November 27, 1998

Poultry Slam 1998

For Thanksgiving, the time of year when poultry consumption is highest, it's our annual program about turkeys, chickens, and fowl of all types.

Download

Control-click (or right-click) Tap and hold to download
Subscribe on Spotify Subscribe in Apple Podcasts Subscribe
Transcript

Prologue

When is a chicken your friend? When is he your dinner? This American Life's former webmeister Elizabeth Meister talks with Kamiko Overs, an 11-year-old girl at the annual poultry exhibition run by the American Poultry Association in Columbus, Ohio.

Elizabeth Meister is a producer with Long Haul Productions. (5 minutes)

By

Ira Glass

Elizabeth Meister

Act One

Still Life With Chicken

Food writer Jonathan Gold tells what it's like to panfry a chicken—with a live chicken watching you the entire time. (14 minutes)

By

Jonathan Gold

Act Two

Last Meal

When Francois Mitterand knew he was about to die, he decided that the last food to cross his lips would be poultry...a tiny bird that is actually illegal to eat in France. It's a bird that, by tradition, is eaten with a napkin covering your head. Writer Michael Paterniti set out for France to try the contraband capon himself. (11 minutes)

By

Ira Glass

Act Three

People Who Love Chickens And Hate This American Life

Last year, a woman named Karen Davis started a national letter writing campaign to try to get This American Life to stop the very program we are broadcasting today—the annual Poultry Slam. In this portion of our show, she explains what it is that we just don't understand about poultry, and why the whole idea of this poultry show was wrong-headed from the start. (10 minutes)