I got to know the incredible attorney Steffen Seitz when I had the privilege of serving on Wayne Hsiung's legal team during his trial for organizing mass open rescues of animals in Sonoma County, California. Steffen was fresh out of Yale Law School and there to be of assistance in any way he could. And his positive impact was immediately felt, by myself and the whole team. What I found in Steffen was someone extraordinarily bright, insightful and generous. Beyond his enormous help to the team, I will never forget the late nights when I was scrambling to finish something up for court the next day and Steffen staying up late to help me with this thing or that thing when he didn't have to. Steffen is the person who completed what I consider a crazily improbable hail mary pass in getting a special prosecutor appointed to look into beagle breeder Ridglan Farms. At that point, Ridglan had just dropped charges that had been pending on Wayne and his two co-defendants for rescuing dogs from that place, and a petition was filed to appoint a special prosecutor to finally do something about Ridglan. Steffen's successful petition ultimately led to the agreement reached between Tim Gruenke and Ridglan to give up their state breeders license, a massive win, but a win tempered by the refusal by authorities to do anything for the beagles still remaining there, a problem that remains unresolved to this day.Steffen's work, along with his colleagues at the Animal Activist Legal Defense Project, is one of the true godsends for the animal rights movement. I hope you enjoy our chat as much as I did.This conversation is also available on YouTube.Links:AALDPAALDP IGAALDP LinkedInVoluntary Prosecution and the Case of Animal RescueConspiracy and Social Movements"This is an Uprising" bookSign up for the April 19 RescueWatch EarthlingsWatch Dominion

I've wanted to have Jeremy Beckham on my podcast for awhile to talk about his deep research into how beagles became the dogs used as lab experiments. Now with there being so much focus on beagle breeder Ridglan Farms due to a March 15 open rescue that got 22 dogs to safety, it's the perfect time to speak with him and look at the big picture. It was likely Jeremy himself who largely put Ridglan under a microscope years ago when, while living in Madison, he happened to learn of a secretive dog breeder nearby that was at that time the 3rd largest breeder of beagles for research in America.Jeremy documented in his harrowing research paper "Radioactive Beagles" how the Cold War-era focus on atomic energy and weapons prompted a surge in studies about how radiation affects the human body. But, as he documents, through a series of decisions of convenience, the beagle was chosen to conduct that research, costing many thousands of dogs a life of suffering which continues to this day. In this episode you'll hear Jeremy's take on what's happening at Ridglan Farms, animal testing and the animal rights movement over his decades advocating for animals, whether with Beagle Freedom Project, PETA, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, or any other of the many roles he's played. I hope you enjoy this insightful conversation as much as I did.This episode is also available on YouTube.Links:Radioactive BeaglesJeremy's LinkedIn"Animal Liberation Now"John Gluck bookJeremy on Wayne's podcastJoin the April 19th Riglan rescueWatch DominionWatch Earthlings

Matthew Zirbel is one of the lead researchers on a newly released interactive website map of factory farms in California called Factory Farm Watch. Matthew is an organizer with the grassroots animal rights group Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) and it's through them that I've gotten to know him. For a while, Matthew was just someone who I'd often see at demonstrations. After getting to know him some, I got to see how competend and pleasant he was to work with. As I mentioned in the podcast, I feel like a huge perk of being in the animal rights movement is getting to meet amazing people, and Matthew is definitely one of those people.I hope you'll enjoy this conversation and check out the website. Also, a day after we did our interview, Vox's Marine Bolotnikova published an excellent feature on a DxE investigation that Matthew was talking about at Grimmius Cattle Company. I've linked to both of those items below and highly recommend them. This conversation is also available on YouTube, and it may be more suitable for viewing the map.Links:FactoryFarmWatch.orgThe Vox storyDirect Action EverywhereWatch DominionWatch EarthlingsMatthew's Book RecsPeter Singer"Moral Ambition""Thinking Fast and Slow"

Roger Yates has had so many titles over the years that it's difficult to even know where to begin. So I just settled on introducing Roger as a longtime animal rights advocate. But to dig in a bit more, Roger was once a spokesperson for the Animal Liberation Front, a committee member of the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection, and founder of numerous groups. He's also a sociologist. Roger is probably most visible these days on his YouTube channel where he also does a podcast called "Still Alive" with ALF founder Ronnie Lee. Roger was there for so many notable moments in animal rights history, some which we talked about here. As he mentioned to me, he also feels very protective of the movement. He has some sharp observations about it that we also got into. He has loads of knowledge and wisdom to draw from. But the main takeaway for me is that Roger is a genuinely enjoyable guy to speak with. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did.This conversation is also available on YouTube.Links:Roger's YouTubeRoger's IGRoger's FBRoger's TikTokTom Regan speech"Defending Animal Rights"Roger on Green Scare PodWatch DominionWatch Earthlings

For my last episode of the holiday season, I thought it would be appropriate to take stock of the incredible achievements of the animal rights movement in 2025. And the Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade (CAFT) was a huge part of it. Orchestrating a dizzying number of wins that just keep rolling in, CAFT has shown what a relatively small group of committed activists can achieve with the right amount of focus and determination. CAFT executive director Suzie Stork is a big reason for it. Suzie is an impressive leader of an impressive group that's part of an impressive coalition, along with groups like Animal Activism Collective (AAC) and the International Council for Animal Welfare (ICAW) that have brought big results for animals this year. The latest CAFT win, getting influential designer Rick Owens to go fur free, was won in just five days. I can barely keep track of all the wins. And that's the best holiday gift I could ask for. Thank you for an amazing 2025, and here's to a 2026 that sees the fur industry finished for good.This conversation is also available on YouTube.Links:CAFT websiteCAFT newsletterCAFT IGAAC LinktreeICAWWatch EarthlingsWatch Dominion

Alex Hershaft was just a child when he and his family were forced into the Polish Warsaw Ghetto by the Nazis. Fortunately, Alex survived where so many others perished, making his way to America. Years later, while inspecting a slaughterhouse, he was taken back to images he remembered from the Holocaust. He would dedicate his life to saving animals, organizing a national conference in 1981, a huge milestone in the American modern animal rights movement and forming the group Farm Animal Rights Movement (FARM).Now 91 years old, I had the honor to speak with Alex for the first time for this podcast. Alex comes across to me as very affable and thoughtful, with loads of insight into the history of the animal rights movement, a major topic of interest for this channel. I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did.This conversation is also available on YouTube.Links:Five Decades - One MissionAlex's websiteAlex's blogAlex's IGAlex's FB"Never Again"FARMWatch Earthlings

Dr. Richard D. Ryder coined the term "speciesism" in the late 1960s at a time when there were new terms such as "racism" and "sexism" more widely beginning to permeate the culture, describing a prejudice based on morally insignificant traits. This concept started to bounce around a small group of intellectuals at the University of Oxford, including the young philosopher Peter Singer, who would go on to popularize the term in his transformative book "Animal Liberation." Ryder had originally agreed to be a cowriter along with Singer, but pulled out with other work at the time. But his influence on "Animal Liberation" was significant. It was, in fact, this intellectual framework thus described beautifully in the opening monologue of the documentary "Earthlings" which led to my discovery of animal rights and directly changed the course of my life. Put simply, I am doing what I am doing today in large part due to the groundwork laid by Richard.And in fact, it was Peter Singer who graciously made the introduction to Richard at my request. I didn't know at the time how opportune a moment it was to be asking, as Peter alerted me to Richard's new book "The Ban on Hunting with Hounds and Other Campaigns Against Speciesism." Richard explained that this book would describe the massive campaign against hound hunting while simultaneously serving as a sort of autobiography. He said it would probably be his last book. The book is set to be released on December 8th. It was a real honor and treat to be able to speak with him about it, and to meet a man who gave voice to the animals throughout his entire life and indirectly changed the course of mine. Thank you, Richard.This conversation is also available on YouTube.Links:Richard's author page on AmazonWatch Earthlings

Melanie Kaplan's new book "Lab Dog" is a crowning achievement. The book is a story of Melanie's research project she undertook with her co-pilot beagle Hammy, the titular "lab dog" himself. It was to find out where Hammy came from and what had been done to him. That project ballooned into an incredibly well-researched exposé into the world of animal testing. And while she obviously had "Hammy bias," as she put it, this is a work of journalism, looking at multiple viewpoints and facets. It sort of blew my mind how little I actually knew about the subject and learned from this book. It was a joy to speak to Melanie and I hope everyone reads "Lab Dog." A blurb on the cover from Jane Goodall calls it "remarkable" and I tend to agree.This conversation is also available on YouTube.Links:Melanie's website"Lab Dog" on AmazonHammy on IGMelanie on FBWatch DominionWatch Earthlings