Episode 33: Vasile Stanescu explains how speciesism is connected to other forms of oppression

Welcome to Episode 33 of Always for Animal Rights!

This week, I am pleased to present my second interview with the Critical Animal Studies scholar Vasile Stanescu. Vasile is an Assistant Professor of Communication Studies and the director of the Program in Speech and Debate at Mercer University. He is also a co-Senior editor of the Critical Animal Studies book series and former co-editor of the Journal for Critical Animal Studies. He has written more than twenty peer-reviewed publications about Critical Animal Studies and the environment.

In this interview, Vasile explains what Critical Animal Studies is, and he challenges us to reconsider our use of the term "nonhuman animal". He also speaks about how speciesism is connected to other forms of oppression, why animal rights activists should be opposed to capitalism, how the animal agriculture industry is funding disinformation about the effects of animal agriculture on climate change, and why there is no such thing as humane or sustainable animal agriculture. Additionally, he shares his view that animal rights activists should work with, and not against, other social justice movements.

During the discussion, Vasile spoke about his academic journal article titled "'White Power Milk’: Milk, Dietary Racism, and the ‘Alt-Right'", and his open letter to Peter Singer, both of which you can read for free online. He also mentioned the Animals & Society Institute video in which he explains what Critical Animal Studies is. (You may recall that Vasile was also a guest on Episode 25, which was about why vegans shouldn't promote lab-grown "meat".)

It's a fascinating interview!

How to listen to this episode

There are two ways you can listen to this episode.

1. Listen to the episode on CKCU FM's website at https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/553/48549.html.
2. Listen to or download the podcast from Archive.org at https://archive.org/details/afar-july-29-2020.
   

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Go vegan, stay vegan, and let's remember to stand up and speak up for animal rights today and every day. Thanks for listening to the show!