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.
When appointed in 2021 to the Washington State’s Fish and Wildlife Commission, Fred Koontz, PhD, sought to define of the word “conservation” to better capture what we mean by wildlife management in the modern era.
Yet crafting a modern definition generated a wave of hostility and resistance to the idea, which was seen as threatening the interests of the hunting, fishing, trapping, and agricultural communities. Eventually, Fred resigned, writing in his resignation letter that the Commission was “stuck in a politicized quagmire,” having lost the ability to “have civil public conversations.”
Fred then helped lead a Society for Conservation Biology North America develop a new definition of the word “conservation”, published in July 2026. The definition is intended to promote clarity, encourage dialogue, and help guide conservation practice into the future.
Join Nicole Roberts as she explores with Fred just what this means.
HOSTS & GUESTS
Fred Koontz, PhD, is Fellow Emeritus at PAN Works. https://panworks.io/team/name/fred-koontz/
Nicole Roberts, MCL, is the Associate Editor for our Perspectives column and a fellow at PAN Works. https://panworks.io/team/name/nicole-roberts/
Production is by Gary Sheer. https://garysheerphotography.com/
Recorded on 21 August 2026.
Episode art by Wesley Fernandez, Jaguar Drinking Water in a Swamp, 2024. https://unsplash.com/photos/a-large-leopard-drinking-water-from-a-pond-W561HYFsPAE
RESOURCES
Koontz, Fred. (2023). Wildlife management 2.0: A revolution in the making, Medium. https://panworks.medium.com/wildlife-management-2-0-a-revolution-in-the-making-8bbf6ca20c88
Society for Conservation Biology North America. (2026). Definition of Conservation. https://scbnorthamerica.org/index.php/scbnas-definition-of-conservation/
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