Popular Reviews of The Animal Turn

Despite the podcast starting out as something for academics and researchers, this is definitely accessible for average people. I gained a new perspective on the way animals are seen and also learned some really amazing facts (mostly about bonobo orgies). The host, Claudia, is well-informed and asks engaging questions from her interviewees. I'd recommend this for anyone who is curious about animals or has any interest in animals rights.

This is a fantastic podcast for anyone interested in the general field of animal studies and animal scholarship. The topics are as varied as the speakers and form a beautiful range, from very serious to an often more light hearted approach to what is undoubtedly one of the topics of our time. A definite must-listen for anyone interested in animals.

Each episode is a discussion with a specialist on animal ethics or animal minds: Will Kymlicka, Sioban O’Sullivan, Marc Bekoff, Carl Safina and many more.

The Animal Turn is a must listen for all those interested in animals and animal rights. It covers a wide range of topics in-depth but remains accessible to those without an academic background. As a Vegan animal rights activist I haven’t been this impressed by a podcast for a long time - and I highly recommend it. It is making me think deeply about issues from new perspectives!

I love The Animal Turn podcast! The scope is very comprehensive, the discussions amazingly instructive and interesting, and Claudia Hirtenfelder a great interviewer! :)Couldn't recomment it more.

This is a fantastic podcast!!!The subject matter is fascinating in its own right, of course. Arguably, it's never been more important for us to think about how humans relate to - and often dominate and exploit - other animals. This podcast draws on the expertise of a range of leading scholars working in various disciplines - from geography, legal studies and history to political science, musicology and philosophy - to reveal just how rich, complicated, and riven with contradictions, is our relationship with animals. The organization of the podcast into themed series works really well and serves to give each interview a sharp focus. And the host, Claudia, is just brilliant. She gets to the heart of each topic under discussion and she also has a knack of distilling complex ideas into their (easily understandable) core elements. Her enthusiasm is infectious, her questions are insightful, and she always gets the very best out of her interviewees. Academics interested in animal studies will doubtless learn much from this podcast, but so will non-specialists, too. This podcast will change the way you think about our relationships with animals and will make you think about the significance of animals as active agents and sentient beings with their own interests and their own agendas. Start listening to it!

My favourite podcast of all times, and I am not even a researcher! It is accessible and a great way to get insight into some of the key conversations within animal studies. Thank you for your amazing work and to all your brilliant guests for sharing their knowledge to a broader audience.

This podcast is important for every scholar working on animals.

The podcast is a gateway to such incredible insights and thoughts. The questions and answers are profoundly intriguing, address some essentially important aspects and offer multiple opportunities to delve into some really serious thinking. The multi-disciplinary and critical approach is praiseworthy. I really enjoy the exchange of ideas, opinions, and thoughts through the discussions. It makes me happy that the world has taken - among others - this one step in the right direction too:) I wish Ms. Claudia and the podcast the best and more prosperity!

I came to the Animal Turn season on ‘Sound’ as a grad student working at the strange threshold worlds of music, sound studies, animal studies and post humanities. Serendipitous to find such similar crossroads showing up in such a well researched and curated season! The season assembles a set of interviews that in consort, approach the sonic experiences and soundings of animals the only way I think we really can: through multiscalar and diverse sets of perceptual standpoints. We hear from biologists, museum archivists, musicologists, artists, and field recordists… hosts of folks who love animals, and imagine “knowing” them through different mediations. Through these conversations, Hirtenfelder’s thread of questioning persists, probing for manifestations of animal agency, troubling human centric systems of ethics, and prompting— wherever possible— postures of curiosity and opening over quick designations and prescriptive definition. I recommend not only for nerds like myself who think about animal sound a lot, but for anybody willing to get playful with their own listening habits. It’s always exciting to discover new relationships with familiar sounds.

I wanted to write a quick message to let folks know how wonderful this podcast is! The quality of the podcast (and their webpage) clearly demonstrates the incredible amount of time, thought, and energy Claudia and her team put into it. So, “THANK YOU” to The Animal Turn team for doing all of that.Season four is the one that speaks to me the most, as I love learning about all these new (to me) sounds, technologies, and methodologies out there. Plus, the conversations with the guests are such a joy to listen to.Best wishes and thanks for doing such impactful work,AM Ray

Thank you *so much* for all your work in the animal studies space, I've learned so much from you and your guests :) highly recommended podcast for anyone interested in academically-grounded conversations oriented around zoopolitical, relational, ethnographical, phenomenological, and ethical issues concerning our relationships with the non-human world.