What is a Pig Worth?

Radiolab

WNYC Studios

History, Science, Documentary, Natural Sciences, Society & Culture

4.6 • 44.5K Ratings

🗓️ 1 May 2026

⏱️ 43 minutes

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Summary

In 2017, Wayne Hsiung and a crew of animal rights activists from Direct Action Everywhere broke into a Utah pig farm run by Smithfield Foods, one of the largest pork distributors in the world. They were there to capture video of what they say were thousands of mistreated and abused animals kept in tiny metal cages barely bigger than their bodies. As they were leaving, they took two sick piglets out with them. Prosecutors in Utah charged Wayne with burglary and theft. What came next was the court battle that he wanted all along. During his trial, Wayne made a truly bizarre argument that forced the jury, and all of us, to stare straight at our complicated, sometimes uncomfortable relationship with animals. This week on the show, we grapple with the impossible question at the center of it: What is the value of a piglet? Special thanks to Kim Nederveen Pieterse, Nathan Peereboom, Jo Eidman, Sam Kozloff, Rachel Gross, Alex Allaux, and Joan Schaffner. EPISODE CREDITS: Reported by - Sindhu Gnanasambandan and Jae MinardProduced by - Sindhu Gnanasambandanwith help from - Pat Walterswith mixing help from - Jeremy BloomFact-checking by - Diane A. Kellyand Edited by - Alex Neason and Pat Walters EPISODE CITATIONS: Articles - A Rabbit, is a rabbit, is a rabbit… Not under the Law (https://zpr.io/ezUPRE36VZVk) by Schaffner, J. E. in The Global Journal of Animal Law Animal Rights Activists Are Acquitted in Smithfield Piglet Case (https://zpr.io/ayaV9gDneNsw) by Andrew Jacobs in The New York Times Meet the Activists Risking Prison to Film VR in Factory Farms (https://zpr.io/HEXdpf5Q7VAB) by Andy Greenberg in Wired Audio - VR Puts Viewers Inside the Grisly Reality of Factory Farms (https://zpr.io/pMHq5RVkzUM3) a 2-part podcast by Wired Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org. Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Simons Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Wait, you're listening.
0:03.1	Okay.
0:04.4	All right.
0:05.6	Okay.
0:07.0	All right.
0:08.5	You're listening to Radio Lab.
0:11.4	Radio Lab.
0:11.9	From W. N. Y.
0:13.9	C.
0:14.8	See?
0:14.9	Yeah.
0:19.0	Hey. This is Radio Lab. I'm Latif Nasasser, joined by producer Sindunyanas Sambandand.
0:25.3	Hey, Latif.
0:26.0	And what do you got?
0:27.3	Okay, so this one, it starts when this guy, Jay Minard, joined my meditation group.
0:32.1	Okay.
0:32.6	We're also both journalists.
0:33.8	And so, you know, one day we started talking about the kinds of stories we are drawn to.
0:39.1	And, you know, we're both Buddhist. So we're interested in like impermanence, inner connection,
0:46.2	and suffering, you know, death. And why death and suffering? Like, why is that a Buddhist?
0:52.9	Well, I mean, like, the idea is that when you look at the things that scare you,
0:57.9	there's actually a chance for kind of like a deeper truth to show itself.
	...

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