Ira with Clarence Hicks, who picks up dead animals for a living.

Ira with chicken photographer Tamara Staples.

Samantha Martin trains raccoons to play basketball and rats to bowl. She says that what we want from animals is for them to imitate humans.

Short fiction by George Saunders.

Scott Carrier in Salt Lake City with the latest installment in his 12-year quest to chase down and catch an antelope. This story and others are included in his book Running After Antelope.

Ira with Lloyd Natoff, on killing chickens.

Anthropologists agree that humans stopped being animals when they started walking upright, on two legs. But scientists don't agree on why our ancestors did this.

A story by Bia Lowe.

Jack Hitt reports on one woman's opera about Chicken Little.

An original radio drama called "Kathleen on the Carpet," in which animals talk and hold their own "animal court." It's a comedy by David Sedaris, starring our own radio theater company, the Pinetree Gang.

Ira with an expert in medieval manuscripts, Sandy Hindman.

Michael Lewis on duck hunting.