David Attenborough on his connection to the natural world

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 21 October 2025

⏱️ 4 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The broadcasting legend Sir David Attenborough was cast away by Kirsty Young in 2012 for the 70th anniversary of Desert Island Discs.

Sir David told Kirsty about his passion for fossils, which began as a child and inspired his love of the natural world.

You can listen to the full episode on BBC Sounds.

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts.
0:07.3	Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron.
0:10.5	Evil genius.
0:11.6	He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it.
0:15.5	That's like hiding at your own funeral.
0:17.1	Yeah, a bit great gig.
0:18.6	I'm Russell Kane.
0:19.6	Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history
0:22.3	are more evil or genius.
0:24.1	Becoming that rich, I'd say that
0:25.4	is some level of genius.
0:26.4	It also helps it.
0:27.4	It's a long time ago, right?
0:29.4	It's like the podcast version
0:30.6	of telling your kids
0:31.5	the ice cream van plays music
0:33.0	when it's out of ice cream.
0:34.9	Listen to Evil Genius on BBC Sounds.
1:02.8	Hello, it's Lauren Levern, and this is Desert Island Discs postcards, a selection of some of our most memorable moments from some of the thousands of people we've cast away to our imaginary desert island.
1:12.6	Today's castaway is broadcasting legend Sir David Attenborough. He spoke to Kirsty Young in 2012 for the 70th anniversary of Desert Island Discs.
1:20.1	Sir David told Kirsty about his passion for fossils, which began as a child, and inspired his love of the natural world.
1:29.2	The romance of it was very vivid. The possibility that there is in front of you there's a rock, the size of a football,
	...

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