The Podcast Bringing Ethics to Life
A production of PAN Works
If you like smart, humane conversations that don’t dodge difficult issues, PAN Thinks is for you.
We unpack the ideas and arguments behind today’s hardest animal issues with careful reasoning, compassion, expert insight, and practical takeaways. Integrating ethics with science and policy, we explore “how we ought to live” in a more than human world where imals matter. Expect lively conversations that challenges conventional wisdom and gives you fresh insight into the place of animals in our lives.
If you like smart, humane conversations that don’t dodge difficult issues, PAN Thinks is for you.
We unpack the ideas and arguments behind today’s hardest animal issues with careful reasoning, compassion, expert insight, and practical takeaways. Integrating ethics with science and policy, we explore “how we ought to live” in a more than human world where animals matter. Expect lively conversations that challenges conventional wisdom and gives you fresh insight into the place of animals in our lives.
PAN Thinks is a production of PAN Works, a centre for ethics, science and policy dedicated to animal wellbeing.
Most wildlife management in North America doesn’t happen at the federal level. It happens in the provinces and the states. Moreover, it’s built around game species—the animals people hunt, fish and trap—and secondarily around the tracts of lands and waters those species need.
In contrast, non-game species, biodiversity, climate change, and a host of wildlife issues are at the back of the line. The wellbeing of the wild animals themselves is not a consideration at all.
A narrow set of special interests controls wildlife management, locking-in a century-old paradigm that treats wild animals as game to be harvested or pests to be controlled. When the broader public raises concerns about the intrinsic moral value or ecological value of wild lives, their concerns are frequently dismissed or belittled.
The result is a system of wildlife governance that is ill-equipped to meet the needs of wildlife or society.
Nevertheless, there is a growing movement to democratize wildlife management and make wildlife governance reflect the concerns of the wider public, including the wellbeing of animals and the protection of nature.
That movement is what we are talking about today.
I’m joined by Dr. Michelle Lute and Mandy Culbertson of the nonprofit campaign Wildlife for All. We talk about their mission, the state of wildlife governance in North America, success stories of reform, and reason to hope for wild lives.
HOSTS & GUESTS
Michelle Lute, PhD is the Executive Director at Wildlife for All. https://wildlifeforall.us/who-we-are/staff/
Mandy Culbertson, MS is the Director of Communication at Wildlife for All. https://wildlifeforall.us/who-we-are/staff/
William S. Lynn, PhD (Bill) is the founder and President of PAN Works and host of the PAN Thinks podcast. https://panworks.io/team/name/william-lynn/
Production is by Gary Sheer. https://garysheerphotography.com/
Recorded on 27 August 2026.
Episode art by KaroGraphix Photography. (2020-2021). Ospreys. Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/s/photos/osprey?user=karographix
Resources
Wildlife for All, https://wildlifeforall.us
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