The Animal Turn

About The Animal Turn

Animals are increasingly at the forefront of research questions – Not as shadows to human stories, or as beings we want to understand biologically, or for purely our benefit – but as beings who have histories, stories, and geographies of their own. Each season is set around themes with each episode unpacking a particular animal turn concept and its significance therein. Join Claudia Hirtenfelder as she delves into some of the most important ideas emerging out of this recent turn in scholarship, thinking, and being.

Publisher

Claudia Hirtenfelder

Category

science · science · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

24 Feb 2020

Latest episode

5 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

122 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   5 Oct 2026

   S9E5: Historical Methods with Jennifer Bonnell and Sean Kheraj

   In this episode we switch gears toward considering historical methods. Sean Kheraj and Jennifer Bonnell come onto the show to discuss their edited book Traces of The Animal Past and together with Claudia they delve into some of the ways environmental and animal histories differ as well as some of the key methods scholars interested in them can use. Topics Covered: animal history versus environmental historysearching for animals in the archive borrowing tools from natural and socia...

2. 

   28 Sept 2026

   S9E4: Segregation with Jules Skotnes-Brown

   Jules Skotnes-Brown joins Claudia on the show to discuss how segregating logics were used to govern humans and animals in South Africa’s history. This includes everything from Addo’s elephants being driven, enclosed, and “tamed”, to Kalahari San people being policed inside a national park and managed through rations and confinement. Topics Covered: The difference between environmental history and animal history Defining segregation as a ideological and material connect...

3. 

   21 Sept 2026

   S9E3: Taxonomies with Harriet Ritvo

   Harriet Ritvo discusses animals and taxonomy, unfurling the ways in which animals are categorised scientifically and in everyday vernacular. She unfurls what this might mean for how we know animals and the ways in which we understand and write their histories. Topics Covered: how classification systems expose human values and power why herd books matter for animal history and domesticationscientific taxonomy versus vernacular categories naming rules, authorit...

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

9,881

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

6 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

43 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 61 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

59

Social presence

0

YouTube

74

Engagement

81

Contact The Animal Turn

Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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