“I realised this isn’t new, this interconnection, this view of holistic understandings of who we are… back to indigenous cultures” - Sam Crowell This podcast utilises the audio from the webinar that took place on 30 April 2021 on the Planetary wellbeing platform by AnimalConcepts. Let us welcome Dr Sam M. Crowell Jr. He is a professor emeritus from California State University, San Bernardino. He founded the MA in Holistic and Integrative Education and is a founding member of the Network in...

“Education can change minds, if you can change minds, you can change mindsets, you change the behaviours and change the collective, so it is crucial”. - Alicia This week’s podcast utilises the audio from the webinar interview led by Alicia Jiménez which took place on the 29th of January 2021 from the AnimalConcepts platform. Let us welcome Alicia Jiménez, the Director of Programmes at the Earth Charter International Secretariat in Costa Rica. She has been working in the field of...

This week’s podcast utilises the audio from the webinar interview led by Irma Verhoeven which took place on the 31st of May 2021 from the AnimalConcepts platform. Let us welcome Tracey Starke, the founder of the environmental news website Ecolightenment, which brings together positive environmental news from mainstream media, as well as smaller NGOs to highlight the important work these groups are carrying out. The circular economy is a way of living in harmony with our ecological systems...

“Crises offer an invitation to do things differently. Embracing this opportunity clearly demands an overhaul of what is considered ‘leadership’ in our society. We need to up our game! What we need are masterful warriors with a crystal clear vision and the ability to incite the necessary inspiration, creativity and faith that catalysis transformational change. We need wise leaders instead of smart managers.” - Rolf Winters Let us welcome Rolf Winters to WeBuzz. He is an explorer of life, a...

"It’s important to emphasise that a key purpose of the Earth Charter is to expand and deepen a consciousness with regards to how we ought to relate not only with ourselves, and with others, but also how we ought to relate with the large living world." - Mirian Vilela Let us welcome Mirian Vilela who is the Executive Director of the Earth Charter International Secretariat and the Centre for Education for Sustainable Development at the University for Peace (UPEACE). Additionally, Mirian...

Grian A. Cutanda has a PhD in Social Education from the University of Granada (Spain) and a Degree in Psychology from the University of Valencia. He is an author of fiction and essay, with 16 books published, some of them translated into 12 languages, and a number of academic papers and chapters at the request of various universities. To highlight his international bestseller The Gardener, published in English by Thorsons (HarperCollins) in 1998. Social and environmental activist, Grian has...

Let's welcome Charlotte Corney, the former CEO of the Wildheart Animal Sanctuary in the Isle of Wight and the founder and trustee of the Wildheart Trust. Charlotte tells us of what it is like growing up in the Isle of Wight Zoo (now the Wildheart Animal Sanctuary), and how agreeing to hand-raise Zia the Tiger cub committed herself to work with animals. She explains the journey from a zoo to a sanctuary, yet emphasises that throughout the sanctuary's history, each animal's life has always...

“Most people used to say, the Amazon is like the lung of the planet. I say it is like the heart. If you see the Amazon, you can see a heart and all the rivers are like veins. When you clog all these veins, the body is going to collapse. This is happening now." Let us welcome Dr Fernando Trujillo, a marine biologist who is the Scientific Director of Foundation Omacha, an NGO he established in 1993 to promote the conservation of river species and their ecosystems in South America. Fernando...

“I think one of the things we should do, and that I am experiencing more and more, is that, in order to think differently we have to look to the past, to find out why we are thinking as we are thinking right now”. Let us welcome Jes Lynning Harfeld, an associate professor of applied ethics at the Centre for Applied Philosophy at Aalborg University, Denmark. Currently, his research focuses on the connections between animal welfare and ethics in the realm of human-animal interactions and the...

“That is the real beauty, we often talk about global collaboration for animal welfare, or global collaboration for human wellbeing or for the greater community of life, or the planetary… What makes it so strong, is these different expertise, these different interests, these different talents, these different things that people bring… to effect change and the only way we can do that, is of course, is by doing it together.” - Sabrina Brando Hummingbird Stories AnimalConcepts Public Facebook...

“We have a mission to connect people with nature to inspire stewardship for nature through those connections!... An emotional connection with nature through spending time in nature is more important than environmental education for inculcating that sense of stewardship in children… an important part of conversation”. - Suzanne Gendron Let us welcome Suzanne Gendron, the Director of Sage Advice Consulting and the Former Executive Director of Zoological Operations and Conservation at Ocean...

"Everyone has 1 life. Me, you, and each animal in our care. Let's bring awareness to what seems so obvious, and embody I SEE YOU" - Sabrina Brando Join Sabrina Brando in thinking about the 1 life we all have. On how we can make a difference, through the methods and approaches we use, patience and loving-kindness. Sabrina discusses bringing attention to the effect of our language around other animals and nature, and how this can shape the ways we think and act. She shares some recent...

“Every single individual impacts the planet in some way, big or small everyday. Every individual has a role to play”. - Jane Goodall “If we find the right organisations to collaborate with… and to share values about the sanctity of life, whether it's animal-human, human-animal, we’re all one! And yet, we’re different, so we are responsible for the harm we are causing around the globe”. - Jane Goodall “Every species of animal and plant has a role to play. It was all connected. It’s like a...

In this episode, we connect with Irma Verhoeven who is a professional educator and a program and partnership development manager with Earth Charter International. Irma will share her insights and experiences on why education plays such an important role in human behaviour changes and empowerment. Irma shares her experiences of working with Indigenous Peoples, and how this has influenced her work as an educator, including learning from, through and with others. As a Programme &...

“Changes in how we react with animals… it’s not all about food. The animals are going to get their food anyway, there is so much more to the relationship” - Sabrina 2022 “It’s important that we’re doing research to help animals that are in the wild. I believe a big reason that we have these animals is not for money or entertainment, but it's for education, conservation and research…” - William Winhall Today we welcome William (Bill) Winhall, the Manager/Principal Consultant at Marine Mammal...

“In this endless discussion [about animal experimentation] we completely forget that animals are used now and they need our attention now.” - Augusto Vitale & Sabrina Brando Dr Augusto Vitale joins us to share his experience in the study of non-human primate behaviour and welfare. Since 1991 Augusto has worked as a researcher at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità in Rome (Italy) dedicating his scientific activity to investigate behaviour, cognition and welfare of non-human primates, with a...

“It’s really important to understand what our zoo visitors are seeing, feeling and understanding, because we want them to be a full partner in how we manage and take care of animals” – Jill Mellen "Our interpretations of what we may think of our own animals at home versus wild animals in our care... We have lots of similar problems... We could bring visitors along in learning to assess the wellbeing of animals and how this can be used with their own animals" - Sabrina Brando Jill Mellen...

“Not everybody is convinced that a zoo can offer these conditions ... in most zoos, there is a great awareness that this is one of their biggest challenges - to give animals a natural environment in which to develop their natural behaviours" - Jan van Hooff Jan van Hooff joins us once again to share more stories about the chimpanzees, led by Mama, living at the Royal Burgers Zoo. He shares with us more tales of coalition behaviour in primates from his time with Mama and the Arnhem chimps,...

“My focus was to study the social aspect of companion animals and how they change our social relationships with people.” – Lynette Hart Today we will hear Dr Lynette Hart as she delves into the world of Human-animal interactions, grief counselling and animal behaviour research, which she was happy to be a part of at a time when women with PhDs did not find suitors! As she tells how Leo Bustad pioneered in talking about the human-animal bond and vulnerable people, she asserts that...

“If [animals that had been treated poorly] were treated well, they can recover to a mood level just as well as animals that had been treated well all their lives” - Alan McElligott We welcome Dr Alan McElligott, Associate Professor in Animal Behaviour and Welfare at the City University of Hong Kong, to share the story of his career’s journey - ranging from his childhood on his family’s dairy farm to studying communication in kangaroos. Dr. Alan shares with us his rationale for studying...

"Curiosity is key. Ask questions and break them down into smaller components and apply it to a study to create a fundamental understanding... it helps us progress from what we know to more knowledge" - Samantha Ward Let’s welcome Dr Samantha Ward, a senior lecturer in animal science at Nottingham Trent University (NTU) who also manages the undergraduate bachelor’s degree in zoo animal biology. Furthermore, Sam works within the EAZA Records Working Group, a research advisor for Wild Welfare...

"The toughest part of animal training is that you find your own way, and not following rules. Because, following rules means there is no forward development" - Sven Wieskotten Let’s welcome Sven Wieskotten for today’s podcast. He is the founding director of Animal and Training. Sven first reminisces about his childhood bird and how far we have come in terms of animal husbandry. Then his first animal bond during his PhD with a Harbour seal named Henry. Sven noted his first career choice was...

This podcast is dedicated to Dr Hal Markowitz (1934-2013) "Hal argued that an unnatural stimulus is better than a natural environment with no stimulation." - Autumn Sorrells Let’s welcome Autumn Sorrell, the Animal Care Director at Elon Musk’s neuro-tech company, Neuralink. She attributes her career to being heavily influenced by the Father of Environmental Enrichment, Dr Hal Markowitz, with whom Autumn worked for the last 10 years of his life. As such, this podcast is the celebration of...