Ever been told an animal is a "problem"? From the deer in our backyards and the pigeons in our cities to the elephants on their ancestral lands, we constantly label other species as pests, nuisances, and issues to be solved. But what if the real problem isn't the animal themselves, but the way we choose to see them?

In this episode, Claudia Hirtenfelder, host of the acclaimed podcast The Animal Turn and a brilliant geographer, unravels the surprising process of how we "make" animals into problems. She introduces her powerful concept of "problematization" — the social and historical system where animals are first labelled as a problem in our laws and conversations, and then managed, or even removed, because of it.

We'll explore the consequences of this labeling and discover how this framework explains not just the history of cows in one Canadian city, but the global stories of creatures from coyotes and badgers to sea gulls and squirrels. Get ready to have your perspective flipped. Tune in to ask the critical question: When we call an animal a problem, what are we really saying about ourselves?

Website/Socials & Books:

Claudia Hirtenfelder

Podcast: https://www.theanimalturnpodcast.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/claudia-hirtenfelder-a360241a

Article: "An analytical framework to understand the problematization of urban (historical) animals" https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/25148486241281227

Other links

Vienna Animal Studies Group: https://www.viennaanimalstudies.com

Phoenix Zones: https://www.phoenixzonesinitiative.org

Transformation Austria: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=10009315345939

Wild crows inhabiting the city use it to their advantage - David Attenborough - BBC wildlife https://youtu.be/BGPGknpq3e0?si=HVn4TpZuTJWOcFTG

Straying Home: A film essay with urban animals https://youtu.be/kfITJ9zDU5w?si=LKHljLvR2nFjt3ne

by just wondering https://justwondering.io/beyond-speciesism-beyond-humanism-beyond/

"Turkey's street-living dogs: Thoughts in light of Turkey's controversial 'adoption' law", by Emilia Leese https://open.substack.com/pub/emilialeese/p/turkeys-street-living-dogs

Emi Leese

https://emilialeese.substack.com

http://thinklikeavegan.com

http://emilialeese.com

Instagram @emi.leese

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@thinklikeavegan/videos

Credits

Host: Emilia A. Leese

Guest: Claudia Hirtenfelder

Production & Engineering: Jim Moore of Bloody Vegans Productions; https://www.bloodyvegansproductions.com

Graphics: Catherine Dorrell https://www.messyvegancook.com

Music

Opening theme: “Flashbacks” by Jenny Moore’s Mystic Business

Interlude: "No Time" by Matthew Gerstenberger

Closing theme: “Tear Things Up” by Jenny Moore’s Mystic Business

This podcast is part of iROAR, the Animals Podcasting Network https://iroarpod.com

Join me for a conversation with scholar-activist Amanda Williams as we dismantle the idea of "adult supremacy" and connect it to the broader fight for total liberation. Amanda shows us how our first lessons in power often start with controlling children, and how to turn that awareness into tangible action for a more compassionate world.

Website/Socials & Books

Amanda Williams

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/amandarwilliams

Books by Amanda: The Overprivileged Human; What Can I Do?; Exploring Topics in Non/Human Coexistence

Free Frankie pressure campaign: https://www.kcactionforanimals.org/

Recommended books: Raising our Children, Raising Ourselves by Naomi Aldort; Unconditional Parenting by Alfie Kohn

Other links

"Ten Unschooling Boogeymen And How They're All NBD", by Agni Hogaboom https://buymeacoffee.com/agnihogaboom/ten-unschooling-boogeymen

"Unschooling For Parents Who Don't Unschool", by Agni Hogaboom https://buymeacoffee.com/agnihogaboom/unschooling-for-parents-who-don-unschool-761293

Emi Leese

https://emilialeese.substack.com

http://thinklikeavegan.com

http://emilialeese.com

Instagram @emi.leese

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@thinklikeavegan/videos

Credits

Host: Emilia A. Leese

Guest: Amanda Williams

Production & Engineering: Jim Moore of Bloody Vegans Productions; https://www.bloodyvegansproductions.com

Graphics: Catherine Dorrell https://www.messyvegancook.com

Music

Opening theme: “Flashbacks” by Jenny Moore’s Mystic Business

Interlude: "Mushi" by Matthew Gerstenberger

Closing theme: “Tear Things Up” by Jenny Moore’s Mystic Business

This podcast is part of iROAR, the Animals Podcasting Network https://iroarpod.com

What happens when a folklorist goes inside vegan and animal rights communities, not as an outsider looking in, but as someone documenting their lived beliefs? Dr. Ceallaigh MacCath-Moran joins me to discuss her research in St. John’s and Toronto, where she explores veganism as a counter-hegemonic tradition and activism as performative resistance. We delve into how media and academia often misrepresent these movements and why insider voices matter. From Gramsci to grassroots protest, this conversation challenges the idea speciesism is just common sense and asks what justice really sounds like when dissent speaks

Website/socials

Dr. Ceallaigh MacCath-Moran

https://csmaccath.com/home

PhD dissertation https://research.library.mun.ca/16537/

Your Vegan Fallacy Is https://yourveganfallacyis.com/en

https://linktr.ee/csmaccath

Other links

"What's wrong with carnism?" by Dr Corey Wrenn https://www.coreyleewrenn.com/carnism/

Emi Leese

https://emilialeese.substack.com

http://thinklikeavegan.com

http://emilialeese.com

Instagram @emi.leese

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@thinklikeavegan/videos

Credits

Host: Emilia A. Leese

Guest: Dr. Ceallaigh S. MacCath-Moran

Production & Engineering: Jim Moore of Bloody Vegans Productions; https://www.bloodyvegansproductions.com

Graphics: Catherine Dorrell https://www.messyvegancook.com

Music

Opening theme: “Flashbacks” by Jenny Moore’s Mystic Business

Interlude: "Kawa" music by Matthew Gerstenberger and voice by Chiyako

Closing theme: “Tear Things Up” by Jenny Moore’s Mystic Business

This podcast is part of iROAR, the Animals Podcasting Network https://iroarpod.com

Roger Yates, a longtime animal rights firebrand, sociologist, and movement historian, cracks open veganism’s radical past. This isn’t just about diet or ethics. It’s about a revolutionary philosophy of total liberation challenging everything. Yates doesn’t just talk theory, he connects the dots to today’s movement in a way that’ll make you reconsider what “vegan” even means. Spoiler: It’s bigger than what you’ve been sold.

Strap in. This one’s for the thinkers, the rebels, and anyone who believes justice must be pro-intersectional. History isn’t just background noise; it’s fuel.

P.S. If you’ve ever argued about “militant vegans” or “the vegan agenda”… oh, you’ll want to hear this.

Website/socials

Roger Yates' YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@RogerYates/streams

Substack: https://substack.com/@drrogeryates

Instagram @roger_yates1

TikTok roger_yates

The Social Construction of Human Beings and Other Animals in Human-Nonhuman Relations https://rogeryatesphd.blogspot.com/

Blog https://onhumanrelationswithothersentientbeings.weebly.com/

Emi Leese

https://emilialeese.substack.com

http://thinklikeavegan.com

http://emilialeese.com

Instagram @emi.leese

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@thinklikeavegan/videos

Credits

Host: Emilia A. Leese

Guest: Roger Yates

Production & Engineering: Jim Moore of Bloody Vegans Productions; https://www.bloodyvegansproductions.com

Graphics: Catherine Dorrell https://www.messyvegancook.com

Music

Opening theme: “Flashbacks” by Jenny Moore’s Mystic Business

Interlude: "I Used to Do Lots of Things" by Matthew Gerstenberger

Closing theme: “Tear Things Up” by Jenny Moore’s Mystic Business

This podcast is part of iROAR, the Animals Podcasting Network https://iroarpod.com

Vance Lehmkhul is a vegan renaissance man: writer, journalist, cartoonist, and now, a vegan history detective. His book Revolutionary Peace cracks open the wild, untold story of how Philadelphia became the unlikely birthplace of America’s vegetarian and vegan revolt.

This isn’t just a history lesson. It's a street-level view of radical thinkers who saw food as revolution. We’re talking 18th-century Quakers, 19th-century anarchists, feminist firebrands, and proto-vegan agitators who linked animal liberation to every fight for justice.

Lehmkhul’s work proves something urgent: veganism was never just about diet — it was always political warfare. If you think today’s movements are divisive? Wait till you hear about the original plant-based rebels who scared the hell out of the status quo.

This one is for all history nerds, activists, and anyone tired of watered-down veganism.

Links

Vance Lehmkhul http://www.vegcast.com/vance/

Revolutionary Peace: How Philadelphia Launched the US Vegetarian and Vegan Movement

https://americanvegan.org/product/revolutionary-peace/

Veg History Walking Tours https://americanvegan.org/veg-history-walking-tours/

American Vegan Center https://americanvegan.org/avc/

American Vegan Society https://americanvegan.org

The Return of Benjamin Lay https://www.benjaminlayplay.com

Emi Leese

https://emilialeese.substack.com

http://thinklikeavegan.com

http://emilialeese.com

Instagram @emi.leese

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@thinklikeavegan/videos

Credits

Host: Emilia A. Leese

Guest: Vance Lehmkhul

Production & Engineering: Jim Moore of Bloody Vegans Productions; https://www.bloodyvegansproductions.com

Graphics: Catherine Dorrell https://www.messyvegancook.com

Music

Opening theme: “Flashbacks” by Jenny Moore’s Mystic Business

Interlude: "Dappling" by Matthew Gerstenberger

Closing theme: “Tear Things Up” by Jenny Moore’s Mystic Business

This podcast is part of iROAR, the Animals Podcasting Network https://iroarpod.com

Researcher Rimona Afana unflinchingly exposes the hidden victims of Israel's war on Gaza: the natural world and nonhuman animals. She reveals how advanced weaponry creates a psychological distance enabling destruction on a colossal scale, making ecocide a feature, not a byproduct, of modern conflict.

Website/Socials

Rimona Afana

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rimonaafana

https://web.gs.emory.edu/vulnerability/visiting-scholars/2018/afana-rimona.html

Ecodide/Speciesism: Legislating hieararchy, interdependence, death

https://www.facebook.com/ecocide.speciesism

Other links

Israel's Crimes Against the Dead and Unborn in Gaza

https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/israels-crimes-against-the-dead-and-unborn-in-gaza

Emi Leese

https://emilialeese.substack.com

http://thinklikeavegan.com

http://emilialeese.com

Instagram @emi.leese

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@thinklikeavegan/videos

Credits

Host: Emilia A. Leese

Guest: Rimona Afana

Production & Engineering: Jim Moore of Bloody Vegans Productions; https://www.bloodyvegansproductions.com

Graphics: Catherine Dorrell https://www.messyvegancook.com

Music

Opening theme: “Flashbacks” by Jenny Moore’s Mystic Business

Interlude: Birds from Shwikeh, Tulkarem, Palestine by sounds_from_palestine -- https://freesound.org/s/802437/

-- License: Creative Commons 0

Closing theme: “Tear Things Up” by Jenny Moore’s Mystic Business

This podcast is part of iROAR, the Animals Podcasting Network https://iroarpod.com

There are those who study nature, and then there are those who listen to it. Alan Watson Featherstone is such a listener, a quiet revolutionary who has spent his life translating Earth's silent longing into action.

In this episode, we walk with Alan through:

The act of rewilding — not just restoring land, but restoring relationship

Why healing broken ecosystems is the most radical hope we have

How a single sapling carries within it an entire future

A man of many gifts — photographer, storyteller, planter of forests — Alan founded Trees for Life in 1986 and for three decades served as its guiding spirit, transforming Scotland's barren glens into cathedrals of green. A vegan since 1979, his life reminds us that compassion must stretch beyond our species

This is not a lecture on ecology. This is an invitation to remember, to see, as Alan does, that every act of rewilding is a love letter to a better future for everyone

Website/Socials

Alan Watson Featherstone

https://alanwatsonfeatherstone.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/alan-watson-featherstone-8063961a

X @AlanWatsonFeat1

Photography https://www.naturepl.com/search?s=Alan+Watson

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@alanwatsonfeatherstone9676/videos

Other links

Findhorn community https://www.visitecovillagefindhorn.uk

Trees for Life https://treesforlife.org.uk

Ishmael https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishmael_(Quinn_novel)

Kathleen Jannaway https://youtu.be/2ai7lnUsVPE?feature=shared

Auroville https://auroville.org

Jack Whitten https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Whitten

Birchfield https://birchfieldhighlands.org

Emi Leese

https://emilialeese.substack.com

http://thinklikeavegan.com

http://emilialeese.com

Instagram @emi.leese

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@thinklikeavegan/videos

Credits

Host: Emilia A. Leese

Guest: Alan Watson Featherstone

Production & Engineering: Jim Moore of Bloody Vegans Productions; https://www.bloodyvegansproductions.com

Graphics: Catherine Dorrell https://www.messyvegancook.com

Music

Opening theme: “Flashbacks” by Jenny Moore’s Mystic Business

Interlude: "Contemporary Music Too" by Matthew Gerstenberger

Closing theme: “Tear Things Up” by Jenny Moore’s Mystic Business

This podcast is part of iROAR, the Animals Podcasting Network https://iroarpod.com

Capitalism didn't just commodify animals - it turned suffering into an industry. Meet John Sanbonmatsu, the revolutionary philosopher tearing apart the meat-industrial complex in his incendiary new work The Omnivore's Deception. This book is an indictment of the entire capitalist food regime

Sanbonmatsu doesn't debate reform. He demands total dismantling of the oppressive structures that treat life as profit. This is food system analysis as class war, revealing how your burger funds environmental racism, worker exploitation and mass extinction. The only moral response is revolution

Website/Socials

John Sanbonmatsu

https://www.johnsanbonmatsu.com

Other links

Karen Davis essay https://www.upc-online.org/thinking/rhetoric.pdf

Emi Leese

https://emilialeese.substack.com

http://thinklikeavegan.com

http://emilialeese.com

Instagram @emi.leese

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@thinklikeavegan/videos

Credits

Host: Emilia A. Leese

Guest: John Sanbonmatsu

Production & Engineering: Jim Moore of Bloody Vegans Productions; https://www.bloodyvegansproductions.com

Graphics: Catherine Dorrell https://www.messyvegancook.com

Music

Opening theme: “Flashbacks” by Jenny Moore’s Mystic Business

Interlude: "7am" music by Matthew Gerstenberger and voice by Chiyako

Closing theme: “Tear Things Up” by Jenny Moore’s Mystic Business

This podcast is part of iROAR, the Animals Podcasting Network https://iroarpod.com