Episode 33: From the Archive - Dian Fossey
Origin Stories
Meredith Johnson
4.8 • 554 Ratings
🗓️ 13 December 2018
⏱️ 54 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this never-before-released archival lecture from 1973, the legendary primatologist Dian Fossey tells the story of the early years of her groundbreaking mountain gorilla research.
Show Notes
The Leakey Foundation is 50 years old this year, and we're celebrating this milestone by sharing rare, previously unreleased lectures from the Foundation's archive. These talks are like a time capsule that lets you hear from scientists in their own words and in their own voices - as they were making the discoveries that made them famous.
The second lecture in this "From the Archive" series is by Dian Fossey, the legendary primatologist who was sent by Louis Leakey to study the mountain gorillas of Rwanda. She gave this Leakey Foundation lecture in 1973, only six years after she started the Karisoke Research Center in the Virunga Mountains.
In this talk, she describes what it was like to establish the Karisoke research center, and she shares what she'd learned so far about their lives and behavior.
The Leakey Foundation
Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach. The Leakey Foundation funds cutting-edge research about human evolution and human behavior.
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Sponsors
This season of Origin Stories is made possible by support from Dixon Long, Jeanne Newman, and Camilla Smith.
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Credits
Host and Series Producer: Meredith Johnson
Sound Engineer/Mix: Katie McMurran
Theme Music: Henry Nagle
Additional Music:
Lee Rosevere "Tech Toys"
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Origin Stories, the Leaky Foundation podcast. I'm Meredith Johnson. |
| 0:16.2 | Today, we're continuing our 50th anniversary celebration with another rare and previously |
| 0:21.5 | unreleased lecture from the Leaky Foundation's archive. |
| 0:25.2 | Before we get started, though, I want to thank everyone who's donated to our quadruple-match |
| 0:29.9 | fundraising challenge. |
| 0:31.7 | If you don't know about it, here's what it is. |
| 0:34.5 | Three generous donors are matching all donations to origin stories, four to one, up to a total of |
| 0:40.2 | $5,000. So every dollar you give becomes $4 to support this show. It's really exciting, |
| 0:48.5 | and we really appreciate the support. You can learn more at leakyfoundation.org slash origin |
| 0:54.1 | stories challenge. I'll be giving a personal |
| 0:56.4 | shout out to our most recent donors at the end of this episode. Now, on to today's lecture from |
| 1:02.6 | the archive. Today we're sharing one of my favorite talks from our collection. It's by Diane Fosse, |
| 1:09.2 | who was one of the most legendary scientists of the past century. |
| 1:12.8 | She was one of the Leaky Foundation's first grantees, and she received a total of 16 Leaky Foundation grants over her lifetime. |
| 1:20.5 | The first time I listened to this archival tape, I cried, because it was so wonderful to hear her tell her story in her own words. |
| 1:29.3 | I'd never heard her voice before, and it was powerful. Diane Fosse was born in California in |
| 1:34.5 | 1932. After college, she worked as an occupational therapist, but she dreamed of traveling the |
| 1:40.6 | world and learning more about its wildlife. In 1963, she used her life savings |
| 1:46.8 | and a bank loan to travel to Africa, where she visited Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, |
| 1:53.3 | which was then called Sair, Zimbabwe, and Tanzania. In Tanzania, she visited Oldify Gorge, |
| 2:00.0 | where she met Louis Leakey, who talked with her about |
| 2:02.9 | the importance of long-term primate studies, especially the great apes. Fossi later said that |
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