Sanjana Sekhar, METAMORPHOSIS & Sy Montgomery, WHAT THE CHICKEN KNOWS

Writer’s Voice: compelling conversations with authors who challenge, inspire, and inform.

Episode Summary

Earth Day is coming up this month, so we get a jump on environmental awareness. From visionary climate futures to the minds of our feathered friends, this episode reminds us that joy, attention, and imagination may be our greatest tools for survival.

First, we speak with Sanjana Sekhar, editor of Metamorphosis: Climate Fiction for a Better Future, a bold new anthology of climate fiction that reimagines our planet’s future with optimism and justice at its core.

“Ancestral intelligence is the first AI—it’s the wisdom that has always known how to live on this planet.” — Sanjana Sekhar

Then we sit down with beloved naturalist and author Sy Montgomery to explore the surprising world of chickens—yes, chickens—in her delightfully enlightening new book, What the Chicken Knows: A New Appreciation of the World’s Most Familiar Bird.

“Almost everything we know about chickens is wrong.” — Sy Montgomery

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Key Words: Sanjana Sekhar, Metamorphosis anthology, Imagine 2200, climate fiction, cli-fi, climate hope, Sy Montgomery, What the Chicken Knows, animal intelligence, ethical eating, chicken cognition, Earth Day

You Might Also Like: Sy Montgomery & Matthew Patterson: OF TIME AND TURTLES, James Bridle, WAYS OF BEING & Sy Montgomery, THE HAWK’S WAY

Read The Transcript

Segment 1: Sanjana Sekhar on Metamorphosis: Climate Fiction for a Better Future

Writer and climate storyteller Sanjana Sekhar discusses Metamorphosis, a collection of short stories from the Grist-sponsored Imagine 2200 initiative. The anthology challenges climate “doomism” with imaginative, justice-centered, anti-dystopian narratives that draw on ancestral intelligence, cultural resilience, and radical hope. Sekhar’s own story, Cabbage Kura: A Prognostic Autobiography, explores climate change through the lens of generational memory and joy in the face of loss.

Key Topics

• The Imagine 2200 initiative and the role of climate fiction
• Shifting from apocalyptic to hopeful narratives in climate storytelling
• Intergenerational resilience and ancestral intelligence
• Cultural memory, migration, and climate adaptation
• The politics of land, conservation, and the myth of “green colonialism”
• How storytelling can drive local climate solutions and systemic change

Featured Stories in the Anthology

• Cabbage Koora by Sanjana Sekhar
• A Holdout in Northern California’s Designated Wildcraft Zone – explores tech, rewilding, and land justice
• To Labor for the Hive – a tale of ecological renewal and human connection in post-coal China

Segment 2: Sy Montgomery on What the Chicken Knows: A New Appreciation of the World’s Most Familiar Bird

Naturalist and bestselling author Sy Montgomery returns with What the Chicken Knows, a charming and revelatory exploration of one of the most misunderstood animals: the domestic chicken. Drawing on her decades of animal observation, Montgomery highlights the emotional lives, intelligence, and social sophistication of chickens—and offers a heartfelt critique of industrial animal agriculture.

Key Topics

• How chickens demonstrate emotion, cognition, and social bonds
• What we’ve gotten wrong about chickens and why it matters
• The science behind chicken language, recognition, and problem-solving
• Anthropomorphism vs. ethological empathy in studying animals
• Chickens as a lens into ethics, ecology, and human connection
• Humane alternatives to factory-farmed poultry and eggs

Ethical Living Tips from Sy Montgomery

• Buy only pasture-raised eggs or get them from local humane sources
• Use chickpea water (aquafaba) as a vegan egg substitute
• Avoid rewarding factory farming with your purchases
• Celebrate animal sentience by paying attention to the everyday creatures around you

Listen to a Sample