For the Love of Goats

Matthew Denton-Edmundson

Goats, like cats, are closer to nature than most domesticated animals, both species going feral more easily than domesticated dogs, which are rarely able to acclimate to life in the wild.

From the Editor

Jay Tolson

Reconsidering the complex relationship between humans and the wider animal kingdom.

Mary Midgley, 1919–2018

Phil Christman

Mary Midgley’s writing was profound but rarely technical; she trained her sights on general problems.

Fellow Passengers

Mark Rowlands

We need to learn to see animals for what, and maybe who, they really are.

Two Cheers for Anthropomorphism

Nathan Goldman

Could it be possible that without anthropomorphism, we’re liable to miss the animal anyway?

Our Pets, Ourselves

Christine Rosen

A turn to animals for emotional support is hardly surprising, even if it is not ideal.

Biotech Cockaigne of the Vegan Hopeful

Benjamin Aldes Wurgaft

If we succeed in growing meat, we will do more than change human subsistence strategies forever.

The Deficient Animal

James Davison Hunter

Only the human species is capable of grasping, analyzing, and interpreting signs as symbols.

Waking From the Dream of Total Knowledge

Daniel Kraft

Considering how relationships of cooperation and perhaps even solidarity might be forged between human beings and animals.

Brother Rat?

Paul Nedelisky

What happens if we become willing to trade in an understanding of a rich and meaning-laden feature of our nature for, well, something we can share with a rat.

Trigger Alert

Leann Davis Alspaugh

One person’s trigger alert is another person’s censorship.

Introducing Our Spring Issue

Jay Tolson

What does dominion “over every living thing that moves on the earth” mean? Brute sovereignty and ruthless exploitation? Or thoughtful stewardship and responsible cultivation?

Cousin Starfish

David Egan

Mother Nature sees you not as a soul shimmering with intelligence but as one solution to the problem of metabolism. 

The Dirty Work of Killing

Joanna Sierks Smith

It doesn’t feel like a coincidence that meat consumption has risen as fewer Americans participate in or even think about the slaughter that allows it.

Let Us Now Praise the Periodical Cicadas

Vincent Ercolano

The pulsating song of billions of seventeen-year cicadas.

The Wisdom Hypothesis

Matthew J. Milliner

Even defenders of the idea today such as Bruno Latour admit that Gaia in the original Greek context is “a figure of violence."

Feathered and Feather-Less Bipeds

Jesse Russell

The genealogical approach has found surprising success in an unlikely genre.

Encountering the High Arctic

James Conaway

Nature reveals itself when you are helpless.