The Complex Lives of Chickens

Today's books take readers into the secret lives of farm animals. The first, Pig Years, is a memoir by the writer Ellen Gaydos, who began working as a farmhand at 18 years old. In Pig Years, she writes lyrically about working with, raising and admiring pigs–all while knowing they'll one day be slaughtered. In today's episode, we revisit a conversation between Gaydos and NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben about the intimacy of working with people and animals on the farm. Next, author Sy Montgomery has written more than 34 books about creatures, including turtles and octopi. Her latest project is a book about chickens. What the Chicken Knows is an homage that relishes all we don't know about the birds. In today's episode, Montgomery speaks with Here & Now's Peter O'Dowd about chickens' surprising signs of intelligence and what to do when a rooster attacks.

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