Welcome to Our Hen House.

This is Jasmine Singer, and this week we'll be diving into the intersection of science, sustainability,

and animal agriculture.

Our guest is Dr. Rachel Mason, a multidisciplinary scientist who went from studying the stars to

tackling urgent environmental issues right here on Earth. And we'll be talking about how she

uses cutting-edge data science, machine learning, and remote sensing to uncover the real impact of animal agriculture,

and what a truly sustainable food system could look like. You won't want to miss this one.

Before we get into that, you might notice that I'm flying solo for the top of the show today,

and that's because our darling Marianne has the flu.

So she's resting up, and sorry, kids, she's skipping rising anxieties this week.

But don't worry, she recorded this week's interview before she got sick, so you'll still get

to hear her in conversation with Dr. Mason.

In the meantime, I want to talk about a book that I'm currently reading.

It's called The Friend by Sigrid Nunez.

And I saw that it's being made into a movie.

I saw the trailer.

It looked amazing.

So I decided to get it out of the library first, even though I really do want to see the movie when it comes out. Obviously, whenever possible, I like to read the book first. The book, by the way, won the National Book Award in 2018. So I figured, okay, this is clearly a thing. So let's see what all the hype is about. It's basically about a woman who loses her close friend and mentor, a fellow writer, and in the wake of his

death, she unexpectedly inherits his rescued Great Dane, whose name is Apollo. And the book explores themes like grief and loneliness

and the profound bond between humans and animals. It's literary, it's meditative, and at times it's

really moving. By the way, I'm not done with it, but there is something I wanted to

talk about. I don't think I'm giving anything away here, plus I'm not actually done with the book

...