The Animal Turn

Animals are increasingly at the forefront of research questions – Not as shadows to human stories, or as beings we want to understand biologically, or for purely our benefit – but as beings who have histories, stories, and geographies of their own. Each season is set around themes with each episode unpacking a particular animal turn concept and its significance therein. Join Claudia Hirtenfelder as she delves into some of the most important ideas emerging out of this recent turn in scholarship, thinking, and being.

Podcasting since 2020 • 108 episodes

The Animal Turn

Latest Episodes

Bonus: Animals and the Right to Politics with Sue Donaldson and Will Kymlicka

Claudia talks to political philosophers Sue Donaldson and Will Kymlicka about their latest book Animals and the Right to Politics. They discuss the differences between societal and placed based politics, unpacking why both are necessar...

May 25, 2026 • 1:31:17

Bonus: Psychoanalysis and the Meat-Commodity with Teddy Duncan Jr.

In this episode Claudia talks Teddy Duncan Jr. who departs from the Marxian consideration of the meat-commodity to think about how psychoanalysis, especially Lacanian psychoanalysis, might be useful in understanding human relations with meat. T...

May 18, 2026 • 1:21:00

Bonus: Creature Needs with Lucy Spelman, Susan Tacent, and Christopher Kondrich

A scientific abstract can tell you a species is declining. A story can make you feel what that loss means and why it should change how you live. In this episode Claudia talks to Lucy Spelman, Susan Tacent, and Christopher Kondrich, the co-edito...

May 11, 2026 • 1:28:11

S8EB: Monstrous Others with Rachel Dean-Ruzicka

We explore how Stranger Things signals a new monstrous moment, moving from unknowable creatures to human-made villains, and what that shift says about power, identity, and culture. Along the way, we ask how animals get coded as monsters and whe...

December 29, 2025 • Season 8 • Episode 11 • 1:10:21

S8E10: Grad Review with Gina Song Lopez and Taylor Jobling

Gina Song Lopez, researching vegan movements in Taiwan and China through the lens of local culture and social media, and Taylor Jobling, a law lecturer unpacking how Australia’s legislation categorises animals, come on to the show to discuss th...

December 29, 2025 • Season 8 • Episode 10 • 1:28:14