Political animals (with Leah Garcés)

The Gray Area with Sean Illing

Vox Media Podcast Network

Politics, News, News Commentary, Philosophy, Society & Culture

4.5 • 11.1K Ratings

🗓️ 9 September 2019

⏱️ 91 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Imagine, for a moment, what it’s like to be an animal rights activist. Tens of billions of animals are being tortured and slaughtered every year. It is, to you, a rolling horror. But to the people you love, the world you live in — it’s normal. You’re the weird one. So what do you do? How do you engage, politically and personally, when so few see what you see? Leah Garcés is the Executive President of Mercy for Animals and the author of Grilled: Turning Adversaries into Allies to Change the Chicken Industry ,which documents her journey to reduce the suffering of chickens by building coalitions with none other than well… industrial chicken farmers. I wanted Garcés on the show because her story is about more than animal suffering. It’s about the core question of politics: the choice we face, every day, between condemnation and compromise. Whether your issue is health care or climate or civil rights or abortion or taxes or foreign policy, you’re faced daily with people working for a world you find repellent. What do you do when they’re the majority and you’re the minority? How do you maintain your own morality when the system itself is sick? When do you draw bright lines, and when do you erase the lines you’ve spent your life drawing? This conversation gets uncomfortable at times — the realities of factory farming are not easy to face. But, trust me, you will want to stick with it. Garcés offers an extraordinary lesson in the daily practice of politics, one worth hearing even if it’s not ultimately your path. Book recommendations: Meat Racket by Christopher Leonard Big Chicken by Maryn McKenna Illumination in the Flatwoods: A Season with the Wild Turkey by Joe Hutto Read the transcript of this interview here If you enjoyed this podcast, you may also like: The Green Pill Bruce Friedrich on how technology will reduce animal suffering Want to contact the show? Reach out at ezrakleinshow@vox.com News comes at you fast. Join us at the end of your day to understand it. Subscribe to Today, Explained Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	When you drive a Chevy electric vehicle, you're getting more than a way to get from point A to point B.
0:06.0	You're saying goodbye to gas stations and how low to open roads.
0:09.0	With the growing network of public charging stations, you'll be able to charge your EV while you shop, work, or do whatever you want to be doing with your time.
0:17.0	Chevy is making EVs for everyone, everywhere. Go to chevrelay.com slash electric to learn more.
0:25.0	First, sweet tarts dare to combine sweet and tart. But they didn't stop there.
0:33.0	Now they've combined soft and bouncy to bring you new sweet tarts, gummies fruity splits.
0:39.0	A uniquely delicious dual-sided gummy with one side that's sweet and the other side that's tart.
0:46.0	But entirely smooth and squishy. A powerfully perfect combo.
0:52.0	Sweet tarts dare to combine.
0:55.0	Chickens are at this huge disadvantage as our fish.
0:59.0	They don't usually vocalize pain and they don't share facial expressions like we do.
1:04.0	Mammals do.
1:06.0	And so we have this affinity towards animals that are closer to us.
1:11.0	We want to protect them and the closer they are to us, the more we say, oh, they must feel pain.
1:15.0	They're worthy of protection.
1:22.0	Hello, welcome to the Clancho on Vox Media podcast network.
1:31.0	My guest today is Leah Garces, who is the president of Mercy for Animals and the author of the new book,
1:36.0	grilled turning adversaries into allies to change the chicken industry.
1:40.0	There are two levels to this conversation.
1:42.0	One is about Garces work, who she's been in Georgia working with chicken farmers to try to reform both the way the farmers and the chicken.
1:51.0	And the sort of remarkable story of her book is when you're vegan, when you're an animal rights activist,
1:57.0	it can be totalizing what you are looking at, the quantity of death and suffering.
	...

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