With the recent release of some very noteworthy titles in animal studies as well as our special 50% off sale, we’ve been writing quite a bit about our books in the field. Today, we point you to Gary Francione’s recent appearance on the very popular podcast “Vegan Freak.” (This is part 1 of 2-part interview). In the interview, Francione discusses his new book Animals as Persons: Essays on the Abolition of Animal Exploitation, the state of the animal rights movement, and the failures of animal welfare legislation.

Interviews with Francione are always engaging and provocative and while you might not always agree with his views, his ideas about the way society treats animals, even as it tries to protect them, challenge conventional notions about how we think about and regard animals. Francione, who is the Distinguished Professor of Law and Nicholas deB. Katzenbach Scholar of Law and Philosophy, was the first academic to teach animal rights theory in an American law school and his ideas continue to resonate among animal rights advocates, legal theorists, and philosophers.

For more on Francione, you can also read our interview with Francione, an excerpt from Animals as Persons, or visit Francione’s Web site, Animal Rights: The Abolitionist Approach.