How We Win: Achieving Animal Liberation in Our Lifetime

Devs and Vasile Stanescu

Vasile Stanescu, Ph.D. (he/him) is an associate professor of communication, and has published extensively on animal liberation. Devs Stanescu (they/them) is an engineer and activist. Vas and Devs are a husband and spouse that have been vegan for 20 years. Veganism is not a diet. Veganism is not a lifestyle choice. Veganism is, and must be, a social justice movement in solidarity with other social justice movements. Humans’ exploitation of other animals is causing immense harm not only to those other animals, but to the very planetary systems that we all depend on to survive. There is no time to waste - we need to win for animals, and we need to do it now. In this podcast, we will explore what the movement for animal liberation is doing right, things we need to just cut out already, and, ultimately, how to win. We will laugh, rage, debunk, strategize, connect, and fight. And, in solidarity with you, and with all animals, we are going to win.

  1. 08/01/2025

    Interview with Jeff Sebo, author of The Moral Circle

    About Jeff: Jeff Sebo is Associate Professor of Environmental Studies, Affiliated Professor of Bioethics, Medical Ethics, Philosophy, and Law, Director of the Center for Environmental and Animal Protection, Director of the Center for Mind, Ethics, and Policy, and Co-Director of the Wild Animal Welfare Program at New York University. His research focuses on animal minds, ethics, and policy; AI minds, ethics, and policy; and global health and climate ethics and policy. He is the author of The Moral Circle and Saving Animals, Saving Ourselves and co-author of Chimpanzee Rights and Food, Animals, and the Environment. He is also a board member at Minding Animals International, an advisory board member at the Insect Welfare Research Society, an advisor at Eleos AI, and a senior affiliate at the Institute for Law & AI. In 2024 Vox included him on its Future Perfect 50 list of "thinkers, innovators, and changemakers who are working to make the future a better place." About The Moral Circle: Today, human exceptionalism is the norm. Despite occasional nods to animal welfare, we prioritize humanity, often neglecting the welfare of a vast number of beings. As a result, we use hundreds of billions of vertebrates and trillions of invertebrates every year for a variety of purposes, often unnecessarily. We also plan to use animals, AI systems, and other nonhumans at even higher levels in the future. Yet as the dominant species, humanity has a responsibility to ask: Which nonhumans matter, how much do they matter, and what do we owe them in a world reshaped by human activity and technology?  In The Moral Circle, Jeff Sebo challenges us to include all potentially significant beings in our moral community, with transformative implications for our lives and societies. This book explores provocative case studies such as lawsuits over captive elephants and debates over factory-farmed insects, and compels us to consider future ethical quandaries, such as whether to send microbes to new planets, and whether to create virtual worlds filled with digital minds. Taking an expansive view of human responsibility, Sebo argues that building a positive future requires radically rethinking our place in the world. Resources Mentioned: The Moral Circle by Jeff Sebo Jeff’s article: Toward a Global Ban on Industrial Animal Agriculture by 2050 Sunaura Taylor, Beasts of Burden and Disabled Ecologies Becca Franks’ work on fish welfare Connect + Take Action: Consider how your actions impact even the smallest beings—and where uncertainty calls for compassion. Reflect on where *you* fit in this movement. You don’t need to do everything. Just something. Join us as we keep asking the hard questions about what liberation means—and how we win. Read and watch more of Vasile's research and join our community at winforanimals.org

    45 min
  2. 04/11/2025

    Disability and Animal Rights, and Vegans in Love

    Disability rights were on our minds after the fascism episode, so we talk about how as vegans, we should understand disability and fight for inclusion. You will get to hear the rarely heard part of our couple meet-cute, wherein Devs and Vas love each other for their disabilities, not in spite of them. The book referenced last week that we are talking about at the beginning of the episode: Beasts of Burden: Animal and Disability Liberation by Sunaura Taylor Definition of “stimming”: The term comes from self-stimulating behavior, although self-soothing behavior is perhaps a more accurate description. Autistic people are known for less socially-accepable “stims” such as hand flapping and rocking, while habits like nail biting and hair twirling are common for all neurotypes. Vasile’s stim is very unique and The New York Times article we mention about banned words: These Words Are Disappearing in the New Trump Administration (A sample of words included, since there is a paywall on the article: accessible, activism, advocacy, affirming care, allyship, anti-racism, assigned at birth, barrier, bias, BIPOC, Black, breastfeed + person, chestfeed + person, climate science, cultural differences, DEI, DEIA, disability, discrimination, diversity, equality, equity, exclusion, female, feminism, gender, gender based violence, Gulf of Mexico, hate speech, health disparity, hispanic minority, historically, identity, immigrants, implicit bias, inclusion, indigenous community, inequality, injustice, institutional, intersectional, key populations, Latinx, LGBT, LGBTQ, marginalized, mental health, minority, multicultural, Mx, Native American, nonbinary, oppression, orientation, people + uterus, person-centered, polarization, political, pollution, pregnant person, prejudice, privilege, pronoun, prostitute, race, racial inequality, racism, segregation, sex, sexuality, social justice, socioeconomic, stereotype, systemic, they/them, trans, transgender, transsexual, trauma, tribal, underprivileged, underserved, victim, vulnerable populations, women) Vasile’s article mentioned in the episode: The Personal Is Political: Orthorexia Nervosa, the Pathogenization of Veganism, and Grief as a Political Act Read and watch more of Vasile's research and join our community at winforanimals.org

    32 min
  3. 03/07/2025

    Veganism Against Fascism

    Fascism is, in many ways, the opposite of veganism. This episode is longer than usual, because of just how many ways. We tried to be comprehensive, to give you the tools to talk about these connections, however we still have a lot of things we wish we’d thought of and added. But this conversation is just beginning. I hope this gives you some entry points to thinking about your own anti-fascist solidarity efforts. Books and other sources referenced in the episode: Eugenics (and ableism) Book: Bios: Biopolitics and Philosophy by Roberto Esposito Book: Beasts of Burden: Animal and Disability Liberation by Sunaura Taylor - If you read only one book we recommend in any episode, let it be this one! An example of Singer being protested for eugenical ideas - lets have leaders of the vegan movement that embrace solidarity with everyone that is marginalized Misogyny Book: The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegan Critical Theory by Carol J. Adams Confinement and Technologies of Control Book: Barbed Wire by Reviel Netz Citizenship and The State of Exception, aka “loopholes” Book: State of Exception by Giorgio Agamben Bestiality loophole for farmed animals: The Meat Industries Bestiality Problem Slavery loophole for incarcerated humans EO: Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship - an attempt to strip certain people of birthright citizenship and create a state of exception - if this does not cross the line into fascism, what would? Empathy Fighting in the Dark by A R Moxon - let’s do what fascists can’t do Book: The Lives of Animals by J. M. Coetzee Read and watch more of Vasile's research and join our community at winforanimals.org

    1h 6m

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
5 Ratings

About

Vasile Stanescu, Ph.D. (he/him) is an associate professor of communication, and has published extensively on animal liberation. Devs Stanescu (they/them) is an engineer and activist. Vas and Devs are a husband and spouse that have been vegan for 20 years. Veganism is not a diet. Veganism is not a lifestyle choice. Veganism is, and must be, a social justice movement in solidarity with other social justice movements. Humans’ exploitation of other animals is causing immense harm not only to those other animals, but to the very planetary systems that we all depend on to survive. There is no time to waste - we need to win for animals, and we need to do it now. In this podcast, we will explore what the movement for animal liberation is doing right, things we need to just cut out already, and, ultimately, how to win. We will laugh, rage, debunk, strategize, connect, and fight. And, in solidarity with you, and with all animals, we are going to win.