Hey folks, just a quick note about today's episode. We're going to be talking about death,

animal slaughter, and other sensitive topics, so listener discretion is advised. On to the show.

We begin today's episode with frequent contributor Avery Thompson in the studio. You might recognize him from our episodes on the

origins of Greek salad or this episode on rattlesnakes. We have a total of 1,474 pounds of snakes.

Oh my gosh. I should warn you that I'm deathly afraid of snakes.

Hey, Avery. Hey, Jack. I understand you've got another story for us today. Yeah, but before I jump into the episode, I wanted to ask, do you like animals? Are you a pet guy? My daughter has a dog named Roland, and he's staying with us right now. He's a morkey, which is a Maltese yorky mix.

Nice. I love animals.

I travel a lot, so I don't have one of my own right now, but I've become the unofficial pet sitter for all my friends.

Next question for you, Jack. Do you eat meat?

Okay, I see where this is going.

I'm not trying to call you out personally.

We say we love animals, and yet we do this thing,

practically every day that involves the killing of an animal.

You mean eating meat?

Right.

And yes, some people are vegetarian and vegan for that very reason, and for pretty compelling

environmental considerations, which is cool, I commend them.

But according to some recent polls, 5% or less of Americans are vegetarians, which means

the other 95% might be wrestling with something called the meat paradox.

The meat paradox? Explain.

That's a term psychologists used to describe the conflict of values we animal-loving meat eaters face.

And we use some mental tricks to make this work, like using different words between beef and cow or pork and pig.

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