Sentient Planet – Details, episodes & analysis

Guests Kate McIntyre Clere and Mick McIntyre come on the show to discuss a difficult topic – the commercial killing of wild kangaroos and their joeys.

Kate and Mick are an Aussie filmmaking duo with Second Nature Films. Back in 2018, they released a shocking and damning expose about Australia's secretive kangaroo killings – the largest land slaughter of wildlife that happens anywhere on the planet.

In this interview, they talk about progress being made to end this inhumane industry since the release of their film, Kangaroo: A Love-Hate Story. It needs to happen soon, before the slow-breeding kangaroo is pushed to extinction. The U.S. and Europe are the two main markets for kangaroo meat and skins, although most consumers don't realize their products are made from this beloved global icon.

Calls to Action

1. Watch Kate and Mick's informative film, Kangaroo: A Love-Hate Story.
2. Boycott kangaroo meat and skin products, especially prevalent as "exotic" meat and in pet foods and footwear in the United States.
3. Support the new non-profit organization Kangaroos Alive. You can also follow @kangaroosalive to stay abreast of promising efforts to ban kangaroo products in the European Union.

That’s a wrap for Season 3. Our Sentient Planet team thanks you so much for listening and supporting the podcast on Patreon. Most importantly, we are grateful for the actions you take on behalf of the humans who fight so hard to end the suffering of non-human animals. The best place to find our suggested Calls to Action is in each podcast's show notes.



We'll be back in a few weeks with a new season about how we can live in harmony with the incredible sentient beings with whom we share the Earth. It's an endless topic!

Credits

Sentient Planet is an independent production created on the traditional land of the Nisqually Tribe in the Pacific Northwest, USA. Please consider supporting our work on Patreon. Thank you!

Intro music: "The Spaces Between" by Scott Buckley.

Interstitial music: "The Divine Cosmos" by Stellardrone.

If you've ever thought about rescuing and providing sanctuary to an animal in need, this episode is for you!

Guests Kate Tsyrklevich and Hope Hilman run Heartwood Haven, a popular microsanctuary for farmed animals in Gig Harbor, Washington, USA. Pigs and roosters are their preferred rescues. Many of the hundreds they've saved come from appalling conditions, including cockfighting busts. Unfortunately, the cruel and illicit multi-billion-dollar cockfighting industry operates underground in neighborhoods throughout the United States.

Roosters and pigs are highly sociable and charismatic non-human animals who can thankfully recover and live healthy lives when removed from abusive and traumatic situations. Microsanctuaries such as Heartwood Haven are springing up across the world to reset public misconceptions about these and other farmed animals, whose lives are just as worthy as our much-revered dogs and cats.

• Kate and Hope have kicked off a "Valen-Swine's" fundraising campaign to raise the monies needed for a new barn for their smaller pigs.

• They have a significant social media following you can join @heartwoodhaven.
• Coming to Washington State? You can book a tour of Heartwood Haven here.
• Cockfighting is a felony in most states and countries. Help end it by contacting local law enforcement If you suspect this activity is occurring in your community.

Sentient Planet is an independent production created on the traditional land of the Nisqually Tribe in the Pacific Northwest, USA. Please consider supporting our work on Patreon. Thank you!

Intro music: "The Spaces Between" by Scott Buckley.

Interstitial music: "Ascent" by Stellardrone.

This bonus episode, exclusive to Sentient Planet listeners, accompanies our Season 2 episode, "Living Through Fire with Danielle Celermajer."

Dany reads "The Face," a short chapter from Summertime: Reflections on a Vanishing Future (Penguin Books Australia 2021). Her brave and unflinching account of animal sentience beseeches us to wake up and face up to the climate crisis and the torture and death it is already wreaking upon the Earth’s multitude of lifeforms.

We dedicate this reading to Katy, Dany's beloved pig, who perished in the Black Summer bushfires of 2019-20.

This week's guest is the profound Australian author, Professor Danielle Celermajer. Dany is a philosopher, the director of the Multispecies Justice Project at the University of Sydney, and the author of Summertime: Reflections on a Vanishing Future (Penguin Books Australia 2021).

Dany started writing Summertime in situ during the peak of the Black Summer Climate Fires that decimated Australia in 2019-20. Through her book, she attempts to honor the voices and emotions of the wild and domestic animals who experienced the Great Fires - beings, she says, who are just as terrified and bewildered by the changes occurring on Earth as we humans.

In our interview, Dany bravely relives what it was like to encounter the fires, which raged for months, as she unravels and beautifully articulates some of its most valuable lessons - especially the deep love many of us feel for who and what we are losing.

She begs us to see that animals are knowing individuals. And she helps us understand that human survival hinges on choosing the more difficult of two paths - the one in which we become fully responsible to the other species who live amongst us.

Be sure to listen to the related bonus episode. Dany reads a short chapter of Summertime exclusively for Sentient Planet listeners.

Calls to Action:

• Follow Dany's work by signing up for the Sydney Environment Institute's monthly newsletter.
• Support these Australian organizations, which are doing critical work on animal advocacy and climate change:
• Animals Australia
• Greenpeace Australia
• The Green Institute.
• Get involved in the worldwide movement to divest from the fossil fuel industry:
• Go Fossil Free
• Climate Council (Australia)
• Australia Institute
• Fossil Fuel Australia

Intro music: "The Spaces Between" by Scott Buckley.

Interstitial music: "Twilight" by Stellardrone.

On the topic of non-human animal sentience, Carl Safina is one of the most experienced observers and gifted communicators in the world.

The renowned ecologist turned bestselling author has penned 10 books about our human relationship to nature and her myriad species. For example, in Becoming Wild: How Animal Cultures Raise Families, Create Beauty, and Achieve Peace (Macmillion 2020), Carl offers a form of deep Earth journalism that brings readers up close to the rituals and activities of beings with whom we share the Earth but rarely personally encounter. His writing is breathtaking, instilling the kind of awe humans must rekindle if we are to halt further damage to our animal kin and the natural systems that support life on Earth.

In this interview, Carl shares some of the remarkable encounters he’s been privileged to experience, with elephants, sperm whales, chimpanzees and owls, as well as the beloved animals that began it all for him – seabirds. He warns us of the consequences of the mistakes we’re making, teaches us about the living beauty that persists, and calls us to moral action.

More: Carl is the first Endowed Professor for Nature and Humanity at Stony Brook University and founder of the not-for-profit Safina Center. He is the recipient of countless awards, including a 2021 Legacy Award from Defenders of Wildlife (USA) that recognizes his decades of advocating for the preservation of biodiversity. His writing about the living world has won a MacArthur “genius” prize, Pew, and Guggenheim Fellowships; book awards from Lannan, Orion, and the National Academies; and the John Burroughs, James Beard, and George Rabb medals.

Intro music: "The Spaces Between" by Scott Buckley.

Interstitial music: "Cosmic Sunrise" by Stellardrone.

Photo: The Safina Center.

This bonus episode, exclusive to Sentient Planet listeners, accompanies our Season 2 episode "The Long Road to Liberation with Jo-Anne McArthur."

Jo talks about the award-winning photo collection, "HIDDEN: Animals in the Anthropocene," and she reads a short and ancient Buddhist prayer for the liberation of all animals, including we humans.

Photo courtesy Lisa MacIntosh/We Animals Media.

We're honored to launch Season 2 with this guest, the acclaimed animal photojournalist, author, humane educator and founder of We Animals Media, Jo-Anne McArthur.

Perhaps no human has done more to bring the suffering of our animal kin into the light. For more than 20 years, across more than 60 countries, Jo has documented the truth of what happens to billions of animals in some of the darkest places on the planet.

In this wide-ranging conversation, she describes We Animals' unfailing focus on the industries that perpetrate and perpetuate the most suffering, especially factory farms. She talks about the resilience required to continue her confronting work, how a new genre of "animal photojournalism" is inspiring the next generation of artist-advocates, and what each of us can do to create more just conditions for the domestic and wild species with whom we share the Earth.

Be sure to look for our bonus episode! Jo recites an ancient Buddhist prayer for the liberation of all beings, including we humans.

More: Jo's courageous lifework has won her numerous awards, including Nature Photographer of the Year 2020 for her iconic image of a kangaroo and her joey against the backdrop of a burnt eucalyptus forest - survivors of the Black Summer Climate Fires that ravaged Australia.

In addition, We Animals' urgent and unprecedented new photo collection, HIDDEN: Animals in the Anthropocene, recently won Photography Book of the Year by Pictures of the Year International and the Gold Medal for Outstanding Book of the Year - Most Likely to Save the Planet by Independent Publisher. "Hidden" includes a foreword by the Academy Award-winning actor and animal rights activist, Joaquin Phoenix.

Calls to action:

• We're excited to partner with Jo to give one of our listeners a signed copy of "Hidden." Follow us on Instagram or Facebook and look for instructions on how you can win.
• Follow and support Jo and We Animals.
• If you're a student or educator, discover courses and resources in humane education here. (If you're in Canada, go here.)
• Reduce your consumption of animal products, or transition to a fully plant-based diet!
• Look for animal causes you can support in your local community.
• Consider supporting Sentient Planet on Patreon for just a few dollars a month.

Intro music: "The Spaces Between" by Scott Buckley.

Interstitial music: "Eternity" by Stellardrone.

Photo: Josee Van Wissen/We Animals Media.

In our last episode for Season 1, Amy Souers Kober, of American Rivers, talks about the rising global movement to restore free-flowing river ecosystems, upon which so much sentient life depends.

We discuss the benefits of removing the thousands of dams that still crisscross North America. Right now, there is a groundswell of support to breach four dams on the lower Snake River to save salmon and the Southern Resident Orca from extinction. It’s a once-in-a-generation opportunity, Amy says, one that requires immediate action and funding from the Biden Administration or U.S. Congress.

Call to Action: Join growing calls to breach the lower Snake River dams here.

Intro music: "The Spaces Between," by Scott Buckley.

Interstitial music: "Between the Rings," by Stellardrone.

Thank you for listening and supporting Sentient Planet and its message. See you next season!

How are koalas faring after the great climate fires that bore down on Australia in 2019-20? One of the best people to ask is Cate Faehrmann, Member of Parliament for the New South Wales Greens Party.

Also an environmental activist, Cate chaired a recent parliamentary inquiry into the status of koalas in New South Wales, where the population is quickly dwindling. In this episode, we get down to business to discuss exactly what the inquiry found and the failings of government to protect this iconic but fragile species from spiraling into extinction on our watch.

Calls to Action: Don't wait for government – bringing the koala back before it's too late depends on everyone who cares about animal existence on planet Earth.

1. Join Cate's crusade at saveourkoalas.org, where you take actions and get educated on the threats and what we must do to protect precious koala habitat.
2. Educate others! We can solve this.
3. Support Friends of the Koala and other dedicated volunteer organizations that care for sick and injured koalas.

More on the koala coming in Season 2 of Sentient Planet!

Intro music: "The Spaces Between" by Scott Buckley.

Interstitial music: "Heart" by Daniel Birch.

This week, we switch hemispheres and head Down Under for an out-of-the-ordinary conversation with the Australian indigenous writer, academic and traditional wood carver Tyson Yunkaporta.

Tyson reflects on the dominant global order behind our current crises and the havoc it's wreaking upon animals and all life. We're caught up in an unstoppable race, he argues. Will man-made economic systems or the planet's natural ones collapse first? And can we humans recover our rightful role as custodians of the Earth's sentient beings and all creation?

To explore even more deeply, you might want to pick up a copy of Tyson's paradigm-shifting book, "Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World," published by HarperOne, 2020.

Intro music: "The Spaces Between" by Scott Buckley.

Interstitial music: "Rendezvous with Rama" by Stellardrone.

Photo: James Henry.