We explore how Stranger Things signals a new monstrous moment, moving from unknowable creatures to human-made villains, and what that shift says about power, identity, and culture. Along the way, we ask how animals get coded as monsters and when their agency is reclaimed or removed in film and TV.

Date Recorded: 22 April 2025

 

Featured: 

• Tolerance Discourse and Young Adult Holocaust Literatureby Rachel Dean-Ruzicka 
• Paranormal Maturation: Uncanny Teenagers and Canny Killers by Rachel Dean-Ruzicka 
• Of Scrivens and Sparks: Girl Geniuses in Young Adult Dystopian Fiction by Rachel Dean-Ruzicka 
• Monster Culture (Seven Theses) by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen
• The Monster Theory Reader by  Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock
• The Angel of Indian Lake by  Stephen Graham Jones
• Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer
• Stranger Things
• Cocaine Bear
• Mickey 17
• Okja
• Random Number Generator Horror Podcast No. 9
• Nature Trail to Hell
• Monsters, Heroes, and Others: Unpacking Power in Media and Politics through Race or Species

A.P.P.L.E
Animals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.

iROAR Network
iROAR brings together podcasts that aim is to make the world a better place for animals.

Georgia Institute of Technology
School of Modern Language, Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, School of Literature, Media, & Commun

Pollination Project
The Pollination Project empowers volunteers across by providing the funding they need.

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The Animal Turn is hosted and produced by Claudia Hirtenfelder and is part of the iROAR Network. Learn more on our website.

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