What happens when the full power of the state comes after you, for exposing nightmarish abuse at factory farms? 

If you’re Kecia Doolittle or Matt Johnson, you fight back – and you win. 

Kecia is a founder of Project Counterglow, a grassroots initiative to create a nationwide map of factory farms. Matt Johnson is a core organizer for the animal rights network Direct Action Everywhere (DxE), and lead investigator in an effort to expose the brutal extermination procedures used by pig farms at the height of COVID-19. Both Kecia and Matt’s work was discussed in the Iowa legislature when it passed a so-called “Ag Gag” law that targeted animal rights activists for, among other things, posting videos about abuses unfolding in factory farms. And both Kecia and Matt were also later charged with serious crimes for that work. 

But they fought back, and they won. 

This conversation will give you the story behind the story. That includes the bizarre excuses given by Iowa law enforcement for their failure to even investigate credible reports of extreme animal cruelty, including roasting animals alive. The strange motions filed by the government – including their effort to paint the image of a smiling single mother as a terrorist threat – in the days before trial. And the exhilarating moment when, after being persecuted by his own government for nearly 2 years, Matt realized that all charges would be dropped literally one day before trial. There are lessons here for anyone who’s facing unfair persecution, whether by the government or otherwise. Maybe the most important one is this: understand that your sacrifice has a purpose. 

But this conversation is also interesting to me because of the personal side of things. You see, Matt and Kecia were not just an activist team when they investigated Iowa pig farming from 2019-2020. They were dating, too. And what you see in this conversation is the complexity of working together with people who are not just part of a movement, but part of a real, human community. That includes all the complexity and messiness and beauty that human communities and relationships will inevitably have. 

The fact that their friendship remains so strong, years later and even in the face of criminal prosecution, has lessons for us all.

Project Counterglow - A map of all factory farms in the U.S.

Music by Moby: Everything That Rises