Beef And Dairy Network - Episode 87 - Squandered Inheritance

Episode Date: August 21, 2022

Tom Crowley, Gemma Arrowsmith and Maggie Nolan join in for this episode which investigates the growing trend for the children of farmers to give up their inheritance and leave farming behind. Tickets for our live show on Sunday 18th September 2022 can be bought here: https://www.kingsplace.co.uk/whats-on/comedy/beef-and-dairy-network-podcast-live/Streaming tickets: https://www.kingsplace.co.uk/whats-on/comedy/online-beef-and-dairy-network-podcast-live/ Stock media provided by Setuniman/Pond5.com and Soundrangers/Pond5.comMusic credits courtesy of epidemicsound.com:Organized Chaos/ Arthur bensonCheese and Crackers / Arthur BensonJim & The Umbrella / Mike Franklyn

Hello, before we start, just a little reminder that there are still tickets available for our live show at the London Podcast Festival on the 18th of September. There are a small number of tickets in the hall available, and there are an unlimited number of streaming tickets. And that means you can stream it live or watch it after the fact for a week afterwards. The cast will include Mike Wozniak, Henry Packer and Najee Kamal. And it's always good fun. I'll put the links in the show description. That's Beef and Dairy Live on the 18th of September. That's a Sunday afternoon at the London Podcast Festival. The Beef and Dairy Network is sponsored by Molle,

the new mole-based cattle feed from Mitchell's. If it's not Mitchell's, get back in the truck. There's nothing more natural than a cow eating a mole, and so 90% of the moles we use are caught in the wild with a line and pole. And for every mole we catch, we release a retired zoo panther into the environment, bringing the ecosystem back into balance. For 10% off your first order of Mole, why don't you give me 10% off whatever it is you do?

Oh, you're a barista? 10% off a coffee isn't even a dollar. That's not an equitable trade. I'm talking like accounting services, maybe. Specifically, I don't know, off the top of my head, an accountant that specializes in fraud, maybe? Or tax evasion? specializes in fraud, maybe, or tax evasion, or maybe, say, a doctor that specializes in rashes from tainted fertilizer. I don't know. You get the idea. It has to be worth it, is what I'm saying.

Hello and welcome to the Beef and Dairy Network podcast, the number one podcast for those involved, or just interested, in the production of beef animals and dairy herds. The Beef and Dairy Network podcast is the podcast companion to the Beef and Dairy Network website and a printed magazine, brought to you by Mole, the mole-based cattle feed. Now, this month we tackle a growing issue that presents an existential threat to the farming industry here in the UK. Until recently, if you were growing up in a farming family, you'd proudly look forward to the day that you'd bury your father and take the reins at your farm, becoming master of all you surveyed. Baron of the barn. Monarch of the milking parlour. Head honcho of the hedgerows. Potentate of the pasture. Crown prince of the confinement pen. Sultan of the slaughterhouse. Overlord of the oscillating fully automatic cattle body brush.

However, according to numbers recently published by the Bovine Farmers Union, more and more people are turning their back on farming and deciding to sell up when they inherit their family farm. In this month's episode, I speak to people who've decided to turn their back on their birthright, and I ask them why they've decided to defecate on everything their forefathers have built for them. Why do they want to take a metaphorical pickaxe to the foundations of their ancestral palace of beef? Hello, I'm Alan Lafrenne and I've decided to stop farming. Alan, thanks very much for talking to us today.

Fine, fine. Now, you're saying you're going to stop farming. So, you stand to inherit a farm, I believe? Yeah, enormous. Really, it's one of Kent's largest farms, actually. Right, okay. And that is still being farmed by your parents, I guess, at this stage? Well, they're nearing the end of their farming lives, really. I mean, my dad's battered up old

wreck at this point, and mum's not much better. So tilling the land, even with the help of the beasts of the earth, it's really taking its toll on them. So yeah, I think they're going to have to pack it in fairly soon. So that's when the question gets posed alan are you taking over and my answer is no thanks so so let's talk a bit more about the farm you say it's one of the biggest farms in kent that's right i believe it's a beef farm it is yeah primarily a beef farm um we've got uh 7 000 head of cattle and we do also rear horses that's more of a side gig really i mean partly it's for work on the farm and transport around the farm, but we have also sold a few of the more knackered out ones to the police.

And if you want a horse at your wedding, we're your guys. Oh, yeah. Okay. Is that big, horse at the wedding? It depends. I mean, some people prefer the minister on the horse. Some people like just the best man riding in with the ring on the horse. Some people like just the best man riding in with the ring on the horse. And actually, on one memorable occasion, we had an entire medieval reenactment wedding where every single member of the congregation was also on a horse. 200 charging horses on their way to a buffet is an incredible sight. I asked Alan why the prospect of farming is so unattractive.

This is Brexit. These are the impacts of Brexit, you know, because as well as the difficulties with trade now, new tariffs being established. A few years ago, most of the hard labour on the farm would have been done by a team of 20 to 30 French children. That's how all British farms ran pre-Brexit. Oh, absolutely. Most English farms were serviced almost exclusively by huge teams of french children that would be shipped over and anytime you went near any farming development in the country you'd sort of you'd know the arrival by the smell of cigarette smoke drifting out over the fields and and hearing that very sort of beautiful exotic but absolutely filthy

swearing that would follow them around in a cloud much like the cigarette smoke smoke. Yes, and again, this interview isn't about this, but something that isn't being talked about very much, I think, is that post-Brexit, a lot of rural communities, there are people struggling because they used to not only rely on those French children for the labour, but also businesses sprang up around that

to service those French children with the things they needed. So for example, pre-2016, any day out in the countryside, you'd hear the wine merchant walking around the farm shouting, wine, wine, wine for the children, come and get your wine for the children, vending the cheap wine to the children for their afternoon break. Those people now, I would assume... My friend Malcolm ran a factory and

a sort of a canning uh facility which this was his entire life's work and his his sole product was cheap child-friendly red wine sold exclusively in juice boxes and um and his business has been absolutely decimated because you know the english children god bless them we're a nation of drinkers we are we can hold our drink but our children children, they're ale kids. They're going to have a nice sort of nutty brown ale in the afternoon. They're not drinking that red wine. Not at that age. Faced with a future attempting to run a beef farm without a workforce of Gaelic juveniles, Alan has made alternative plans for his life once his parents have died. Alan has made alternative plans for his life once his parents have died.

The second they pop their clogs, I am getting on the phone to Travelodge or Premier Inn or any of those places, maybe even Bluewater. I mean, who knows who might be the highest bidder, but I am flogging that land and all of the machinery on it as quickly as I can, because I don't want to tether myself to this sinking ship of British farming. And what about the 7,000 cows that are on the land? Well, funny you should ask. I've been speaking to Travelodge, because in anticipation of the parents popping off, it can't be that long.

So I thought better to open the conversation early. And as soon as I mentioned it was a cattle farm, they were very interested, very interested indeed. And they said, well, if we throw in a bit of extra dosh, would you consider selling us the cows as well? And I asked, and they said well we found that our guests find having a cow in the room very soothing they can sort of look lovingly into the cow's eye it makes them think ahead to the the dinner in the travelodge dining area steaksaks, beef burgers, and so on. The smell and the look of a cow, it makes them feel more alive. It makes them feel hungry, in the case of the meat eaters.

And it also makes them feel secure. They think, this cow's here. Have you ever heard of somebody being attacked with a cow nearby? No, you haven't. So they immediately feel like they are they and their belongings are in a safe environment they're kind of like in that way a kind of live equivalent to the sort of art you get on the wall in a hotel like a travel oh precisely some kind of beige shapes often they go for or a kind of very insipid watercolor of some of a coastal area that's i mean

insipid is the word that comes to mind it's a kind yeah indeed it's a local artist who's sold a lot of prints of a very you know bang average middle of the road landscape of you know maybe a lovely farming field or uh or the beach perhaps uh maybe even if you're not near a beach and you think why is there a painting of a beach but it has that relaxing insipid quality yeah and scientists have i looked into this scientists have discovered that the peace that you feel from looking into the eye of a cow is very very similar to the sense of totally numb peace that you get from looking at one of those uh totally ordinary middle of the road paintings that kind of corporate art is very much there just to switch your brain off, isn't it? That's it. It's to stop you thinking,

to stop you asking questions like, how can they justify seven pounds for a bag of peanuts in the minibar? They say that this miniature bottle of vodka is five centilitres, it looks more like four. You're not going to be thinking about any of that stuff because your brain is going to be slowly switched off, dimmed, like a light dimmer switch, just slowly turning down and down and down the longer you're in the presence of this deeply, deeply mediocre painting. And a cow then, they feel, has a very similar effect then on someone who's checking. The cow magnifies the effect as well because, you know, as well as the soothing effect of a cow, it is a living creature. You know, you're sort of wondering what am i doing might i be agitating the cow might i be offending the cow in some way so you you you naturally become stiller and and the sort

of the more variety of the fact that an unpredictable element such as a cow it's looking at the drapes now why is it doing that it's just sort of slightly kicked its front hoof why did it do that these sort of that variety helps to lull you in even deeper to an even deeper trance that stops you wondering about the quality and price of the service you're receiving well it sounds as if really it's putting the the occupant a bit on edge if anything thinking you know is this cow going to kick off no that's a very that's a very urban attitude if i if i may say so it's you don't understand what please do not accuse the beef and dairy network of being an urban organization if you don't want to be accused of being urban then you need only stop espousing such attitudes because in in a sort of urban setting you're not used to having the

natural world around you and understandably yes some people from city environments might arrive at a more rural travel lodge see a cow and be put off at first but it's subliminal being around the beasts of the farm is is a natural state for humanity and your sort of ancestral memory will kick in and being around your cow it is somehow calming to have it nearby i understand this i just think you know the kind of people who are going to go and stay in a travel lodge you know let's not beat around the bush here they're they're top level executives they're people you know flying in and out of the country meetings lunches actors in emmerdale yeah we are meeting famous actors like the like the ones who appear in emmerdale or other soaps yeah travel lodge is a jet set lifestyle place right that's why they have that

slogan you know life at jet ski pace because that's the identity they're trying to get across well that's it and you know you're paying upwards of sometimes 45 50 55 pounds for a room so the people that's right staying in these hotels you know it's it's the likes of it's your obamas you know it's your oprah's it's your alan sugars lady gaga lady gaga for example yeah so what i'm getting at and i think it's what you were getting at when you were spraying the word urban around and accusing us of being urban yes these people are urban these people are the urban metropolitan liberal elite that's right i mean they're very much the urban media sets uh like yourself uh so no that's that's not what was going on in this podcast we kick against the establishment i'm sorry i won't stand for this well all i'm saying is i'm yet to see

much evidence of that during this conversation so far you're questioning a cow's presence in a domestic setting i i just don't understand i'm questioning it. I'm not questioning it at all. I'm saying, how does somebody from this international elite react to a cow in a room? And because they have become inhuman through their lifestyle of constant buffet lunches in airports, departure lounges, surrounded by the likes of Lady Gaga, karen brady pele adrian lester exactly that these people may not be able to tune in to the frequencies that people like you and i get out of a cow's eyes so i'm not impugning you i'm not impugning travelodge with their plans i'm impugning these this lack of faith in the en suite cow plan is exactly the sort of biased urban attitude that i've come to expect in the business of attempting to sell off some farmland before your parents die i once saw tom hiddleston confronted with a cow unexpectedly. And yes, I will grant you,

in the first three seconds of seeing it, he jumped. His every aspect suggested agitation and surprise. But within five seconds, his manner was relaxed. He suddenly adopted a sort of neutral relaxed he suddenly adopted a sort of neutral posture and he said i'm sorry i i was just in the most profound relaxed tranquil state i've ever experienced in my life and i've met kira nightly who herself had cow's eyes implanted into her own head that's why she's such a popular actor well look i i feel like we've i don't know why we're we're really agreeing here that's the thing i feel like we're falling i think whilst agreeing i have all right i i admit i i've faced some opposition to this plan and perhaps i've become slightly defensive about it at times but i would just say that a podcast called The Beef and Dairy Network is the last place

I expected to find that cynicism. And it took me aback, but I'm sorry. I'm prepared to carry on with this interview now. I didn't say it to Alan at the time, but I think it bears mention. Who really is turning their back on the rural lifestyle here? Is it us, producing a monthly podcast about the latest bleeding edge developments

in the beef and dairy industries? Or is it a man who's about to sell his family's farm to a hotel chain? I think I'll let you answer that one yourself. But I think I know the answer. It's him. Sadly, Alan is only one of many people spitting into their parents' graves, and this trend is growing year on year. And as you can imagine, this hasn't escaped the attention of the Bovine Farmers Union. Rosemary Tongs is their head of outreach. Now, Rosemary, this is a big problem, isn't it? It is, yeah. If the number of people turning their back on their inheritance continues at the same rate, there will be no farmers at all by 2055. By 2075, there will be minus 2 million farmers in Britain. And by 2090, there will be more minus farmers in the UK than people. Right, so what you're saying is the absence of farmers will actually be bigger than the population of the UK?

That's right. And there won't be room for everyone. Okay. And what's causing this? Well, the younger generation seem to think that farming isn't cool. They'd rather be doing a cool job like selling vaping paraphernalia on Facebook Marketplace or tattooing dogs. But not everyone can do that. We very quickly run out of dogs. It's not a sustainable economy for sure no it's not um is is brexit part of this well i mean obviously yes to an extent of course we encouraged our members to vote for brexit why did you do that well just so we'd experience all such as... Such as...

Well, such as... Yeah. So it's obviously brought challenges. Principally, the army of French children who came over here every year to help on the farms, they're gone now, and that's had a huge knock-on effect. Well, that's right.

It seems like the British children just aren't as interested as the french children were in in helping out on the farm yeah and they want to be paid which is unfortunate yeah well of course you could you could pay those french children in uh in cigarettes and wine and they'd be happy they love that yeah okay so the reason i'm asking on the show is that the beaubourg and farmers union has spent a lot of money um reportedly on an initiative to persuade people in farming families to stick with the family business. What exactly is this initiative?

Well, we've been working with scientists based in Sweden who found a way to use very specific sound frequencies to essentially reprogram someone's brain and suggest things on a subconscious level. They've been working on this for over nine months and it's finally ready to be broadcast okay very interesting and um i believe it's true to say that you've not heard this yet no uh this will be the first time anyone outside of the swedish lab has heard this oh well thank you for giving us this exclusive to play this out and i i know you're going to be sending this out on our cds and cassettes uh to to farming families across the uk but um

you know if you're a if you're on the fence about whether you're going to become a farmer or not going forward, give this a listen and see what you think. So here we go. Here we go. Beef. Beef. Is that it? I'm not sure. Hopefully there's more.

Beef. Beef. There you go. It doesn't sound that high-tech to me. No, it doesn't, does it? Beef. Beef. Okay, I think that's it.

Beef. Beef. Right. Oh, there's more. It's time to go back to the fields. It's time to go back to the fields. You don't need those French children anymore. Oof.

Oof. Oof. Oof. Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace. Return to the soil, like the worm that you are. Return to the soil, like the worm that you are. Return to the soil like the worm that you are. Worm, worm, worm, worm, worm. Okay. Quite a lot of slap bass.

Maybe more slap bass than I was expecting. Yeah, I totally agree. Yeah. How much did that cost you? £300 million right I don't think they're really scientists are they? I think you've been had haven't you?

we definitely have yeah okay well Rosemary thank you a pleasure more after this certain people Thank you. A pleasure. More after this. Certain people just make life easier. For example, my personal assistant who brings me beef on the hour,

every hour, through the night. It's like that if you need to grow your business. ZipRecruiter makes hiring easier because they do the work for you. ZipRecruiter technology finds the right candidates for your job and you can invite your top choices to apply. No wonder ZipRecruiter is the number one rated hiring site based on G2 satisfaction ratings as of the 1st of January 2022. That's right, just go to ziprecruiter.com slash beef to try it for free. That's ziprecruiter.com slash beef. dot com slash beef. Now back to my interview with history traitor

Alan Lafrenne. Okay, well, accepting that you are going to sell off the farm, sell it to Travelodge or whichever hotel chain you managed to strike a deal with. Travelodge is the front runner currently.

Okay. And what are your plans for what you're going to do with this money? It's a big farm. Now I'm glad you asked. with travel lodge of the front runner currently okay and what are your what are your plans for um what what you're going to do with this money it's a big farm now i'm glad you ask because your world is about to be changed when i tell you that i'm investing in clints sorry clints clints they're a brand new concept in clothing and the public hasn't been alerted to their presence yet there's a big launch planned but clints are going to change the way you think about covering your body well i've not i've not heard of this garment can you explain what it is do you know dungarees

yeah well they're not at all like dungarees but that's quite a useful place to begin imagine dungarees but with a fur lined underhood okay and made entirely of british welted rubber that's a good starting place but that doesn't really say all of it you also you know the um that thing that you use to to you know when you have an apron on right there's that a belt we call it a belt a ribbon that's not a ribbon it's kind of like a rope like a rope but it's not a rope it's sort of flat and it's the same fabric as the apron usually but not always and you you sort of wrap that around and tie it off at the front or the back to keep the apron you know stable yeah i'm with you yeah yeah picture

picture that but as more of a sort of headband concept but for your chest and so that's again an element of it but so we haven't really begun to scratch the surface to be honest so let me just get this right so yeah you kind of put put it on your just to help me understand this when you're putting it on so it's it's you're putting your legs in first like a dungarees and then the hood goes over no it's not that much like a a picture putting on dungarees but the other way around okay yeah yeah right are you with me i think so well okay so where does the rubber where does the rubber underhood the rubber isn't on the underhood the underhood is fur lined and the out the outside is actually more of a sort of hessian weave but the the the the welted rubber is more of a sort of outer shell for the main trunk of the Clint's.

Okay, so I think if the listeners are having the same experience I am, they're not understanding what... Practical, but fashionable. Yeah, fine. Okay, let's imagine I'm putting on a Clint's. Do I need to put on anything else? You know, in the same way that if I'm wearing a shirt, I have to put on my trousers? I think, well, it depends on the climate, obviously. But you also probably want to wear a sort of a jodhpah underneath.

But that's mostly a question of friction because of the bat feet legs. You've got a bat wing arm and bat feet legs on a Clint's. What about materials? You've talked about welted rubber i is that the welted rubber is is as i say is mostly focused on the main trunk although there are character uh flourishes of the welted rubber elsewhere on the garment but that's more a style thing um the flap is cashmere uh which is is a nice uh nice effect and also for company. Yeah, the flap. Yeah, okay.

There is a heavy brass buckle that is your main fastener for the clints. That is very prominently displayed because the way that the clint is constructed, that brass buckle is very much the anchor, not just of the wearing of the clints, but also the look of the clints. Okay. The blousing of what?

The blousing? The blousing is silk, finest silk, and that we find really beautifully offsets the twice-reinforced gusset. It sort of counterbalances. What is a clint? Have you ever seen a sunset over a still ocean yes well imagine that but with a snake skin panel and with reinforced knees for easy kneeling oh god take it from me at some point within the next

five years you'll be recording every single one of your podcasts through the gauzy weave at the face plate of a clintz so it's kind of like a fencing mask is that what we're talking about no it's not like a fencing mask it's um i think in some ways it's best to look at the letters in it you've got c clothes Loose. Okay. I. Integrated. Okay. N. Not like old clothes. Interesting.

Okay. T. Tight. Loose and tight. Yep. And S. Suddenly. And maybe if you look at it from that perspective, it'll start to become clearer.

Alan Lefrenier, thank you. Thank you. Are you looking for a revolutionary new way of clothing yourself? Then you need Clint's. Send us your measurements and we'll make your Clint's bespoke. We simply need your shoe size, your estimated girth, your thorax density, and the exact distance between the top of your head and your asshole as the crow flies. But don't just take our word for it.

Here's what Tom Cruise has to say. Sorry, look, I'm not Tom Cruise. I'm a Scottish woman called Jeanette and I will not impersonate Tom Cruise. It's unethical and I won't do it. My name's Jeanette Lavery. Jeanette Lavery. Thanks, Tom. And look who else is mad about Clint's. It's Jurassic Park star Laura Dern. I'm Jeanette Lavery. My name is Jeanette Lavery. I'm not Laura Dern. Thanks, Laura.

To buy Clint's now, go to bespokeclint's.com because life's just easier with a snakeskin panel. After speaking to Alan, we put a call out on the Beef and Dairy Network web forums for other people who are planning on selling their family farm. Let's just say, it wasn't pretty. Many of those who came forward received a level of abuse that we haven't seen on the web forum since the supposedly anonymous lamb consumption amnesty, which due to a technical fault turned out to be less than anonymous and led to one unfortunate forum user being pulled through the streets of Carlisle behind a turbo donkey pelted with cobbles and burning hot microwaved pizzas. Amazingly, one of the forum users was brave enough to talk to me.

Hello, my name's Joanne Fuller and I plan to turn my back on farming. Joanne, thank you so much for talking to me today. To start, can you just tell me about your family farm? Well, I mean, we're in the High Peak in the north of England. It's absolutely beautiful here and my family's actually been farming for 1,000 years. 1,000 years? Yeah. Wow, okay. So that predates the Norman Conquest. It predates the Norman Conquest.

We're on our way to Jesus, actually. But yeah, well over 1,000 years, as far back as high peak documentation goes. Right. And yes, it's been in our family all that time. What evidence do you have that your family's been there for over a thousand years well there are a selection of notepads that my uh that my father kept uh which are quite yellowed um they've got the wh smith loder one but the one from the 1980s so you can tell it's old and what's written uh in the notebook are there references to

i don't know william the conqueror and um i don't know you know going through history henry the eighth the dissolution of the monasteries the hundred years war mead drinking i don't know what are the things in this notebook which are suggesting to you that it's a thousand years old no i i think i mean I haven't been allowed to look at the notepads myself because obviously they're very precious and they're kept under lock and key. But I'm unaware there's mention of Wham. There's also...

Wham? Yes. The band Wham? The band Wham, yes. Okay. And there's also talk of when five pence pieces got much smaller and everyone kept dropping them and you were finding them on the ground. So, you know, we're talking a long way back, you know, a very long way back.

So it sounds as if you definitely have evidence that the farm was around in the 1980s. Absolutely, yeah. If not the 980s, yes. I put it to Joanne that with that weight of heritage behind her, it must have been a really hard decision to be that first person in, some would say, a thousand years or certainly since the 1980s, to turn her back on farming. You're right. It was a heavy burden. It was a difficult decision to make. I spent hours, if not an evening, thinking about it.

Walking about, looking out at the fields, sitting upstairs, sometimes sitting downstairs. But eventually I knew that Clint's were the only future for me. Oh, okay. Okay. So, okay. So you're giving up your family farm in order order to uh invest in or sell clint's oh i thought that was implied i mean what else would i be giving up the family farm for

yes clint's look i don't know if you can help me i i really don't have any idea what these things are yes clint's are a revolutionary garment no no no, that's not the answer I was looking for. Look, if you gave me a glint, if you put it in my hands, what would it look like? I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but just tell me. Okay, I'm sorry, I wasn't clear. So, yes, if I were to put glints into your hand, you would be holding in front of you a garment that is revolutionary.

What the f***? Okay. Sorry. Yeah. you would be holding in front of you a garment that is revolutionary what the okay sorry yeah sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry um right maybe you'd help if we use use an existing piece of clothing as a starting point you know so something that exists so start from that and then from there you you know, find your way to what a Clint's is. Yes, okay. So if you were to put on your Christmas maniacal, My sorry, what?

You know, we all have one. We go to the wardrobe because our Christmas maniacal. Pop that on. That's very similar to a Clint's. Okay, I put it to you

that, okay, I put it to you that when you come to sell your your farm um when your parents sadly pass on and i you know i don't know how old uh they are at the moment they are 87 and 42 okay so sorry to ask but how how old are you i'm 43 right so you're 43, but one of your parents is 42. Yes. Okay.

I'm going to give you one last chance to try and explain what clints are. And think of it not in terms of explaining it to me, but rather, you know, you will have to explain this to the public when you are trying to sell these things. So maybe channel that idea and just give us a a pricey of what this garment is thank you it's similar to culottes we all love a nice wide leg culotte very flattering but attaching behind the neck like a halter top with the practicality of an overall whilst also also a lovely sturdy leather upper and ventilation zips on the underarms and flanks.

Thank you, Joanne, and best of luck with it. Thank you. So that's all we've got time for this month. If you're after more Beef and Dairy news, get over to the website now where you'll find all the usual stuff, as well as our off-topic section, where this month we tell some children it's Christmas Day, even though it isn't, and watch the fallout before reflecting on what that means for us as a society. So, until next time, beef out. Thanks to Tom Crowley, Gemma Arrowsmith and Maggie Nolan.

Hello, thanks for listening. Just a final reminder about our live show on the 18th of September at the London Podcast Festival. You can be there in person, you can stream it. I will put links in the show description. Hope to see you there. Hi, everyone. I'm Anna McLeod. And I'm Alexis B. Preston.

And we host a show called Comfort Creatures, the show for every animal lover, be it a creature of scales, six legs, fur, feathers, or fiction. Comfort Creatures is a show for people who prefer their friends to have paws instead of hands. Unless they are raccoon hands, that is okay. That is absolutely okay, yeah. Yes. Every

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