WEBVTT - How Does Jane Goodall Work?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff

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<v Speaker 1>Lauren Vogelbaum Here. But despite how it may feel, sometimes

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<v Speaker 1>there are a lot of kind, curious and scientifically savvy

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<v Speaker 1>people out there in the world working for good Today,

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<v Speaker 1>we wanted to profile one of them, a doctor Jane Goodall,

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<v Speaker 1>whose persistence pushed her through red tape, discrimination, baseless critics,

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<v Speaker 1>and even the results of her own research, causing her

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<v Speaker 1>to totally reshape her goals. A key to Jane Goodall's

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<v Speaker 1>persistence seems to have a lot to do with knowing

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<v Speaker 1>what she liked from a very young age and then

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<v Speaker 1>just insisting on doing it. She was born in London

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<v Speaker 1>in nineteen thirty four. Her father gave her a stuffed

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<v Speaker 1>chimpanzee when she was a baby, and she took it

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<v Speaker 1>with her everywhere, even though it was by all accounts

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<v Speaker 1>terrifying looking. She grew up love to observe in catalog

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<v Speaker 1>animals and dreamed of one day living with African animals

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<v Speaker 1>and writing books about them for a living. Her mother,

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<v Speaker 1>who was a novelist herself, told Goodall that seemed like

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<v Speaker 1>a perfectly reasonable idea, even though it was the nineteen

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<v Speaker 1>forties and not at all what middle class English girls

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<v Speaker 1>were expected to do. After she finished school, Goodall couldn't

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<v Speaker 1>afford to go to college, so she worked odd jobs

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<v Speaker 1>in London for a few years until a friend invited

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<v Speaker 1>her to visit her family's farm in Kenya, at which

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<v Speaker 1>point Goodall put everything else on hold and waited tables

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<v Speaker 1>until she made enough money to pay for the price

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<v Speaker 1>of the boat fare to Africa. A while in Kenya,

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<v Speaker 1>her friend suggested that she contact the paleontologist Lewis Leaky,

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<v Speaker 1>the curator of what's now the National Museum of Kenya,

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<v Speaker 1>in order to discuss primates. Leaki was interested in studying

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<v Speaker 1>primate behavior in order to better understand early human species.

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<v Speaker 1>He wound up hiring Goodall as his field assistant on

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<v Speaker 1>a dig, and later asked her to return to England

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<v Speaker 1>to research primates and raise money for a long term

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<v Speaker 1>observational study on wild chimpanzees at the Gombe Stream National

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<v Speaker 1>Park in Tanzania. So in July nineteen sixty, twenty six

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<v Speaker 1>year old Jane began setting up her field station at Gambay,

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<v Speaker 1>which would become the site of the longest running wildlife

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<v Speaker 1>research project in history. British authorities initially bulked at the

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<v Speaker 1>idea of a young woman doing this kind of work

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<v Speaker 1>on chaperone, so Goodall's mother accompanied her for the first

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<v Speaker 1>few months. Goodall observed the chimpanzees daily for two years

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<v Speaker 1>before she earned their trust. Her method was to just

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<v Speaker 1>watch the animals and imitate their actions, recording everything that

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<v Speaker 1>happened in a field journal. Two of Goodall's most important

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<v Speaker 1>discoveries during this period had to do with what chimps

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<v Speaker 1>eight and how they went about getting food. The Goodall

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<v Speaker 1>was the first to observe chimpanzees killing and eating's small mammals.

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<v Speaker 1>Prior to this, they were thought to be vegetarian. She

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<v Speaker 1>also made the revolutionary observation that chimps collected and then

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<v Speaker 1>modified grass stems and sticks as tools to fish termites

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<v Speaker 1>out of their nests. It was the first time a

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<v Speaker 1>non human animal had been observed making and using tools,

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<v Speaker 1>and it prompted science to reconsider what it means to

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<v Speaker 1>be human in the first place. Goodall's discoveries were so

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<v Speaker 1>significant that Leaky arranged for her to write a dissertation

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<v Speaker 1>at Cambridge University on the behaviors of wild chimpanzees. It

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<v Speaker 1>was accepted and she became one of only eight people

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<v Speaker 1>ever to graduate from Cambridge with her PhD without first

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<v Speaker 1>earning an undergraduate degree. In nineteen sixty four, Goodall married

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<v Speaker 1>a Dutch wildlife photographer by the name of Hugo Van Lavic.

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<v Speaker 1>Their son, Hugo Eric Lewis, affectionately nicknamed Grubb, was born

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<v Speaker 1>in nineteen sixty seven and spent his early life with

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<v Speaker 1>his parents at Gombay. After Goodall and Lavik divorced in

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<v Speaker 1>nineteen seventy four, she married a member of Tanzania's parliament,

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<v Speaker 1>Derek Bryson, in nineteen seventy five. During this time, Goodall

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<v Speaker 1>published books about her experiences and research at Gambay, including

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<v Speaker 1>In the Shadow of Man, which was criticized by scientists

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<v Speaker 1>because of Goodell's practice of naming the subjects of her

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<v Speaker 1>research instead of referring to them by number, which was

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<v Speaker 1>and mostly still is the scientific norm. In an effort

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<v Speaker 1>to avoid anthropomorphizing one's animal subjects, she called her most

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<v Speaker 1>famous study subject David Graybeard, but the book was wildly

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<v Speaker 1>popular and has since been translated into at least forty

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<v Speaker 1>eight languages. As she lived and worked in Gombay, she

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<v Speaker 1>began to notice changes to the chimpanzee's habitat. Deforestation and

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<v Speaker 1>mining practices forced the animals out of their homes and

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<v Speaker 1>into smaller and smaller areas. More than a million wild

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<v Speaker 1>chimpanzees lived in Africa one hundred years ago, but today

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<v Speaker 1>only a fifth of that population exists. Goodall saw the

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<v Speaker 1>riding on the wall, which is why in the nineteen

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<v Speaker 1>eighties she changed her focus from observing chimps to working

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<v Speaker 1>to protect their habitat. She founded the Jane Goodall Institute

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<v Speaker 1>in nineteen seventy seven, which works to keep human communities

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<v Speaker 1>and wild chimpanzee populations in Africa both healthy and coexisting peacefully.

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<v Speaker 1>Another program of Hers Roots and Shoots helps empower young

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<v Speaker 1>people worldwide to make a difference in their local communities.

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<v Speaker 1>Having just turned ninety years old in twenty twenty four,

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<v Speaker 1>Goodall still spends about three hundred days a year traveling

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<v Speaker 1>and speaking about Africa, chimpanzees, the environment, reducing poverty, and

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<v Speaker 1>her other passions. In twenty nineteen, she was nominated for

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<v Speaker 1>the Nobel Peace Prize. Although Goodall sees with open eyes

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<v Speaker 1>the harm that we humans are doing to our planet,

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<v Speaker 1>she continues to be hopeful about our future, she told

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<v Speaker 1>The New York Times in seventeen quote, the lust for

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<v Speaker 1>greed and power has destroyed the beauty we inherited. But altruism, compassion,

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<v Speaker 1>and love have not been destroyed. All that is beautiful

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<v Speaker 1>in humanity has not been destroyed. The beauty of our

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<v Speaker 1>planet is not dead, but lying dormant, like the seeds

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<v Speaker 1>of a dead tree. We shall have another chance. Today's

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<v Speaker 1>episode is based on the article Jane Goodall, a Global

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<v Speaker 1>Face for Globalpeace on HowStuffWorks dot Com, written by Jesslynshields.

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<v Speaker 1>Brain Stuff is production by Heart Radio in partnership with

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<v Speaker 1>how Stuffworks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang.

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