Whether it’s the food we eat, the creatures we care for, or the recognition that humans, too, are animals, the fact is that all animal fates are bound together. This means a devastating separation occurs when humans put themselves outside ways of being that look different from their own.

Conversations With Animals is a monthly conversation I host examining creatures, ecology, writing, film, music, art, science, and pop culture using three primary mediums: doodles, writing, and speech. I talk with a different guest each month through a free podcast available…lots of places:

Apple | Amazon | IHeartRadio | Spotify | YouTube | GooglePodcasts | RadioPublic

And is part of the iRoar Animal Podcasting Network.

I explore the themes and creatures of that month’s conversation in an essay, released here, which accompanies the podcast every month. You’ll hear a range of voices: film directors making documentaries from the point-of-view of a dog, musicians collaborating with whales, and activists leading global protests. All of that is free.

For paid subscribers, you get access to additional Wild Things. These take the form of bonus interviews, extra doodles, behind-the-scene deep dives into my archives, and reprints of my animal-themed literary work with process notes. All of that is released throughout the month. You also get access to a monthly Howl, which is a meditation/movement practice guiding you to embody, imagine, and situate yourself within a defamiliarized perspective. Think guided visualizations up a New Mexico mountain as a jack rabbit or a clam surfacing on a beach for the very first time. These are seated, accessible practices that can be done almost anywhere.

Why do this?

For me it’s simple. Social change, creativity, and community are the core of my artistic practice. While my themes and tools are wide-ranging, I believe what unites my body of work is a sense of possibility. That by diving deep, in sometimes new, difficult, and even strange ways, we emerge with radical vision, and (hopefully) earned optimism.

What I hope for Conversations With Animals is to invite in those who are wanting a fresh way to talk about the idea of “the animal,” those who want to examine our relationships with the variety of life around us in disarming ways.

What kind of animal am I?

I am a Juliana—a writer, filmmaker, educator, and performer.

When I was six years old, I asked my family where the chicken on our table came from. When they told me, I stopped eating meat. Months later, my father was diagnosed with a terminal illness that led to a slow deterioration of his cognitive abilities and motor functions. What made him “human” seemed to disappear over night.

My grief over the destruction of the land and animals accompanied that of me losing my father over seven years, planting the seed of a lifelong curiosity into alternate ways of sensing and being, what lives are protected and why, and how reverence for animal life is an essential part of liberation movements.

I am also a 200hr yoga instructor trained in body-based healing and movement modalities. I believe there is a key link between somatic experiencing, creativity, and unity—by encountering felt experiences with curiosity and care, I believe we can get closer to the nuances of grief, ecology, and the wild ways we are united as animals. This comes not only from my desire to care for other-than-human animals, whose behavior and language appears to many as unknowable and often less valuable, but from my advocacy in survivor justice spaces.

Now featured in #metoo’s official Resource Library, I wrote/directed/produced the award-winning narrative web series, The University, which follows the bureaucratic failures of a university in the aftermath of a sexual assault on campus and exposes the barriers for seeking healing and justice. I was nominated by the International Academy of Web Television for Best Drama Writing for the project. The series won Best Web/Pilot at the Los Angeles Film Awards, touring film festivals, nonprofits, and college campuses to create transformative change.

Ultimately, Conversations With Animals is a project celebrating each story—whether that of a crab or a clerk—as part of a larger ecological tapestry.

This is the third season of Conversations With Animals.

Welcome to the pack.