This episode features a returning guest: someone who first appeared on Knowing Animals nearly nine years ago, in February 2016. Dr Richard Twine is a Reader in Sociology at Edge Hill University in the UK. He’ll be well-known to lots of regular listeners of this podcast for the work he’s done championing the discipline of critical animal studies. His books include 2010’s Animals as Biotechnology, which I’ve seen described as the first book entirely devoted to critical animal studies, and the 2014 collection The Rise of Critical Animal Studies, co-edited with Nik Taylor. On this episode, however, we talk about his 2024 Sydney University Press book The Climate Crisis and Other Animals, published as part of the Animal Politics book series. We're particularly pleased to feature this book as the Animal Politics series at Sydney University Press is a sponsor of this podcast.

Dr Liza Bauer is the scientific manager of the Panel on Planetary Thinking project at the University of Giessen in Germany, having recently completed a PhD on literary animal studies at the same institution. In this episode, we discuss her book Livestock and Literature: Reimagining Postanimal Companion Species, which was published by Palgrave Macmillan as part of their series Palgrave Studies in Animals and Literature in 2024.

This episode is brought to you by the Animal Politics book series at Sydney University Press.

This episode features Professor Jonathan Birch of the Department of Philosophy, Logic, and Scientific Method at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Jonathan is a philosopher of science who will be best known to an animal studies audience for his work on the science of sentience. This includes his 2021 report Review of the Evidence of Sentience in Cephalopod Molluscs and Decapod Crustaceans, which led to cephalopods and decapods being recognized as sentient beings in UK law. He was also one of the lead signatories of the New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness. In this episode, we talk about his 2024 Oxford University Press book The Edge of Sentience: Risk and Precaution in Humans, Other Animals, and AI. This is an open access book, meaning that all listeners can read and download it for free entirely legally.

This episode is brought to you by the Animal Politics book series, from Sydney University Press. This is a collection of scholarly books about animal studies. As well as recently changing names, the series also has new editors: Danielle Celermajer, Rick De Vos, Chloë Taylor, and Katie Woolaston. If you’re currently working on a book about animal studies, you should consider reaching out to them to see if the series would be a good fit – and we'll get a chance to ask some of these new editors about the Animal Politics series in upcoming episodes of Knowing Animals.

Knowing Animals is back! This episode features Professor Samantha Vice, a distinguished professor of philosophy at Wits University in Johannesburg, South Africa. Samantha is probably best known for her work in the philosophy of race, including her paper ‘How Do I Live in This Strange Place?’, which explores white privilege, and has been widely discussed. In this episode, however, explore her 2023 book The Ethics of Animal Beauty, which was published by Lexington.

Knowing Animals is proudly sponsored by Sydney University Press. Their Animal Publics book series has been renamed to the Animal Politics book series. Earlier this year, they published Richard Twine’s book The Climate Crisis and Other Animals, which is available in both paperback and hardback. The paperback edition, in particular, is very reasonably priced – academic books are often very expensive, but Sydney University Press bucks that trend.

Dr Steve Cooke is an Associate Professor of Political Theory in the School of History, Politics, and International Relations at the University of Leicester. His work addresses animal rights, and how we (individually and collectively) should act given that our political communities are not friendly to animals. On this episode, we talk about Steve's new book What Are Animal Rights For?, which was published in 2023 by Bristol University Press.