Anindita Bhadra joins Claudia on the show to explain what behavioural ecology is and how it has been applied to understanding the free-roaming dogs in India. They discuss the interconnections between domestication and evolution, the social organization of free roaming dogs, and dogs relationships with urban ecologies. 

 

Date Recorded: 16 August 2024. 

 

Anindita Bhadra is a behavioural biologist, working on free-ranging dogs in India. She founded The Dog Lab at the Department of Biological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata in June 2009. She has written about dogs in leading journals such as PloS One, Animal Cognition, Ethology, Ecology and Evolution. Connect with Anindita Bhadra on X (@Abhadra7). 

“Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution” - Theodosius Dobzhansky

Featured: 

• We know that the wasps ‘know’ by Anindita Bhadra and Raghavendra Gadagkar
• Scavengers in the human-dominated landscape: an experimental study Sourabh Biswas et al. 
• Ready, set, yellow! Color Preference of Indian Free-ranging Dogs Anamitra Roy et al. 

 
Animal Highlight: Rashmi Singh Rana tells us more about guard dogs, this time delving into the lives of Simru and Sheru a mother-son duo working in the  trans-Himalayas.

 
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. 

The Animal Turn is part of the  iROAR, an Animals Podcasting Network and can also be found on A.P.P.L.E, Twitter, and Instagram

 

Thank you to Animals in Philosophy, Politics, Law and Ethics (

Send us a message

A.P.P.L.E
Animals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.

Remaking One Health (ROH) Indies
This project investigates people-dog interactions, dog ecology, and rabies prevention efforts in urb

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. It can also be found on A.P.P.L.E, Twitter, LinkedIn, You Tube, and Instagram Learn more about the show on our website.

In this episode Mariam Motamedi-Fraser joins us in the show to discuss ‘species story’ a concept she developed in her book Dog Politics. We discuss how the human-dog bond has been established and maintained through modern day practices and scientific discourses which have implications for how dogs can live. 

 

Date Recorded: 31 July 2024. 

 

Mariam Motamedi Fraser is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the interdisciplinary research group UCL Anthropocene, in the Department of Geography. Her research is located in the field of animal studies. She is particularly interested in the implications, for animals, of the concepts and theories that are deployed to ‘explain’ them in both science and non-science research. Mariam is the author of three monographs and two co-edited collections, and has published in a wide range of journals. Her most recent book, Dog Politics: Species Stories and the Animal Sciences (Manchester University Press, 2024), is a critical analysis of the idea that relationality-with-humans somehow constitutes dogs’ evolutionary destiny. The book is partly informed by her experience of volunteering at The Dog Hub, a dog training and behavioural centre in London. She is strongly committed to teaching animal studies, and to the transformative experience that learning about animals in a structured setting offers students ( [email protected]).

 

Featured: 

• Dog Politics by Mariam Motamedi Fraser 
• The War Against Animals by Dinesh Wadiwel 
• Pets by Erica Fudge 
• Animal Biographies by Éric Baratay 
• Wild Justice by Marc Bekoff and Jessica Pierce 
• Do Fish Resist by Dinesh Wadiwel 
• S3E3: Invisibilized Animals with Paula Arcari on The Animal Turn 
• Mother with Yamini Narayanan on The An

Send us a message

A.P.P.L.E
Animals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.

Remaking One Health (ROH) Indies
This project investigates people-dog interactions, dog ecology, and rabies prevention efforts in urb

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. It can also be found on A.P.P.L.E, Twitter, LinkedIn, You Tube, and Instagram Learn more about the show on our website.

Gwendolyn Blue and Melanie Rock join Claudia on the show to discuss ‘healthy publics.’ They explore how the idea of ‘public health’ has persistently been conceived of as human and unpack some of the opportunities and challenges with conceiving of multispecies health. From the historical roots of the ‘One Health’ to the modern challenges of public participation and representation, Melanie and Gwendolyn offer thought-provoking perspectives on stretching health frameworks beyond humans. 

 

Date Recorded: 2 July 2024. 

 

Melanie Rock is a professor at the University of Calgary is in the Department of Community Health Sciences. Since joining the University of Calgary’s medical school in 2003, Melanie has drawn on her training in anthropology, health promotion, and social work in a series of projects centered on multi-species research. These projects have spanned community services, family dynamics, and social policy. The funders have included the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. To date, Melanie has led or co-authored more than 100 scholarly publications. 

 

Gwendolyn Blue is a critical interpretive social scientist who conducts research on environmental governance, public science, and participatory practice. Her focus is primarily on symbolic and epistemic politics (e.g. how issues are represented, whose expertise counts, which values matter), and how these politics influence participatory engagement across issues such as climate change, genomics, and zoonotic disease. She is particularly interested in identifying the assumptions, values, and contexts that ‘open up’ and ‘close down’ inclusive engagement. 

Featured: 

• Animal Publics: Accounting for Heterogeneity in Political Life by Gwendolyn Blue and Melanie Rock
• When Species Meet by Donna Harraway
• Biosecurity with Steve Hinchliffe on The Animal Turn. 
• The Public and its Problems by John Dewey

Send us a message

A.P.P.L.E
Animals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.

Remaking One Health (ROH) Indies
This project investigates people-dog interactions, dog ecology, and rabies prevention efforts in urb

Phoenix Zones Initiative
An organization on a mission to change the policies and practices that drive the exploitation of vul

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. It can also be found on A.P.P.L.E, Twitter, LinkedIn, You Tube, and Instagram Learn more about the show on our website.

Guillem Rubio-Ramon and Krithika Srinivasan join Claudia to kick of Season 7 which is focused on “multispecies health.” They discuss human-dog relations and how multispecies health involves components of care, indifference and violence. 

 

Date Recorded: 7 June 2024. 

 

Guillem Rubio-Ramonis a Research Associate in Human Geography at the University of Edinburgh. His research integrates more-than-human geographies and political ecologies to study the reciprocal influence of animals and humans on each other's socio-cultural, economic and political lives. He is currently involved in the Remaking One Health – Indies project, which explores everyday interactions between people and free-living dogs in India. His PhD research examined how nonhuman animals, particularly those involved in pig farming in Catalonia and salmon aquaculture in Scotland, can be understood as essential actors in the nation-making projects of these regions.

 

Krithika Srinivasan is a Professor of Political Ecology at the University of Edinburgh. Her research and teaching interests lie at the intersection of political ecology, post-development politics, animal studies, and nature geographies. Her work draws on research in South Asia to rethink globally established concepts and practices about nature-society relations and reconfigure approaches to multispecies justice. Krithika is the principal investor of the project Remaking One Health Indies. She has published widely, including in journals such as the Sociological Review, Geoforum, and Environment and Planning. Learn more about the ROHIndies project on their website and connect with Krithika on Twitter (@KritCrit)

 

Featured: 

• Remaking One Health Indies Project
• Hybrid Publics of Human and Other-than-Human Life: Free-Living Dogs and the “Green” and “Healthy” City in India by Krithika Srinivasan and Guillem Rubio Ramon

Thank you to A.P.P.L.E for sponsoring this podcast,

Send us a message

Wild Times: Wildlife Education
Wildlife mysteries, crazy news, and daring animal stories—listen now!

Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

A.P.P.L.E
Animals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.

Remaking One Health (ROH) Indies
This project investigates people-dog interactions, dog ecology, and rabies prevention efforts in urb

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. It can also be found on A.P.P.L.E, Twitter, LinkedIn, You Tube, and Instagram Learn more about the show on our website.

Claudia talks to scientist and author, Alexandra Horowitz about dogs’ cognition. They discuss everything from dogs’ sense of smell and capacity to play to how anthropomorphisms sometimes skew human understandings of what dogs are doing. 

 

Date Recorded: 15 August 2024 

 

Alexandra Horowitz heads the Dog Cognition Lab at Barnard College, where she also teaches seminars in canine cognition, creative nonfiction writing, and audio storytelling. She is the author of the New York Times bestseller Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know and four other books, most recently The Year of the Puppy: How Dogs Become Themselves. She lives with her family of Homo sapiens, Canis familiaris, and Felis catus in New York City. 

 

Claudia Towne Hirtenfelder is an animal studies geographer and podcast producer and host. Claudia has a PhD in Geography from Queen’s University, and her research is focused on the significance of the problematization of urban animals. She is particularly interested in multispecies urban spatial governance. Contact Claudia via email ([email protected]) or follow her on Twitter (@ClaudiaFTowne). 

 

Featured: 

• On Looking by Alexandra Horowitz 
• S2E2: Cognitive Ethology with Marc Bekoff on The Animal Turn 
• Bonus: Wonder(dog) with Jules Howard on The Animal Turn. 
• Anthropomorphism and Anthropodenial by Frans de Waal  
• What is it like to be a bat? By Thomas Nagel 
• The Study That Made Rats Jump for Joy, and Then Killed Them by Christine E Webb, Peter Woodford, and Elise Huchard. 
• Can dogs tell the time? By BBC. 

Thank you to A.P.P.L.E for sponsoring this podcast; Gordon Clarke for the bed music, Jeremy John for the logo, and Rebecca Shen for her design work. This episode was edited and produced by the host Claudia Towne Hirtenfelder. 

Send us a message

A.P.P.L.E
Animals 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. It can also be found on A.P.P.L.E, Twitter, LinkedIn, You Tube, and Instagram Learn more about the show on our website.

Monica Murphy and Bill Wasik join Claudia on the show to talk about their recent book Our Kindred Creatures. They discuss how the late 19th century was a time of immense change for Americans and their relationships with animals became increasingly contradictory. 

 

Date Recorded: 15 July 2024

 

Bill Wasik is the editorial director of The New York Times Magazine. Monica Murphy is a veterinarian and a writer. Their previous book, Rabid: A Cultural History of the World’s Most Diabolical Virus, was a Los Angeles Times best seller and a finalist for the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award. They live in Brooklyn, New York.

 

Featured: 

• Our Kindred Creatures by Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy
• Rabid: A Cultural History of the World’s Most Diabolical Virus by Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy
• Nature’s Metropolis by William Cronon
• Bonus: Veterinary Ethics and Animal Welfare with Sean Wensley
• S5E5: Animal Testing and its Alternatives with Thomas Hartung

 

Rate us on Podchaser and check out our Merch Store.

 

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. This episode was edited and produced by the show host Claudia Hirtenfelder.  

Send us a message

Wild Times: Wildlife Education
Wildlife mysteries, crazy news, and daring animal stories—listen now!

Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

A.P.P.L.E
Animals 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. It can also be found on A.P.P.L.E, Twitter, LinkedIn, You Tube, and Instagram Learn more about the show on our website.

Bonus: Animals in Media

Together with Arukah Animal International, The Animal Turn co-hosted a panel discussion focused on "Animals in Media". Using a video about animalized hierarchies in contagion films as a prompt, Claire Parkinson, Susan McHugh, and Tobias Linné engaged in an open-ended about media, representation, power, and activism.

Date Recorded: 22 May 2024

Claire Parkinson is Professor of Culture, Communication and Screen Studies and Co-director of the Centre for Human Animal Studies at Edge Hill University. Her publications include the books Popular Media and Animals (2011), Beyond Human: From Animality to Transhumanism (2012), Animals, Anthropomorphism and Mediated Encounters (2019) and Animal Activism On and Off Screen (2024). Connect with Claire on Twitter (@molloy_claire).

Susan McHugh, Professor of English at the University of New England, USA, researches and teaches literary, visual, and scientific narratives of cross-species relations.  She is the author of three monographs, most recently Love in a Time of Slaughters: Human-Animal Stories Against Genocide and Extinction (2019), and coeditor of six edited collections, including Animal Satire (2023). McHugh serves as co-editor of two book series, Palgrave Studies in Animals and Literature and Plants and Animals: Interdisciplinary Approaches, as well as Editor-in-Chief of Society & Animals.

Tobias Linné is an assistant professor at the Department of Communication and Media. His research explores veganism and how animals are made accessible

Send us a message

Wild Times: Wildlife Education
Wildlife mysteries, crazy news, and daring animal stories—listen now!

Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

A.P.P.L.E
Animals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.

Arukah Animal International
Arukah Animal International seeks to end animal exploitation through advocacy, awareness, & the arts

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. It can also be found on A.P.P.L.E, Twitter, LinkedIn, You Tube, and Instagram Learn more about the show on our website.

Award-winning journalist Sandra Bartlett joins us to uncover the unsettling realities of fish farming in British Columbia with her impactful podcast, "The Salmon People." We discuss some of the social and environmental controversies surrounding salmon farming in Canada including the interconnections between wild and farmed salmon in the region, how sea lice have devastated marine populations, and the ways in which indigenous groups are resisting industry interests.  

Date Recorded: 8 May 2024

Sandra Bartlett is an award-winning journalist based in Toronto.  She worked as a producer and reporter in NPR's Investigative Unit based in Washington. In 20 plus years at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, she worked around the world – from Guantanamo Bay to Bangladesh, Pakistan, Uganda, and Israel. She now produces investigative podcast series. The Poison Detectives follows how a firefighter’s wife and a corporate lawyer in different parts of the U.S. get pulled into solving separate mysteries, cows and deer haemorrhage to death in West Virginia and something that could be giving firefighters cancer. The Salmon People, the focus of this episode, tells the story of government malfeasance and industry collaboration to farm salmon on the Pacific Ocean waterways in British Columbia.  Verified: Dust Up is about the dangers of Johnson & Johnson baby powder and the risk of ovarian cancer.  

Featured:
 The Salmon People, a podcast by Sandra Bartlett.

A Stain Upon the Sea: West Coast Salmon Farming by Stephen Hume, Alexandra Morton et al.

What a Fish Knows by Jonathan Balcombe. 

The Animal Highlight, a sister podcast 

The Animal Turn is part of the  iROAR, an Animals Podcasting Network and can also be found on

Send us a message

Wild Times: Wildlife Education
Wildlife mysteries, crazy news, and daring animal stories—listen now!

Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

A.P.P.L.E
Animals 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. It can also be found on A.P.P.L.E, Twitter, LinkedIn, You Tube, and Instagram Learn more about the show on our website.

Using Carol Gigliotti’s book “The Creative Lives of Animals” as a backdrop,  this episode explores animals and the creative process.  From the artistic intricacies of humpback whales' bubble-net feeding to the sophisticated communication skills of prairie dogs, Carol guides us through a world where animals demonstrate remarkable creativity, highlighting how they make meaning for themselves.
 

Date Recorded: 6 March 2024

Carol Gigliotti is an author, artist, animal activist, and scholar whose work focuses on the reality of animals’ lives as important contributors to the biodiversity of this planet. She is Professor Emerita of Design and Dynamic Media and Critical and Cultural Studies at the Emily Carr University of Design, Vancouver, BC. Canada. Her book, The Creative Lives of Animals, (NYU Press, 2022) challenges the current assumptions of creativity, offering a more comprehensive understanding through recognizing animal creativity, cognition, consciousness, and agency. She is the editor of the book, Leonardo’s Choice: Genetic Technologies and Animals (Springer, 2009) and the author of numerous book chapters and journal essays on animals. Her work is supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, The Sitka Center for the Arts, and Coppermoss, among others. Gigliotti is on several international advisory boards concerned either with media or animal studies and regularly reviews books in critical animal studies. Learn more about Carol on her website. 

Featured: 

• The Animal Highlight, a sister podcast 
• Animals and Experience, season 2 of The Animal Turn Podcast
• The Creative Lives of Animals by Carol Gigliotti
• Animal Creativity and Innovation by Allison B Kaufman and James C Kaufman
• An Immense World by Ed Yong
• Adventures Among Ants

Send us a message

Wild Times: Wildlife Education
Wildlife mysteries, crazy news, and daring animal stories—listen now!

Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

A.P.P.L.E
Animals 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. It can also be found on A.P.P.L.E, Twitter, LinkedIn, You Tube, and Instagram Learn more about the show on our website.

Using his book Through a Vet’s Eyes as a backdrop, Claudia talks to Sean Wensley about veterinary ethics and animal welfare. They discuss some of Sean’s experiences as a vet as well as some of the challenges vets face in representing animals’ interests.

 

Date Recorded: 20 February 2024

 

Sean Wensley is Senior Veterinarian for Animal Welfare and Professional Engagement at the UK veterinary charity, the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA). He was President of the British Veterinary Association (BVA) and chaired the Animal Welfare Working Group of the Federation of Veterinarians of Europe (FVE), which represents veterinary organisations from 40 European countries. Sean has contributed to animal welfare and conservation projects around the world and in 2017 he received the inaugural World Veterinary Association (WVA) Global Animal Welfare Award for Europe. In 2023 he received the J.A. Wight Memorial Award from the British Small Animal Veterinary Association (BSAVA) for his outstanding contribution to pet welfare. His first book Through A Vet’s Eyes: How to care for animals and treat them better was selected as one of the Financial Times’ Best Summer Books of 2022.

 

Featured: 

• Through a Vet’s Eyes by Sean Wensley.
• Here for the Animals by Claudia Hirtenfelder.
• The ethics of referral by Barnard Rollin.
• Abolition with Gary Francione on The Animal Turn.
• Every Twelve Seconds by Timothy Pachirat.
• Community Led Conservation with Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka on The Animal Turn. 
• Learning Animals by Nadine Dolby.

Send us a message

Wild Times: Wildlife Education
Wildlife mysteries, crazy news, and daring animal stories—listen now!

Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

A.P.P.L.E
Animals 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. It can also be found on A.P.P.L.E, Twitter, LinkedIn, You Tube, and Instagram Learn more about the show on our website.

Over the years Claudia has mentioned her PhD research and journey, in this episode Catherine Oliver takes over as host and interviews Claudia about her research. They dwell on the concept of problematization and why it is important for thinking politically about urban animals. 

 

Date Recorded: 3 October 2023 

 

Claudia (Towne) Hirtenfelder is an animal studies geographer and podcast producer and host. Claudia has a PhD in Geography from Queen’s University, and her research is focused on the significance of the problematization of urban animals. She is particularly interested in multispecies urban spatial governance. Claudia is also the founder and host of The Animal Turn and The Animal Highlight podcasts. In 2021, she was awarded the AASA Award for Popular Communication and in 2023 she was nominated for two International Women’s Podcasting Awards for her work with The Animal Turn. Contact Claudia via email ([email protected]) or follow her on Twitter (@ClaudiaFTowne).

 

Catherine Oliver is a geographer and lecturer in the Sociology of Climate Change based at Lancaster University. Her research interests are animals, more-than-human theory, and urban studies. Currently, Catherine is researching the avian worlds of Morecambe Bay.  Between 2020 and 2022, Catherine was researching the history and contemporary resurgence of backyard hens and their keepers in gardens and allotments in London, which she is writing about for her forthcoming book, The Chicken City. Previously, she researched veganism in Britain, and her book Veganism, Archives and Animals, was published in 2021 and her second book, What's Veganism For? will be published with Bristol University Press in 2024. 

 

Featured: 

• Cast Out Urbanites: The Historical Problematization of Cows in Kingston by Claudia Towne Hirtenfelder
• An Analytical Framework to Understand the Problematization of Urban (Historical) Animals by Claudia Towne Hirtenfelder.
• Finding Traces of Cows in the Archives

Send us a message

Wild Times: Wildlife Education
Wildlife mysteries, crazy news, and daring animal stories—listen now!

Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

A.P.P.L.E
Animals 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. It can also be found on A.P.P.L.E, Twitter, LinkedIn, You Tube, and Instagram Learn more about the show on our website.