On Tuesday this week (October 27th) I was interviewed by the Norwegian TV channel TVL, on why we treat different animals differently (such as eating some but not others). The interview, which was conducted (online) by journalists Vemund Sødal and Hanna Pettersen and lasted 7-8 minutes, aired the same evening, in the programme TVL magasinet (subscription required).
Today I was interviewed (online) by TVL about how we treat animals. The interview will air tonight around 8 p.m. in the programme TVL-magasinet. The journalists interviewing me were Vemund Sødal and Hanna Pettersen.
I am scheduled to take part in an event during Kåkånomics, which is held in Stavanger October 21st to 24th, titled «Oljefondet og etikken som forsvant» (which translates directly as "The oil fund and the ethics that disappeared"). At the event, which takes place on Friday October 23rd, I will comment on a presentation given by Cecilie Hellestveit, and discuss the topic with her. The event takes place at Norsk Oljemuseum, Stavanger.
On September 9th a radio interview featuring me and two others, titled «Vil KI lære oss å snakke med dyr?» (Will AI teach us to talk to animals?), aired on the program "Lokalen" on NRK Rogaland. The journalist was Ingvill Bjorland.
My chronicle (or guest commentary) "Dyr i øst og vest" (Animals in east and west) was recently published in Dyrebeskyttelsen´s magazine Dyrenes forsvarer no. 3, 2026.
Last Friday I took part in an evaluation meeting in the program council for the Wonderful World festival, at Måltidets hus. I also took part in the summer party of University of Stavanger´s Department of social studies.
Today, during the first day of Wonderful World – den nordiske festivalen for filosofi og vitenskap, held for the fourth year in Stavanger, Norway, I chaired the event «Når butikken trumfer etikken», with Mathea Slåttholm Sagdahl (University of Oslo), Peder Skjelbred (University of Oslo) og Espen Gamlund (University of Bergen) in the panel on stage. Some 113 people attended.
I am mentioned in an intranet news story published by University of Stavanger on the forthcoming 2026 version of the philosophy and science festival "Wonderful World".
During the festival I will chair two events and participate in conversation with Melanie Challenger (see "Upcoming academic events" in the top margins). I am further a member of the festival´s program council.
Today an interview with me on the symbolicity of wolves (and sheep) has been released as part of an episode of the Norwegian podcast Krimpodden, which is published by VG, Norway´s largest newspaper by number of readers. The episode is titled «Ulvejakta 1:2» (The wolf hunt 1: 2); subscription is required to access it. The interview was done by journalist and program host Tor-Erling Thømt Ruud.
I´ve agreed to chair the panel event "Å begripe dyp tid" (Comprehending deep time) during Wonderful World - Den nordiske festivalen for filosofi & vitenskap (taking place in Stavanger May 27-30th), with the panel featuring Bjørn Lindberg, Helge Jordheim and Dagmar Hagen. The event takes place Thursday May 28th at 8 pm.
A news story titled "UiS forsker på skjermen: Tar opp etiske dilemmaer om dyr" (available only to UIS employees), featuring an interview with me and excerpts from the video series Etiske dilemmaer (published on Viten-TV), has been published on the intranet of University of Stavanger. The news story is written by Ida Tiberg.
About a week ago, philosopher Espen Gamlund and the University of Bergen launched the video series "Etiske dilemmaer" (Ethical dilemmas) on Viten-TV, a Norwegian online platform for academic video content. The first episode, "Dyr" (Animals), features interviews with me, Stefan Riedener and Aksel Braanen Sterri, while Gamlund acts as presenter and interviewer.
Today I have had an article writing day, with some 800 words added to Store Norske Leksikon, primarily the new encyclopedia article "miljøetikk" (environmental ethics), but also links to that article from a number of related articles. This brings the number of writing days so far this Spring up to 14,5, including 10,5 article writing days.
I have now finished registering publications and academic activities in Nasjonalt Vitenarkiv (NVA), which has replaced Current Research Information System in Norway (CRIStin). For 2025 I registered 30 posts, which is a quite normal number of posts for me per year. Altogether, since 2012, I am registered with 417 posts, cf. my profile. Registrations for 2025 include 4 scientific conference presentations, 2 chronicles, 3 journal articles, 3 book chapters, 1 book review, 1 TV interview, and 1 encyclopedia article, among other entries.
The program council for Wonderful World - Den nordiske festivalen for filosofi og vitenskap is now featured on the festival´s homepage.
My chronicle «Livet i Jorden» (literally: Life in Earth) has been published as my annual guest commentary in the magazine of Dyrebeskyttelsen, a Norwegian animal protection NGO, Dyrenes forsvarer no. 4, 2025, (pp. 4–5). The same text was previously published by forskning.no with a different headline.
See also:
Popular science chronicle on life on and in Earth published at forskning.no
This Autumn I have written a text for an art catalogue, "Åfjord Art Month 2025", in relation to an art exhibition that takes place this month (November 2025). Specifically, I wrote the text «Reinsdyrets usynlige verden» for Ingvild Melberg Eikeland´s art installation at this art exhibition, which takes place in Åfjord municipality (pp. 48–50 in the art catalogue). An English translation, «The reindeer´s invisible world», is also included in the art catalogue (pp. 51–53). Eikeland´s art work and my text draws on the Umwelt theory of Jakob von Uexküll.
Yesterday my encyclopedia article "Ulvejakt" was published by Store Norske Leksikon. This is my first encyclopedia article. A couple of weeks ago edits I made were published in three other encyclopedia articles, "barneskolen", "dødsstraff" and "Thomas Kuhn".
Norway has recently transitioned from one research information system to another. My profile at Nasjonalt vitenarkiv (NVA) is here. Research information data has been automatically imported from the Current Research Information System in Norway (Cristin), which will no longer be updated. From the onset, my NVA profile starts out with 393 registration posts from the period 2012-.
My popular science chronicle on life on and in Earth which was published in Forskersonen at forskning.no yesterday (see yesterday´s post) has done quite well online, with close to 500 likes and 50 shares on Facebook. It also appears to be the third most read text right now in Forskersonen (though not at forskning.no generally).
