Animal Voices

This podcast helps keep me going at work. It fires me up (for the most part) and makes me anxious to delve back into activism after a hiatus. For the most part, the hosts ask good, probing questions without sounding overly academic or offputting to laypeople, and I much prefer this podcast over the east coast Animal Voices, which used to be one of my favorites. I appreciate intersectional activism very much, but am disappointed when the hosts fail at times to challenge guests. I have heard two podcasts recently that bothered me; one where the guest was not challenged because, being Native American and working to get back to her heritage in terms of food, she allows herself to very occasionally eat parts of other animals. I realize this is related to her culture and heritage, but I find it confusing and disappointing that that is considered okay. I realize there may be spiritual beliefs involved (the animal givs herself, etc) but I find that hard to buy when a life is at stake. Had the host challenged or , perhaps more to the point, questioned, the guest, this issue might have been better resolved for me. The most recent podcast I found problematic was a talk with Ashley Maier, who says that feminist animal activists shouldn't use the term "rape" when referring to the injustices done to other animals. As a survivor myself, I don't see anything problematic with using a term that describes what it is. I actually stopped listening to that podcast because I got so annoyed. Perhaps the host agreed with her; I'm not sure, and perhaps the host questioned this belief/assumption. But I think not. I agree that we shouldn't be divisve as activists, but I do think there are times to question ourselves and others. That is what is missing from this podcast.