New Books Network
Animal Studies
SSEAC Stories February 18, 2021

Decolonising Conservation Practices and Research

Seeing the Orangutan in Borneo with Dr June Rubis

June Rubis

Hosted by Natali Pearson
Around the world, orangutans are widely recognised as an iconic species for environmental and wildlife conservation efforts. The rainforest in the Malaysian state of Sarawak is one of last remaining …

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Animal Studies February 17, 2021

Phallacy

Life Lessons from the Animal Penis

Emily Willingham

Hosted by Emily Anthes
The fallacy sold to many of us is that the penis signals dominance and power. But this wry and penetrating book reveals that in fact nature did not shape the …
Animal Studies February 5, 2021

A Plea for the Animals

The Moral, Philosophical, and Evolutionary Imperative to Treat All Beings with Compassion

Matthieu Ricard

Hosted by Mark Molloy
Today I talked to Matthieu Ricard about two books. The first is A Plea for the Animals: The Moral, Philosophical, and Evolutionary Imperative to Treat All Beings with Compassion (Shambhala, 2016) It is a …
SSEAC Stories January 28, 2021

Trading Birds of Paradise

A Brief History by Dr Jude Philp

Jude Philp

Hosted by Natali Pearson
Long praised for their splendid plumage, birds of paradise are a rare sight only to be found in the remote rainforests of New Guinea and associated islands. They are among …
Critical Theory January 28, 2021

Wages Against Artwork

Decommodified Labor and the Claims of Socially Engaged Art

Leigh Claire La Berge

Hosted by Pierre d'Alancaisez
The last twenty years have seen a rise in the production, circulation, and criticism of new forms of socially engaged art aimed at achieving social justice and economic equality.  Leigh …
Animal Studies January 28, 2021

Flight of the Diamond Smugglers

A Tale of Pigeons, Obsession, and Greed Along Coastal South Africa

Matthew Gavin Frank

Hosted by Emily Anthes
For nearly eighty years, a huge portion of coastal South Africa was closed off to the public. With many of its pits now deemed “overmined” and abandoned, American journalist Matthew …
Philosophy January 11, 2021

Wild Animal Ethics

The Moral and Political Problem of Wild Animal Suffering

Kyle Johannsen

Hosted by Carrie Figdor
Many sentient (or possibly sentient) wild animals follow a reproductive strategy whereby they have large numbers of offspring, the vast majority of which suffer and die quickly or suffer and …
Animal Studies January 5, 2021

Animal City

The Domestication of Urban America

Andrew A. Robichaud

Hosted by Akash Ondaatje
Americans once lived alongside animals. They raised them, worked them, ate them, and lived off their products. This was true not just in rural areas but also in cities, which …
Princeton UP Ideas Podcast January 4, 2021

Can we Bring Extinct Species Back?

A Conversation with Beth Shapiro

Beth Shapiro

Hosted by Marshall Poe
Could extinct species, like mammoths and passenger pigeons, be brought back to life? The science says yes. In How to Clone a Mammoth: The Science of De-Extinction (Princeton UP, 2020), Beth Shapiro …
Asian Review of Books December 24, 2020

Owls of the Eastern Ice

A Quest to Find and Save the World's Largest Owl

Jonathan C. Slaght

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
The Blakiston’s fish owl is the world’s largest living species of owl, with larger females of the species weighing as much as ten pounds. It lives in the Russian Far …
Animal Studies December 18, 2020

Shaving the Beasts

Wild Horses and Ritual in Spain

John Hartigan Jr.

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
Wild horses still roam the mountains of Galicia, Spain. But each year, in a ritual dating to the 1500s called rapa das bestas, villagers herd these “beasts” together and shave …
Indian Ocean World December 17, 2020

Animal Trade Histories in the Indian Ocean World

Martha Chaiklin, Philip Gooding, Gwyn Campbell

Hosted by Tamara Fernando
Animal Trade Histories in the Indian Ocean World (Palgrave MacMillan, 2020), edited by Martha Chaiklin, Philip Gooding, and Gwyn Campbell, examines trades in animals and animal products in the history of the …
Environmental Studies December 16, 2020

The Last Butterflies

A Scientist's Quest to Save a Rare and Vanishing Creature

Nick Haddad

Hosted by Rachel Pagones
Butterflies have long captivated the imagination of humans, from naturalists to children to poets. Indeed it would be hard to imagine a world without butterflies. And yet their populations are …
Science December 16, 2020

Turtle

Louise M. Pryke

Hosted by Bede Haines
As ancient creatures that once shared the Earth with dinosaurs, turtles have played a crucial role in maintaining healthy terrestrial and marine ecosystems for more than one hundred million years …
Animal Studies December 8, 2020

Thirty Times a Minute

Colleen Plumb

Hosted by Mark Molloy
Captive elephants exhibit what biologists refer to as stereotypy, which includes rhythmic rocking, head bobbing, stepping back and forth, and pacing. Colleen Plumb traveled to over seventy zoos in the …
Animal Studies December 3, 2020

Why Vegan?

Eating Ethically

Peter Singer

Hosted by Mark Molloy
Even before the publication of his seminal Animal Liberation in 1975, Peter Singer, one of the greatest moral philosophers of our time, unflinchingly challenged the ethics of eating animals. Now …
Animal Studies November 27, 2020

Animal Traffic

Lively Capital in the Global Exotic Pet Trade

Rosemary-Claire Collard

Hosted by Mark Molloy
Parrots and snakes, wild cats and monkeys---exotic pets can now be found everywhere from skyscraper apartments and fenced suburban backyards to roadside petting zoos. In Animal Traffic: Lively Capital in …
Animal Studies November 24, 2020

An Unnatural Order

The Roots of Our Destruction of Nature

Jim Mason

Hosted by Mark Molloy
First published by Simon & Schuster in 1993 and then by Continuum in 1998, Jim Mason’s An Unnatural Order: The Roots of Our Destruction of Nature has become a classic …
Animal Studies November 17, 2020

Insect Artifice

Nature and Art in the Dutch Revolt

Marisa Anne Bass

Hosted by Akash Ondaatje
In Insect Artifice: Nature and Art in the Dutch Revolt (Princeton UP, 2019) Marissa Anne Bass explores the moment when the seismic forces of the Dutch Revolt wreaked havoc on …
Animal Studies November 13, 2020

The Lives and Deaths of Shelter Animals

Katja M. Guenther

Hosted by Mark Molloy
Monster is an adult pit bull, muscular and grey, who is impounded in a large animal shelter in Los Angeles. Like many other dogs at the shelter, Monster is associated …