The Animal Turn

28/11/2025

From Red Dead Redemption to The Witcher: How are animals represented in popular games? Guests in this episode explorewhy most games still position animals as resources to be used or monsters to be slain—and what alternatives might look like.

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.

What are your experiences of gaming and animals?

21/11/2025

Fierce, controversial, and caught between worlds—Heck cattle embody the complex intersection of dark history and modern conservation.

This final episode of Season 5 of the Animal Highlight explores how these bovines were deliberately bred by N**i zoologists in the 1920s and now find themselves at the center of rewilding debates across Europe.

22/10/2025

In this Animal Highlight, Virginia explores how the recovery of red kites in Britain has been shaped by international efforts and cross-border collaborations between governments and NGOs. Thinking about these birds Virginia raises questions and concerns about translocation, culture, and species conservation.

Listen to more of this Animal Highlight wherever you get your podcasts!

17/10/2025

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.

In this clip you can hear Emily Major discussing how some animals are protected from pest status and the negative media connotations that come with that.

Listen to the full episode wherever you get your podcasts.

11/10/2025

In this animal highlight Virgina talks about wolves and auto-rewilding. It is a fascinating episode that discusses how amazing wolves are and questions how risk is distributed between species.

Tine in to hear more!

07/10/2025

Jo-Anne McArthur's haunting photographs capture mink trapped in cramped cages—animals designed for solitude and swimming forced into crowded battery farms. What's the true cost of that fur coat?

Listen to Virginia Thomas on The Animal Highlight to learn more about American Mink.

29/09/2025

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.

29/09/2025

Brown Dog is the forgotten terrier who sparked a movement. In 1903 his plight, at the hands of medical students at the University College London, helped to motivate the antivivisection movement in England. Learn more about "The Brown Dog Affair" on this Animal Highlight with Virginia Thomas.

25/09/2025

Following the conversation with Gary Francione on The Animal Turn, Virginia highlights honey bees to explain why vegans don't eat honey. She notes how political animal labour and human diets are.

Find The Animal Highlight and The Animal Turn wherever you get your podcasts.

22/09/2025

09/09/2025

Is conservation always ethical? This animal highlight with Virginia Thomas explores how saving the critically endangered European wildcat involves practices that raise difficult questions about consent, coercion, and violence. Where do we draw the line between care and control?

You can find The Animal Highlight wherever you listen to podcasts.