you hear a lot, I'm not an animal, don't treat me as an animal. But why do we treat animals like quote-unquote animals?

We shouldn't be treating animals like animals by which that means devalued, under-appreciated beings.

And so I think we need to rethink how it is that we are in relationship with all sorts of others

so that we don't have these value hierarchies. Hi, I'm Elizabeth Novigrats, this is Species Unite.

Today's conversation is with Lori Grun.

Lori is a leading scholar in animal studies and feminist philosophy.

She's the William Griffin Professor of Philosophy at Wesleyan University

and the coordinator of Wesleyan Animal Studies.

She is also the author and editor of 11 books,

the most recent two are critical terms

for animal studies and animalities.

Her work in practical ethics and political philosophy focuses on issues that impact those often

overlooked in traditional ethical investigations.

Women, people of color, incarcerated people, and non-human animals.

She's also documented the history of the first 100 chimpanzees used in United States research labs and she has an evolving

website called the last 1,000 that documents the journey to sanctuary of the

remaining chimpanzees used in research labs.

Lori and I met at her home in Connecticut a few weeks ago

right before social distancing became the norm.

So I'm really glad that we got to do this in person.

What are you in person?

What are you into animal studies to begin with?

...