Two weeks ago, The Intercept, in partnership with Sentient Media, a new media company devoted to the issue of animal rights, launched the debut episode of our eight-part video series covering all aspects of the animal rights movement: political, economic, environmental, cultural, racial, labor, and public health. That debut episode was devoted to a discussion of why my co-host, Grant Lingel, and I have chosen to focus on these issues and why we believe this cause can no longer be, and indeed is no longer, a boutique concern for animal lovers, but instead is central to our most pressing global challenges, movements, and debates.

Today, we present episode two of our series. It focuses on the transformation of the animal rights movement from fringe, leftist enclaves — one that until recently was regarded as frivolous and trivial even among many liberals, and as a caricature of vapidity or light repression by conservatives — to bipartisan and nonideological mainstream circles. We examine the evidence showing that transformation, the reasons for it, and how it provides opportunities for future growth, not only for the cause of animal rights but also for the ability of humans in democracies around the world to erode staid, increasingly archaic ideological divides.