New Books Network
Animal Studies
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 …

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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 …
Eastern European Studies November 3, 2020

Communist Pigs

An Animal History of East Germany's Rise and Fall

Thomas Fleischman

Hosted by Steven Seegel
The pig played a fundamental role in the German Democratic Republic's attempts to create and sustain a modern, industrial food system built on communist principles. By the mid-1980s, East Germany …
Animal Studies November 3, 2020

The Animals' Agenda

Freedom, Compassion, and Coexistence in the Human Age

Marc Bekoff and Jessica Pierce

Hosted by Mark Molloy
A compelling argument that the time has come to use what we know about the fascinating and diverse inner lives of other animals on their behalf. Every day we are …
Animal Studies October 30, 2020

Animalkind

Remarkable Discoveries about Animals and Revolutionary New Ways to Show Them Compassion

Ingrid Newkirk and Gene Stone

Hosted by Mark Molloy
The founder and president of PETA, Ingrid Newkirk, and bestselling author Gene Stone explore the wonders of animal life and offer tools for living more kindly toward them. In the …
Animal Studies October 23, 2020

A Dog Pissing at the Edge of a Path

Animal Metaphors in an Eastern Indonesian Society

Gregory Forth

Hosted by Akash Ondaatje
Gregory Forth, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of Alberta and Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, has studied the Nage people of the eastern Indonesian island of …
Animal Studies October 13, 2020

A Traitor to His Species

Henry Bergh and the Birth of the Animal Rights Movement

Ernest Freeberg

Hosted by Mark Molloy
In Gilded Age America, people and animals lived cheek-by-jowl in environments that were dirty and dangerous to man and animal alike. The industrial city brought suffering, but it also inspired …
Animal Studies October 1, 2020

Mama's Last Hug

Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us about Ourselves

Frans de Waal

Hosted by Mark Molloy
Mama's Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us about Ourselves (W. W. Norton & Company) is a fascinating exploration of the rich emotional lives of animals, beginning with …