The Animal Highlight – Details, episodes & analysis

The last episode of Season 4 is a review of the season “Animals and Waste.” Herre de Bondt, Rebecca Shen, and Claudia Hirtenfelder touch on some of the common themes to emerge in the season. These include how animals are valued as well as the mobility and accumulation of waste. 

Recorded: 14 August 2024. 

Herre de Bondt has done research on rats in Amsterdam, crows in Tokyo, and gulls in The Hague. His work has now brought him to London where his PhD project is concerned with urban bird feeding practices. From hanging up fatballs for chirpy robins to tossing seed to flocks of ‘flying rats’, Herre is determined to investigate the inherently multispecies practice of bird feeding. He is particularly interested in the ways non-human animals inform and shape the contemporary city in collaboration with – and in defiance of – humans. You can connect with Herre via Twitter (@HerreBondt). 

Rebecca Shen is a landscape designer and researcher as well as an Assistant Content Producer and Designer at The Animal Turn. Rebecca is inspired by design as pursuits of worldmaking, especially to advance interspecies justice and collectivity during times of challenge. She graduated with a Master in Landscape Architecture at Harvard Graduate School of Design in 2023, where she completed her design thesis, Sanctuary State: California’s Cowscape in Transition, which envisions the transformation of an 800-acre industrial “cattle” feedlot into a cow sanctuary, a site for interspecies confrontation, healing, and codesigning. Through her design work, Rebecca explores human-animal relationships in the built environment, ecological restoration, and regenerative food systems. You can find out more about Rebecca on her website or connect with her via email at beccshen@gmail.com. 

Credits:

• Claudia Hirtenfelder, executive producer and host 
• Herre de Bondt, co-host and co-editor
• Christiaan Mentz, sound editor and producer 
• Rebecca Shen, content producer and designer (logo and episode artwork)
• Gordon Clarke, bed music composer
• Learn more about the team here. 

Support the podcast via: 

• Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/join/TheAnimalTurn 
• Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/theanimalturn 
• Buzzsprout: https://theanimalturn.buzzsprout.com/ 

Send us a text

Support the show

The Animal Highlight is a spinoff and sister podcast to the award winning show, the Animal Turn Podcast.

Connect with us on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

In this Highlight, Herre looks at how nuclear waste has impacted the lives of wild boars living in Japan. More specifically, he discusses how, following the 2011 triple disaster, boars responded to the departure of humans from the Fukushima area and how the animals are being impacted by their slow return.  

Recorded: 15 May 2024. 

 Featured: 

• Evaluation of DNA damage and stress in wildlife chronically exposed to low-dose, low-dose rate radiation from the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant accident by Kelly Cunningham et al.
• Fukushima Daiichi Accident on The World Nuclear Association. 
• Rewilding of Fukushima's human evacuation zone by Phillip C Lyons et al. 
• Disproportionately High Contributions of 60 Year Old Weapons-137Cs Explain the Persistence of Radioactive Contamination in Bavarian Wild Boars by Felix Stäger et al. 
• Radioactive Boars in Fukushima Thwart Residents’ Plans to Return Home on The New York Times. 
• The dogs of Chernobyl: Demographic insights into populations inhabiting the nuclear exclusion zone by Gabriella J. Spatola et al. 
• Rare look at the wildlife thriving in North Korea's DMZ on The Natural History Museum. 

Credits:

• Claudia Hirtenfelder, executive producer and host 
• Herre de Bondt, co-host and co-editor
• Christiaan Mentz, sound editor and producer 
• Rebecca Shen, content producer and designer (logo and episode artwork)
• Gordon Clarke, bed music composer
• Learn more about the team here. 

Support the podcast via: 

• Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/join/TheAnimalTurn 
• Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/theanimalturn 
• Buzzsprout: https://theanimalturn.buzzsprout.com/ 

Send us a text

Support the show

The Animal Highlight is a spinoff and sister podcast to the award winning show, the Animal Turn Podcast.

Connect with us on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

 In this episode Amanda unpacks how brown bears in Ukraine and grizzly bears in Canada have been impacted by conflict and war. This content was originally aired in Season 5 of The Animal Turn Podcast. 

Featured: 

• Bear by Robert E. Bieder 
• How are endangered bears escaping the Russian invasion of Ukraine? By Ben Anthony on Euro News. 
• Ukraine War: Situation and Support for Animals by Four Paws. 
• Bear Sanctuary Domazhyr 
• Grizzly Times Podcast. 
• Convergent geographic patterns between grizzly bear population genetic structure and Indigenous language groups in coastal British Columbia by Lauren H. Henson et al. 
• How Indigenous knowledge is helping to protect Canada’s grizzlies by Chloe Berge on The National Geographic. 
• How to Decolonize Conservation by Erica Gies in Hakai Magazine. 
• Decolonization is not a Metaphor by Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang 
• The Controversial Ski Resort that Will Never Exist by Megan Michelson. 
•  Qat’muk by Ktunaxa Nation 

Credits: 

• Claudia Hirtenfelder, producer and host 
• Amanda Bunten-Walberg, co-host 
• Christiaan Mentz, sound editor and producer 
• Rebecca Shen, content producer and designer (logo and episode artwork) 
• Gordon Clarke, bed music

Send us a text

Support the show

The Animal Highlight is a spinoff and sister podcast to the award winning show, the Animal Turn Podcast.

Connect with us on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

Salmon are increasingly intensively farmed and implicated in biosecurity concerns, but they are also animals with amazing biological and social worlds who can achieve incredible feats pf strength and navigation. This content was originally aired in Season 5 of The Animal Turn Podcast.

 Featured: 

• Politics of Domestication with Chi Mao Wang on The Animal Turn.
• Shoalmates with Jonathan Balcombe on The Animal Turn. 
• What a Fish Knows by Jonathan Balcombe
• Super Fly by Jonathan Balcombe
• Kontihnawa:ra: Atlantic Salmon on Stones 
• Salmon: A Fish, the Earth, and the History of Their Common Fate by Mark Kurlansky 
• Collective Navigation can Facilitate Passage Through Human-Made Barriers by Homeward Migrating Pacific Salmon by Connie Okasaki et al 
• Breeding with Farmed Fish is Changing the Life Cycle of Wild Salmon by Adam Vaughan
• Seaspiracy

Credits:

• Claudia Hirtenfelder, producer and host 
• Amanda Bunten-Walberg, co-host
• Christiaan Mentz, sound editor and producer 
• Rebecca Shen, content producer and designer (logo and episode artwork)
• Gordon Clarke, bed music composer
• Learn more about the team here. 

Support the podcast via: 

• Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/join/TheAnimalTurn 
• Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/theanimalturn 
• Buzzsprout: https://theanimalturn.buzzsprout.com/ 

Sponsor:

Thank you to the sponsors of the fifth season of The A

Send us a text

Support the show

The Animal Highlight is a spinoff and sister podcast to the award winning show, the Animal Turn Podcast.

Connect with us on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

Amanda Bunten-Wahlberg considers the Lily and Lizzie, two pigs who were rescued from Smithfield farms and subsequently caught in the middle of a biosecurity drama. This content was originally aired in Season 5 of The Animal Turn Podcast.

 Featured: 

• Animal Farm Activism with Camille Labchuk on The Animal Turn.
• Luvin Arms Sanctuary
• The Whole Hog: Exploring the Extraordinary Potential of Pigsby Lyall Watson.
• Thinking Pigs: A Comparative Review of Cognition, Emotion, and Personality in Sus domesticus by Lori Marino and Christina M Colvin.  
• Baby Pig Saved from Factory Farm is so Spoiled Now by Claire Elizabeth Alberts 
• Activists Acquitted in Trial for Taking Piglets from Smithfield Foods by Marina Bolotnikova 
• The Smithfield Piglet Case: Factory Farms and Civil Disobedience by Rachel Robison-Greene 

Credits:

• Claudia Hirtenfelder, producer and host 
• Amanda Bunten-Walberg, co-host
• Christiaan Mentz, sound editor and producer 
• Rebecca Shen, content producer and designer (logo and episode artwork)
• Gordon Clarke, bed music composer
• Learn more about the team here. 

 
Support the podcast via: 

• Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/join/TheAnimalTurn 
• Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/theanimalturn 
• Buzzsprout: https://theanimalturn.buzzsprout.com/ 

Sponsor:

Thank you to the sponsors of the fifth season of The Animal Turn podcast, “Animals and Biosecurity,” where this animal highlight was originally ai

Send us a text

Support the show

The Animal Highlight is a spinoff and sister podcast to the award winning show, the Animal Turn Podcast.

Connect with us on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

In this animal highlight Amanda talks about one of the most tested on animals in the world, rats. She discusses how rats have been used in labs and the standardization of their experiences. She contrasts that with the rich lifeworlds of rats who live freely and in multispecies communities. This content was originally aired in Season 5 of The Animal Turn Podcast.

 Featured: 

• Epidemiological Dividual with Christs Lynteris on The Animal Turn.
• Animal Testing and its Alternatives with Thomas Hartung on The Animal Turn. 
• Pleasurable Kingdomby Jonthan Balcombe 
• Rat by Jonathan Burt. 
• Rats! Being Social Requires Empathy by Leesa Fawcett.
• Lady Bird Animal Sanctuary 
• Pests in the Cityby Dawn Day Biehler

Credits:

• Claudia Hirtenfelder, producer and host 
• Amanda Bunten-Walberg, co-host
• Christiaan Mentz, sound editor and producer 
• Rebecca Shen, content producer and designer (logo and episode artwork)
• Gordon Clarke, bed music composer
• Learn more about the team here. 

Support the podcast via: 

• Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/join/TheAnimalTurn 
• Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/theanimalturn 
• Buzzsprout: https://theanimalturn.buzzsprout.com/ 

Sponsor:

Thank you to the sponsors of the fifth season of The Animal Turn podcast, “Animals and Biosecurity,” where this animal highlight was originally aired 5 October 2022. They are: 

Send us a text

Support the show

The Animal Highlight is a spinoff and sister podcast to the award winning show, the Animal Turn Podcast.

Connect with us on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

In this episode Amanda Bunten-Walberg gives details into the diversity of mosquito worlds, meals, and physiologies. She focuses on mosquitos who rely on blood to live, unpacking some of the strategies and tactics they use to secure a meal. This content was originally aired in Season 5 of The Animal Turn Podcast.

 Featured: 

• Epidemiological Dividual with Christs Lynteris on The Animal Turn.
• Superfly: The Unexpected Lives of the World’s Most Successful Insectsby Jonthan Balcombe 
• Mosquitoby Richard Jones. 
• Mosquitos sound clips from Free Sound (662969) and Pixabay (105770)

Credits:

• Claudia Hirtenfelder, producer and host 
• Amanda Bunten-Walberg, co-host
• Christiaan Mentz, sound editor and producer 
• Rebecca Shen, content producer and designer (logo and episode artwork)
• Gordon Clarke, bed music composer
• Learn more about the team here. 

Support the podcast via: 

• Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/join/TheAnimalTurn 
• Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/theanimalturn 
• Buzzsprout: https://theanimalturn.buzzsprout.com/ 

Sponsor:

Thank you to the sponsors of the fifth season of The Animal Turn podcast, “Animals and Biosecurity,” where this animal highlight was originally aired 29 September 2022. They are: 

Send us a text

Support the show

The Animal Highlight is a spinoff and sister podcast to the award winning show, the Animal Turn Podcast.

Connect with us on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

Amanda Bunten-Walberg tells us about the incredible diversity of crabs as well as some of their social and physiological characteristics. She focuses on the Green Crab, a species whose adaptability has often also meant they are labelled as invasive. This content was originally aired in Season 5 of The Animal Turn Podcast.

 Featured: 

• Feral and Invasive Species with Lauren van Patter on The Animal Turn.
• Crabby Cynthia Chris.
• Crabs: A Global Natural History by Peter Davie.

Credits:

• Claudia Hirtenfelder, producer and host 
• Amanda Bunten-Walberg, co-host
• Christiaan Mentz, sound editor and producer 
• Rebecca Shen, content producer and designer (logo and episode artwork)
• Gordon Clarke, bed music composer
• Learn more about the team here. 

Support the podcast via: 

• Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/join/TheAnimalTurn 
• Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/theanimalturn 
• Buzzsprout: https://theanimalturn.buzzsprout.com/ 

Sponsor:

Thank you to the sponsors of the fifth season of The Animal Turn podcast, “Animals and Biosecurity,” where this animal highlight was originally aired 31 October 2022. They are: 

Send us a text

Support the show

The Animal Highlight is a spinoff and sister podcast to the award winning show, the Animal Turn Podcast.

Connect with us on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

In this episode Amanda Bunten-Walberg tells Claudia all about bats, animals who have historically been persecuted as threats to biosecurity. Hoping to challenge this reductive way of understanding bats, Amanda talks about flying foxes, large fruit bats, noting how incredibly social and relatable they are. This content was originally aired in Season 5 of The Animal Turn Podcast.

 Featured: 

• Bioethics with Jeff Sebo on The Animal Turn.
• Shimmer: Flying Fox Exuberance in Worlds of Peril by Deborah Bird Rose 
• Bat by Tessa Laird.

Credits:

• Claudia Hirtenfelder, producer and host 
• Amanda Bunten-Walberg, co-host
• Christiaan Mentz, sound editor and producer 
• Rebecca Shen, content producer and designer (logo and episode artwork)
• Gordon Clarke, bed music composer
• Learn more about the team here. 

Support the podcast via: 

• Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/join/TheAnimalTurn 
• Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/theanimalturn 
• Buzzsprout: https://theanimalturn.buzzsprout.com/ 

Sponsor:

Thank you to the sponsors of the fifth season of The Animal Turn podcast, “Animals and Biosecurity,” where this animal highlight was originally aired 16 August 2022. They are: 

Send us a text

Support the show

The Animal Highlight is a spinoff and sister podcast to the award winning show, the Animal Turn Podcast.

Connect with us on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

Amanda Bunten-Walberg joins Claudia to discuss animals and biosecurity. In the first episode of the season she talks about turkeys, animals who are often implicated in biosecurity threats but who – when given the opportunity – live richly textured lives. This content was originally aired in Season 5 of The Animal Turn Podcast.

 Featured: 

• Sonic Specimen with Rachel Mundy on The Animal Turn.
• More than a Meal by Karen Davis
• The Secret Lives of Turkeys by Alan Krakauer
• The Wild Turkey by A.W. Schorger
• VINE Sanctuary 
• Facebook post about Mama-T 

Credits:

• Claudia Hirtenfelder, producer and host 
• Amanda Bunten-Walberg, co-host
• Christiaan Mentz, sound editor and producer 
• Rebecca Shen, content producer and designer (logo and episode artwork)
• Gordon Clarke, bed music composer
• Learn more about the team here. 

Support the podcast via: 

• Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/join/TheAnimalTurn 
• Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/theanimalturn 
• Buzzsprout: https://theanimalturn.buzzsprout.com/ 

Sponsor:

Thank you to the sponsors of the fifth season of The Animal Turn podcast, “Animals and Biosecurity,” where this animal highlight was originally aired 21 September 2022. They are:

Send us a text

Support the show

The Animal Highlight is a spinoff and sister podcast to the award winning show, the Animal Turn Podcast.

Connect with us on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook.