In Tune to Nature Podcast

cpfreeman

In Tune to Nature is an eco & animal protection weekly radio show broadcast from Atlanta on Radio Free Georgia Wednesdays from 6 -7pm EST worldwide on wrfg.org and in Atlanta on 89.3FM. The 30-50 minute podcast versions are posted here, featuring interviews with activists, scientists, and authors who help us protect living beings and our shared habitats. Hosted by Carrie Freeman (Communication Professor and Human Animal Earthling) or Melody Paris. Studio photography by Ann Packwood.

  1. MAR 28

    Saving America's Top 10 Most Endangered Public Lands: Stephanie Pearson Explains the Political, Corporate, & Ecological Threats

    Award-winning travel writer Stephanie Pearson explains the top 10 federal public lands in the USA (out of the 640 million acres that we co-own with wild animals) that are most in need of our protection from a variety of elevating threats at this point in human history (we discuss industrial activity in Alaska and Minnesota, AI data centers all over, climate crisis-caused extinctions in Hawaii, wildlife fragmentation in the Western grasslands, introduced species killing off mammals in the Everglades, government censorship at parks nationwide, and proposed border walls messing up wild lands in Texas). This is based on Stephanie's special news report co-published by Outside magazine and RePublic. The article is titled “America’s Most Endangered Public Lands 2026” and can be read at the website Republic(dot)land. Republic is a new nonprofit online journalism source dedicated to protecting America’s public lands.  In this 50-minute "In Tune to Nature" radio show, aired March 25, 2026, host Carrie Freeman interviews outdoors writer Stephanie Pearson about her public lands article and ideas for getting politically engaged and enjoying public lands, and at the end we get a preview of her newest National Geographic book "100 Hikes of a Lifetime USA". Stephanie's travel and outdoor writing can be found at https://stephanieannpearson.com/  "In Tune to Nature" is an hour-long radio show airing Wednesdays at 6pm Eastern Time on 89.3FM-Atlanta radio and streaming worldwide on wrfg.org (Radio Free Georgia, a nonprofit indie station) hosted by me, Carrie Freeman, or friend Melody Paris. The show's website and my contact info can be found at https://wrfg.org/intunetonature/  While there, consider donating to Radio Free Georgia, a 50+ year old progressive, non-commercial, indie radio station, run largely by volunteers like me and Melody. Take care of yourself and others, including other species, like those who depend on our millions of acres of publicly-owned land for their survival.  Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed on In Tune to Nature do not necessarily reflect those of WRFG, its board, staff, or volunteers. Photo Credit: Republic.land website image of Stephanie Pearson's "America's Most Endangered Public Lands" article

    50 min
  2. MAR 14

    Letting Wildlife ROAM: Eco Journalist Hillary Rosner's Book on Repairing Our Fractured World for Wild Animals

    From taking down barbed-wire fences for pronghorn and elk In Wyoming and elephants in Kenya, to letting wetland water flow naturally in South Florida for wading birds and fish, to creating 'agave highways' for migrating birds to refuel in New Mexico, to designing spaces with wildlife in mind everywhere, journalist Hillary Rosner shares her insights on how humans are helping stitch back together fragmented and degraded habitats for wild animals globally in her new book "ROAM: Wild Animals and the Race to Repair Our Fractured World" (published with gorgeous photography in 2025 by Patagonia Press on 100% recycled non-bleached paper). See Hillary's website at https://hillaryr.net/  In this 50-minute interview, In Tune to Nature radio host Carrie Freeman especially enjoys talking with Hillary (who works at Univ of Colorado's Center for Environmental Journalism) about lessons from the places in the USA they both went to work on books on wildlife -- the rapidly developing/growing areas of the Yellowstone National Park region in Montana and Wyoming, and South Florida's Everglades National Park/Big Cypress region in Southwest Florida. Hillary describes how the Corkscrew Sanctuary in Florida is being hemmed in by housing developments, and how those human communities are wanting to divert wetland water to prevent flooded streets and yards, at the expense of Sanctuary residents like birds, fish, and alligators; she also shares her experiences with volunteers taking down several miles of barbed wire fences near Cody, Wyoming and how fences can be redesigned to let certain animals get over or under them safely instead of being a dangerous impediment for elk, pronghorn, bears, mountain lions and other mammals. You can see her list of organizations doing good work for wildlife in those regions and the global locations in her book (on the Patagonia Press Roam page). "In Tune to Nature" is a weekly hour-long radio show airing Wednesdays at 6pm Eastern Time on 89.3FM-Atlanta radio and streaming worldwide on wrfg.org (Radio Free Georgia, a nonprofit indie station) hosted by me, Carrie Freeman, or friend Melody Paris. The show's website and my contact info can be found at https://wrfg.org/intunetonature/  or https://www.facebook.com/InTunetoNature/ Consider donating to Radio Free Georgia, a 50+ year old progressive, non-commercial radio station, run largely by volunteers like me and Melody. Take care of yourself and others, including other species, like all the wildlife who need us to help them roam safely to survive. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed on In Tune to Nature do not necessarily reflect those of WRFG, its board, staff, or volunteers. Photo Credit: ROAM book interior cover image of an endangered bear's fur in a barbed wire fence in Italy, taken by Bruno D'Amicis.

    49 min
  3. How Can a Sentientist Philosophy Improve the World? Guest Jamie Woodhouse Combines Reason with Compassion for All Sentient Beings

    MAR 1

    How Can a Sentientist Philosophy Improve the World? Guest Jamie Woodhouse Combines Reason with Compassion for All Sentient Beings

    We explore an ethical worldview that may be new to a lot of people (but may capture how you really feel if you care for animals). It’s called sentientism, described by our guest Jamie Woodhouse (creator of Sentientism.info and the Sentientism podcast) as “a simple, potentially unifying, philosophy or worldview. It commits to using evidence and applying reason, and grants moral consideration to all sentient beings." Basically, animals are sentient beings, as they (we) experience consciousness and feelings of pleasure or pain and suffering, which tends to be the actual basis of most moral concerns for others (rather than limiting it to species boundaries). In this 46-minute discussion in February 2026, host Carrie Freeman talks with Jamie Woodhouse (from his home in London) about what society would be like (and how our environmental policies and our political systems would be improved) if the focus of our concerns and laws were not just on human beings, but on all sentient beings, since we humans impact and often harm them so greatly -- we would be applying reason and scientific evidence (avoiding dogma, misinformation, and conspiracies) to help determine what all us animals need to flourish. "In Tune to Nature" is a weekly hour-long radio show airing Wednesdays at 6pm Eastern Time on 89.3FM-Atlanta radio and streaming worldwide on wrfg.org (Radio Free Georgia, a nonprofit indie station) hosted by me, Carrie Freeman, or friend Melody Paris. The show's website and my contact info can be found at https://wrfg.org/intunetonature/  or https://www.facebook.com/InTunetoNature/ Consider donating to Radio Free Georgia, a 50+ year old progressive, non-commercial radio station, run largely by volunteers like me and Melody. Take care of yourself and others, including other species, like all sentient beings. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed on In Tune to Nature do not necessarily reflect those of WRFG, its board, staff, or volunteers. Photo Credit: I took the image of various animals' eyes as a screenshot off the Sentientism.info website.

    46 min
  4. JAN 31

    Greenwashing Meat, Whitewashing Milk: Dr. Vas Stanescu Uncovers Animal Ag's Tricky PR Tactics

    You'll be fascinated to learn how the animal ag industry (following the tobacco and fossil fuel industry playbook) influences academic climate research to highlight or produce favorable findings to trick the public and policymakers into continuing to subsidize it and avoid needed regulations that would protect wild and domesticated animals, workers, surrounding ecosystems, and our climate. Associate Professor of Communication at Mercer University, Dr. Vasile Stanescu, has a lively discussion with fellow critical animal studies scholar and vegan advocate Carrie Freeman (host of In Tune to Nature) in this 54-minute podcast where he explains his intriguing research on the meat and dairy industry's rhetorical tactics. He attended industry conferences where they talk about how to undermine legitimate reports/research exposing the devastating harms of their animal exploitation industry. We end with ways to move forward to honestly promote a needed transition to plant-based agriculture and how and why to thank a vegan. We also discuss his podcast with his partner Devs called How We Win: Achieving Animal Liberation at https://www.winforanimals.org/  Check out some of the open-access publications that Dr. Stanescu references on the show: Cowgate: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/378179039_Cowgate_Meat_Eating_and_Climate_Change_Denial “White Power Milk”: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/363267122_Animal_Studies_Journal_'White_Power_Milk'_Milk_Dietary_Racism_and_the_'Alt-Right' “Slaughterhouse Capitalism” (from Current Affairs; it makes the class-based argument we discussed): https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/how-industrial-slaughter-became-the-blueprint-for-modern-capitalism The Guardian uncovers a Master's in Beef Advocacy: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/may/03/beef-industry-public-relations-messaging-machine  "In Tune to Nature" is a weekly hour-long radio show airing Wednesdays at 6pm Eastern Time on 89.3FM-Atlanta radio and streaming worldwide on wrfg.org (Radio Free Georgia, a nonprofit indie station) hosted by me, Carrie Freeman, or friend Melody Paris. The show's website and my contact info can be found at https://wrfg.org/intunetonature/  While there, consider donating to Radio Free Georgia, a 50+ year old progressive, non-commercial, indie radio station, run largely by volunteers like me and Melody. Take care of yourself and others, including other species, like wild and domesticated animals. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed on In Tune to Nature do not necessarily reflect those of WRFG, its board, staff, or volunteers.

    54 min
  5. JAN 18

    Can Informed Kids Transform our Food Systems? Yes, says Lorena Mucke, Founder of the Educated Choices Program

    Carrie talks with Lorena about her program educating millions of school kids around the world on issues with our food systems (especially with animal agriculture and commercial fishing) and talking with classmates and their teacher to consider the environmental, nutritional, public health, social, and/or ethical issues with our industrial food practices, and what the students want to do about it to be part of the solution. To tell us about the Educated Choices Program nonprofit and all their freely available, scientifically-backed videos and lesson plans for teachers K-12 and college level is their Founder & CEO, Lorena Mucke. Lorena and her expert team have been developing and improving the award-winning Educated Choices Program lessons for over 10 years, reaching more than 3 million people in at least 70 countries (available in many languages). It's all done virtually now with the full library at their website, so parents, teachers, and teens may want to check it out at https://educatedchoices.org  On this 44-minute episode, Carrie and Lorena talked in early January 2026 about the positive impacts of the educated choices programs and also dig a bit deeper into one of their popular videos/module "The Environment & Modern Agriculture" and its lesson plan activities, and their newest video in development -- "Sea the Impact" on protecting ocean life. "In Tune to Nature" is a weekly hour-long radio show airing Wednesdays at 6pm Eastern Time on 89.3FM-Atlanta radio and streaming worldwide on wrfg.org (Radio Free Georgia, a nonprofit indie station) hosted by me, Carrie Freeman, or friend Melody Paris. The show's website and my contact info can be found at https://wrfg.org/intunetonature/  While there, consider donating to Radio Free Georgia, a 50+ year old progressive, non-commercial, indie radio station, run largely by volunteers like me and Melody. Take care of yourself and others, including other species, like wild and domesticated animals. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed on In Tune to Nature do not necessarily reflect those of WRFG, its board, staff, or volunteers. Photo Credit: Educated Choices Program

    44 min
  6. Rudolph, Jingling Horses, and Six Geese a Laying: Six Popular Christmas Songs Analyzed by an Animal Rights Activist

    12/23/2025

    Rudolph, Jingling Horses, and Six Geese a Laying: Six Popular Christmas Songs Analyzed by an Animal Rights Activist

    This Christmas, I thought it would be fun to analyze six popular Christmas songs referencing animals-other-than-humans (mostly mammals who are forced to pull people around the snow in sleds, and then some birds, mainly fowl who are killed and eaten by humans but sometimes avians humans admire for their beauty). The songs are  Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Run Run Rudolph, Sleigh Ride, Jingle Bells, The 12 Days of Christmas, and Nat King Cole’s The Christmas Song.  In this 24-minute podcast (originally recorded Christmas 2024), I deconstruct these Christmas songs from a Critical Animal Studies perspective. In other words, as an animal rights activist who is sympathetic to the more-than-human-world and the perspectives and interests of other animal individuals and our shared habitats, I analyze these classic songs and what lessons they teach us about fellow animal species and how we could be more respectful, kind of like those Politically Correct Bedtime Story series that gives you a critical yet humorous perspective on classic tales in Western society. My Radio Free Georgia version of this episode has the license to broadcast these popular songs, but for my podcast friends, I don’t have copyright permission to play the songs, so I linked to the youtube versions of the songs in the podcast notes here below. For the recording, I'll put a jingle bell sound in there when you can cue up the songs to play yourself if you want to. But I’ll speak the key lyrics dealing with animals that I discuss. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMletImQ_cs Run Run Rudolph: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqVtqbzTdVs  Sleigh Ride: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZTzai1H9DM Jingle Bells: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eP3RhTbq3Ds  The Twelve Days of Christmas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QPQI5QUs74  The Christmas Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKhRnZZ0cJI    "In Tune to Nature" is a weekly hour-long radio show airing Wednesdays at 6pm Eastern Time on 89.3FM-Atlanta radio and streaming worldwide on wrfg.org (Radio Free Georgia, a nonprofit indie station). Hosted by me, Carrie Freeman, or Melody Paris. The show's website and action items can be found at https://www.facebook.com/InTunetoNature You can email me at my first name at wrfg.org.  Please support nonprofit indie media like our Radio Free Georgia station at https://wrfg.org/  Thank you! Take care of yourself and others, including other species, like reindeer, partridges, French hens, turtle doves, bobtailed horses, and more. Photo Credit: by Aleksei Zaitcev on Unsplash Horse Neighing audio credit: From Duke the Palomino who has his own YouTube channel

    24 min
  7. 12/14/2025

    Journalism's Coverage of Research on Unwilling Subjects: Hosts Carrie & Melody Discuss the Role of News in an Animal-Free Research Future

    My cohost and fellow activist Melody Paris interviews me (Carrie Freeman) about the Animal-Free Research Foundation conference talk in Switzerland that I gave this fall, titled: "Unwilling, Unconsenting, and Unnecessary Research Subjects: Addressing Anthropocentric Bias in Journalistic Coverage Legitimizing the (Ab)Use of other Animals in Research." We discuss sociocultural and structural barriers to fair coverage of anti-vivisection and animal-free research alternatives, as well as guidelines from me and Deb Merskin's AnimalsandMedia.org website that apply to improving journalistic coverage of the animal research issue, and examples of common research-oriented news stories and how good journalism could facilitate a needed transition to modern, ethical alternatives to researching on unwilling and inappropriate subjects; regarding the news topics Melody and I have observed over our decades as animal advocates, we include coverage of the Free Wenka campaign against Emory's Yerkes primate lab, recent stories like the poor monkeys who escaped a lab truck crash in Louisiana only to be gunned down by cops and citizens, coverage of how tax dollars could be spent on more effective and innovative animal-free medical research, and how sanctuary stories can help us see what's wrong with experimentation on our animal kin (like profiles of residents at the Project Chimp sanctuary for chimpanzees retired from labs). This is a 57-minute taping of a live radio show that aired Nov 19, 2025 at the Radio Free Georgia studios. "In Tune to Nature" is a weekly hour-long radio show airing Wednesdays at 6pm Eastern Time on 89.3FM-Atlanta radio and streaming worldwide on wrfg.org (Radio Free Georgia, a nonprofit indie station) hosted by me, Carrie Freeman, or friend Melody Paris. The show's website and my contact info can be found at https://wrfg.org/intunetonature/  While there, consider donating to Radio Free Georgia, a 50+ year old progressive, non-commercial, indie radio station, run largely by volunteers like me and Melody. Take care of yourself and others, including other species, like mice, rats, rabbits, guinea pigs, zebra fish, dogs, cats, and monkeys. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed on In Tune to Nature do not necessarily reflect those of WRFG, its board, staff or volunteers. Photo Credit: Wild roof rat peeking out from a log in Tennessee, by Joshua Cotten from UnSplash (I decided to show a rat as he ought to be -- free from lab cages).

    57 min
  8. 12/06/2025

    Seeing, Hearing and Celebrating Animals in Poetry: Nickole Brown recites Donkey Elegies and Mercy

    Raised in Kentucky now residing in Asheville,NC Nickole Brown -- poet, writing teacher, and animal rescue volunteer -- shares her love for our wild animal and farmed animal kin with "In Tune to Nature" host Carrie Freeman in this lovely 50-minutes conversation. We enjoy hearing Nickole reading the emotive poem "Mercy" from her award-winning chapbook "To Those Who Were our First Gods" and three poems as essays from her book "The Donkey Elegies." Carrie discusses the many clever, compassionate, and compelling messages found within each poem that truly helps us hear and see fellow animals for the beautiful individuals they are. We question how our society may be diminishing the worth of other animal communities, as we sometimes do with fellow humans. Hopefully we can build solidarity between humans of all classes and animals of all other species. You can read some of Nickole's poetry and find all her books at her website https://www.nickolebrown.org/ . And eco writers/poets may want to check out the Hellbender Gathering of Poets, a conference she has organized in the Western NC mountains (named after the Hellbender salamander in the Appalachian mountains that she loves). "In Tune to Nature" is a weekly hour-long radio show airing Wednesdays at 6pm Eastern Time on 89.3FM-Atlanta radio and streaming worldwide on wrfg.org (Radio Free Georgia, a nonprofit indie station) hosted by me, Carrie Freeman, or friend Melody Paris. The show's website and my contact info can be found at https://wrfg.org/intunetonature/  While there, consider donating to Radio Free Georgia, a 50+ year old progressive, non-commercial, indie radio station, run largely by volunteers like me. Take care of yourself and others, including other species, like donkeys! Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed on In Tune to Nature do not necessarily reflect those of WRFG, its board, staff or volunteers. Photo Credit: Donald Schuster took this lovely image of Nickole and Gulliver Background audio captured by Carrie of birdsong in Suches, GA and a hawk in Atlanta.

    50 min

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
5 Ratings

About

In Tune to Nature is an eco & animal protection weekly radio show broadcast from Atlanta on Radio Free Georgia Wednesdays from 6 -7pm EST worldwide on wrfg.org and in Atlanta on 89.3FM. The 30-50 minute podcast versions are posted here, featuring interviews with activists, scientists, and authors who help us protect living beings and our shared habitats. Hosted by Carrie Freeman (Communication Professor and Human Animal Earthling) or Melody Paris. Studio photography by Ann Packwood.

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