In Tune to Nature Podcast

We get to hear from GSU college students about the environmental causes and projects they are working on and their hopes for the future and why they vote. This may be especially important and interesting to consider during an election season, as Gen Z are the next generation of leaders and have a long life to live here on planet Earth based on the decisions of current and past generations of us humans. So I offered an invitation for any student from my Communicating Environmental Issues class at Georgia State University to join me on the In Tune to...

This timely conversation helps Georgia voters get fully prepped to vote in this midterm election, learning about the environmental policies that candidates stand for, which is important for those of us who want to prioritize healthy communities, affordable clean energy, wildlife protection, and a livable future when voting. To tell us about this is our guest, Brionte McCorkle, friend of the show, and Executive Director of the Georgia Conservation Voters (GCV). Their website is https://gcvoters.org/ where you can see their list of endorsed candidates. At the national level, you can see League of Conservation Voters https://www...

I feel a sense of urgency to talk with the Sierra Club about a public comment opportunity to protect our public forests and remote wilderness habitats in the USA by defending what is called “the roadless rule” (passed with popularity in 2001) from being overturned by our USDA (the United States Dept of Agriculture), as that would mean more roads would be built in remote wilderness, and more trees logged in our National Forests, higher road maintenance costs for taxpayers, more wild animal habitats harmed and thus more animal lives lost, and potentially more wildfire risks for all of us. In t...

Needlessly, there is a global Parkinson's disease pandemic on the rise. But it is unnatural and this incurable neurological disease can be prevented with environmental protections and prioritizing a toxin-free ecosystem if we clean up our air pollution and stop using certain degreasers and insecticide chemicals often used in dry cleaning, mechanics, golf courses, farming, and the military (especially TCE, PCE, and Paraquat). This is explained by the passionate medical doctor Dr. Ray Dorsey. In this lively dialogue with In Tune to Nature host Carrie Freeman, Dr. Dorsey shares key insights from his 2025 book “The Parkinson’s Plan: A New...

The last time Dr. Marc Bekoff was on the show, he discussed his "Emotional Lives of Animals" 2nd edition; now he's co-authored a version for teens/young adults called "Love in Their Hearts: A Celebration of Animal Emotions and a Guide to Compassionate Action," with writer and friend Jeff Campbell, both of whom join host Carrie Freeman for a 52-minute conversation that is both fun and touching, as they share stories of nonhuman animal altruism, heroism, and grief -- from Marc's dog Jethro (bunny rescuer), to dairy cow mothers, to the famous grizzly bear 399 in Wyoming, to heroic humpback...

Recorded on my mom, Cathy Packwood’s, birthday, I'm covering a topic she has become passionate about – microplastics and how and why society should end the production and circulation of plastics, for the health of humans and other animals and our shared habitats – and how can we work individually in our homes (that's hard), and collectively as engaged citizens (that's hard too, especially in this administration), to create a healthier existence free from plastics; even recycling plastics causes toxins and can perpetuate reliance on plastics!  See Greenpeace's Forever Toxic recycling report (not recycling is a hard one for me since I...

I'm excited to talk about one of my favorite places, Cumberland Island National Seashore here in coastal Georgia. I got word from the nonprofit Defenders of Wildlife that they are working to prevent some new proposed construction of large houses on Cumberland Island and increased recreational activity that will be disruptive to wildlife. We also talk about the wild horses who live there, as they were introduced to the island and they face some welfare issues and also cause some ecological issues for island habitat. As part of this discussion, we will consider the trump administration’s budgetary and st...

Author and environmental advocate Miriam Horn brings the pioneering impact of wildlife conservationist George Schaller to life in her new book “Homesick for a World Unknown: The Life of George B. Schaller.”  Since the 1950’s, George, often along with his wife Kay (an anthropologist), pioneered the fieldwork of living peacefully amongst large, wild/free-living animals like snow leopards, gorillas, lions, tigers, jaguars, giant pandas, Tibetan antelope, Marco Polo sheep, and Gobi bears in remote habitats, that helped pave the way for humane conservationists like Jane Goodall and Dianne Fossey, recognizing animal agency and their "theory of mind." Schaller also created...

For earthday 2026, I'm replaying an interview of me describing the Human Animal Earthling identity as a strategy to creating alliances for social change by cultivating a more inclusive ingroup and broader moral sphere of concern -- a planetary team spirit, where humans embrace their animality and protect other sentient beings and our habitats. 

Co-host Melody Paris interviewed me (Carrie Freeman) back in December 2020 (we were all distracted by the U.S. Presidential election back then, remember?) about my new book with UGA Press "The Human Animal Earthling Identity: Shared Values Unifying Human Rights, Animal Rights, and Environmental M...

Award-winning travel writer Stephanie Pearson explains the top 10 federal public lands in the USA (out of the 640 million acres that we co-own with wild animals) that are most in need of our protection from a variety of elevating threats at this point in human history (we discuss industrial activity in Alaska and Minnesota, AI data centers all over, climate crisis-caused extinctions in Hawaii, wildlife fragmentation in the Western grasslands, introduced species killing off mammals in the Everglades, government censorship at parks nationwide, and proposed border walls messing up wild lands in Texas). This is based on Stephanie's special news...

From taking down barbed-wire fences for pronghorn and elk In Wyoming and elephants in Kenya, to letting wetland water flow naturally in South Florida for wading birds and fish, to creating 'agave highways' for migrating birds to refuel in New Mexico, to designing spaces with wildlife in mind everywhere, journalist Hillary Rosner shares her insights on how humans are helping stitch back together fragmented and degraded habitats for wild animals globally in her new book "ROAM: Wild Animals and the Race to Repair Our Fractured World" (published with gorgeous photography in 2025 by Patagonia Press on 100% recycled non-bleached paper). See...

We explore an ethical worldview that may be new to a lot of people (but may capture how you really feel if you care for animals). It’s called sentientism, described by our guest Jamie Woodhouse (creator of Sentientism.info and the Sentientism podcast) as “a simple, potentially unifying, philosophy or worldview. It commits to using evidence and applying reason, and grants moral consideration to all sentient beings." Basically, animals are sentient beings, as they (we) experience consciousness and feelings of pleasure or pain and suffering, which tends to be the actual basis of most moral concerns for others (rath...

You'll be fascinated to learn how the animal ag industry (following the tobacco and fossil fuel industry playbook) influences academic climate research to highlight or produce favorable findings to trick the public and policymakers into continuing to subsidize it and avoid needed regulations that would protect wild and domesticated animals, workers, surrounding ecosystems, and our climate. Associate Professor of Communication at Mercer University, Dr. Vasile Stanescu, has a lively discussion with fellow critical animal studies scholar and vegan advocate Carrie Freeman (host of In Tune to Nature) in this 54-minute podcast where he explains his intriguing research on the...

Carrie talks with Lorena about her program educating millions of school kids around the world on issues with our food systems (especially with animal agriculture and commercial fishing) and talking with classmates and their teacher to consider the environmental, nutritional, public health, social, and/or ethical issues with our industrial food practices, and what the students want to do about it to be part of the solution. To tell us about the Educated Choices Program nonprofit and all their freely available, scientifically-backed videos and lesson plans for teachers K-12 and college level is their Founder & CEO, Lorena Mucke. Lorena...

This Christmas, I thought it would be fun to analyze six popular Christmas songs referencing animals-other-than-humans (mostly mammals who are forced to pull people around the snow in sleds, and then some birds, mainly fowl who are killed and eaten by humans but sometimes avians humans admire for their beauty). The songs are  Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Run Run Rudolph, Sleigh Ride, Jingle Bells, The 12 Days of Christmas, and Nat King Cole’s The Christmas Song.  In this 24-minute podcast (originally recorded Christmas 2024), I deconstruct these Christmas songs from a Critical Animal Studies perspective. In other words, as an a...

My cohost and fellow activist Melody Paris interviews me (Carrie Freeman) about the Animal-Free Research Foundation conference talk in Switzerland that I gave this fall, titled: "Unwilling, Unconsenting, and Unnecessary Research Subjects: Addressing Anthropocentric Bias in Journalistic Coverage Legitimizing the (Ab)Use of other Animals in Research." We discuss sociocultural and structural barriers to fair coverage of anti-vivisection and animal-free research alternatives, as well as guidelines from me and Deb Merskin's AnimalsandMedia.org website that apply to improving journalistic coverage of the animal research issue, and examples of common research-oriented news stories and how good journalism could facilitate a...

Raised in Kentucky now residing in Asheville,NC Nickole Brown -- poet, writing teacher, and animal rescue volunteer -- shares her love for our wild animal and farmed animal kin with "In Tune to Nature" host Carrie Freeman in this lovely 50-minutes conversation. We enjoy hearing Nickole reading the emotive poem "Mercy" from her award-winning chapbook "To Those Who Were our First Gods" and three poems as essays from her book "The Donkey Elegies." Carrie discusses the many clever, compassionate, and compelling messages found within each poem that truly helps us hear and see fellow animals for the beautiful...

Food is both a necessity and a pleasure, yet these days it costs more than ever (in financial and planetary resources), so to continue this show's annual holiday tradition of exploring eco-friendly gift giving ideas to get your Christmas, Hanukkah or Kwanzaa holidays started off in the right spirit, I wanted to concentrate this year’s show on exploring gifts of food, keeping it plant-based to be more ethical and sustainable (including sweet treats, savory meals, chocolates, drinks, and time spent together enjoying food).

So I was thinking “Who do I know who is a good cook?” which...

In this 50-minute podcast, we talk polar bears, wolves, women, climate activists, and Denali wolf advocacy, through the tales of award-winning nature writer Marybeth Holleman whose new book is the eco-climate fiction novel “Bloom Again” a tale of two women in midlife -- estranged childhood friends -- Astrid a paleo-botanist in Raleigh, North Carolina at UNC and Elyse, a painter in Anchorage, Alaska, who both eventually reunite while experiencing major life changes, in their attempts to mitigate the climate crisis and take some risks in their careers, and through them we realize the road to climate solutions relies on a ma...

Travel along with me through my first fun trip to the gorgeous, dry, red rock canyons of Zion National Park in Utah, on my unique weekend "vegan basecamp" camping experience with my friend Deb and 30 other vegan folks in mid September 2025 (so different from the green, humid Atlanta region I came from). We go together on the iconic "narrows hike," sloshing through the rocky Virgin River in a beautiful slot canyon and later on a night hike under the stars. I also share audio and musings from the Weeping Rock trail, the Emerald Pools trail, Wildcat Canyon trail (and...

To many animal activists (especially activists of color), veganism isn't just a diet to help nonhuman animals; it's a collective liberation movement, part of a systemic approach to seeking justice for all beings and decolonizing our food system. Yvette Baker shares her philosophies on this and more, as the lead author of the innovative and in-depth 68-page Animal Activism Starter Guide for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color), available for free download from APEX Advocacy -- a nonprofit advocacy group started by friend-of-the-show Christopher 'Soul' Eubanks here in Atlanta, that is building a community of BIPOC animal rights...

If you like eco-therapy and/or Australian accents, you'll get both in this episode, as Carrie interviews John Seed, Deep Ecology father, founder/activist of the Rainforest Information Centre and co-author of the open-access book "Thinking Like a Mountain: Toward a Council of All Beings," and Dr. Tema Milstein (American turned Australian), Fulbright Scholar, and environmental communication Professor at Univ of New South Wales in Sydney. Both are co-facilitators of Deep Ecology workshops, that help reconnect us with each other and nature and heal our separation, like the compelling workshop I attended with them in Hobart Tasmania this June...

Insect photographer/advocate Danae Wolfe (of ChasingBugs.com) talks with me about amazing insects (like the spiders, butterflies, moths, and fireflies that I saw in the Appalachia mountains) and why they and their habitats are deserving of our protection, instead of our disdain, zappers, and poisons. We discuss cool tips in her new book "Grass Isn't Greener" to be wildlife-friendly in our greenspaces/ yards (as insect populations are declining and need our help), like by: passing on the pesticides, lessening our lawn, leaving the leaves, planting native plants, flipping the switch on lighting, and avoiding fake Halloween spiderweb mesh...

I was excited to have longtime food and animal activist (and local Atlantan) Leah Garces, CEO of Mercy for Animals, join me in the WRFG studio to share interesting stories from her latest book “TransFARMation: The Movement to Free Us From Factory Farming.” In this 49-minute podcast (recorded July 2025), we discuss all kinds of animals, including many humans, who are affected by industrial animal agribusiness -- from animal farmers, to rural communities, to slaughterhouse workers (many of whom are immigrants), to pigs, chickens, and cows -- everyone fighting exploitation in this broken system.

Since we all are part...

Join me on the second segment of my ecotourism trip to Tasmania, Australia (my unscientific, amateur, American, vegan, wombat-obsessed perspective) with all my own audio recordings from my June 2025 trip. This 58-minute (part 2) segment of the trip takes you along with me to my favorite part -- Maria Island National Park and its wombats, kangaroos and wallabies, stingrays, and ruby red anemones, and the culling issue of marsupial "overpopulation" -- through to Port Arthur Historic Convict Site, then on to the city of Hobart, with insights from my Conference on Communication and Environment #COCE2025 (at Univ of Tasmania), including...

I’m so excited to share my three-week ecotourism trip through Tasmania, Australia. This 50-minute podcast is the first of a multi-part podcast series I created from the audio that I took along my June 2025 trip (and you can pair that with the gorgeous photos I posted on https://www.facebook.com/InTunetoNature ) to get a feel for this extraordinary place, and its animals, like wombats, kangaroos, wallabies, seals, whales, sheep, cows, and birds like cockatoos, forest ravens, magpies, wrens, and kookaburras. Often I’m adding in my own audio commentary and context as an American traveler and animal and...

Environmental communication scholar Dr. Hanna Morris shared her insights from "Apocalyptic Authoritarianism: Climate Crisis, Media, and Power," her 2025 book with Oxford Univ Press. This book meets the political moment in analyzing the way most mainstream news media actually lean moderate to right in climate coverage that "others" and villianizes the New Left activists and progressive politicians as too 'radical' or 'woke' (like A.O.C. and often other women of color or those proposing the Green New Deal) in favor of older American narratives of "order" and quick solutions via white male authorities and American exceptionalism, rather than exploring...

When you hear the term "animal welfare" you probably think cats, dogs, horses, maybe pet parakeets. But there is an organization called Wild Animal Initiative that is expanding the notion of animal welfare to include wild/free-living animal individuals. For my 100th podcast episode, my guest Cat Kerr with Wild Animal Initiative was here to talk about how scientists try to measure wellbeing in wild animals (you can guess some of the criteria) and why we have not often done that in scientific research on a regular basis (it's different from veterinary research and conservation research). Cat and host...

In this mass extinction era, can we save the Endangered Species Act? We discuss how engaged citizens can speak out against the trump regime's recent proposal to weaken the notion of what “harm” legally means (so the Endangered Species Act would essentially no longer protect animals’ habitats from exploitation, even though habitat destruction is the largest threat to species). Here's a link to a public comment opportunity for engaged citizens to post their thoughts to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services (by May 19 ,2025). But the fight will be ongoing and end up in court, so continue to keep tabs on wha...

In honor of National Park Week and Earthday 2025, we are supporting OUR national parks by sharing stories about what we love about the parks that we all collectively own (the most beautiful and ecologically significant wild places/habitats in the nation...and in the world, as some earned UNESCO World Heritage Site designations), to help encourage Americans to ask for political support to stop trump and musk/DOGE from defunding OUR parks and to stop firing our hard-working park rangers and staff who are our park defenders. In this 28 minute episode I talk about an Atlanta group of women...

We reframe the “egg crisis” (high prices and low supply of commercial hen’s eggs in a bird flu outbreak) as a crisis of mass farming of animals, proposing sustainable alternative food solutions that can replace eggs and reduce the spread of zoonotic diseases, pollution, and the killing and harm of millions of wild and domesticated animals. Jennifer and Carrie discuss this in the context of the bird flu outbreak, as avian influenza is spreading and mutating in a variety of animal species (including cows used for dairy and human farm workers) – this infectious pathogen is an increasingly alarming issue fo...

Our National Park Service staff are under seige, as so many federal employees are, from trump and Elon Musk’s unfair attacks on our federal government agencies with haphazard and frankly cruel mass firings of public servants (not truly based on inefficiency or poor performance) along with spending and hiring freezes that are traumatizing and debilitating park employees and surrounding communities, creating a culture of fear and demoralization (the rhetoric not only lacks appreciation but is insulting). What little we gain in $ savings are outweighed by the massive long-term costs for everyone.

I turned to a career pu...

We gotta start eating plants not other animals. A 2025 article published in the journal “Oxford Open Climate Change” titled “Solving climate change requires changing our food systems” outlines the need for human societies globally to transition to plant-based food systems and phase out factory farming, offering pathways to make that vision a reality to reach climate mitigation goals and spare the worst warming and deforestation impacts. (the article is open-access and available to share, with a wealth of sources in the bibliography https://academic.oup.com/oocc/article/5/1/kgae024/7942019?l )

"In Tune to Nature" host Carrie Freeman is one o...

We discuss the concept of animal dignity – two words that don’t often get put together; we typically only hear of human dignity, as if it means we are dignified precisely because we aren’t animals, yet we humans are part of the animal kingdom and not the only animal species who possesses a dignity that should be respected.

In this special 55-minute podcast, host Carrie Freeman explores this novel ethical and legal concept with our guest, award-winning British author, philosopher, and animal advocate Melanie Challenger who has a new edited book out on Animal Dignity and just w...

Carrie and Melody discuss how to incorporate animal and eco protection into your life in meaningful ways to meet your own life goals, priorities, and interests in big and small ways, syncing up with actions and virtues the world needs from us humans. 

Since the beginning of each new year is a time to reassess our own goals and priorities, it seemed a good time to have an In Tune to Nature show that focused on our own personal growth resolutions and how that can synergize with efforts to help other species. This is also a special s...

This Christmas, I thought it would be fun to analyze 6 popular Christmas songs referencing animals-other-than-humans (mostly mammals who are forced to pull people around the snow in sleds, and then some birds, mainly birds that humans kill and eat but sometimes birds humans admire for their beauty). The songs are  Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Run Run Rudolph, Sleigh Ride, Jingle Bells, The 12 Days of Christmas, and Nat King Cole’s The Christmas Song. I’m going to deconstruct these Christmas songs from a Critical Animal Studies perspective. In other words, as an animal rights activist who is sympathetic to th...

To have a greener holiday season (and beyond) and avoid buying a bunch of cluttering stuff your friends and family don't need (and probably don't want), this annual holiday show focuses not on eco-friendly products/items but more on eco-friendly experiences and services in order to avoid cluttering up our lives (and planet) with more items that land in our homes permanently and ultimately weigh us and our descendants down (or just end up in a landfill down the line).

So my emphasis here is on sharing gift-giving ideas for vegan-friendly foods/restaurants or experiences (airbnbs/cabins, p...

I decided animals needed an election postmortem after being erased from the political and media agenda by self-centered anthropocentrism; so I wanted to use this media platform with my friend from Oregon, Dr. Debra Merskin, to collectively grieve, vent, and discuss how we really feel this week as animal rights activists, vegans, environmentalists, social justice advocates, human animal earthlings, and feminists who were excited to have America's first women president after 200+ years! While the show is hopeful and uplifting in parts, that was not actually my aim. I just wanted to get real in explaining my despair and my...

This election season is the ultimate time to consider that this decade is our last best chance to transition to a liveable planet instead of continuing to further recklessly degrade the sustainability of our own species’ future, and that of fellow earthlings, and our one Oasis Earth. Marine conservationist, former U of Alaska professor, and clean energy and wildlife consultant, Dr. Rick Steiner speaks with In Tune to Nature radio host Carrie Freeman about his book Oasis Earth: Planet in Peril – Our Last Best Chance to Save Our World. Anyone can download, read, and share this open-access/free digital book...

We voters really do care about eco issues (it's aligned with our health and economy and love for other animals...and future generations), so I wanted to get us prepared, motivated, and confident for early voting in Georgia Oct 15 - Nov 1st, with resources and tips shared by Brionte McCorkle, Executive Director of the nonpartisan Georgia Conservation Voters (GCV) at  https://www.gcvoters.org/vote/

That GCV voter resource website includes a link to this nonpartisan tool  https://gcv.branch.vote/summary  where you can see your ballot ahead of time and check out the candidates' views on...