Animals were my passion from even before I could speak apparently. When I was about 10, 11 I fell in love with Tarzan”
– Jane Goodall, as told to Ira Flatow in 2002
Jane Goodall is so nice, so good, it’s intimidating. She seems like almost a kind of mythic figure. She made groundbreaking discoveries about the behavior of chimpanzees when she was only in her 20s, and without any formal training or degree. Even now, she’s always on the go, speaking up for the rights of animals, campaigning for conservation, and working slavishly on her environmental education program. She’s a role model for young girls to get into science. With all that, it’s sometimes been hard for us to imagine her as one of us ordinary humans.
Which is why this interview Blank On Blank came across by veteran public radio science journalist Ira Flatow was just so great. Ira talked with Jane Goodall for his long-running Science Friday program back in 2002, and in that conversation, you can hear a Jane who’s full of formidable conviction, yes – but she’s also humble, vulnerable and best of all even actually fun.
