In Tune to Nature Podcast

Media Professor Dr. Debra Merskin and Sentient Media Executive Director Ana Bradley discuss a campaign (started by In Defense of Animals and supported by Jane Goodall and others) to encourage the Associated Press to update its journalism style guidelines to use pronouns like "they," "she," "he," or "he or she" to describe an individual animal, rather than calling him or her "it" (a word only fitting for an inanimate object). In this 26-minute podcast, we discuss the impact of media messages about fellow animals on our treatment of them and ways we can encourage the media to do better. Debra Merskin and radio/podcast host Carrie Freeman are the co-founders of the www.animalsandmedia.org style guidelines for respectful animal representations in news, advertising, PR, TV, and film. It's a useful site to share with media professionals when you are giving them constructive feedback. To read news that takes fellow animals' into consideration as sentient beings, see Sentient Media -- an online news site that promotes respectful journalism stories about fellow animals and the role we play in each others' lives. This In Tune to Nature episode originally aired on April 14th, 2021. In Tune to Nature is an eco-and-animal-friendly radio show that airs each Wednesday from 6:30-7pm on Radio Free Georgia at wrfg.org or in Atlanta on 89.3FM (hosted by Carrie Freeman, Sonia Swartz, or Melody Paris). Please consider making a financial contribution to support this indie, non-commercial radio station at wrfg.org. Photo credit: Amy Jones / We Animals. From the Photo Essay Next in Line

Environmental Journalist Georgina Gustin of Inside Climate News discusses the findings of her March 2021 article "Big Banks Make a Dangerous Bet on the World’s Growing Demand for Food" with the subtitle "While banks and asset managers are promising to divest from fossil fuels, they are expanding investments in high-carbon foods and commodities tied to deforestation." (such as animal meat, cow's milk, and palm oil). This 25-minute interview by host Carrie Freeman for In Tune to Nature radio show (March 24, 2021), explores how increasing financial investments in the ag sector are a "catastrophic blindspot" when it comes to calls for carbon divestment, and how it's difficult to have deforestation-free investment fund guarantees due to food companies not demanding more transparency from their supply chain to disclose deforestation and greenhouse emissions linked to climate change. We discuss lack of government regulations for mandatory disclosure of climate risks, and the financial incentives of investing in cheap meat to profit off of feeding a growing human population, despite environmental problems. Some of the big banks in her article include Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Rabobank, Barclays, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs, and some of the biggest Asset Managers are Blackrock, Vanguard, and State Street. There is a need for climate-friendly investment policies to be strengthened and include agricultural investments, especially those linked to deforestation. Even current funds labeled "sustainable" funds, may not account for food/meat companies unless consumers demand it. Cover photo is of cows at a Texas feedlot, Credit: Getty Images, Daniel Acker. In Tune to Nature is a radio program aired each Wednesday from 6:30-7pm EST on Radio Free Georgia (wrfg.org) on 89.3FM-Atlanta, hosted by Sonia Swartz, Melody Paris, and Carrie Freeman. Please support independent, non-commercial media like Radio Free Georgia. Stay in touch at www.facebook.com/intunetonature

This 26-minute interview features Dr. Helen Harwatt, one of the researchers of the 2021 report "Food System Impacts on Biodiversity Loss" by Chatham House, a research and policy institute in the UK. We explore what aspects of global agriculture and dietary practices, namely animal ag, are causing species extinctions at such high rates and discuss the three solutions/levers the report proposes: 1) shifting toward plant-based diets, 2) preserving existing habitats and rewilding some farmland, and 3) enacting sustainable farming practices -- all of which need to happen together, hinging on the reduction of animal ag (consumers demanding less animal meat and dairy). We end by discussing some policy implications to enact needed food system changes, especially as leaders meet at global summits on public health, climate, and biodiversity. The interview is hosted by Carrie Freeman, for In Tune to Nature radio show on WRFG (Radio Free Georgia), and aired Wed. March 10, 2021 on WRFG- Atlanta radio. In Tune to Nature airs every Wednesday from 6:30-7pm EST on 89.3FM-Atlanta radio and streams on wrfg.org. Please support independent, non-commercial radio like Radio Free Georgia. Photo Credit: Farmer standing in his field in the agricultural landscape of Cotabato Province, Mindanao Island, the Philippines. By Tessa Bunney/Contributor/Getty Images. (cover image for Chatham House biodiversity report)

Author and activist Aph Ko explains her novel and insightful ideas on race and animality to foster multidimensional liberation for all human races and animal species, based on her book Racism as Zoological Witchcraft: A Guide to Getting Out (Lantern Press: 2019) (Jordan Peele's movie Get Out is an inspiration here). In this 26-minute "In Tune to Nature" Podcast, host Carrie Freeman asks Aph to explain concepts from the book, such as how racism is a form of "zoological witchcraft" where "white supremacy uses both minoritized bodies and animality to communicate and reinscribe a mythical fantasy of racial superiority" (p. 99). She also explains the value of concurrently fighting racism and animal oppression (as a form of animal oppression) through an "afro-zoological resistance" or "multidimensional liberation" movement. Her advice is pertinent to anyone interested in racial justice, animal liberation, or vegan advocacy. Also check out Aph Ko's website BlackVegansRock.com In Tune to Nature is a 30-minute show airing each Wednesday from 6:30-7pm EST (hosted by Carrie Freeman or Melody Paris) on 89.3 FM-Atlanta and on wrfg.org. Please support non-commercial, progressive indie radio like Radio Free Georgia.

Legal scholar Maneesha Deckha explains her novel category of "beingness" to raise the legal status of animals, in her new book "Animals as Legal Beings: Contesting Anthropocentric Legal Orders" (Univ of Toronto Press, 2021). In this 25-minute interview on In Tune to Nature, hosted by Carrie Freeman, Professor Deckha (Univ of Victoria, BC, Canada) explains how feminism, postcolonialism, and critical animal studies informs her less exclusionary and more universal notion of a legal "being" as opposed to some ideal and limiting legal notion of an independent, rational "person." "In Tune to Nature" airs on Radio Free Georgia's 89.3FM-Atlanta and wrfg.org Wednesdays 6:30-7pm EST. Its co-hosts are Carrie Freeman, Sonia Swartz, and Melody Paris. www.facebook.com/intunetonature Please support independent, non-commercial media like Radio Free Georgia. Take care of yourself and others, including other species.

This 25-minute podcast explains the 2021 Animals' Manifesto to prevent pandemics, signed by over 150 eco & animal protection NGOs to influence international policy-making in support of One Health & One Welfare holistic approaches to considering the mutual welfare interests of humans and other species. "In Tune to Nature" radio host Carrie Freeman interviewed Jessica Bridgers of World Animal Net in early January 2021 to explain the manifesto's origins from the covid crisis, its signatories, its purpose, and its policy recommendations to transform animal farming, animal based food consumption, the wildlife trade, testing on animals for vaccines, and welfare implications for domesticated animals. In Tune to Nature is an eco and animal protection show hosted by Carrie Freeman on the indie, non-commercial station Radio Free Georgia (WRFG) that broadcasts on Wednesdays at 6:30pm EST in Atlanta on 89.3FM and streams worldwide at www.wrfg.org Sonia Swartz and Melody Paris also serve as hosts.