During the weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year's - the highest turkey consumption period of the year - we bring you an annual This American Life tradition: stories of turkeys, chickens, geese, ducks, fowl of all kinds, real and imagined, and their mysterious hold over us.
Winged Warrior
In the 1960s, the adventures of "The Greatest Crimefighter the World Has Ever Known"—Chickenman—were heard on hundreds of radio stations. On today's show, the winged warrior flies again. (5 minutes)
Song:
Chicken Diva
Yet another testimony to the power chickens have over our hearts and minds. Jack Hitt reports on an opera about Chicken Little. It's performed with dressed-up styrofoam balls, it's sung in Italian and, no kidding, able to make grown men cry. The official website for the opera "Love's Fowl" by Susan Vitucci and Henry Krieger is http://www.pulcina.org. (14 minutes)
Song
Trying To Respect The Chicken
Ira accompanies photographer Tamara Staples as she attempts to photograph chickens in the style of high fashion photography. The chickens are not very cooperative. Her photos have been collected in a book, "The Magnificent Chicken: Portraits of the Fairest Fowl." (15 minutes)
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Related
Act One: The Old College Try
Act One: Brigadoon
Act Two: Marine Life
Staff Recommendations
Arms Trader (2009)
The U.S. government spent two years on a sting operation trapping an Indian man suspected of being an illegal arms dealer.
What Happened at Dos Erres
A Guatemalan immigrant living near Boston gets a phone call with some very strange news about his past.