Hello, this is Outside In, a show about the natural world and how we use it. I am Sam Evans Brown, and today on the show, we're going to engage in something that we rarely get the chance to.

Pop culture commentary.

So, should we just start with the Netflix series Tiger King and

should people watch it or not? Well I guess that's a personal decision that

everybody should make for themselves.

This is Rachel Newer.

I'm a freelance journalist and author of the book poached inside the dark world of wildlife trafficking.

If you have not heard, Tiger King is a Netflix series, a reality TV show about one of the nation's most

infamous tiger breeders, a man who is now in prison in part for conspiring to kill a woman named Carol Baskin, who runs a sanctuary for tigers that people bought as pets when they were cute, tiny cubs, and gave them away when they realized they had

purchased a tiger. It kind of seems like everybody stuck at home right now has

watched this show and yes it is full of. But Rachel says there's some ethical issues

that viewers might not be aware of.

The show is like seven hours of, you know, ridiculous antics,

insane characters, entertainment.

It'll definitely make you forget about the pandemic

we're currently in.

But if you're looking for something, though,

that is gonna educate you and make you not feel kind of like slimy

afterwards then Tiger King might not be the best option. It really misses a

great opportunity for raising awareness about the big cat crisis in our country right now.

You know there's more tigers privately owned in the US than are left in the wild. But you know that's an

editorial decision. Not everybody has to make a bleeding heart documentary

...