Bill Blumenreich Presents: Sy Montgomery – What The Chicken Knows

Wed. Nov. 06, 2024 at 7:00 pm

WHAT THE CHICKEN KNOWS by Sy Montgomery
Moderated by Jim & Margery

What The Chicken Knows is a charming and eye-opening exploration of the special relationship between humans and chickens from Sy Montgomery, “one of our finest chroniclers of the natural world” (The New York Times).

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For more than two decades, Sy Montgomery—whose The Soul of an Octopus was a National Book Award finalist—has kept a flock of chickens in her backyard. Each chicken has an individual personality (outgoing or shy, loud or quiet, reckless or cautious) and connects with Sy in her own way.

In this short, delightful book, Sy takes us inside the flock and reveals all the things that make chickens such remarkable creatures: only hours after leaving the egg, they are able to walk, run, and peck; relationships are important to them and the average chicken can recognize more than one hundred other chickens; they remember the past and anticipate the future; and they communicate specific information through at least twenty-four distinct calls. Visitors to her home are astonished by all this, but for Sy what’s more astonishing is how little most people know about chickens, especially considering there are about twenty percent more chickens on earth than people.

With a winning combination of personal narrative and science, What the Chicken Knows is exactly the kind of book that has made Sy Montgomery such a beloved and popular author.

About Sy Montgomery:
Sy Montgomery is a naturalist, adventurer, and author of more than thirty acclaimed books of nonfiction for adults and children, including The Hummingbirds’ Gift, The Hawk’s Way, the National Book Award finalist The Soul of an Octopus, and most recently, Of Time and Turtles, which was a New York Times bestseller. The recipient of numerous honors, including lifetime achievement awards from the Humane Society and the New England Booksellers Association, she lives in New Hampshire with her husband, writer Howard Mansfield, and a border collie.

thewilbur.com/armory/artist/sy-montgomery

About Jim Braude:

Jim Braude is the co-host of Boston Public Radio. He has worked with
co-host Margery Eagan for 18 years, first doing a TV show together at
NECN then a radio show at WTKK. The duo came to WGBH in 2013.

During law school, Jim ran a small retail business in Provincetown
(HUBE – Help Us Break Even!). He started his professional career as a
legal services lawyer in the South Bronx handling housing and
prisoners’ rights cases. He was the founder and first president of the
National Organization of Legal Services Workers, a union representing
staff in civil legal offices for the poor in 35 states. NOLSW helped
lead the fight to preserve the national program when President Reagan
proposed its abolition.

He then served as the executive director of TEAM, the Tax Equity
Alliance for Massachusetts, a tax reform coalition, during which time
he led many ballot campaigns, including the defeat of what would have
been the largest budget cut on the ballot in U.S. history. He
published Otherwise, a magazine on American politics, and then served
as a Cambridge City Councilor.

Jim graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and New York
University’s Law School.

About Margery Eagan:

Margery Eagan is the co-host of 89.7 WGBH’s midday program Boston
Public Radio. She has worked with co­-host Jim Braude for 18 years,
first doing a TV show together at NECN then a radio show at WTKK. The
duo came to WGBH in 2013.

• Literary Art
• Performance Hall