It’s high time I had my friend, Martin Rowe on the podcast, and the recent release of his new book of verse, The Animals Are Leaving Us provided the perfect excuse to bring him on the show. The verses in this book were inspired by two extraordinarily compelling and distressing photographs of animals in extremis taken by Canadian photojournalist Jo-Anne McArthur, whose photos are included in the volume as well. Martin and I had a fantastic conversation about the book, the beauty that can be found in even the most troubling works of art, and so much more. Don’t miss this conversation! Martin Rowe is President and Publisher at Lantern Publishing & Media. He is the co-vice president of the board of the Culture & Animals Foundation and a senior fellow of Brighter Green. He is the author of The Elephants in the Room, The Polar Bear in the Zoo, Nicaea, and (with Evander Lomke), Right Off the Bat: Baseball, Cricket, Literature, and Life. He is the editor of The Way of Compassion and Running, Eating, Thinking: A Vegan Anthology. Follow Lantern Publishing & Media on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Photo of Martin Rowe by Jo-Anne McArthur. Hear my conversation with Jo-Anne right here. This podcast is powered by my subscribers on Patreon who, in addition to the warm feeling they get from co-creating with me, get lots of sweet perks including bonus podcast episodes, free downloads, zines, and more! This week’s bonus podcast will be an extended conversation with Martin Rowe!  Learn more right here! If you’d like to check out my other work, order The Animal Book directly from me here and get a free download of the album!Here are some other places you can find the book.Find The Animal Album streaming and downloadable here.Here’s some more merch and music. Thinking of starting your own podcast? Do it! I’m a big fan of Blubrry for podcast distribution and you can get a month free by signing up for Blubrry Podcast Hosting here, or Blubrry Professional Statistics here. Use the code “mikeypod” with your order for your free month!