Storytelling Animals

With a new Lord of the Rings television series out, I thought it was high time to explore the powerful environmental themes of Middle-Earth. Alongisde Tolkien expert Tom Emanuel, I dig deep into Treebeard, Tom Bombadil, power's corrupting force, and finding courage to resist in the face of overwhelming odds. We also briefly give our takes on the first two episodes of The Rings of Power. Whether you have multiple dogeared copies of The Silmarillion or you only vaguely remember the movies, my hope is this podcast helps give you a fresh perspective on the fantasy epic.

Follow the Rev. Tom Emanuel on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RealTomEmanuel

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Learn more about our upcoming book club schedule, including how to get 50% off our October book White Skin, Black Fuel: On the Danger of Fossil Fascism by Andreas Malm and the Zetkin Collective: https://daytonmartindale.com/book-club/

Follow this podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DaytonRMartind

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Thanks to composer Howard Shore for inspiring a new riff on my theme song.

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This week's guest is Ron Broglio, English professor at Arizona State University and author of the book Animal Revolution. We talk about the myriad ways in which nonhuman creatures through sand in the gears of the capitalist machine, and how we might respond to better share the earth.

Learn more about the book here: https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/animal-revolution

Listen to my prior interview with Matt Bell, who Broglio discusses in today's episode: https://play.acast.com/s/storytelling-animals/appleseed-matt-bell-climate-fiction-geoengineering-wonder

Subscribe to the free weekly Storytelling Animals newsletter: https://apple6.aweb.page/p/de4ee963-cd8d-4ced-9975-e13965236a7d

Support this podcast with a monthly donation on Patreon: https://patreon.com/storytellingpod

Learn more about our upcoming book club schedule, including how to get 50% off our October book White Skin, Black Fuel: On the Danger of Fossil Fascism by Andreas Malm and the Zetkin Collective: https://daytonmartindale.com/book-club/

Follow this podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DaytonRMartind

Like this podcast on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Storytelling-Animals-105986165338395

Learn more about the iROAR podcast network, to which Storytelling Animals newly belongs, here: https://iroarpod.com/

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The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the biggest climate legislation in US history, just passed Congress. What is the good, the bad, and the ugly of the bill? How did we get here, and what is next for the climate movement? I spoke with Johanna Bozuwa, executive director of the Climate and Community Project (CCP).

Read the CCP's analysis of the IRA here: https://www.climateandcommunity.org/inflation-reduction-act

Subscribe to the free weekly Storytelling Animals newsletter: https://apple6.aweb.page/p/de4ee963-cd8d-4ced-9975-e13965236a7d

Support this podcast with a monthly donation on Patreon: https://patreon.com/storytellingpod

Join our next book club on Indigenous environmental justice: https://daytonmartindale.com/book-club/

Two reviews of As Long as Grass Grows: https://progressive.org/magazine/when-grass-stops-growing-tempus/ and https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/no-savior-on-the-horizon-native-peoples-fight-for-environmental-and-cultural-protection/

Follow this podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DaytonRMartind

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Today's guests are philosophers Alice Crary and Lori Gruen, authors of the new book Animal Crisis: A New Critical Theory. In it, they argue that the dominant approaches to animal ethics--whether utilitarian or rights-based-- treat animals too much as abstractions and often fail to engage with the political, economic, and social systems that sustain oppression among humans and other creatures alike. To grow an alternative, they believe, we must pay more attention to our relationships and learn new ways of seeing.

Learn more about the book here: https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=animal-crisis-a-new-critical-theory--9781509549672

Read an excerpt: bostonreview.net/articles/the-animal-crisis-is-a-human-crisis/

Subscribe to the free weekly Storytelling Animals newsletter: https://apple6.aweb.page/p/de4ee963-cd8d-4ced-9975-e13965236a7d

Join our next book club on Indigenous environmental justice: https://daytonmartindale.com/book-club/

Support this podcast with a monthly donation on Patreon: https://patreon.com/storytellingpod

Follow this podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DaytonRMartind

Like this podcast on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Storytelling-Animals-105986165338395

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Am I conscious? Yes. How about you, or a chimpanzee or a parrot? Almost definitely. What about an oak tree, a bacterium, an electron, or God? In The Book of Minds: How To Understand Ourselves and Other Beings, From Animals to AI to Aliens, science writer Philip Ball explores the minds or mind-like qualities that seem to exist in the world, and how best to make sense of it all when the science of subjective experience remains so uncertain. He joined me for this episode to discuss the book, the evolution of nervous systems, and the difference between animals and a Roomba.

Learn more about the book here: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/B/bo180760293.html

Follow Philip on Twitter: https://twitter.com/philipcball

Subscribe to the free weekly Storytelling Animals newsletter: https://apple6.aweb.page/p/de4ee963-cd8d-4ced-9975-e13965236a7d

Join our next book club on indigenous environmental resistance: https://daytonmartindale.com/book-club/

Support this podcast with a monthly donation on Patreon: https://patreon.com/storytellingpod

Follow this podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DaytonRMartind

Like this podcast on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Storytelling-Animals-105986165338395

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In T.C.Boyle's 2021 novel Talk To Me, one of the main characters is a chimpanzee. It's a fascinating study in how humans respond to other apes, and an ambitious experiment in imagining what it might be like to be one. Using the novel as a starting point, in this solo episode I explore whether learning to love chimpanzees can help break down the human/animal divide, and how Boyle's portrayal of Sam the chimpanzee differs from other novels about animals. I also draw on Amitav Ghosh's The Nutmeg's Curse to argue for the importance of giving voice to nonhuman characters in fiction, and the unique role stories are able to play.

Learn more about Talk to Me here: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/talk-to-me-tc-boyle

Learn more about The Nutmeg's Curse: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/N/bo125517349.html

Read an excerpt of The Nutmeg's Curse on brutes and storytelling animals (how this podcast got its name): https://orionmagazine.org/article/brutes/

Read the essay I mentioned on orangutans: http://newsocialist.org.uk/red-apes/

Join our next book club on The Ministry for the Future: https://daytonmartindale.com/book-club/

Subscribe to the free weekly Storytelling Animals newsletter: https://apple6.aweb.page/p/de4ee963-cd8d-4ced-9975-e13965236a7d

Support this podcast with a monthly donation on Patreon: https://patreon.com/storytellingpod

Follow this podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DaytonRMartind

Like this podcast on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Storytelling-Animals-105986165338395

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Today marks the 205th birthday of Henry David Thoreau, and to celebrate, I brought on Alda Balthrop-Lewis, author of Thoreau's Religion: Walden Woods, Social Justice, and the Politics of Asceticism. Why (if at all) does Thoreau still matter? How did he engage with the political issues of his time, in particular slavery and the advances of industrial capitalism? Do the ascetic practices he engaged in at Walden Pond have any lessons for the contemporary environmentalist?

Learn more about Alda's book here: https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/religion/religious-ethics/thoreaus-religion-walden-woods-social-justice-and-politics-asceticism?format=HB

Read her analysis of Thoreau's critique of philanthropy here (also a response to the 2015 anti-Thoreau New Yorker article I mistakenly attribute to The Atlantic in the podcast): https://religiondispatches.org/thoreaus-ferocious-critique-of-philanthropy-does-not-make-him-selfish/

Read my 2017 article on Thoreau, from which I quote in the intro, here: https://inthesetimes.com/article/the-abolitionist-of-walden-pond

Alda's book focuses on Walden, Thoreau's most famous work and the one most relevant to her argument about political asceticism. But or if you are interested in exploring his ideas further, I also recommend some of his essays:

On Resistance to Civil Government (this is the famous and influential one about civil disobedience) - https://archive.vcu.edu/english/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/thoreau/civil/

Slavery in Massachusetts (perhaps my favorite) - https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Slavery_Massachusetts.html

Life Without Principle - https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1863/10/life-without-principle/542217/

A Plea for Captain John Brown - https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2567/2567-h/2567-h.htm

Subscribe to the free weekly Storytelling Animals newsletter: https://apple6.aweb.page/p/de4ee963-cd8d-4ced-9975-e13965236a7d

Support this podcast with a monthly donation on Patreon: https://patreon.com/storytellingpod

Follow this podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DaytonRMartind

Like this podcast on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Storytelling-Animals-105986165338395

Learn more about the Storytelling Animals Book Club here: https://daytonmartindale.com/book-club/

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Today's topic is "degrowth": What does it mean? Is it actually desirable? How could we achieve it? And do we really need to confront economic growth if we want to fight climate change and build a just, sustainable society? My guest is Aaron Vansintjan, co-author of The Future Is Degrowth: A Guide to a World Beyond Capitalism. The interview starts at 3:41.

Learn more about the book here: https://www.versobooks.com/books/3989-the-future-is-degrowth

Follow Aaron on Twitter: https://twitter.com/a_vansi

Subscribe to the free weekly Storytelling Animals newsletter: https://apple6.aweb.page/p/de4ee963-cd8d-4ced-9975-e13965236a7d

Support this podcast with a monthly donation on Patreon: https://patreon.com/storytellingpod

Follow this podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DaytonRMartind

Like this podcast on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Storytelling-Animals-105986165338395

Learn more about the Storytelling Animals Book Club here: https://daytonmartindale.com/book-club/

Listen to my interview with Kate Soper, author of Post-Growth Living: https://play.acast.com/s/storytelling-animals/kate-soper-post-growth-living-alternative-hedonism-climate

Listen to my interview with Dylan Harris, co-editor (with Aaron) of Not Afraid of the Ruins: https://play.acast.com/s/storytelling-animals/not-afraid-of-the-ruins-dylan-harris-uneven-earth-hope

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Today's guest is paleontologist Steve Brusatte, author of the new book The Rise and Reign of the Mammals: A New History, From the Shadow of the Dinosaurs to Us, previously the author of The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, and also a paleontology consultant on the new movie Jurassic World: Dominion. We talk about what he calls "the story of us": the long history of our mammal ancestors from even before the dinosaurs, the three mass extinctions these mammals have survived (so far), how some of those mammals endured warm periods and ice ages and became humans, and what the future might hold. Steve also reveals his ethical concerns about the (unlikely) prospect of a real-life Jurassic World, and why we're both excited about dinosaur feathers.

Learn more about The Rise and Reign of the Mammals here: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-rise-and-reign-of-the-mammals-steve-brusatte?variant=40073694543906

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Support this podcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/storytellingpod

For more information on the Storytelling Animals book club: https://daytonmartindale.com/book-club/

Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DaytonRMartind

Like this podcast on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Storytelling-Animals-105986165338395

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Today I talk with David M. Peña-Guzmán about his new book When Animals Dream: The Hidden World of Animal Consciousness. David is associate professor of humanities and liberal studies at San Francisco State University and the cohost of Overthink podcast.

Learn more about the book here: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691220093/when-animals-dream

Sign up for my free weekly newsletter: https://apple6.aweb.page/p/de4ee963-cd8d-4ced-9975-e13965236a7d

Support this podcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/storytellingpod

For more information on the Storytelling Animals book club: https://daytonmartindale.com/book-club/

Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DaytonRMartind

Like this podcast on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Storytelling-Animals-105986165338395

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