Shows
How I Learned to Love ShrimpThom Norman on whether diet change is a counterproductive ask (and what we could do instead)There are never-ending conversations in the animal advocacy movement about whether diet change is an effective ask for the public. Today, we speak with Thom from FarmKind on why he thinks asking people to donate, rather than change their diet, can be a much more promising approach.We speak about why behaviour change is difficult, the many benefits of donating, what other social movements have used as their asks, as well as the different experiments FarmKind has run in their quest to figure out how to best raise funds for animal advocacy. Mentioned resourcesF...2025-07-0259 min
How I Learned to Love ShrimpAlice Di Concetto on why EU animal welfare reforms failed (and what we can do next)The EU is one of the most important institutions in the world. They had amazingly ambitious plans to transform the lives of the billions of farmed animals in the EU which sadly, were put on hold last year. Today, we speak to an expert in EU animal welfare policy, Alice Di Concetto from the European Institute for Animal Law & Policy, about what happened, what animal advocates might hope to win in the next few years and how we might improve our lobbying efforts.Resources: European Institute for Animal Law & Policy websiteAnimals in the EU A...2025-06-1258 min
How I Learned to Love ShrimpJames on Changed My Mind, talking about disruptive protests and social movementsToday, we’re sharing a different kind of episode. Not an episode of How I Learned to Love Shrimp but an appearance that I, James, made on another podcast, Changed My Mind. It's all about what causes people to change their mind and this time, I talk about my experience with changing my view on disruptive protests and social movements. This podcast is run by Aidan and Thom from FarmKind, who some listeners may know about, as a great new charity working to raise funds for animal issues. You can listen to more of their podc...2025-05-1248 min
How I Learned to Love ShrimpKatie Cantrell on shifting millions of meals to plant-basedThere is an age-old debate within animal advocacy on the importance of educating the public. Is it simply enough to tell people about the harms of industrial animal agriculture and then they will change their behaviours? Sadly, not it seems. Many people have been disappointed about the amount of behaviour change that’s actually happened over the past few decades due to education, as seen in relatively stagnant numbers of people going vegetarian or vegan. That’s why I’m excited that this week’s guest, Katie Cantrell from Greener by Default, is trying a new approach to get pe...2025-05-061h 03
How I Learned to Love Shrimp50th Episode Special: 5 leaders on key changes and opportunities in the animal movementTo mark our 50th episode, we're bringing you something special: Five movement leaders talking about some of the biggest developments for animals in the past two years as well as what advocates should focus on next for the next two years. Highlighting advancements in policy, corporate campaigns, alternative proteins, and investment in overlooked species, this is an information-packed episode so don't miss out! Our guests:David Coman-Hidy from The Navigation FundCarolina Galvani from Sinergia AnimalAlex Holst from The Good Food Institute EuropeCarley Betts from The Open Wing AllianceKarolina Sarek from the Effective Al...2025-04-1557 min
How I Learned to Love ShrimpKelvey Vander Hart on appealing to wide range of political and religious beliefsKelvey Vander Hart from the Wilberforce Institute joins us to share her approach to animal advocacy from a politically right-of-center view and how her Christian faith guides her activism.• The importance of bipartisan approaches to engage the masses in animal advocacy• Why animal welfare should be a cross-cutting issue that transcends political affiliation• How political coalitions can be built around specific animal welfare issues rather than comprehensive platforms• Reforming government subsidies that prop up factory farming and removing barriers to innovation• The connection between Christian values of mercy, compassion, and justice and animal welfare2025-04-0257 min
How I Learned to Love ShrimpDavid Kay on the emerging cultivated meat industryDavid Kay shares his experience as the first employee at Upside Foods, offering a deep dive into the cultivated meat industry's challenges, successes, and political landscape. As an animal advocate who entered the alternative protein space, he provides unique insights on depolarising the conversation around cultivated meat and building bipartisan support.›• Difference between focusing on environmental/health versus animal welfare messaging• David's journey from animal advocacy to becoming the first employee at Upside Foods• How cultivated meat differs from plant-based products as "real meat" grown from cells• Where hundreds of millions in investment funding goes in cu...2025-03-181h 07
How I Learned to Love ShrimpJulia Reinelt on why supporting parents is integral to the success and sustainability of our workA critical look at the entwined relationship between parenthood and the animal advocacy movement. Julia Reinelt shares her insights on how organisations can become more supportive to parents in the advocacy space.• Julia introduces herself and discusses her journey in the animal advocacy movement • The challenges of balancing advocacy work and parenting • Understanding the family-unfriendly aspects of the animal advocacy movement • Suggestions on creating more inclusive environments for parents within organisations • The impact of geographical location on parental support in advocacy • Insights on the necessity of normalising parenting conversations across the movement • How advocati...2025-03-041h 07
How I Learned to Love ShrimpAarti Bhavana on mental health and keeping companies accountable to their commitmentsThis episode discusses the intersection of mental health and animal advocacy, highlighting the critical need for self-care among advocates. Aarti Bhavana shares her experiences with emotional tolls from animal suffering, corporate accountability, and practical strategies for sustaining passion in the long term.• Exploring the toxic mindset of 100% dedication in animal advocacy • Importance of addressing mental health in nonprofit sectors • Underlying emotions of advocates witnessing animal suffering • The role and growth of corporate accountability in animal welfare • Practical self-care strategies and boundaries for advocates • Insights into shifting perspectives on animal welfare legislationResources;2025-02-181h 18
How I Learned to Love ShrimpHaven King-Nobles on why high agency is critical for entrepreneurshipHaven King Nobles brings us a really refreshing topic this week as we explore high agency and the importance of this particular trait when it comes to entrepreneurship and continuous innovation. We talk through Haven’s experience of being a young entrepreneur, the mistakes he made in the early days of founding the Fish Welfare Initiative, and some advice on the skills to develop to really excel in entrepreneurship.Whilst this week's topic was high-agency, we of course talk to Haven about his experiencing the first organisation dedicated to working on fish, talking about some of...2025-02-041h 19
How I Learned to Love ShrimpBen Newman on campaigning against the RSPCA and the role of welfare labelsBen Newman has had a colourful past few years, being one of Animal Rising’s co-directors and being arrested multiple times for various bits of direct action and disruptive protest. Now, Animal Rising has turned its attention to campaign against the RSPCA, the world’s largest animal charity, for running the RSPCA Assured scheme. This has been quite a divisive campaign within the animal advocacy movement, with some, including both co-hosts, having fairly big questions about the effectiveness of this campaign.00:00:00:00 | Intro00:04:55:02 | Direct Action Rescues00:10:01:20 | Mass Arrests Strategy00:13:40:07 | RSPCA Assured00:19:19:10 | End of An...2025-01-211h 05
How I Learned to Love ShrimpAlmira Tanner & Aidan Kankyoku on their grassroots ballot initiatives and how to lose forwardJoin us for an enlightening conversation with Aidan from Pro Animal Future and Almira from Direct Action Everywhere. A really interesting episode about their recent US ballot initiatives which actually has a lot of cross applicable learnings about fighting strong opposition to campaigns, the benefits of loosing forward, and how frequently narrative outperforms spend when it comes to campaigns. Almira and Aidan share insights on collaboration, leadership, and the courage to experiment with new strategies in the face of fierce opposition. Their stories underscore the importance of perseverance and adaptability in the fight against well-funded ad...2024-12-171h 17
How I Learned to Love ShrimpJesse Marks on becoming a major grant maker, The Navigation Fund and corporate campaigningJesse Marks is the newly appointed Farm Animal Welfare Program Officer for The Navigation Fund, a new major funder in the anti-factory farming space. We spoke with him about his experience becoming a grant-maker, interpersonal dynamics in funding, new areas he is excited about, how the movement can improve corporate campaigning and much more. www.navigation.org Navigation Fund Farm Animal Welfare StrategyGood Strategy Bad StrategyThis is an uprisingHow to survive a plaguewww.digital-advocacy.com Beau...2024-12-051h 12
How I Learned to Love ShrimpJoyce Tischler: 45 years in animal lawKnown affectionately as the mother of animal law, this weeks guest Joyce Tischler has over 45 years of experience advocating for animal rights through the law in the US. Starting off in 1979 by co-founding the Animal Legal Defense Fund where Joyce would serve as executive director for 25 years, we hear about the first cases Joyce worked on as well as her bold decision to take on the US Navy. Joyce now lectures at the Lewis and Clark Law School in the Centre for Animal Law, specialising in Industrial animal agriculture law teaching students both locally and internationally. We h...2024-11-191h 26
How I Learned to Love ShrimpTom Harris on the SHAC campaign and the significance of grassroots advocacyThere are not many people who have spent time in prison for their commitment to help animals, but Tom Harris is one of them. We spoke with Tom about his time in the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty campaign (SHAC), one of the most well-known animal rights campaigns of the last 20-30 years.We speak about why he thinks the campaign was so effective in applying pressure to companies, things he would do differently, common misconceptions about the SHAC campaign and the importance of grassroots advocacy in the animal rights movement. We also spend a bit of time...2024-11-051h 24
How I Learned to Love ShrimpJakub Stencel on defining and maintaining organisational cultureJakub Stencel is the recently appointed interim director of Anima International. A refreshingly candid conversation about organisational culture, transparency and its limits, as well as the constant journey of testing and learning that Anima undertakes. Jakub talks us through his thinking on culture in an expanding organisation, split across multiple countries and how his first important task as interim director is to assess whether Anima International should continue to exist, or, if other organisational structures could save time, resource and increase impact for animals.Resources:Fearless Organisation - Amy EdmondsonKirsty Henderson Blog P...2024-10-221h 20
How I Learned to Love ShrimpRune-Christoffer Dragsdahl on winning the largest government investment in plant-based foodsRune-Christoffer is an impressive person. In addition to being almost 10ft tall, he led the Vegetarian Society of Denmark’s efforts in getting the Danish government to invest over 110 million Euros in plant-based foods and develop an Action Plan to boost plant-based foods in the country. Given this is one of the most significant policy wins the animal advocacy and plant-based movement has seen in recent years, we chat about how they built the political will to achieve this. We speak about the importance of building coalitions, developing relationships with politicians, and even engaging with the animal agr...2024-10-081h 29
How I Learned to Love ShrimpGiulia Malerbi on banning octopus farming globallyGiulia Malerbi is attempting to prevent octopus from being intensively farmed for food. As head of Global policy at The Aquatic Life Institute, Giulia’s important work aims to stop intensive octopus farming before it even begins and has hopefully contributed to the passing of some groundbreaking legislation to support this ban. A really refreshing episode about the complexities of advocating for such an unknown species with the ins and outs of why farming this inquisitive species is so problematic from multiple perspectives.Resources:Aquatic Life Institute's Campaign PageThe Soul of an Octopus - boo...2024-09-241h 09
How I Learned to Love ShrimpWu Hung on how Buddhism has influenced his 30 years of activism for animals in TaiwanWu Hung trained as a monk before his journey into animal advocacy began and it is these teachings in the ‘inconsistencies of life’ that led him to believe he could change the future for animals in Taiwan. Through liaising with government officials, top business people and the general public, as well as predictable pushback from the industry, navigating the complexities of a relatively new movement in Taiwan has not been easy for EAST. We hear about these challenges and also how members of the global north can support this important work in Taiwan. Relevant links t...2024-09-101h 03
How I Learned to Love ShrimpLéo Le Ster on creativity in campaigningLéo Le Ster is a campaigner at L214, a French NGO focused on helping farm animals. Léo talks to us about L214’s creative campaigning tactics and the importance of open and collaborative brainstorming when it comes to generating new ideas.Léo gives us an update on the state of the movement in France and insight into their organisation with a multi-tactic approach from investigations and campaigning to education programmes and lobbying.Relevant links to things mentioned throughout the show:>> Podcast Feedback Form 2024-08-271h 09How I Learned to Love ShrimpCo-hosts Amy & James on a summary of our best bits and a brief hiatusIn this short 10 minute clip we announce a brief hiatus and use this time to chat through some episodes we want to highlight which we recommend checking out in the short break.We also have a small ask of our listeners - please could you fill out this feedback form so we can best understand how and if to take the podcast forward? It should take around 5 minutes to complete and will influence how we might progress. Episodes will resume as normal from the 27th August.If you enjoy the show, please leave a...2024-07-3010 min
How I Learned to Love ShrimpMahi Klosterhalfen on progressive strategies for animals in Germany and the importance of sharing mistakesMahi Klosterhalfen from Albert Schweitzer Foundation brings us exciting progress for animals in Germany. Mahi walks us through his work on cage-free, broilers and also now fish and shrimps and why Germany seems to be one of very few countries where meat consumption per capita is declining. We also dive into some thought provoking questions around running an organisation and why as a movement leader, sharing of mistakes is so important. Super interesting chat from a really knowledgeable long-term member of this space - well worth a listen. Relevant links to things mentioned throughout th...2024-07-161h 24
How I Learned to Love ShrimpTania Luna on the importance of employee health and well being for animal advocatesTania Luna brings us a wealth of knowledge this week as she walks us through the best working practices of organisations seeking to support animals that must integrally include the human animals that work to protect others.Tania’s team apply their wealth of experience in the tech space to the animal advocacy space supporting organisations to prioritise employee health and well being in pursuit of our common goal: increasing the sustainability and efficiency of our work. Tania offers top tips, learnings from supporting organisations so far and explains more about their service at Scarlet Spark and ho...2024-07-021h 23
How I Learned to Love ShrimpLeah Garcés and Sharon Núñez: Timeless lessons from 40+ years of animal advocacyAn absolute treat of an episode this week as we were asked to interview long-time advocates Leah Garcés and Sharon Núñez, live from the Animal and Vegan advocacy summit in Washington DC in May earlier this year.From anger in Leah’s 20’s to some eye opening potential prison-time in the past for Sharon, our esteemed guests walk us through their experiences over the last 20 years of their tireless work for animals. A nostalgic and powerful look back and projection forward from these two powerhouse leaders. Leah Garcés is president of Mercy For Anima...2024-06-1759 min
How I Learned to Love ShrimpDoug Waley on the lives of farmed fish and how we can help themLong overdue conversation on the important topic of fish this week with the lead for fish at Eurogroup for Animals, Doug Waley. Doug’s expertise lies in working for fish at the EU level however most of the episode is filled with important information relevant to fish farming across the globe. It’s a technical one but really insightful as we explore the everyday life of a farmed fish, the challenges they face and what can be done to secure meaningful wins for the billions of fish farmed each year. As always please check out the ep...2024-05-141h 06
How I Learned to Love Shrimp10 Years Since Veganuary: Co-founders Matthew and Jane reflecting on the past and envisioning the futureMatthew and Jane co-founded the online campaign Veganuary in 2013, which has encouraged millions of people across the globe to try being vegan for the month of January and beyond. More recently, Matthew launched Veg Capital, an organisation that provides early-stage capital to companies striving to replace the use of animals in our food system and founded vegan chicken brand VFC. Jane remains on the board for Veganuary as chair.Episode filmed live at the Vegan and Animal Rights Conference in Manchester in April 2024. The episode is warm and nostalgic as Jane and Matthew gave...2024-05-1451 min
How I Learned to Love ShrimpSofia Balderson on how rejection can help you grow as an advocateSofia Balderson is the co-founder of Hive, formerly known as Impactful Animal Advocacy, an organisation that aims to improve coordination and collaboration in the farmed animal movement through cultivating impactful, intentional, and serendipitous communitiesMany listeners may be on the Impactful Advocacy Slack – a Slack workspace with over 2,000 animal advocates and a great place to connect, learn and share ideas. Today, we spoke with Sofia Balderson, one of the originators of that Slack Channel about lessons in starting new projects, the importance of facing rejection, how much you should listen to philanthropic funders to understand the value of...2024-05-021h 19
How I Learned to Love ShrimpIgnacia Uribe on some tough decisions nonprofit leaders have to makeShort but sweet episode this week from Ignacia, author of a recently released book, CEO of a leading organisation in Latin America and mother to two small kids. We're delighted that Ignacia took time out to talk to us about her experiences right across her contributions for animals. We chat about Fundacion veg and their campaigns in both diet change and animal welfare as well as the decision for Ignacia to scale down her organisation and what led to this decision. We talk about the importance of country context in campaigning and the challenges when working in t...2024-04-2348 min
How I Learned to Love ShrimpBob Fischer: The case for including insects in our animal advocacyBob Fischer is the Senior Research Manager at Rethink Priorities and Associate Professor of Philosophy at Texas State University.Can insects feel pain? Should people who care about chickens, cows and pigs also care about reducing the suffering of crickets or black soldier flies? In this episode with Bob Fischer from Rethink Priorities, we try to answer some of those questions, as well as talking about the rapidly growing insect industry, and possible ways for advocates to help farmed insects.We talk about lots of interesting content and research, for some of which there are...2024-04-091h 05
How I Learned to Love ShrimpKristie Middleton on why engineering breakthroughs are essential for low-cost plant-based alternativesKristie Middleton is vice president of business development for Rebellyous Foods where she and her team help institutions add more plant-based options to their menus. Kristie’s also the author of MeatLess: Transform the Way You Eat and Live—One Meal at a Time and a long-time animal advocate. Rebellyous Foods has created novel manufacturing technology in order to make plant-based chicken more affordable to the masses. Mainly targeting food service providers such as universities and school districts, Kristie, who is Vice president of business development at the venture capital funded company, uses her experience from her days a...2024-03-261h 11
How I Learned to Love ShrimpJayasimha Nuggehalli on working collaboratively with the animal agriculture industry to help animalsJaya is a seasoned operational executive with a rich history of promoting animal welfare in the food retail sector. As the Co-founder and Chief Program Officer of Global Food Partners, a Singapore-based multinational consulting firm, he helps food and hospitality businesses implement their cage-free egg policies across Asia and reduce the cost of cage-free sourcing.A fascinating episode as we unpick the many advantages of working collaboratively with the industry to advance animal welfare. We chat about the key challenges to this type of work right now, animal welfare challenges in Asia generally and try to understand...2024-03-121h 36
How I Learned to Love ShrimpLauren Mee on the career landscape for helping animalsLauren Mee is the CEO & Co-founder of Animal Advocacy Careers, an organisation that tries to match mission-aligned talent to opportunities that accelerate the end of factory farming.Lauren offloads all she knows about the hiring landscape right now when it comes to careers in animal advocacy. She talks us through some best practices and common pitfalls in the hiring process as well as her take on some of the more strategic questions when it comes to career progression in this space.Whether you are not yet working in the movement, a manager looking to hire...2024-02-271h 22
How I Learned to Love ShrimpAaron Ross on how to stay motivated and keep fighting for animals for 20+ yearsAaron Ross has spent over 20 years working for farmed animals. His relentless dedication to this cause has seen him co-found two major organisations, The Humane League and the Open Wing Alliance and train and advise countless others around the world on corporate relations and movement strategy.In this episode, we talk through an important topic, longevity, and discuss the advantages and pitfalls of this long-term dedication to this long-term fight. Aaron offers practical advice for those wanting to dedicate their career to helping animals and why staying involved over the long-term has immeasurable advantages.2024-02-141h 37
How I Learned to Love ShrimpTomasz Herok on working undercover in factory farmsDescription: Tomasz Herok recently spent over 5 months working undercover on British factory farms, as part of an investigation by Open Cages, the UK branch of Anima International.[Trigger warning: graphic descriptions of animals suffering on factory farms throughout the episode]In this episode we understand the complexities involved in being an undercover investigator, what Tomasz’s role on the farm entailed during his time there and how he personally deals with the trauma presented. We also talk through the campaign that the footage was used for and what Tomasz needed to capture in or...2024-01-311h 12
How I Learned to Love ShrimpSimon Newstead on developing alternatives to animal proteinSimon Newstead, entrepreneur turned impact investor, is a founding co-partner of Better Bite Ventures who back food-tech founders in Asia.In this episode, we deep dive into the world of alt protein and the different technologies available in the alternative protein space. We look at Asia specifically where Simon’s work is focussed as well as the challenges this industry is facing as a whole. We also quiz Simon on his view on the timelines we should work towards to see this global shift in consumption towards animal-free alternatives. Relevant links to things mentioned throughout the...2024-01-161h 21
How I Learned to Love ShrimpWanyi Zeng on building the farmed animal movement in Southeast AsiaIn this episode, we speak to Wanyi Zeng, Executive Director of Welfare Matters, an organisation that is focused on building capacity for the farmed animal advocacy movement in Southeast Asia. We speak about the findings of Welfare Matters’ detailed and insightful report into the animal agriculture landscape in 6 key Southeast Asian countries, challenges facing the movement in Asia as well as Welfare Matters’ exciting plans to incubate new projects in the Asian farmed animal space.Links from the episode: Asia Farmed Animal Day conferenceCurious Vedanth podcast Michal Klar - Future Food NowLee Kuan Ye...2023-12-121h 24
How I Learned to Love ShrimpStien Van Der Ploeg on finding the most effective animal charitiesStien is the executive director of Animal Charity Evaluators, also known as ACE. Stien, wants to help people help animals and ACE tries to do that by finding and promoting the most effective ways to help animals.In this episode we speak with Stien Van Der Ploeg who is their fairly newly appointed executive director. We talk through the latest release of the recommendations for this year and go into some detail on why certain charities and their interventions were selected. We talk about why their work is so important, the difficulties in the recommendation process and...2023-11-301h 14
Hear This IdeaBonus: 'How I Learned To Love Shrimp' & David Coman-HidyIn this bonus episode we are sharing an episode by another podcast: How I Learned To Love Shrimp. It is co-hosted by Amy Odene and James Ozden, who together are "showcasing innovative and impactful ways to help animals".
In this interview they speak to David Coman-Hidy, who is the former President of The Humane –League, one of the largest farm animal advocacy organisations in the world. He now works as a Partner at Sharpen Strategy working to coach animal advocacy organisations.2023-11-241h 18
How I Learned to Love ShrimpMonica Chen on theories of change, collaboration and leadership within the animal advocacy movement.Today, we speak with Monica Chen, the Executive Director of New Roots Institute, formerly Factory Farming Awareness Coalition. We speak about several big topics: Theories of change for the animal advocacy movementWhy collaboration between organisations isn’t always easy,The importance of focusing on changing culture and social normsThe difficulties around management and organisational leadership, as well as some lessons Monica learnt along the wayMonica is an inspiring organisational leader who spends lots of her time thinking about what can benefit the movement as a whole so it was a real pleasure to s...2023-11-151h 09
How I Learned to Love ShrimpCameron Meyer Shorb making the case for wild animals and why we should care about their suffering.Cameron is the executive director of Wild Animal Initiative, a nonprofit dedicated to improving the lives of animals by accelerating the growth of wild animal welfare science.In this episode Cameron helps us to understand the vast topic of wild animal suffering. Cameron makes the compelling case for why we should invest resources into understanding how we can reduce wild animal suffering responsibly with data-backed interventions, improving the overall well-being of wild animals. We talk through the importance of Wild Animal Initiative’s research in this area, their grant-making arm which is enabling the research fie...2023-11-021h 29
How I Learned to Love ShrimpJosh Balk on using shareholder activism to win change from the world’s largest food companiesIn this episode, we speak with Josh Balk who is the co-founder and CEO of The Accountability Board. Previously, he was vice president of farm animal protection for The Humane Society of the United States. In addition, he is a co-founder of EAT JUST, a food technology company.We spoke to him about a promising new strategy that he’s trying out, which is shareholder activism. In a nutshell, that involves doing something that seems counterintuitive, buying shares in the largest food companies that use animals as products, and trying to get them to change. On top of...2023-10-181h 08
How I Learned to Love ShrimpAurelia Adhiambo on the animal advocacy landscape in AfricaAurelia is the Africa co-ordinator for the Open Wing Alliance where she supports African organisations with their cage-free campaigning efforts. In this episode Aurelia walks us through the state of the advocacy movement in Africa and the unique complexities of campaigning in this region. We hear Aurelia’s thoughts on progress in Africa and the importance of flexibility when devising and testing the strategies and tactics required to end cages in Africa. Relevant links to things mentioned throughout the show:Open Wing Alliance WebsiteDonate to...2023-10-0458 min
How I Learned to Love ShrimpInes Kostic on using politics to help animalsGive us feedback on the podcast via this form! It should take just a few minutes and it would really help us improve the show. Thank you in advance, we really appreciate it. In this episode, we speak with Ines Kostic, a Member of the Regional Parliament in the Netherlands for the Dutch political Party for the Animals and manager of Animal Politics Foundation.We speak about the opportunities and challenges around advocating for animals within the political system, the impact the Dutch Party for Animals has had as...2023-09-201h 06
How I Learned to Love ShrimpNeil Dullaghan on the importance of influencing EU policy and other important research topicsNeil Dullaghan is a Senior Research Manager in the animal welfare department at Rethink Priorities. Neil also holds a PhD in Political Science and is a fund manager of the Effective Altruism Animal Welfare Fund. In this episode Neil talks us through his policy research in the EU as well as other exciting projects and impactful research that Rethink Priorities has produced and includes some of the most obscure resource recommendations to date!Relevant links to things mentioned throughout the show:Rethink Priorities WebsiteStrategic considerations for upcoming EU farmed animal l...2023-09-0659 min
How I Learned to Love ShrimpKarolina Sarek on why you should start a new charity to help animals, and how Charity Entrepreneurship can help you do itIn this episode, we spoke to Karolina from Charity Entrepreneurship (CE) about the new animal charities they want to incubate in their next program (starting February 2024), what the benefit of joining their charity incubator is, as well as how they select which charities to incubate.If you’ve ever considered launching a charity to help animals, then this is the podcast for you! If you have a friend that has toyed with the possibility of starting their own project – then please do share this with them!Links from the episode:A summary of Charity Entr...2023-08-231h 06
How I Learned to Love ShrimpAmanda Hungerford on Open Philanthropy's funding for farmed animal welfareWe interviewed Amanda Hungerford, Farm Animal Welfare Program Officer at Open Philanthropy. Open Philanthropy is one of the largest funders of farmed animal welfare, giving tens of millions of dollars each year. We spoke to Amanda about common misconceptions about Open Philanthropy's grantmaking, challenges with corporate campaigns, strategies that Amanda is excited about, and much more. This was a really exciting episode for us to record so we hope you enjoy it too!If you enjoy the show, please leave a rating and review us - we would really appreciate it! Likewise, feel fr...2023-08-101h 03
How I Learned to Love ShrimpAndrés Jimenez Zorilla on Shrimp Welfare Project and why we should care about shrimpWe are celebrating our 10th podcast episode - Yay! To celebrate, we interviewed Andrés Jiménez Zorrilla from the Shrimp Welfare Initiative who inspired the name of our podcast, How I Learned to Love Shrimp. Shrimp Welfare Project is the only organisation solely dedicated to improving the lives of shrimp. In this episode we talk about the case for working on shrimp, the current scale of and practices within shrimp farming, as well as what Shrimp Welfare Project have learned over the past 2 years.Thanks to all of our listeners so far and...2023-07-201h 13
How I Learned to Love ShrimpNikunj Sharma on the animal advocacy movement in India and how to successfully expand organisations internationallyIn this episode, we speak to Nikunj Sharma, the CEO of Mercy for Animals India. We spoke about:The work of Mercy for Animals in India, and their victories so farThe considerations for animal advocacy organisations, like Mercy for Animals, to expand into new countries rather and how this trades off with the existence of local organisations. The specific cultural context for animal advocacy work in IndiaA few of the resources mentioned in our conversation:MFA India wins on gestation cratesPBFIA India report on increasing plant-based consumption within India – 67% people eating plant-based products citing animal wel...2023-07-0758 min
How I Learned to Love ShrimpCarolina Galvani on growing Sinergia Animal in The Global South and the optimism and self compassion that drives her work.Carolina is the founder and Executive Director of Sinergia Animal, an Animal Charity Evaluators’ StandOut charity working in nine countries of The Global South.Carolina has twenty years of experience in advocacy, fundraising, strategic planning, management, and campaigning. Before founding Sinergia, she worked in more than thirty countries as an investigative journalist for various animal welfare, environmental and social justice organisations.In this episode Carolina talks us through the growth of Sinergia, their current programmes and the importance of diversifying tactics across the movement. Relevant links to things mentioned throughout the show:S...2023-06-271h 13
How I Learned to Love Shrimpkarol orzechowski on animal research and the importance of effectively communicating data to support your goals.karol is the Content Director for Faunalytics who are dedicated to helping animal advocates improve the effectiveness and impact of their work through research and data. In this episode karol - a long-time animal advocate with a background in media, filmmaking, and investigative work - talks through Faunalytics most interesting research, and his responsibility for curating the research in the Faunalytics Research Library and some handy tips for digesting and communicating data to a wide audience.Relevant links to things mentioned throughout the show:Research LibraryOriginal Studies2023-06-121h 07
How I Learned to Love ShrimpEmre Kaplan on starting the first farmed animal focussed organisation in TurkeyEmre Kaplan is the Executive Director at Farmed Animal Protection Association in Turkey, the first farmed animal focussed charity in Turkey. In this episode, we talk through their organisation starting up, scaling and the lessons learnt along the way. We chat about their approach to activism in Turkey and the challenges they face working on these topics in this region.Emre addresses many lessons we can learn from his experience starting to work on cage-free in this area and the importance of having the movements support as their work progresses. Relevant links to th...2023-05-261h 07
How I Learned to Love ShrimpEdie Bowles on utilising the law to support the protection of animalsEdie is the Managing Director and a Solicitor at Advocates for Animals, the first UK law firm dedicated to animal protection.In this episode, we chat to Edie about representing The Humane League UK in the up and coming court case challenging DEFRA. The judicial review case will see Advocates for Animals argue that fast-growing chicken breeds are illegal under current animal welfare laws. We also talk through their enforcement work with Animal Equality, another first-of-its-kind case in the UK. Edie talks to us about how using the law to protect animals is a neglected a...2023-05-1255 min
How I Learned to Love ShrimpEva Hamer on how the animal advocacy movement can improve its messaging and win over the publicEva is a co-founder and Operations Lead of Pax Fauna, a nonprofit that seeks to revitalize the grassroots animal advocacy movement through conducting original research on messaging, strategy, and culture. In this episode, we discuss Pax Fauna’s 18-month narrative research project where they conducted over 100 hours of interviews with 200 meat-eating Americans, along with analysing hundreds of academic papers and running their own large-scale public opinion polling. In addition, we also speak about the importance of work to shift societal norms, Eva’s experience within Direct Action Everywhere and Pax Fauna’s upcoming work on ballot...2023-04-281h 09
How I Learned to Love ShrimpSilvano Lieger on a nationwide ballot initiative to end factory farmingSilvano Lieger is the Co-Managing Director of Sentience, a political animal rights and animal welfare organisation based in Switzerland. In September 2022, they ran a nationwide ballot initiative where all citizens of Switzerland could vote on one of the most important questions for animals: Should we ban factory farming?In this episode, we discuss the results of the ballot initiative, how these large-scale campaigns might lead to crucial shifts in how society thinks about animals, the nuts and bolts of running a campaign on this scale as well as the importance of working in coalitions.If...2023-04-141h 09
How I Learned to Love ShrimpIntroducing: How I Learned to Love ShrimpWelcome to How I Learned to Love Shrimp, a podcast about (potentially) effective ways to help animals!In the episode, we (Amy and James) introduce the podcast, why we wanted to start it, things we want to cover and some of our views on important topics within animal advocacy. If you enjoy this episode, please share this with your friends, family and anyone who might be interested! If you enjoy the show, please leave a rating and review us - we would really appreciate it! Likewise, feel free to share it wi...2023-03-2944 min
How I Learned to Love ShrimpDavid Coman-Hidy on welfare vs abolitionism and promising strategies to help animalsDavid Coman-Hidy is former President of The Humane League, one of the largest farm animal advocacy organisations in the world. He now works as a Partner at Sharpen Strategy working to coach animal advocacy organisations.In this episode, we discuss the age-old debate facing animal advocates: Should we pursue incremental approaches to improve welfare or should we only advocate for the total abolition of animal exploitation. Additionally, David also shares some approaches he would like to see more of within the animal advocacy movement, as well as what we could learn from other social movements. I...2023-03-291h 17