Goat is the Future: An Interview with Tom Rankin

For my third and final review I listened to a podcast titled “Goat is the Future: An interview with Tom Rankin”. It is part of a Gravy podcast series. Tom Ramkin has a farm in Orange County California and discusses his book Goat Light with the interviewers. At the beginning of the interview he is asked how he ended up as a goat farmer along with his wife Jill. He answers by saying goat farming is not something he originally set out to do. He did not just wake up one morning and say “I am going to become a goat farmer” it was something that gradually became a part of his life over time. He said that goat farming has become so intertwined with his everyday life it is not something he even realizes anymore. He acknowledges the challenged that come with goat farming while also stating it is something that he loves to do. He said that the intentions of his book was really to take something that he does in his day to day life and turn it into something more. He said instead of writing books in the interest of other companies he wanted to see what kind of writing he could produce without any other pressure. Writing with just his own ideas in mind and in regards to what he does. He then had a cute little moment with his wife where he starts to just admire the way she took his ideas and their lifestyle and was able to turn it into ‘beautiful’ words. He said that his wife is a writer and in writing his book it was nice to find a common ground between them. His wife usually writes about unrelated topics to what he does for a living so to come together on this project was a very sentimental moment for both of them. He then goes onto talk about the act of goat farming itself and how the world of covid had greatly influence goat farming and his own experience. He said goat farming as a smaller industry got negatively impacted much like many other businesses. He discussed how covid definitely forces him to re evaluate his business model as a farmer and how it has changed. To close off the interview they mostly just discussed the popularity of goat meat and how from his personal perspective covid has made him truly appreciate the nature of a small business. Overall, this was my first time listening to a podcast…ever. I’ll be honest I did not really enjoy it because I felt like a lot of Tom’s answers were repetitive and it was kind of boring. I mostly chose this podcast because it was talking about goats and I love eating goat meat. So at first, I thought the podcast would discuss goat meat more, but it didn’t.