from humans Quote:  “The elephant problem, a term which I use as one uses the unsatisfactory phrase ‘the native problem,’ because it means to me much the same thing – the rectification of our past mistakes and the attempt to bring an old, indigenous and very different form of life into harmony with our own life and aims” from Frank Melland, Elephants in Africa (1938), p 145. The Animal Turn is part of the  iROAR, an Animals Podcasting Network and can also be found on A.P.P.L.E, LinkedIn,Blue Sky, and Instagram Credits: Sponsor: Animals in Philosophy, Politics, Law and Ethics (A.P.P.L.E)Guests: Jules Skotnes-BrownHost: Claudia HirtenfelderEditing and Production: Claudia HirtenfelderEpisode Artwork: Rebecca ShenContent Creation and Support: Herre de Bondt and Carlo SalzaniAnimal Highlight: Stones Walking TourSound Effects: Epidemic SoundBed Music: Gordon ClarkeLogo: Jeremy JohnA.P.P.L.EAnimals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show The Animal Turn is hosted and produced by Claudia Hirtenfelder and is part of the  iROAR Network. Learn more on our website.
S9E3: Taxonomies with Harriet Ritvo
2026/09/21
Harriet Ritvo discusses animals and taxonomy, unfurling the ways in which animals are categorised scientifically and in everyday vernacular.  She unfurls what this might mean for how we know animals and the ways in which we understand and write their histories.  Topics Covered:  how classification systems expose human values and power why herd books matter for animal history and domesticationscientific taxonomy versus vernacular categories  naming rules, authority, and what counts as a “real” species boundary how “native” and “invasive” change with politics and time camels in Australia, wild horses, dingoes, and conservation trade-offs Atlantic salmon in Kingston and the story of local extinction and restorationDate Recorded: 20 April 2026  Harriet Ritvo is the Arthur J. Conner Professor of History at MIT. She works in the fields of environmental history, the history of human-animal relations, British and British empire history, and the history of natural history. She is the author of numerous books , including The Platypus and the Mermaid, and Other Figments of the Classifying Imagination (Harvard UP, 1997), The Animal Estate: The English and Other Creatures in the Victorian Age (Harvard UP, 1987), and Noble Cows and Hybrid Zebras: Essays on Animals and History (Virginia, 2010). Her articles and reviews have appeared in a wide range of periodicals and she is an editor of the “Animals, History, Culture” series published by the Johns Hopkins University Press. She has a great deal of accolades and accomplishments, not least of which is being given the Distinguished Scholar Award from the American Society for Environmental History in 2020. Learn more about her here.   Featured:  The Platypus and the Mermaidby Harriet RitvoThe Animal Estate: The English and Other Creatures in the Victorian Age  by Harriet RitvoNoble Cows and Hybrid Zebras: Essays on Animals and History by Harriet RitvoSex and the Single Animalby Harriet RitvoForty years of embryo transfer in cattle by John F. HaslerAfter the Ice Age: The Return of Life to Glaciated North America by E. C. PielouAnthony TrollopeA list in time: A story of how animals came to be categorized by Claudia HirtenfelderThe Violent Conservation of the European Wildcat by Virginia ThomasCompassionate Conservation with Daniel Ramp on The Animal Turn. Kontihnawa:ra: Atlantic Salmon on Stones Animal Highlight: Taxonomies of Atlantic Salmon in Kingston Quote: “There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved” – Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species. The Animal Turn is part of the  iROAR, an Animals Podcasting Network and can also be found on A.P.P.L.E, LinkedIn,Blue Sky, and Instagram Credits: Sponsor: Animals in Philosophy, Politics, Law and Ethics (A.P.P.L.E)Guests: Harriet RitvoHost: Claudia HirtenfelderEditing and Production: Claudia HirtenfelderEpisode Artwork: Rebecca ShenContent Creation and Support: Herre de Bondt and Carlo SalzaniTechnical Support: Christiaan MentzAnimal Highlight: Stones Walking TourSound Effects: Epidemic SoundBed Music: Gordon ClarkeLogo: Jeremy JohnSupport via: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/join/TheAnimalTurn Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/theanimalturn Buzzsprout: https://theanimalturn.buzzsprout.com/ A.P.P.L.EAnimals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show The Animal Turn is hosted and produced by Claudia Hirtenfelder and is part of the  iROAR Network. Learn more on our website.
S9E2: Modernity with Erica Hill and Susan Nance
2026/09/14
Erica Hill and Susan Nance join Claudia on the show to discuss “modernity.” They discuss what this relatively messy shorthand means for history and for understanding human–animal relations. They try to unpack what is meant by modernity and touch on everything from industrialisation to concealment and consumption.   Topics Covered:  Animal History, the journal that tries to understand animals as historical subjects Using animal welfare science to interpret historical animals’ behaviourZooarchaeology, domestication, and deep-time shifts that complicate ideas of modernity Concealment and the contradictions of animal use Intensification and standardisation Celebrity animals and hidden populations  Animal Highlight: Bears in Kingston, OntarioDate Recorded: 27 April 2026 Erica Hill is President's Arctic Professor at the University of Alaska Southeast in Juneau, Alaska. She is an archaeologist with broad research interests in how humans and animals lived together in the past. She has published extensively on Indigenous human engagement with marine mammals in the North Pacific and has worked in Iceland, Peru, and the US Southwest. Her most recent edited volume is Reimagining Human–Animal Relations in the Circumpolar North (2024) with Peter Whitridge.  Susan Nance is Professor of History and affiliated faculty with the Campbell Centre for the Study of Animal Welfare at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. She is the author of various books and articles, including Rodeo: An Animal History (University of Oklahoma Press, 2020) and Animals in Nineteenth Century America: A History in Documents (Broadview Press, 2026). Susan is also Co-Lead Editor at Animal History, the first scholarly journal dedicated to the histories of animal life and human-animal relationships. Her current research documents the nature and scope of the trade in biologically-wild animals in the 20th century United States through a study of Las Vegas. https://susannance.com/  Featured:  Animal HistoryRodeo: An Animal History by Susan NanceThe Historical Animal by Susan NanceReimagining Human-Animal Relations in the Circumpolar North edited by Peter Whitridge and Erica HillOrdinary Cities: Between Modernity and Development by Jennifer Robinson What Is Animal Prehistory? by Shumon T. HussainMan and the Natural World by Kieth ThomasHundreds trying to storm Wisconsin beagle research facility on the CNNThe Animal Turn is part of the  iROAR, an Animals Podcasting Network and can also be found on A.P.P.L.E, LinkedIn,Blue Sky, and Instagram Credits: Sponsor: Animals in Philosophy, Politics, Law and Ethics (A.P.P.L.E)Guests: Susan Nance and Erica HillHost: Claudia HirtenfelderEditing and Production: Claudia HirtenfelderEpisode Artwork: Rebecca ShenContent Creation and Support: Herre de Bondt and Carlo SalzaniTechnical Support: Christiaan MentzAnimal Highlight: Stones Walking TourSound Effects: BBC Sound Effects; Epidemic SoundBed Music: Gordon ClarkeLogo: Jeremy JohnA.P.P.L.EAnimals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show The Animal Turn is hosted and produced by Claudia Hirtenfelder and is part of the  iROAR Network. Learn more on our website.
S9E1: Animals' Cultural Histories with Sandra Swart
2026/09/07
Claudia speaks with historian Sandra Swart about the importance of recognising animals’ cultural histories. They discuss the maturation of animal history as a field and focus on the cultural histories of baboons and elephants in South Africa.  Topics covered:  Working definition of animal culture Fuffification and disnification of wildlife The deep and urban history of baboons A lone elephant in the Knysna Forest ‘Rogue’ elephants in the PilanesbergAnimal Highlight: Elephant history in Kingston, OntarioSandra Swart is Professor and Chair of the Department of History at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. She is Director of the African Anthropocenes Research Centre, Guest Professor of Anthropocene History at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden, and co-Vice President of European Society for Environmental History. She received her DPhil in Modern History from in 2001, and simultaneously an MSc in Environmental Change and Management, both at Oxford University. She studies the more-than-human history of southern Africa. She is an editor of the Brill book series African and Asian Anthropocene: Studies in the Environmental Humanities. She is the co-author with Greg Bankoff, of , Breeds of Empire: The ‘invention’ of the horse in the Philippines and Southern Africa, 1500-1950 (Nordic Institute of Asian Studies Press 2007); co-editor, with Lance van Sittert, of Canis Africanis: a dog history of southern Africa (Brill, 2008), co-editor of Gender and Animals in History (Amsterdam University Press, 2024), and co-editor with Emily O’Gorman, Mark Carey and William San Martín, The Routledge Handbook of Environmental History (Routledge, 2023). She is sole author of Riding High – Horses, Humans and History in South Africa (Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, 2010) Her most recent book is The Lion’s Historian – Africa’s Animal Past (Ohio University Press, 2025), winner of the Southern African Historical Prize 2025. Learn more.  Date Recorded: 20 May 2026 Featured:  The Lion’s Historian by Sandra Swart Riding High: Horses, Humans, and History in South Africa by Sandra Swart The Dreaded Comparison by Majorie Spiegel Cooperative Hunting: How Eels and Grouper Partner on PreyAnimal rights/human rights: Entanglements of oppression and liberation by David NibertLions of GirStones Walking Tour: Colonial ElephantOther Episodes of The Animal Turn Mentioned: S2E3: Animal Culture with Carl Safina S6E8: Re-Animalization with Krithika SrinivasanQuotes:  “Until the lion has the opportunity to tell the story of the hunt it will aways be a story of the hunter” (West African Proverb). “I would be proud to call myself ‘the lion’s historian.’ I hope I have many years ahead exploring social and environmental history in a way that takes the other animals seriously. But let us not concede that we historians are more like baboons than lions. Of course, I mean this in the nicest possible way. A good historian is baboonesque – a trickster figure, adept at shapeshifting and boundary-crossing, unconstrained and omnivorous in our intellectual pleasures. We diligently and delicately pick the lice from the archival armpit. We are not afraid to grasp the nettle or to pluck the prickly pear of public polemic. We are strangers on the rocks, the watchers on the krantzes, the sentinels on the wall. We see and remember” (Swart, The Lion’s Historian, 2023, 294). “We need to write histories taking a broader view beyond that of the hunter. We need accounts that connect deep history to the present moment. We need stories in which gender and generational context are not forgotten. These new histories will allow us to understand our own past as more complete in a multi-species and more-than-human context. But I would go much further and suggest that the other animals have their own histories too, both entangled in and independent of our human histories. Our understanding that animals have their own ‘cultures’, their ‘having history’ becomes irrefutable. What, after all, is history if not cultures changing over time?” (Swart, The Lion’s Historian, 2023, 83). The Animal Turn is part of the  iROAR, an Animals Podcasting Network and can also be found on A.P.P.L.E, LinkedIn,Blue Sky, and Instagram  Thank you to Animals in Philosophy, Politics, Law and Ethics (A.P.P.L.E) for sponsoring this podcast; Gordon Clarke (Instagram: @_con_sol_) for the bed music, Jeremy John for the logo. Thank you Rebecca Shen, Christiaan Menz, Herre de Bondt, and Carlo Salzani for back of house and content support. This episode was edited and produced by the host Claudia Towne Hirtenfelder.  A.P.P.L.EAnimals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show The Animal Turn is hosted and produced by Claudia Hirtenfelder and is part of the  iROAR Network. Learn more on our website.
S8E9: News with Shatabdi Chakrabarti, Jessica Scott-Reid, and Jan Dutkiewicz
2025/12/22
In this episode we bring together a photojournalist from India, a Canadian columnist, and a political scientist/reporter to discuss animals and the news. We discuss different types of news as well as some of the challenges that come with creating news content that focuses on animals.      Date Recorded: 4 June 2025   Featured:  How to Spot Misinformation and Bias About Climate and Food in the News by Jessica Scott-ReidMeatsplaining by Jason HannanFeed the People by Jan Dutkiewicz and Gabriel N. RosenbergMother Cow, Mother India by Yamini Narayanan Netflix’s Liver King  Doc skips the meat of the story by Jessica Scott-ReidAn animal rights activist was in court on criminal charges. Why was the case suddenly dismissed? On The GuardianSentient MediaFree WillyWe AnimalsFuture Perfect on VoxAnimal Rights on The New RepublicAnimals on The Guardian  Animals Rights Activism on The InterceptAnimals on WiredAnimals on New York TimesAnimal JusticeDairy Farming InvestigationsPandas on the New York TimesA.P.P.L.EAnimals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.iROAR NetworkiROAR brings together podcasts that aim is to make the world a better place for animals. Georgia Institute of Technology School of Modern Language, Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, School of Literature, Media, & CommunPollination Project The Pollination Project empowers volunteers across by providing the funding they need. Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show The Animal Turn is hosted and produced by Claudia Hirtenfelder and is part of the  iROAR Network. Learn more on our website.
S8E8: Film and TV with Lynda Korimboccus and Ankita Rathour
2025/12/22
In this episode Ankita Rathour and Lynda Korimboccus join Claudia to discuss the interconnections of film, tv, and animals. Together they touch on everything from the Peppa Pig paradox in children’s media to the shifting role of animals in Hindi cinema, nationalism and caste politics.  Date Recorded: 2 May 2025    Featured:  The Subaltern Gazes: Commentary on Amit Masurkar's Sherni by Ankita Rathour.Pig-ignorant: The Peppa Pig Paradox. Investigating Contradictory Childhood Consumption by Lynda M KorimboccusAnimal representation on UK children’s television by Lynda M KorimboccusCan the Subaltern Speak by Gayatri Chakravorty SpivakFrom Symbolic to Agential: The Evolution of Natural Representation in Indian Eco-Sensitive Filmsby Rakesh Kumar Pankaj and Dibyakusum RayThe Dreaded Comparison: Human and Animal Slaveryby Spiegel, MarjorieHuman supremacism: why are animal rights activists still the “orphans of the left”?by Will KymlickaWhen different is ambivalence: Strategic ignorance about meat consumptionby Marleen C. Onwezen and Cor N. van der WeeleHumane Jobs: A Political Economic Vision for Interspecies Solidarity and Human–Animal Wellbeing by Kendra Coulter Advertising oppression: the reproduction of anthroparchy in UK children's and" family" television by Kate F. Stewart and Matthew ColeShooting an Elephant by George Orwell.Animal Farm by George Orwell.Mother Cow, Mother India by Yamini NarayananThe Sexual Politics of Meat by Carol J AdamsThe Desi Gaze, a podcast by Ankita Rathour.Tribe Animal Sanctuary Peppa PigRRR (Rise, Roar, Revolt)Tigress Sherni Alvin and the ChimpmunksHaathi Mere SaathiThe Elephant Whisperers Matilda and the Brace EscapeEarthlingsBlackfishWickedAzaadArticle 15War HorseBabeThe Last PigDeliverance (Short)A.P.P.L.EAnimals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.Georgia Institute of Technology School of Modern Language, Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, School of Literature, Media, & CommuniROAR NetworkiROAR brings together podcasts that aim is to make the world a better place for animals. Pollination Project The Pollination Project empowers volunteers across by providing the funding they need. Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show The Animal Turn is hosted and produced by Claudia Hirtenfelder and is part of the  iROAR Network. Learn more on our website.
S8E7: Social Media with Laura Fernández, Amanda Weiss, and Siobhan Speiran
2025/12/15
Guests Laura Fernández, Amanda Weiss, and Siobhan Speiran join Claudia to discuss case studies as wide ranging as Japanese animal cafes, Spanish bull fighting, and Costa Rican sanctuaries to unfurl the complex relations of social media and animals. Together they probe how social media packages animals as content, why that changes real lives, and where activism, policy, and platform design can push back.  Date Recorded: 11 April 2025  Featured:  Han Heroes and Yamato Warriors: Competing Masculinities in Chinese and Japanese War Cinema by Amanda WeissCritical Animal and Media Studies by Núria Almiron, Matthew Cole, Carrie P. FreemanMedia Theories and the Crossroads of Critical Animal and Media Studies by Debra MerskinWounded men of feminism: Exploring regimes of male victimhood in the Spanish manosphere by Elisa García Mingo and Silvia Díaz FernándezA field-based Conservation Welfare Assessment Framework for Costa Rican primate sanctuaries by Siobhan SperianThe Emotional politics of images: moral shock, explicit violence and strategic visual communication in the animal liberation movement by Laura FernándezAnimal Traffic: Lively Capital in the Global Exotic Pet Trade by Rosemary-Claire CollardBig Cat Reporting Tool by Four PawsAbout Looking by John BergerThe Philosopher and the Wolf by Mark Rowlands.Social Media Cruelty CoalitionSeoul Zebra EscapeStop Animals Selfie Campaign The Civet ProjectGlobal Federation of SanctuariesEarthlingsFugitive cows in Quebec captured after months on the runTiger KingChimp CrazyA.P.P.L.EAnimals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.iROAR NetworkiROAR brings together podcasts that aim is to make the world a better place for animals. Georgia Institute of Technology School of Modern Language, Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, School of Literature, Media, & CommunPollination Project The Pollination Project empowers volunteers across by providing the funding they need. Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show The Animal Turn is hosted and produced by Claudia Hirtenfelder and is part of the  iROAR Network. Learn more on our website.
S8E6: Podcasting and Education with María Carreras and Kate Acton
2025/12/08
We celebrate 100 episodes by asking how podcasting can teach, build community, and improve animal welfare across languages, disciplines, and daily routines. Guests Maria Carreras and Kate Acton share concrete changes, strategic insights, and challenges that reshape how we listen to animals and to each other. Date Recorded: 11 April 2025 Featured:  When Animals Speak by Eva MeijerThe Sexual Politics of Meat by Carol J Adams.Inside of a Dog by Alexandra HorowitzEvaluating the Addition of Positive Reinforcement for Learning a Frightening Task: A Pilot Study With Horses by Camie R Heleski et alThe Ventriloquist’s Burden: Animal Advocacy and the Problem of Speaking for Others by Lauren Corman Preliminary evidence supporting the use of equine science podcasts to bridge the gap between scientists and horse enthusiasts to improve horse welfare by Kate Acton and others. iROAR NetworkCulture and Animals Foundation Conversations in Equine Science podcastECA Podcast Animals Ethics ReviewJournal for Critical Animal StudiesDerercho Animals podcast Minding animals podcast Comme un poisson dans l'eauUCD Veterinary Nursing PodcastThe Animal Highlight  A.P.P.L.EAnimals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.iROAR NetworkiROAR brings together podcasts that aim is to make the world a better place for animals. Pollination Project The Pollination Project empowers volunteers across by providing the funding they need. Georgia Institute of Technology School of Modern Language, Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, School of Literature, Media, & CommunDisclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show The Animal Turn is hosted and produced by Claudia Hirtenfelder and is part of the  iROAR Network. Learn more on our website.
S8E5: Gaming with Keung Yoon Bae, Osvaldo Cleger, and Michael Rübsamen
2025/10/13
Gaming is one of the most consumed forms of media globally making it an important space from to explore human-animal relations. In this episode, media scholars Michael Rübsamen, Osvaldo Cleger, and Keung Yoon Bae discuss the interconnections of gaming, representation, and identity and what the significance of this might be for considerations of animals.    Date Recorded: 3 February 2025  Featured:  The Witcher Without morals in a moral world - the expanding moral circle of The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt by Magnus Johansson and Michael RübsamenThoughts towards an Ontology of Play by Eugene Fink Homo Ludens: A Study of Play Element in Culture by Johan HuizingaWhy Animals can’t get enough of touch screen technology by Jason GoldmanRed Dead Redemption 2WestworldGrand Theft AutoAssassin’s CreedDisco ElysiumDeath Stranding BorderlandsThe Lend of ZeldaUnravelDungeons and Dragons  Remember to Leave a Review on  Podchaser and to check out The Animal Turn Merch. You can also support the show financially via Patreon, Buy Me a Coffee, and Buzzsprout.  Thank you to Animals in Philosophy, Politics, Law and Ethics (A.P.P.L.E) for sponsoring this podcast; and the the pollination project, the School of Modern Language, the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, as well as the School of Literature, Media, and Communication at Georgia Tech University for co-sponsoring this season. The bed music was composed by Gordon Clarke and the logo designed by Jeremy John. This episode was produced, hosted, and edited by Claudia Hirtenfelder.  A.P.P.L.EAnimals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.iROAR NetworkiROAR brings together podcasts that aim is to make the world a better place for animals. Georgia Institute of Technology School of Modern Language, Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, School of Literature, Media, & CommunPollination Project The Pollination Project empowers volunteers across by providing the funding they need. Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show The Animal Turn is hosted and produced by Claudia Hirtenfelder and is part of the  iROAR Network. Learn more on our website.
S8E4: Popular Media and Pests with Lu Liu, Debra Merskin, and Emily Major
2025/10/10
In this episode we animals, power, and popular media. Emily Major, Debra Merskin, and Lu Liu help to think through how animals are manufactured as “pests” and “icons” in media and how those labels shape empathy, policy, and everyday cruelty towards animals.  Date Recorded: 15 January 2025  Featured:  Animals and MediaMass Media and Society edited by Debra Merskin Seeing Species by Debra Merskin Media, Minorities and Meaning by Debra Merskin Communicating Nature by Julia B. Corbett. Projecting on Predators by Debra MerskinSlayers, rippers, and blitzes: dark humor and the justification of cruelty to possums in online media in New Zealand by Emily Major.Brushtail possums and species-inclusive social work in Aotearoa New Zealand by Emily Major Slayers, rippers, and blitzes: dark humor and the justification of cruelty to possums in online media in New Zealand by Emily Major Playful Killing: Animals and Socialist Childhood in 1950s People's Republic of China by Lu LiuPanda Politics by Rosemary-Claire CollardWe AnimalsSentient Media  A.P.P.L.EAnimals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.Georgia Institute of Technology School of Modern Language, Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, School of Literature, Media, & CommunPollination Project The Pollination Project empowers volunteers across by providing the funding they need. iROAR NetworkiROAR brings together podcasts that aim is to make the world a better place for animals. Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show The Animal Turn is hosted and produced by Claudia Hirtenfelder and is part of the  iROAR Network. Learn more on our website.
S8E3: Rhetoric and Supremacy with S. Marek Muller, David Rooney, and Lauren Corman
2025/09/29
In this episode we discuss how rhetorical constructions of animality, and humanity are mobilized to serve specific power structures, including white supremacy and colonialism. Lauren Corman, David Rooney, and S. Marek Muller come on the show to talk about some of the complex networks of media influence and consumption that shape such thought.   Date Recorded: 19 February 2025 Mentioned:  “Pageantry of aggression”: QAnon, animality, and the violent pursuit of whiteness by Lauren CormanLong live the Liver King: right-wing carnivorism and the digital dissemination of primal rhetoric by Marek Muller, David Rooney, and Cecilia CerjaInterspecies Subjectivity with Lauren Corman on The Animal TurnDangerous Crossings by Claire Jean KimDecolonization is not a Metaphor by Eve tuck and K. Wayne YangNature's Wild by Andil GosineSexual Politics of Meat by Carol AdamsPetro-masculinity: Fossil Fuels and Authoritarian Desire by Cara DaggettThe Animal ThereforeI I am by Jacques DerridaAnimals and Capital by Dinesh WadiwelMultispecies Disposability: Taxonomies of Power in a Global Pandemic by Darren Chang and Lauren CormanBecoming Human by Zakiyyah ImanJacksonMurder and Mattering in Harambe's House by Claire Jean KimExamined LifeAnimal Voices Radio Show Everyone in Mongolia drives a PriusBirds aren't real? How a conspiracy takes flight – TED TALKSCredits: Thank you to A.P.P.L.E  for sponsoring this podcast; and the the pollination project, the School of Modern Language, the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, as well as the School of Literature, Media, and Communication at Georgia Tech University for co-sponsoring this season. The bed music was composed by Gordon Clarke and the logo designed by Jeremy John. This episode was produced, hosted, and edited by Claudia Hirtenfelder.  A.P.P.L.EAnimals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.iROAR NetworkiROAR brings together podcasts that aim is to make the world a better place for animals. Georgia Institute of Technology School of Modern Language, Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, School of Literature, Media, & CommunPollination Project The Pollination Project empowers volunteers across by providing the funding they need. Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show The Animal Turn is hosted and produced by Claudia Hirtenfelder and is part of the  iROAR Network. Learn more on our website.
S8E2: (Mis)representation and Activism with Christopher Eubanks and Carrie Freeman
2025/09/22
Carrie Freeman and Christopher Eubanks join Claudia on the show to explore animal (mis)representation in media. They examine some of the ways in which animals are represented in activist messaging and the interconnections of animal rights with other social justice movements.   Date Recorded: 29 February 2025    Featured:  The Human Animal Earthling by Carrie FreemanCritical Animal and Media Studies by Núria Almiron, Matthew Cole, Carrie P. FreemanFraming Farming by Carrie FreemanWhat a Fish Knows by Jonathan Balcombe Animals in Media on The Animal Turn. Animal Activism Starter Guide Advocacy Guide for BIPOC Activists – by APEX Advocacy In Tune to Nature with Carrie FreemanAnimals and Media Style Guidelines by Carrie Freeman and Debra MerskinHuman supremacism: why are animal rights activists still the “orphans of the left”? by Will KymlickaCrossings by Ben Goldfarb Social Movement Mobilization and Feminism with Corey Lee Wrenn on The Animal TurnSociety and Animals (Film Reviews)Cowspriacy The Smell of Money  Credits: Thank you to Animals in Philosophy, Politics, Law and Ethics (A.P.P.L.E) for sponsoring this podcast; and the the pollination project, the School of Modern Language, the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, as well as the School of Literature, Media, and Communication at Georgia Tech University for co-sponsoring this season. The bed music was composed by Gordon Clarke and the logo designed by Jeremy John. This episode was produced, hosted, and edited by Claudia Hirtenfelder.  A.P.P.L.EAnimals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.iROAR NetworkiROAR brings together podcasts that aim is to make the world a better place for animals. Georgia Institute of Technology School of Modern Language, Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, School of Literature, Media, & CommunPollination Project The Pollination Project empowers volunteers across by providing the funding they need. Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show The Animal Turn is hosted and produced by Claudia Hirtenfelder and is part of the  iROAR Network. Learn more on our website.
S8E1: Trans-Speciesism and the MARS Test with Natalie Khazaal, Tobias Linné, and Ellen Gorsevski
2025/09/15
The Animal Turn podcast launches Season 8 with a dive into the intersections of media, racism, and speciesism. Tobias Linné, Ellen Gorsevski, and Natalie Khazaal join Claudia on the show to discuss how race and species intersect each other in animated film and the development of their Media Analysis of Racism and Speciesism (MARS) test to evaluate the ways in which they do.  Date Recorded: 31 March 2025  Featured:  Media, Racism, Speciesism: Issues and Solutions for Creaturely Racism in the Anthropocene edited by Natalie Khazaal, Ellen Gorsevski and Tobias LinnéMedia Analysis of Racism and Speciesism (MARS) test finds Oscars so AnthropoScenic in contemporary animated films by Natalie Khazaal, Ellen Gorsevski and Tobias LinnéMany meats and many milks? by Tobias LinnéIntersectionality, Identity Politics and Violence Against Women of Color by Kimberlé CrenshawCritical Animal and Media Studies edited by Núria Almiron, Matthew Cole, Carrie P. FreemanConnecting racial and species justice: Towards an Afrocentric animal advocacy by Luis Cordeiro-RodriguesAfro-Dog by Bénédicte BoisseronThe dreaded comparison: human and animal slavery by Marjorie Spiegel A.P.P.L.EAnimals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.Pollination Project The Pollination Project empowers volunteers across by providing the funding they need. Georgia Institute of Technology School of Modern Language, Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, School of Literature, Media, & CommuniROAR NetworkiROAR brings together podcasts that aim is to make the world a better place for animals. Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show The Animal Turn is hosted and produced by Claudia Hirtenfelder and is part of the  iROAR Network. Learn more on our website.

Podcast reviews

Read The Animal Turn podcast reviews


5 out of 5
7 reviews
★★★★★
Jolly Person 2026/07/22
This podcast helped me through my masters
I listened to almost every episode available during my masters, and it was an incredible resource. I’m so appreciative of the Claudia and all the amaz...
★★★★★
Tsteelman789 2024/05/03
Excellent resource
This is such an important resource for exploring questions about the role of animals in ethics, law, and politics. These questions are in urgent need ...
★★★★★
NicolasAJD 2021/05/03
Fascinating and well produced
One of the great podcasts for anyone interested in animal studies.
check all reviews on apple podcasts

Podcast sponsorship advertising

Start advertising on The Animal Turn relevant audience podcasts


What do you want to promote?