I grew up wanting to be like Jane Goodall. I read her book “In the Shadow of Man” and saw a National Geographic special about her groundbreaking study of chimpanzees, and I couldn’t imagine a better life. Not that I’d had any close contact with animals other than my dogs, but then Goodall herself said her childhood dog Rusty was her greatest animal teacher. When I was 17, I got a first-hand look at wildlife biology with a six-month internship at the National Zoo’s conservation center in Front Royal, Virginia. I spent half my time cleaning out animal stalls and cages, and the other half doing daily observations - with a stopwatch and checklist of specific behaviors - of three families of golden lion tamarins, one of the world’s rarest monkeys.
Life is full of strange twists and turns, and my fascination with wildlife biology faded until I started working on To the Best of Our Knowledge. I discovered that field biologists made for great interviews with their unique blend of science, adventure and environmental activism, so I set out to interview the major figures in the field. Of course, Goodall was at the top of my list.
I rarely get nervous before an interview, but when I finally caught up with Goodall, I was practically trembling. But she immediately put me at ease and went on to tell spellbinding stories about David Greybeard, Flo and other chimpanzees she’d known. Some years later I did a follow-up interview about how her work had challenged the prevailing scientific conventions and also what chimp behavior might reveal about the origins of religion. Among her surprising discoveries, Goodall saw chimpanzees occasionally stop and stare at a waterfall, bristling with excitement. “Watching these displays, you can't help feeling that it must be something that we would describe as awe or wonder or amazement, which can turn into the worship of things that we don't understand,” she told me. On this week's show, "Worshipping Waterfalls," we’re airing portions of that interview as we explore a provocative question: Do chimpanzees have spiritual experiences?
Jane Goodall is now 87 and still travels around the world, speaking about the threats to chimpanzees and other environmental crises. She also has a new book, “The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times.” As she’s always done, she continues to inspire.
—Steve