The Animal Highlight is an exciting sister podcast that serves to compliment the animal-related topics addressed in The Animal Turn podcast. Specifically, each The Animal Highlight podcast highlights the species discussed in The Animal Turn to focus and explore aspects of their lives and discuss the extraordinary and amazing attributes of such species. These 5-15 minute podcasts follow at the end of each The Animal Turn podcast hosted by Claudia Hirtenfelder.
Virginia Thomas introduces the red maguey worm; a caterpillar often mistakenly called the “tequila worm.” She explores their biology and ethical implications of using these metamorphosing creatures as novelty ‘items’ in alcoholic beverages.
Recorded: 18 September 2023
Featured:
Virginia Thomas is an environmental social scientist with a PhD in Sociology. She is interested in people’s interactions with their environment and with other animals. Virginia’s work explores the social and ethical questions in human-animal relationships. She is currently a research fellow on the Wellcome Trust funded project ‘From Feed the Birds to Do Not Feed the Animals’ which examines the drivers and consequences of animal feeding. This leads on from her previous research which examined human-animal relations in the media (as part of zoonotic disease framing) and in rewilding projects (in relation to biopolitics and human-animal coexistence). You can connect with Virginia via Twitter (@ArbitrioHumano).
Credits:
Support the podcast via:
A.P.P.L.E
Animals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.
The Animal Highlight is a spinoff and sister podcast to the award winning show, the Animal Turn Podcast.
Connect with us on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
In this Animal Highlight, fellow Virginia Thomas focuses on the domestic dog and the ways in which they might be thought of as citizens. She thinks about some of dogs’ history and discusses the work of Sue Donaldson and Will …continue
Proudly brought to you by: 2 June 2025
Fierce, controversial, and caught between worlds—Heck cattle embody the complex intersection of dark history and modern conservation. This final episode of Season 5 of the Animal Highlight explores how these bovines were deliberately bred by Nazi zoologists in the 1920s …continue
Proudly brought to you by: 4 August 2025
Virginia explores how the recovery of red kites in Britain has been shaped by international efforts and cross-border collaborations between governments and NGOs. Thinking about these birds, Virginia raises questions and concerns about translocation, culture, and species conservation. Recorded: 14 December …continue
Proudly brought to you by: 28 July 2025
