Shows
The Animal TurnS8E7: Social Media with Laura Fernández, Amanda Weiss, and Siobhan SpeiranGuests Laura Fernández, Amanda Weiss, and Siobhan Speiran join Claudia to discuss case studies as wide ranging as Japanese animal cafes, Spanish bull fighting, and Costa Rican sanctuaries to unfurl the complex relations of social media and animals. Together they probe how social media packages animals as content, why that changes real lives, and where activism, policy, and platform design can push back. Date Recorded: 11 April 2025 Featured: Han Heroes and Yamato Warriors: Competing Masculinities in Chinese and Japanese War Cinema by Amanda WeissCritical Animal and Media Stud...
2025-12-151h 24
The Animal TurnS8E4: Popular Media and Pests with Lu Liu, Debra Merskin, and Emily MajorIn this episode we animals, power, and popular media. 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. Date Recorded: 15 January 2025 Featured: Animals and MediaMass Media and Society edited by Debra Merskin Seeing Species by Debra Merskin Media, Minorities and Meaning by Debra Merskin Communicating Nature by Julia B. Corbett. Projecting on Predators by Debra MerskinBrushtail possums and species-inclusive social work in Aotearoa New Zealand by Emily Major Sla...
2025-10-101h 39
The Animal TurnS8E2: (Mis)representation and Activism with Christopher Eubanks and Carrie FreemanCarrie 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. Date Recorded: 29 February 2025 Featured: The Human Animal Earthling by Carrie FreemanCritical Animal and Media Studies by Núria Almiron, Matthew Cole, Carrie P. FreemanFraming Farming by Carrie FreemanWhat a Fish Knows by Jonathan Balcombe Animals in Media on The Animal Turn. Animal Activis...
2025-09-221h 37
In Tune to Nature PodcastZion National Park: Carrie's Vegan Basecamp Community Hiking and Camping AdventureTravel along with me through my first fun trip to the gorgeous, dry, red rock canyons of Zion National Park in Utah, on my unique weekend "vegan basecamp" camping experience with my friend Deb and 30 other vegan folks in mid September 2025 (so different from the green, humid Atlanta region I came from). We go together on the iconic "narrows hike," sloshing through the rocky Virgin River in a beautiful slot canyon and later on a night hike under the stars. I also share audio and musings from the Weeping Rock trail, the Emerald Pools trail, Wildcat Canyon trail (and...
2025-09-2151 min
culturalstudiesDebra Merskin on animals, advertising, gender, and FreudDebra Merskin on animals, advertising, gender, and Freud
You can read about her work here:
https://journalism.uoregon.edu/directory/emerit-faculty/all/dmerskin
https://animalsandmedia.org/
2025-09-0158 min
Radio Grave PodcastEpisode 21: The Legend of Sasquatch - They Are The LandIn our Sasquatch season finale, we tackle the complexities of Sasquatch's anglicization in non-Indigenous culture - examining how the appropriation and erasure of his sacred significance have fueled harmful stereotypes and perpetuated violence against Native communities... while also recognizing all the powerful ways these same communities are reclaiming what has always belonged to them - sharing their remarkable truth with the world with strength, generosity, and love.BECOME A PATRON - FOLLOW OUR INSTA - SUBSCRIBE ON YOUTUBEWE ARE LOOKING FOR LISTENER STORIES FOR THE END OF SEASON 2!If you have had anything strange or unexplained happen...
2024-11-281h 35
In Tune to Nature PodcastU.S. election postmortem expressing love to overlooked animals: Collective grieving and venting with Deb Merskin and Carrie FreemanI decided animals needed an election postmortem after being erased from the political and media agenda by self-centered anthropocentrism; so I wanted to use this media platform with my friend from Oregon, Dr. Debra Merskin, to collectively grieve, vent, and discuss how we really feel this week as animal rights activists, vegans, environmentalists, social justice advocates, human animal earthlings, and feminists who were excited to have America's first women president after 200+ years! While the show is hopeful and uplifting in parts, that was not actually my aim. I just wanted to get real in explaining my despair and my...
2024-11-1133 min
Critical Conversations32: Something To Squawk AboutUnderstanding what it means to be earthlings, animals and then humans is the center of this discussion with Debra Merskin and Carrie Freeman, animal rights activists and authors in the field. Non-human animals must have equal and proper representation in the media to both honor and respect, with accuracy, these other communities of species. In re-empowering the notion of animality, we are all someone, never something.Originally aired on August 10, 2021 on KPOV’s All Things VeganOur mission at KPOV is to strengthen community, the arts, local culture, and democracy through our independent, no...
2022-11-0146 min
In Tune to Nature PodcastCoyote Killing Contests: Transcending urban rural differences in debates over bans, with Dr. Debra MerskinCommunication Professor Dr. Debra Merskin discusses her study of arguments for and against a ban on Oregon's coyote killing contests, including her recommendations for animal advocates to use approaches that are more likely to resonate with the rural residents arguing to keep the killing contests (although, other rural residents and some hunters also believe these killing contests should be banned). This 27-minute interview, hosted by Carrie Freeman for "In Tune to Nature," from August 2022, is broad enough to be applicable to any state's efforts to ban wildlife killing contests in considering various people's worldviews on animals, government, and independence. Y...
2022-08-0926 min
Murmuring TigersLit & DisEase Series--Menstruation in Chinese and American CultureSummary by author Charlotte:
I believe that most of the female audiences of this podcast would remember when we hide ourselves in a narrow space to change our pads or tampons, to flush the evidence of menstruation away carefully and secretly like we are concealing some evidence of a crime. It is true that menstruation has always played a negative role in human history. Putting on a dialectical and contrastive lens, we are going to find what is menstruation in Chinese and American culture, which represent both Eastern and Western civilizations and what is people’s attitude toward...
2021-04-1410 min
In Tune to Nature PodcastNo animal should be called "it": AP journalism guidelines discussion with media experts Deb Merskin & Ana BradleyMedia Professor Dr. Debra Merskin and Sentient Media Executive Director Ana Bradley discuss a campaign (started by In Defense of Animals and supported by Jane Goodall and others) to encourage the Associated Press to update its journalism style guidelines to use pronouns like "they," "she," "he," or "he or she" to describe an individual animal, rather than calling him or her "it" (a word only fitting for an inanimate object). In this 26-minute podcast, we discuss the impact of media messages about fellow animals on our treatment of them and ways we can encourage the media to do better...
2021-04-1326 min