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 (https://sandcastlesblog.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast)
Important news: I recently started a new Substack channel, the Animal Welfare Alignment Newsletter (https://animainternational.substack.com/), fully dedicated to my work at Anima International trying to convince AI companies to include animal welfare values as a target when aligning their AI models. I decided to keep this separate from Sandcastles because the topic is narrower and the posts are often more technical, but most of the feedback I’ve gotten from readers is that they would still be interested in these posts. I’m crossposting this one to both channels, and if you’re interested, you should subscribe to the new channel (https://animainternational.substack.com/).
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Frontier AI labs are quietly splitting into two camps: those building obedient "tool" AIs that do exactly what they're told, and Anthropic, trying to raise a moral agent with a character of its own. In this post, I argues that this obscure-sounding debate may be one of the most consequential questions the animal movement will ever face, and that advocates should be quietly rooting for character. Drawing on a remarkably candid (and very online) argument unfolding between researchers at OpenAI, Anthropic, and the fringes of AI safety Twitter, we see how a morally reflective AI is far better news for animals than a compliant one, and why pressuring every lab to embrace character alignment could be a winnable corporate campaign.
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 (https://sandcastlesblog.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)
9 Jun 2026
The Winners’ Charter
Five principles from the faction that stopped fighting and started winning.
“The golden carp has escaped the net. What will he feed on now?” - The Blue Cliff Record, case 49
The animal rights movement spent a decade tearing itself apart—abolitionists versus welfarists, open rescue versus underground, endless fights over who to cancel. That war is finally ending, and a new faction is rising from its ashes: Team Win, defined by a single commitment to winning for animals by any means short of violence. Drawing on the Grassroots Animal Rights Summit in DC, Anima International's brutally honest internal culture, the Ridglan beagle rescue, and a board-game-obsessed Polish campaigner who plays to win, I lay out the five principles of the Winners' Charter. Plus: a time-traveling dialogue about why short-term wins and long-term power were never really at odds, and why whatever you're most confident about today is probably what you'll be most embarrassed about in eight years.
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 (https://sandcastlesblog.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)
13 May 2026
It’s Everybody’s Fault
Imploring animal advocates to stop confusing moral and strategic questions
At one moment in Humane Hancock's new documentary The Dying Trade, two characters debate who is really to blame for factory farming — corporations or consumers? I use it as a jumping-off point to argue that the whole debate is a distraction. Whether responsibility falls on CEOs, workers, consumers, or regulators, the more important question is always: what actually works? From DxE's compassionate disruption tactics to the chaotic, salsa-flinging foie gras campaigns of AAC and CAFT, the animal movement too often dresses up moral preferences as strategic arguments — and that the cure is to think like a strategist first, not a philosopher. Also featuring Adolf Eichmann, Gary Francione, and Temple Grandin's wardrobe.
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 (https://sandcastlesblog.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)
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