The Animal Chat Podcast

Matthew Glover is the founder of Veganuary, Million Dollar Vegan and now Veg Capital, an investment fund for companies striving to replace the use of animals in the food system. 

Veganuary launched in 2014 with 3,300 people pledging to go vegan for the month of January. Veganuary in 2021 has seen over 1 million people in 192 countries making that pledge. 

In this podcast Matthew chats with us about his introduction to vegetarianism, veganism and animal rights activism what inspired him to start Veganuary. Going from a businessman and entrepreneur in the north of England to the game-changing innovation of veganuary and his subsequent ventures. We chat about the changes happening in the food sector and what that means for producers, customers, consumers and the animals themselves. 

Veganuary website - https://veganuary.com

Veg Capital website - https://vegcapital.co.uk

Million Dollar Vegan website - https://www.milliondollarvegan.com

Matthew Glover's Linkedin page - https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-glover/

Alexandra Horowitz is a professor at Barnard College, Columbia University, where she teaches seminars in canine cognition, creative nonfiction writing, and audio storytelling. As Senior Research Fellow, she heads the Dog Cognition Lab at Barnard.

Alexandra has long been interested in how the world is experienced by dogs and her research and writing is aimed to answer the question of what it's like to be a dog. And her book, Inside of a Dog, was a New York Times bestseller for 65 weeks. 

In this podcast, Alexandra chats about her love of dogs, her work and her passion for understanding the world from a dogs point of view. She shares stories and insights about how our perception and expectations of dogs have changed over the years and in understanding these things, how it might help us become better owners. And we talk about the simple joy of what it's like to share our lives with dogs. 

Alexandra Horowitz website - https://alexandrahorowitz.net

Inside of a Dog book - https://alexandrahorowitz.net/Inside-of-a-Dog

Being a Dog book - https://alexandrahorowitz.net/Being-a-Dog

Our Dogs, Ourselves book - https://alexandrahorowitz.net/Our-Dogs-Ourselves

Mark Rowlands is Professor of Philosophy and Chair of the Philosophy Department at the University of Miami.

He is the author of seventeen books and has spent much of his career exploring the ethical and moral questions related to animal rights. His books, Animal Rights, Animals Like Us, and Can Animals be Moral are essential reading for anyone looking to understand the philosophy of animal rights, and his memoir, The Philosopher and the Wolf, became an international bestseller and charts the relationship between Mark Rowlands and Brenin, his extraordinarily well-travelled wolf.

In this podcast Mark talks about his life and career, we explore some of the philosophical principles and theories that form the foundation of the animal right movement, and we talk about his life with Brenin and how their relationship led him to reevaluate his attitude toward love, happiness, nature, death and what it means to be human.

Mark Rowlands books on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mark-Rowlands/e/B001IXUBEI%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

Melissa Liszewski is a Senior Program Manager for Community Engagement at the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). She has loved animals and wanted to help them for as long as she can remember, and that passion has seen her deliver some of the most progressive, sustainable and impactful animal welfare programs in communities around in the world.

In this podcast, Melissa talks about her early love of animals and campaigning her parents to get her first dog. Her journey through her career, from studying animal science and Michigan State University to her work at The Brooke, that led to her passion for helping communities in order to improve the lives of animals. She talks about the importance of this work and how each project she worked on and each organisation she worked for, has helped improve the welfare of animals by also helping the people working and living with those animals.

We also chat about what it's actually like to work in this sector, the things we've learned along the way and the advice we'd give people working or wanting to work in animal welfare.

International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) website - https://www.ifaw.org/international

The Brooke website - https://www.thebrooke.org

Dave Neale is the Animal Welfare Director for Animals Asia. He travels extensively to head up their campaign to improve animal welfare at zoos and safari parks in China, and also works to increase general veterinary and animal welfare standards and promote animal-welfare education in schools and universities.

Dave chats to us about his career after graduating in Environmental Science and Conservation Biology, when he worked as an ecologist for a river restoration charity in England. He talks about his 12-month trip to Asia and South America where he carried out zoo investigations and reports on welfare conditions at local marketplaces and how, during his time in Vietnam, he was profoundly disturbed by seeing moon bears in markets being sold to bear bile farmers. That led to him contacting Jill Robinson and taking on a role at Animals Asia. We then chat about the incredible work he has done over the years throughout Asia to improve the lives of countless animals and changing attitudes and behaviours across the region. 

Animals Asia website - https://www.animalsasia.org/intl/

Animals Asia facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/AnimalsAsia

Gene Baur has been hailed as “the conscience of the food movement”. A pioneer in the field of undercover investigations and farm animal rescue, Gene has visited hundreds of farms, stockyards, and slaughterhouses, documenting the deplorable conditions.

His pictures and videos exposing factory farming cruelties have aired in the United States and internationally, educating millions about the plight of modern farm animals, and his rescue work inspired an international farm sanctuary movement.

Gene was instrumental in passing the first U.S. laws prohibiting inhumane animal confinement and continues working on systemic food industry reforms. His work has been covered by major media outlets including ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, the New York Times, LA Times, and Wall Street Journal among others.

In this podcast, Gene chats about his journey in animal rights activism, the changes he has seen and continues to see throughout the world, the incredible work of Farm Sanctuary, and the difference each of us can make for animals through our food choices.

Farm Sanctuary website - https://www.farmsanctuary.org

Gene Baur on facebook - https://www.facebook.com/GeneBaurofFarmSanctuary/

Books by Gene Baur - https://www.farmsanctuary.org/about-us/gene-baur/

John Goodrich is the Chief Scientist for Panthera, an organisation that is leading the way in global wild cat conservation science and strategy.

John is acknowledged as one of the world’s preeminent tiger biologists.  He has over 30 years of experience in wildlife research and conservation focused on Siberian tigers and other large carnivores. 

In this podcast, John chats with us about his life and work, the state of tiger welfare and conservation around the world, the enigmatic and almost mythical position that tigers hold in our culture, his lifelong passion for conservation and the incredible and magical experiences he had of seeing tigers in the wild first hand. 

Panthera website - https://www.panthera.org

Louie Psihoyos is the Oscar winning director of The Cove, the director of The Game Changers and Racing Extinction and the founder of Oceanic Preservation Society. 

Louie is recognised as one of the top still photographers in the world, having created iconic images for National Geographic for 18 years. 

Louie chats with us about his career, his lifelong passion for the ocean, the environment, conservation and animal welfare and the incredible journey that saw him become one the the most influential and inspirational documentary makers. 

He tells about the making of The Cove and The Game Changers and the fascinating insights into both of those worlds as well as amazing new projects he's working on. 

The Oceanic Preservation Society website - https://www.opsociety.org

The Cove webpage - https://www.opsociety.org/our-work/films/the-cove/

The Game Changers website - https://gamechangersmovie.com

Racing Extinction website - https://racingextinction.com

Leah Garcés is the president of Mercy For Animals and author of the bestseller, Grilled: Turning Adversaries into Allies to Change the Chicken Industry. She has nearly 20 years of leadership experience in the animal protection movement and has partnered with some of the world’s largest food companies on her mission to end factory farming.

Leah oversaw international campaigns in 14 countries at the World Society for the Protection of Animals and launched Compassion in World Farming in the United States. Her work has been featured in many national and international media outlets, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, BuzzFeed, VICE magazine, and the Chicago Tribune. 

In this podcast, Leah chats with Harry and Matt about her life, her career in animal welfare, how her ideas and passion guided how she moved forward and seized every opportunity. And how she was able to undertake her groundbreaking and inspiring work to change the US food and chicken industry. 

Leah Garces website - https://leahgarces.com

Mercy For Animals website - https://mercyforanimals.org

GRILLED: Turning Adversaries into Allies to Change the Chicken Industry by Leah Garces - https://leahgarces.com/grilled-book/

Jill Robinson is the founder of Animals Asia, one of the most pioneering and inspiring animal welfare organisations in the world today. Jill has worked in animal welfare for over 30 years but in 1993, a visit to a bear farm in southern China changed her life forever.

In 1998, she created Animals Asia to end the barbaric practice of bear bile farming and improving the welfare of animals in China and Vietnam by promoting compassion and respect for all animals, and working to bring about long-term change.

In this episode, Jill chats with Harry and Matt about her early life and where her love of animals came from. Her journey to Hong Kong and a chance encounter on a beach that opened the door to animal welfare. She talks about the bear bile trade and what it was like to start an organisation and how Animals Asia has grown over the years, and the incredible work it does. 

The Animals Asia website - https://www.animalsasia.org