Was there a moment when you realized this story wasn't just about veterinary medicine, but about adaptation, about change? What was the story that you really wanted to tell?

Well, it's a three-act play, of course.

And the first act is Alan, born on the farm until he goes to college.

The one thing I will correct is not the word, but Alan said, my family all went to Iowa State.

His generation.

And we talk about in the film, in the 1700s, when the Yunkins first came to the United States from Germany, 90% of Americans worked in agriculture.

and even when his father was born it was still 30 percent and so alan's one of the first generations who actually went to college and so that's part of the film as well just how the the world has changed in his lifetime in our lifetimes um but when i started doing i thought it would be alan born goes to iowa state animal hospital and then after that and um as i was putting it together i realized the animal stories are great but his life itself is interesting he's got four kids He always married this wonderful woman.

I'd like to be in this creative field.

What'd you do?

So I sold, I, so I worked at Fuji TV, which is the top-rated network in Japan, and I sold the Iron Chef to Food Network.

And then I developed and sold TV shows, and then I executive produced them for, like, ESPN, Spike, Syfy.

So I did that for many years.

The thing about television is you interview someone, and then you have to cover, uh, what they say with, um, you know, with, with footage.

And so when I was talk- when I first met Alan, first of all, I loved the fact that he's been through so much in his life.

He was born and raised on a farm, and the stories from his farm childhood are, like, whoa.

[laughs]