Will Potter

Will Potter is an award-winning investigative journalist, author, and TED Senior Fellow who has reported extensively on the US Government's repressive policies and actions towards animal activists as well as the Agriculture Industry's attempts to silence individuals and discredit organizations seeking to defend animals from abuse. 

Will's book, Green Is the New Red investigates this in depth, incorporating his own experience as a target of the FBI with stories documenting the surveillance and incarceration of individuals labeled "eco-terrorists" - a term originating in the environmental activism movement and increasingly applied to animal activists, who are now described by the FBI as the #1 terrorist threat to the US, despite the movement's dominantly nonviolent nature.

I had a chance to catch up with Will in Ann Arbor, where he was teaching at the University of Michigan. Our discussion ranged from the definition of animal rights activism to current government practices that echo McCarthyist hysteria, and the role both government and corporations play in shaping legislation and public perception about the rights and interests of animals.

The Interview