Sandcastles

Sandcastles
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A podcast for animal advocates and other campaigner about focusing on the right things– and not focusing on the wrong things. Audio readings of essays by Aidan Kankyoku. sandcastlesblog.substack.com

  1. 6D AGO

    Yes, You. Move to San Francisco.

    A guest essay by Itsi Weinstock, introduced by Aidan. The case for why animal advocates — yes, you specifically — need to get to San Francisco right now, why the AI revolution makes this the most important city on earth for the movement, and what you can do this week from wherever you are to steer AI positively for animals. Links mentioned in this episode: Subscribe to Itsi's newsletter: Frontier Animals Use this form to tell Itsi and Aidan how they can help you move to SF. Sentient Futures subsidized residency in SF — details and application here. For Aidan's first post on AI, see the earliest episode on this podcast feed, The Tsunami is Coming. Finally, please enter the Hyperstition for Good writing competition (sponsored by Sentient Futures x Compassion in Machine Learning) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sandcastlesblog.substack.com

    13 min

  2. APR 29

    We Got Our Asses Kicked. It Worked.

    A week ago, 1,000 of us walked into a muddy field in Wisconsin expecting to rescue 2,000 beagles from a notorious factory farm. Instead, we got tear gassed, pepper sprayed, and shot at with bean bags. We didn't get a single dog out. Wayne Hsiung, who led the action, has been apologizing ever since. This is my attempt to explain why he shouldn't be — why the ass-kicking was the plan working, not failing, and why the 1,000 people who took chemical weapons to the face for animals who can never thank them deserve to hold their heads high. Also: what tear gas actually feels like, why you should never shower with your underwear off afterwards, and what the 1963 Children's March in Birmingham can teach us about taking a beating on purpose. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sandcastlesblog.substack.com

    45 min

  3. APR 9

    We're All Incrementalists Now

    When I was a college organizer with Direct Action Everywhere, I dismissed the welfare campaigners at The Humane League as sellouts. They thought I was a naïf. Neither of us was right — but it took years for me to understand why. In this classic essay, I argued that the old "welfarism versus abolitionism" divide was always a category error: every animal advocate is an incrementalist, just focusing on different increments. The more useful frame, borrowed from social movement theory, is the inside-outside strategy — and once you see it, the apparent contradiction between cage-free campaigns and restaurant disruptions starts to look less like a civil war and more like a playbook. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sandcastlesblog.substack.com

    38 min

  4. APR 2

    Our lessons are paid for in animals' blood

    Sunday morning, I joined Chris Bryant’s popular Youtube stream for a wide-ranging discussion on all of my favorite topics: pragmatic campaigning, movement factionalism, and AI’s impact on animals. This was a full-circle moment for me. When I started Pax Fauna without any research experience to speak of, Chris gave me some helpful advice. I was tickled to hear that my writing has helped him think about AI and even inspired him to drop thousands of dollars on Claude Max plans for his team. Enjoy! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sandcastlesblog.substack.com

    1h 3m

  5. MAR 27 ·  BONUS

    I am once again asking you to come rescue some beagles

    Please join me and 2,000 other people in Wisconsin on April 19 to tear a Beagle farm apart brick by brick and rescue every one of the 2,000 dogs still languishing inside. Sign up here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sandcastlesblog.substack.com

    11 min

  6. MAR 25

    Animal Welfare is Just Part of AI Alignment Now

    And both movements are better for it. The animal welfare movement and the AI alignment movement grew up in the same community, but they've been operating in separate lanes. That's a mistake — and it's one both sides can fix. In this essay, I argue that the arrival of transformative AI makes animal welfare a wholly-owned subsidiary of the broader "Make AI Go Well" movement, whether either side likes it or not. For animal advocates, that means putting AI at the center of our strategic thinking, including designing our campaigns with AI training data in mind. For alignment researchers, it means recognizing that a post-AGI world full of factory farming is a failure mode, not a footnote. I make the case that both movements need each other more than they realize, and that the skills each has developed are exactly what the other is missing. This audio version of Sandcastles is produced using an AI clone of Aidan's voice. Please forgive mispronunciations. Read the original on Substack. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sandcastlesblog.substack.com

    51 min

  7. MAR 18

    You Can Just Rescue Animals

    Open rescue isn't an alternative to pragmatic campaigning. It's the missing piece. I came out of open rescue retirement to join hundreds of activists in storming a dog factory farm in Wisconsin. In this essay, I tell the story of the Ridglan Farms rescue, what it felt like to be back, and why the experience resolved a tension I've been wrestling with for years. Open rescue and focused, winnable campaigns aren't alternatives — they're different types of artifact that belong together. But the deeper argument is about something I'm calling proportionate action: a movement that claims to be fighting a moral atrocity of historic proportions will lose its soul if no part of it ever takes action commensurate with that claim. This audio version of Sandcastles is produced using an AI clone of Aidan's voice. Please forgive mispronunciations. Read the original on Substack. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sandcastlesblog.substack.com

    28 min

  8. FEB 27

    Meat-Eating Grandmothers Blocked Trucks for Sheep. Can It Happen Again?

    In search of the missing social movement for farmed animals. In 1995, thousands of people—disproportionately meat-eating moms and grandmas—laid their bodies across a road in a tiny English coastal town to stop trucks carrying live sheep to slaughter. For ten months, crowds of over a thousand showed up day after day, facing down riot police, in what remains the high-water mark of mass mobilization for farmed animals. Nothing like it has happened since. In this episode, I ask why. Drawing on my own years as an organizer with Direct Action Everywhere, I work through the strategic mistakes that have kept the animal movement small and insular—from messaging that alienates the public, to campaigns designed for efficiency rather than inspiration, to an abolitionist philosophy that divided the movement over the very campaigns that could have united us. And I propose some directions for what it would take to trigger one more wave of mass protest for farmed animals before the window closes. This audio version of Sandcastles is produced using an AI clone of my voice. Please forgive mispronunciations. Read the original on Substack. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sandcastlesblog.substack.com

    1h 10m
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Ratings & Reviews

5
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About

A podcast for animal advocates and other campaigner about focusing on the right things– and not focusing on the wrong things. Audio readings of essays by Aidan Kankyoku. sandcastlesblog.substack.com

Information

  • Creator
    Sandcastles
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    23
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Sandcastles
  • Show Website
    Sandcastles

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