
Thinking Like a Chicken
“Thinking Like a Chicken” features short, articulate talks about these birds and our advocacy on their behalf. Topics range from inside the poultry industry to life in a sanctuary, a cockfighting ring, a school hatching project, a backyard. Ideas and situations that highlight these birds will be discussed. Karen will describe her personal experiences with chickens, turkeys and other domesticated birds for more than three decades along with the challenges and ethics of plant-based and “clean-meat” advocacy.
Episodes
24 episodes
Lost in the Vast, Dark World of Gene-Editing
In today’s podcast episode, I discuss the plight of chickens and all farmed animals condemned to the world of genetic manipulation, a global industry devoid of ethics and empathy for animals whose bodies are being manipulated for specific culin...
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Season 2
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Episode 9
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13:31

Focused Campaigns versus Closed Circle Campaigns: What Would a Chicken Say?
In today’s podcast I discuss the advantages versus the disadvantages of Single-Issue Campaigns for animals, including the difference between Focused Campaigns and Closed-Circle Campaigns and why this difference matters. Please join me....
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Season 2
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Episode 8
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10:09

Sarah, the Hen: Her Legs Were Made for Walking
Of all the cruelties inflicted on hens forced to live in battery cages, one of the worst, perhaps even the worst of all, is preventing them from standing up on their legs and feet and walking. Unconfined, chickens walk constantly and often pret...
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Season 2
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Episode 6
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8:25

Letter to a New Vegan
Today’s podcast episode, Letter to a New Vegan, is based on an essay I wrote for an anthology of this name, addressing the person who has chosen to abandon a diet of carnage in favor of an animal-free, slaughter-free diet. While so man...
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Season 2
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Episode 6
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7:11

Do Chickens Mind Seeing Other Chickens Killed in Their Presence?
Absurd as it may sound to anyone familiar with chickens, some people, including one high-profile animal pontificator who shall be nameless, have claimed based on false and unquestioned assertions, that chickens do not mind seeing and hearing ot...
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Season 2
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Episode 5
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8:16

Leafleting for Animals: A Time-Honored Activist Tradition
Leafleting for animals in a public place is a way to reach out to people, individually and directly, by giving them concise information to take away and read when they have time to contemplate the information. Leafleting is both an easy and a c...
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Season 2
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Episode 4
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7:46

“Good” Anthropomorphism versus “Bad” Anthropomorphism: What is the Difference?
Have you ever, when speaking up for animals, been accused of “anthropomorphism”? This accusation is often a handy way for animal exploiters to intimidate and silence objections to the mistreatment for animals as well as to ridicule insistence t...
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Season 2
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Episode 3
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7:50

”Dominance Through Mentioning”: The Fiction of Fair Coverage of Farmed Animals
The media practice of ignoring, trivializing and demeaning farmed animals is well characterized by the phrase “Dominance Through Mentioning.” In Dominance Through Mentioning, disturbing truths and unorthodox viewpoints are “mentioned” so that t...
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10:09

Can We Assume Consciousness or Happiness in Other Animals?
Most people who share their home with one or more companion animals take it for granted that their companions have feelings including emotions of happiness and wellbeing. Although the behaviors they observe support their presumption, there are ...
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Season 2
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Episode 1
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8:30

Why BURNOUT Cannot Be an Option for an Animal Activist
It’s easy for an animal activist to become consumed with rage and despair to the point of exhaustion and burnout confronted with the horror, each and every day, of our species’ relentless assault on other animals. It’s important to not let this...
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Season 1
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Episode 14
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12:07

The Ethical Deviant as Animal Rights Activist
In today’s episode I discuss my concept of what I call the Ethical Deviant as Animal Rights Activist in the socialization process. Why is the Ethical Deviant essential to keeping societies and cultures from becoming stagnant ponds and iron pris...
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Season 1
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Episode 13
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9:25

Should Animal Intelligence Be Enhanced or Expunged to the Level of Artificial Intelligence?
Should Robots Be Granted “Personhood” Even if Most or All Nonhuman Animals Are Not?Today I discuss the ideas of altering animals’ minds to compete with robotic “intelligence” – manipulating some animals to be fit to be “persons...
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Season 1
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Episode 12
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10:58

The Forced Labor of Chickens on the Factory Farm
In the 20th century, chickens who had formerly been bred to be “all-purpose” birds for flesh and eggs on the farm were genetically divided into two distinct “divisions of labor” – one designed for egg production, the other for meat production. ...
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Episode 11
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8:08

Freddaflower and Mavis – Two Very Special, Very Different Hens
In today’s episode, I tell the story of two hens who came to live in our sanctuary, one as a chick, the other as an adult, and the changes they underwent at our place. Please join me as I relive my experience with these two very endearing birds...
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Season 1
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Episode 10
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7:18

How Does a Farmed Animal Sanctuary Promote Animal Liberation?
Farmed animal sanctuaries, including microsanctuaries, are an important part of the animal advocacy movement. How does a farmed animal sanctuary differ from a farm or 4-H? What are these sanctuaries designed to teach? Some advocates still quest...
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Season 1
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Episode 9
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9:45

Introduction to Pessimism versus Negativity
At first glance, pessimism and negativity may seem like synonymous attitudes toward the world and its prospects for improvement. Both can seem particularly applicable to animal rights activism and the prospect for animal liberation. In today’s ...
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Season 1
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7:13

Do Chickens Form Intentions?
The question has been asked: Do chickens form intentions? Can they form intentions? In this episode I address the question by citing some key examples of intentional behavior that I have observed in the hens living in our sanctuary. Pl...
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Season 1
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11:21

Liberating Our Language for Farmed Animals
Farmed animal advocates can be frustrated by the language agribusiness uses to describe the animals we seek to liberate from abusive and demeaning usage – both actual and rhetorical. In today’s podcast episode I provide examples of terms to avo...
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Season 1
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8:30

Violated Expectations in the Experience of Factory-Farmed Chickens
Agribusiness portrays chickens raised for food as “happy” and “content” in the squalor of their factory-farm environment. Exploiters insist that chickens who have never known anything else cannot “miss” fresh air, sunshine, and personal space. ...
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9:38

Viva – The Little Chicken Who Changed My Life
In the 1980s I was planning to teach college English for the rest of my life. Little did I know until I met her, that this small, abandoned hen would change all that. In this podcast I tell the story of the life and death of Viva, and why sh...
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10:42

Roosters – Their Plight & Delight
In his own world of chickendom, the rooster is a father, a lover, a food-finder, a guardian, and a sentinel. He was justly praised by a renowned Renaissance writer as “the example of the best and truest father of a family.” Bu in today’s world,...
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12:06

Avian Influenza (Bird Flu) ‑ Fiction versus Fact
To date more than 33 million chickens, turkeys, ducks and other domesticated birds have been destroyed by the U.S. poultry industry and the Department of Agriculture claiming that these massacres are the only way to control the latest round of ...
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8:33
