In Tune to Nature Podcast

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...

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...

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 w...

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,...

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)...

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, wil...

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 fr...

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...

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. Associa...

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 t...

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 Bel...

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...

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 poe...

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 m...

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, Alask...

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 beaut...

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 (...

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 Professo...

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 greenspa...

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 a...

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, a...

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, w...

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...

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...

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 pu...