We explore how Stranger Things signals a new monstrous moment, moving from unknowable creatures to human-made villains, and what that shift says about power, identity, and culture. Along the way, we ask how animals get coded as monsters and when their agency is reclaimed or removed in film and TV.

Date Recorded: 22 April 2025

Featured:

Tolerance Discourse and Young Adult Holocaust Literatureby Rachel Dean-Ruzicka
Paranormal Maturation: Uncanny Teenagers and Canny Killers by Rachel Dean-Ruzicka
Of Scrivens and Sparks: Girl Geniuses in Young Adult Dystopian Fiction by Rachel Dean-Ruzicka
Monster Culture (Seven Theses) by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen
The Monster Theory Reader by Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock
The Angel of Indian Lake by Stephen Graham Jones
Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer
Stranger Things
Cocaine Bear
Mickey 17
Okja
Random Number Generator Horror Podcast No. 9
Nature Trail to Hell
Monsters, Heroes, and Others: Unpacking Power in Media and Politics through Race or Species

A.P.P.L.E
Animals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.

iROAR Network
iROAR brings together podcasts that aim is to make the world a better place for animals.

Georgia Institute of Technology
School of Modern Language, Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, School of Literature, Media, & Commun

Pollination Project
The Pollination Project empowers volunteers across by providing the funding they need.

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The Animal Turn is hosted and produced by Claudia Hirtenfelder and is part of the iROAR Network. Learn more on our website.

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S8EB: Monstrous Others with Rachel Dean-Ruzicka