A wild collection of stories and interviews that explore what it really means that humans are animals, too – guided by that one animating question: If we are just animals, can we become more just, too? <br/><br/><a href="https://thedrynosedprimate.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast">thedrynosedprimate.substack.com</a>
Just Animals Among Other Animals
Claim This Podcastby Mara-Daria Cojocaru
8 episodes
Updated Daily
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Podcast Overview
A wild collection of stories and interviews that explore what it really means that humans are animals, too – guided by that one animating question: If we are just animals, can we become more just, too? <br/><br/><a href="https://thedrynosedprimate.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast">thedrynosedprimate.substack.com</a>
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Publishing Since
5/23/2025
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Recent Episodes
February 5, 2026
Care, Love, and Attention as Political Acts for Streeties
<p>In this live, <a target="_blank" href="https://thedrynosedprimate.substack.com/p/i-dont-like-cookies-i-like-cake">Sindhoor</a> and I talked about recent events in India. You might remember that we had chosen streeties in India for “Philosophy in the Wild: Finding Hope in Mixed Communities” as another case of mutualism between humans and wild living animals (and streeties are yet another wonderful case to question our preconceived and unduly romantic notions of ‘wild’). While not all humans in India are “dog lovers”, India has a long history of tolerance vis-à-vis other animals. What is more, experiments with lethal control of street dog populations under colonial rule had shown that that were not effective at controlling the risks from rabies and dog bites. Hence, streeties in India came to enjoy some important legal protection both under the general prevention of cruelty to animals and regarding their right to belong to certain neighbourhoods. </p><p>Last summer, things took a turn for the worse, with the Supreme Court of India first declaring that all dogs in New Delhi were supposed to be removed. Meanwhile, the goal is to capture 10% of the 60 to 100 million streeties nationwide and put them into shelters. If there already wasn’t enough money to implement previous laws and regulations, this idea is not only unjust and ecologically unsound but also highly unrealistic. Sindhoor calls these “mythical shelters” “a Shangri-La” and walks us through the complicated political and cultural landscape that has formed around this issue. She argues against only seeing suffering as far as street dogs are concerned, and shares vivid accounts of what it really is like to share communities with these “independent thinkers”. And she urges us to keep having conversations about vital matters with our neighbours and communities even when, perhaps particularly when we disagree. </p><p>Please keep paying attention to the issue of streeties in India by following Sindhoor’s organisation BHARCS’ <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bharcs.com/removal-of-free-living-dogs">work on the matter</a>, also on <a target="_blank" href="https://www.facebook.com/bharcs">Facebook</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.instagram.com/bharcs_education">Instagram</a>, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUAyOsTh88njZMEGuVE631A">YouTube</a>.</p> <br/><br/>This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://thedrynosedprimate.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1">thedrynosedprimate.substack.com</a>
January 27, 2026
Spots of a Cheetah
<p>Conservation biologist <a target="_blank" href="https://www.plus.ac.at/umwelt-und-biodiversitaet/forschung/fachgebiete-der-zoologie/ag-von-merten/team/mutoro/">Noreen Mutoro</a> talks with us about her experience working with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.actionforcheetahs.org">Action for Cheetahs in Kenya</a>, who have been pioneering the work with dogs in conversation. (Follow them on LinkedIn or <a target="_blank" href="https://www.facebook.com/Action4cheetahs/">Facebook</a> to learn about sharing space with wild living animals or how Apollo, the newest canine on the team, is doing.) We also talk about One Health considerations, working with local communities, the many ways of life for dogs, problems of fortress conservation, and the nature of indigenous knowledge as well as its potential in promoting coexistence between humans and other animals.</p><p>Substack had let us down with their app, so this is a Zoom recording — I hope you can still hear okay!</p><p>Meeting Noreen has been really inspiring and helped me return to an old hobby, scent detection with dogs. She has also pointed me into the direction of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.naturschutzhunde.at">Naturschutzhunde</a>, an Austrian organisation doing important work on protocols and training dogs for these jobs. I am 100% hooked and planning more posts on this ancient mutualism between humans and dogs in service of other animals.</p><p>Thanks for listening!</p> <br/><br/>This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://thedrynosedprimate.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1">thedrynosedprimate.substack.com</a>
December 16, 2025
Live with Greg McElwain on the ‘mixed community’
<p>Thank you to everyone who joined Greg and me for a discussion of Mary Midgley’s ‘mixed community. Greg kindly shared with us what it was really like to do philosophy with Midgley: Besides wisdom and biscuits, she could also happen to recite poetry or make you read it out loud. Here is <a target="_blank" href="https://allpoetry.com/The-Song-of-Quoodle">“The Song of Quoodle”</a> Greg mentions — loving it. </p><p>If you would like to read up on the mixed community and Greg’s thinking around it, here are three excellent resources:</p><p>Chapter 4 “Animals and Why They Matter”, in his: <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/mary-midgley-9781350047563/">Mary Midgley. An Introduction</a>, Bloomsbury 2020, 65—91 . </p><p>“Midgley at the Intersection of Animal and Environmental Ethics”. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/ateliers/2018-v13-n1-ateliers04192/1055122ar/">Les Ateliers de l’Éthique / The Ethics Forum</a> 13(1), 2008, 143—58. </p><p>“Midgley’s Animal and Environmental Ethics: Context and Relevance”, forthcoming in Ellie Robson (Ed.): The Moral Philosophy of Mary Midgley (and its Reception).</p><p>Feel free to get in touch with <a target="_blank" href="https://collegeofidaho.edu/people/greg-mcelwain/">Greg directly</a> for any more questions — as you can tell from our chat, he is a super patient and generous person. </p><p>We did establish that the ‘mixed community’ really has been underdeveloped by Midgley. It is a “philosopher’s term”, and as much as philosophers are encouraged to engage in the mess of navigating real moral conflicts, it is not their job to just declare, once and for all, how things ought to be. </p><p>I feel (and have <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/passionate-animals-9781793628565/">argued</a>) that she offers a unique type of casuistry with a dash of utopia. In that regard, another chapter of interest to you could be her “Practical Utopianism”, chapter 2 in her <a target="_blank" href="https://www.routledge.com/Utopias-Dolphins-and-Computers-Problems-in-Philosophical-Plumbing/Midgley/p/book/9780415133784">Utopias, Dolphins and Computers. Problems of Philosophical Plumbing</a>, in which she, among other things, explains why pluralism does not need to lead to nihilism. </p><p>In our conversation, Greg and I kept bringing up more and more of the complexity which mixed communities inevitably display. Dealing with problems of human-animal-relation is messy and it will be even more so the messier human-human-relations become. And yet. Perhaps the final metaphor we land on — the kaleidoscope — is useful to stress that we can still aim for beauty in all that mess. </p><p>Midgley herself, in her “Practical Utopianism”, says: </p><p>If we try to work with a world-view which shows us only the complexity of existing facts, we lose our bearings and forget where we are going. And of course these supposedly realistic views aren’t truly realistic either. Every account enshrines some particular ideals rather than others and expresses some dream. Our imagination needs, then, to be stimulated, not from one but from a hundred points on this spectrum. It needs to be stirred constantly from different angles by different aspects of the truth, if it is to keep its power of responding to what goes on. (ibid., 25)</p><p>Now, with the wonderful, both visionary and messy material that all the teams are sharing for <a target="_blank" href="https://www.notesfromabiscuittin.com/voyages/2025-philosophy-in-the-wild/">“Philosophy in the Wild: Finding Hope in Mixed Communities” </a>we are slowly but surely getting close to hundred points concerning our mixed communities. My huge and heartfelt thanks to all of them! And I look forward to reporting more on the ideas and developments in the New Year.</p> <br/><br/>This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://thedrynosedprimate.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1">thedrynosedprimate.substack.com</a>
8 total episodes available
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