Documentarian Tom Rankin balances the demands of academic life with caring for his herd of escape-artist goats. In this episode, he talks about the often-maligned animal and reads excerpts from his story “Raising Goats to Their Rightful Place” (featured in Eno Publishers’ The Carolina Table: North Carolina Writers on Food).

Tom Rankin is a goat farmer as well as a noted photographer and documentarian. He was director of Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies for fifteen years, and now directs Duke’s MFA program in Experimental and Documentary Arts. His photographs have been widely exhibited. His books include Sacred Space: Photographs from the Mississippi Delta and Local Heroes Changing America: Indivisible.