Animal Voices

Too often we see the mainstream framing of black veganism or indigenous veganism as an assimilation into white veganism. Veganism is painted as a white person thing, when it isn’t and never has been. That is why creating spaces for the narratives of black vegans to grow and flourish is extremely important. I hope with this interview, our listeners reflect on their role in dismantling racism in animal rights by centering and celebrating POC who are in the movement. One celebratory digital media space where this is taking place is Black Vegans Rock. Created by the creative Aph Ko who is an activist engaging in several independent digital media projects. Aph also launched a new blog site called Aphro-ism with her sister Syl where they provide critical analysis from a black feminist vegan perspective. After she wrote the first list that spotlighted 100 Black Vegans who were doing incredible work to dismantle the stereotype that veganism was a “white person’s” thing, Black Vegans Rock was created as a digita

In February 2015 we interviewed No New Animal Lab about their campaign to stop the expansion of the University of Washington’s research lab while pressuring the private construction firm, SKANSKA into terminating their contract with the university. U of W has been a long time animal research facility, using thousands of animals as research tools. Activists, students and federal authorities have all been concerned with these practices, especially when in 2014, the USDA, which enforces the law governing the proper treatment of animals in laboratories, cited Washington, the Oregon Health & Science University, and the University of California-Davis for failing to care properly for the animals. In April of 2014, the USDA found that the majority of monkeys at Oregon were suffering abnormal hair loss, potentially caused by psychological factors. In a November 2014 report, the USDA reprimanded Washington officials for the deaths of three infant monkeys, who were attacked by older male primates. Stop Animal

Our current age called the Anthropocene – climate change, super-diverse societies, and other expressions that are occurring at such magnitude – “change” permeates our contemporary societies, public opinion and our scientific and political imagination. For thousands of years most species, including homosapiens have been migrating. Nowadays, it happens so much faster and it’s causes are often a result of climate change, war, and a cumulation of political decisions that seem like a domino effect. In current public discourse these cumulative effects are not taken into account and the plight of immigrants, migrant workers and refugees are misunderstood and scapegoated as a burden to receiving countries. As much as the concepts of immigrants are socially constructed and there is a false dichotomy between citizen/non-citizen, it is important to look at how human mobility has shaped identity and our environments. Cristóbal Pizarro does this work finding the connections between human mobi

Bif Naked, Canadian singer-songwriter, writer and motivational speaker has been quite active in speaking out against poverty. Partnering with Vancouver Raise the Rates, she recently participated in The Welfare Food Challenge, which aims to demonstrate the reality of living on $610 of social assistance a month. She wanted to get involved to raise awareness about the plight of our poor, to promote understanding, and to educate the public to dispel the myths about welfare and welfare recipients. The idea is to encourage change and to try to get the attention of those with power to make those changes: your provincial government. Having been on welfare earlier in her life, the reality is that in today’s society, folks on welfare right now in B.C cannot afford shelter. Doing the math, it is impossible to live a healthy life after shelter, transportation, personal hygiene, clothing, household supplies, and bills are paid for. The math doesn’t add up when there is $21 per week left for food. Talk about fo

It’s scary to put yourself out there, and the world isn’t that welcoming to bright eyed anti-capitalist creatives, but there are safe spaces you can find yourself in with the help of good folks. It’s a huge privilege to be able to travel without restrictions and have your voice heard as an artist. It’s important that those with a mic realize that they are in a position of power to add to the conversation of liberation. For myself, as a travelling musician, it takes a little bit of social capital, some $, white skin, cis passing privilege. I want so badly for art and music to be accessible to the poor, working class, poc, queers, trans and disabled folks, not just to be participants, but to be directly involved in. I also a huge privilege to have freedom of movement and I constantly think of the stories of refugees, migrants, immigrants (whatever you want to call folks moving for different reasons), prisoners who have limited choices in dictating their own lives. As artists, musicians, we have a mic and folks

The internet exploded earlier this year with outrage from Western vegans, animal lovers, and dog owners in response to the Lychee and Dog Meat Festival held in Yulin, China. Graphic images inflamed sensibilities and a conflict began to mount that was clearly producing racial tension between the (typically) white animal rights protestors and the people of China who practice a cultural tradition of eating dog meat. Defensive over claims of cruelty on one side and racism on the other, each group backed into their respective corners. This pattern of cross-cultural conflict is seen regularly within the animal rights movement and the charges of racism and imperialism are often well-founded. On this show we talk to Dr. Claire Jean Kim about these cross-cultural conflicts. Dr. Kim is a Professor of Political Science and Asian Studies at University of California, where she teaches classes on comparative race studies, social movements, and human-animal studies. Her book, Dangerous Crossings: Race, Species, and Nature i

On this show we talk to Hope Bohanec, who has been active in animal protection and environmental activism for over 20 years and is a nationally recognized leader and speaker in the animal protection movement. She is currently serving as Projects Manager for United Poultry Concerns as well as the Executive Director of Compassionate Living, a Sonoma County, California based vegan outreach organization. Hope has been fighting against industrial and local “humane” industries, where she has researched and written in The Ultimate Betrayal: Is There Happy Meat?. We talk about being an educator in the animal protection movement, the history of domesticated animals, including fowl, and the “humane” myths pervading popular discourse. It is important to understand construction of certain animals as food and longstanding cultural beliefs. Chickens have been a part of human culture for thousands of years, through language, literature, and entertainment. The species has been predominately constructe

In this episode, you’ll hear us talk with Jeremy and Jordan, both long time vegan anarchists who are behind Which Side, a podcast by activists, for activists, that gives a platform for folks who are passionate about fighting animal, human and environmental oppression. We talk about producing DIY media projects, what it was like growing up in Utah with mormonism and straight edge being strong influences, having privilege in media and giving space for marginalized voices to share their stories, and the importance of prison support for political prisoners. We aired right after Prison Justice Day, and included an older interview with Toronto Anarchist Black Cross.  We wanted to share why it is so important to support people who are in prison. If our movements are challenging the state, people who are active face repression. All prisoners are political prisoners. There are many ways to support to let prisoners know they aren’t alone and forgotten. You can financially support, listen and support prison

This week we host a discussion with Cornell University sociology PhD student, Loredana Loy, on how representations of nonhuman animals and advocacy issues in cinema provide opportunities for social change and create an auspicious momentum for advocacy on behalf of nonhuman animals. Loredana;s blog series “Cinema for Social Change” provides a glimpse into her research on the subject. While many movies fail to produce thoughtful and moving animal characters and stories, the ones that get it right can have an enormous impact and outreach. Modern forces of industrialization and urbanization have hidden nonhuman animals and consequently their exploitation from our everyday experiences, but cinema has the power to reintegrate them into our lives. So what makes a good film? How did activists build momentum around movies that include positive animal advocacy themes? How can we become more effective? Listen in this week for answers to these questions and analysis of films that really got it right. At the e

Have you ever imagined what our world would look like in a post-meat society? This episode we chat with Marc Pierschel and Jeff Wirth who are filmmakers working on the documentary, The End of Meat. This film project is seeking to explore what our world would look like in a post-meat world, where animals are no longer exploited for human use. What will our world look like when relationships with non-human animals are based on compassion and understanding instead of domination. We talk about what people can expect from this film, how technology fits into animal industries becoming obsolete, as well imagine what our relationships with non-human animals would look like once they are seen as persons and protected under the law. Instead of being consumers who are cognitively dissonant from our choices, we can begin rebuilding how we see and treat animals. Check out their website, where you can contribute to this project financially and with skills you may be able to lend the filmmakers, or send them your idea of wh