Sandcastles

Abolitionists’ antipathy towards cage-free reforms is rooted in an old idea– one most activists want nothing to do with.

Why do animal abolitionists hate cage-free campaigns so much? The standard answer is strategy—they think asking for incremental reforms undermines the push for total liberation. But what if there's something deeper going on? In this episode, I trace the "freedom over welfare" instinct all the way back to John Milt...

Progressives’ voracious appetite for rules, from the societal level to the interpersonal, has earned us a reputation for authoritarianism.

In this episode, Aidan digs into the hidden authoritarian streak within progressive activism — not the cartoon version from Fox News, but the subtle, internal drift that turns idealistic movements into miniature bureaucracies. Drawing from personal experience, movement history, and examples from ...

What if the shrimp guys are the most radical extremists in the animal movement? In this essay, I argue that the animal movement has radical<>moderate all mixed up, and reconsider what kinds will and will not help in the fight against factory farming.

Note: moments after sending out Tuesday’s post, I learned that Tuesday was the start of International Shrimpact Week, a competition between Substackers to raise matching funds for the S...

A new generation is revolutionizing the grassroots animal movement, by learning the same way superintelligent AI learns.

This essay examines some of the ways I went wrong as a young animal activist, especially my failure to seek out evidence for or against the strategies I believed in. 

This audio version of Sandcastles is produced using an AI clone of Aidan's voice. Please forgive mispronunciations. Read the original on Substack.

Not...

The animal movement will keep devouring its own until we find the courage to accept discomfort. This essay discusses the consequences of moral absolutism in activist communities, and proposes different ways activists could relate to each other.

This audio version of Sandcastles is produced using an AI clone of Aidan's voice. Please forgive mispronunciations. Read the original on Substack.

Note: the quotes from Sarah Schulman and Ian ...

After 10 years in animal advocacy, I realized my attachment to being 'grassroots' was holding me back from thinking clearly about what actually enables movements to mobilize activists. This essay lays out how my perspective changed and what both grassroots and professional organizations can do to mobilize more activists

This audio version of Sandcastles is produced using an ElevenLabs clone of Aidan’s voice. Please forgive mispronun...

This post is meant to help animal advocates start thinking about how the artificial intelligence revolution will impact our work. If you’ve been feeling anxious about AI but weren’t sure where to begin, or if you’ve never considered that AI technology could be disruptive to animal advocacy, you’re in the right place.

Additional reading/listening

If you’re not convinced that intelligence, reasoning, and creativity are appropriate word...