Species Unite

"We had to start asking how are we sustainable with the activism in the long run? I think that using humor, using confrontation will get people to look at the things that they normally wouldn't." - Jamie Logan Whether they are dressed as fish on the streets of New York, speaking to college students or creating award winning media, Jamie Logan and Justina Adorno are finding new ways to spark conversations about animals. Jamie is an animal rights activist, filmmaker, podcaster and Yogi, whose work spans everything from open rescues to street outreach and media campaigns that have reached millions, all in service of getting people to see animals differently. Justina is an actress, storyteller, podcaster, and animal advocate known for bringing creativity, humor, and heart to conversations about compassion and justice. Together, they have created Green Goddesses Take New York, an award winning show that follows their adventures through New York City as they tackle animal issues in ways that are unexpected, very funny, and impossible to ignore. The show recently won seven Telly awards. In this conversation, we talk about activism, storytelling, humor, yoga, the art of changing someone's mind without putting them on the defensive, and why they both believe that building a more compassionate world requires you to show up fully with your whole, joyful, ridiculous self. Links: https://watch.unchainedtv.com/videos/green-goddesses-take-new-york https://www.youtube.com/@jsykpodcast https://www.itsjamiescorner.com/

"You look at these animals, and they're just so far removed from the life that I want them to have, that they should have that, we would hope that wild animals have. And they're just humiliated and degraded and they're so utterly powerless." - Nina Jackel Today, we're taking you inside one of the darkest corners of the animal tourism industry — places where wild animals are stolen, broken, and paraded for human amusement. Nina Jackel, founder of Lady Freethinker, an organization exposing and ending animal cruelty worldwide, and Blake Moynes, wildlife conservationist and founder of The Save Our Species Alliance, who recently went undercover in Thailand to document the hidden realities behind elephant rides, tiger selfies, and orangutan "shows." What they found is heartbreaking — and it's happening far more often than most of us realize. Together, they're shining a light on the cruelty behind "cute" tourist attractions and building a movement to change what people see — and share — online. Links: https://ladyfreethinker.org/ https://thesosa.com/

"Because we're kind of lowering the stakes. We're saying it's okay to admit to yourself that you care about factory farming and you care about animals because we're not going to try and trick you into going vegan or whatever. And so it allows them to engage with the issue, maybe for the first time in a really serious way. I think what we want to do is, just try and make it easier for more people to really engage with their values, and be an invitation to people to say, I know you care about this. I know when you see factory farming on you know, those annoying ads on your Instagram that show you what's going on, that you feel sad and you feel horrible about it. Let us help you do something about that in a way that fits your life and fits your lifestyle." – Thom Norman Most of us agree that factory farming is one of the greatest sources of suffering on Earth. We hate it. We don't want to support it. And yet — it persists. Today's guest, Thom Norman, is trying to change that. He's the co-founder of FarmKind, an organization that's asking a radical question: What if we stopped making compassion so hard? Instead of telling people what not to eat, FarmKind is inviting everyone to help dismantle factory farming — not by guilt or purity tests, but through collective action. With their Compassion Calculator, just $23 a month has massive impact for animals. It's simple, inclusive, and it's working. In this conversation, Thom and I talk about how factory farming got so bad, why lifestyle change alone isn't enough, and how shifting from shame to solidarity could open the biggest door yet — for animals, for people, and for real change. Tom and his cofounder Aidan Alexander were on the show a year ago shortly after farm kind launched. A lot has happened in a year.

"Maybe when we started doing this with animals, researching on them and studying them for human benefit hundreds of years ago, we didn't know about their sentience. We didn't know that they had emotions and feelings and felt pain. And we know all that now. We can't ignore that." – Melanie Kaplan When journalist Melanie Kaplan agreed to foster a beagle named Hammy, she knew he'd just been released from a research lab. What she didn't know was how profoundly his story — and the world he came from — would change her own. In her new book, Lab Dog: A Beagle and His Human Investigate the Surprising World of Animal Research, Melanie takes readers deep inside the hidden world of animal testing — one that quietly breeds and experiments on tens of thousands of dogs each year, mostly beagles, chosen for their size and gentle nature. Through her journey with Hammy, she unravels how these animals end up in labs, what happens to them there, and what it takes to help them heal once they're free. Our conversation explores the long and often secretive history of animal testing in the U.S., the shocking revelations behind the Envigo case — where 4,000 beagles were rescued from a breeding facility in Virginia — and the growing movement toward humane, non-animal alternatives. Links: Melanie Kaplan: https://melaniedgkaplan.com/index.html Lab Dog: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/melanie-d-g-kaplan/lab-dog/9781541604988/

"You know, you walk through a forest. Every leaf on every tree is unique. And that's what biology does. We are all unique, right? Everything about us that biology does, it's so magical. It's so special. And we now have the ability to harness biology in the way that nature does." – Suzanne Lee Suzanne Lee is the founder of Biofabricate and for more than two decades she's been uniting scientists, designers, artists, and dreamers to prove that biology isn't just inspiration — it's the next frontier of design. She's leading a movement to replace plastics, leather, and petrochemicals with materials born from life itself — brewed, cultivated, and created in harmony with nature. I just spent a few days in London at Biofabricate's Biofab Fair, a celebration of biology-based technologies and the innovators behind them. These weren't the usual alternatives to leather or plastic. Imagine a world where textiles aren't manufactured from fossil fuels, animal skins, or even plants — but grown from microbes, mycelium, algae, and engineered proteins. There were fabrics brewed in vats, colors grown by living microbes, perfumes made with the DNA of extinct flowers, and leather-like sheets made from banana waste and mycelium. Each innovation not only reimagines what we wear and use, but also reshapes how we think about design, beauty, and even culture. After the fair, Suzanne and I sat down to debrief — to talk about how far this movement has come, what's next for biofabrication, and how growing the materials of the future might just change everything. Links: Biofab Fair Website https://www.biofab.world/ Biofabricate Website https://www.biofabricate.co/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/biofabricate/ Materials and brands mentioned in episode: Ephea https://ephea.bio/ Polybion https://www.polybion.bio/ Uncaged Innovations: https://uncagedinnovations.com/ Spyber: https://spiber.inc/en Holon Bionics https://holonbionics.com/ Banofee https://www.banofileather.com/ AB In Bev https://www.ab-inbev.com/ MM Limited https://www.mm-greentech.com/aboutus

"That is no life for these birds and it is definitely not what the consumer is thinking or assuming. When they see these nice labels and they think, 'oh, I'm paying so much more for this, that change must be going for the animals, right?' No, it's lining the pockets and it's keeping that status quo of that factory farm going." Amber Canavan Most of us want to make choices that are kinder—to animals, to the planet, to ourselves. But in today's food system, kindness is often buried under labels like "cage free," "humane certified," or even "climate-friendly beef." These terms are designed to make us feel good, but as PETA's Amber Canavan reveals, they hide the same suffering and environmental destruction. For more than a decade, Amber has led campaigns that expose this "humane washing" and push companies—from Starbucks to Whole Foods—to do better. This conversation is about pulling back the curtain on the myths we've been sold, and about the power each of us has to choose differently. One of the simplest, most impactful ways to take action is with what's on our plate. That's why, this October, we're inviting you to join Species Unite's Plant-Powered Challenge—a 30-day adventure to try delicious, cruelty-free food, reduce your climate footprint, and stand with the animals. Because real change doesn't come from labels. It comes from us.

"I could be walking in Central Park and come up on one of these horse and buggies. I don't think twice about it because I see it as part of the New York attraction. You know, you have the Statue of Liberty, you have Times Square, and you have these romantic horse and buggy things where people get married in the park and they ride these carriages. And tourists, they take these rides in Central Park. It's romantic, it's something beautiful to see. But I never thought for one second that these horses are abused." – Tracy Winston, juror from Ryder's trial New York City has a big, visible animal cruelty issue: horses forced to pull carriages, carrying heavy loads for long hours in all types of weather in the middle of chaotic traffic. Three years ago, a carriage horse named Ryder was a victim of this cruelty. He collapsed on a Manhattan street after being worked for hours in the summer heat. Two months later, he was euthanized. His story sparked global outrage. Ryder's driver, Ian McKeever, was charged with animal cruelty The trial took place a few weeks ago, but McKeever was ultimately acquitted. This conversation is with Edita Birnkrant, the Executive Director of NYCLASS and Tracy Winston, one of the jurors from Ryder's trial. New York's weak and outdated animal protection laws have not changed since Ryder died— and because of this, another avoidable death that occurred just a week after we recorded this interview. On August 5th, a horse named Lady died while pulling a carriage in Manhattan. This conversation is about accountability, about corruption and about what happens when justice fails the most vulnerable. It's too late for Ryder and Lady. But it is not too late to act. If you live in New York, please call your City Council members and tell them it's time to bring Ryder's Law, Intro 967, up for a vote and pass this vital bill to protect carriage horses from suffering and death on the city's streets. To find your council member, go to: https://www.speciesunite.com/ny-horse-carriage-petition NYCLASS: https://nyclass.org/

"So I think this whole idea of cumulative culture is a way to make humans exceptional. But it's clear to me that humans are exceptional, and seeing it through baboon glasses, I can understand in a different way why they're exceptional. But many of the things that we think are uniquely human are actually present in other animals." - Dr. Shirley Strum Dr. Shirley Strum is a groundbreaking anthropologist who has spent over five decades living alongside wild baboons in Kenya. Her work has transformed our understanding of these intelligent, socially complex animals — their relationships, their adaptability, and the intricate societies they create. In her new book, Echoes of Our Origins, Shirley challenges long-held beliefs about evolution, the human-animal divide, and what it truly means to coexist. This conversation is about science — but it's also about humility, hope, and the messy, beautiful complexity of life on Earth. Links: https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/53757/echoes-our-origins https://anthropology.ucsd.edu/people/faculty/faculty-profiles/shirley-strum.html