Freedom Farm, Chapter 2 arrives Saturday (the sheep have begun noticing things)

Hello from the pasture,

Last Saturday something slightly unusual happened here at Pasture Politics.

I released Chapter 1 of my new book, Freedom Farm, as a podcast episode.

If you’re just tuning in, here’s the basic idea.

For the next 20 weeks, I’m releasing one chapter every Saturday as a podcast reading of the rough draft of the book.

The twist: the series is available only to paid subscribers.

Why?

Because the sheep have insisted that if they are going to star in a serialized political satire loosely inspired by George Orwell’s Animal Farm, they should at least earn enough revenue to maintain their snack budget.

Also — and this part is real — I want the Pasture Politics community to help shape the book while it’s still alive and messy.

Paid subscribers get to:

• listen to each chapter as it drops
• comment with feedback
• point out plot holes, jokes that land badly, or sheep behaving implausibly

In other words, you become the editorial board of the pasture.

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Quick recap of Chapter 1

The story begins at North Star Farm, which at the moment is less a farm and more a slow-motion collapse.

The blueberry fields are choked with weeds. The fences are barely fences. The animals are hungry and quietly miserable.

Meanwhile the farm’s owner, Chester Gilt, spends his days attempting to become a social media farm influencer.

He films upbeat videos about “authentic farm life,” carefully framing the camera so viewers never see the empty feed bins, broken pipes, or collapsing fences behind him.

Watching all of this unfold is Old Shearson, an ancient ram who has seen the farm in better days and studies its decay with the patience of someone waiting for a long-overdue conclusion.

The animals are hungry.

The farm is falling apart.

And the man in charge is busy adjusting filters.

You can listen to Chapter 1 here:

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Chapter 2 arrives this Saturday

Without spoiling anything, let’s just say one of the sheep starts fixing things the humans have ignored for years.

Historically speaking, that’s the moment when farms — and political allegories — begin to get interesting.

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If you’d like to follow the story as it unfolds, you can upgrade to a paid subscription and join the experiment.

Paid subscribers get:

• the weekly Freedom Farm chapter podcast
• the ability to comment and give feedback on the draft
• the satisfaction of helping shepherd a book into existence

And because the sheep believe in tangible benefits, all paid subscribers also receive 10% off farm stays at the REAL North Star Farm (www.northstarfarm.com).

When you upgrade, you’ll receive a coupon code in your subscription welcome email that you can use anytime when booking a stay at the farm.

So the subscription technically supports both independent satire and rural hospitality infrastructure, which is a rare bundle in today’s media economy. It’s $5/month or $50/year, which the sheep inform me is roughly the price of one latte.

Possibly two, depending on whether Marvin is correct that the global coffee industry is secretly controlled by alpacas.

If you’d like to join the editorial flock, you can upgrade here:

Thanks for being part of this strange little pasture community.

More soon.

Justin
Temporary Shepherd of the Editorial Flock
Pasture Politics