The Animal Chat Podcast animalchat

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/