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Going Wild with Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant

Fight And Flight: Christian Cooper's Story

Going Wild with Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant

WNET

Science, Pets & Animals, Nature, Kids & Family, Natural Sciences

4.9636 Ratings

🗓️ 19 September 2023

⏱️ 38 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Long before the infamous Central Park incident went viral (where a white woman called the cops on him during a birdwatching outing), Christian Cooper had been obsessed with birds. It was a love nurtured through his involvement in The Audubon Society, an environmental organization dedicated to bird conservation.  But recently, Christian’s dedication to and love for this organization has been put to the test. We’ll hear how growing up as a closeted queer person in the 80s, a career contributing to Marvel comics, and a life spent paying attention to birds has prepared Christian to navigate controversies and side with what is right. Follow Christian Cooper on Instagram. Thanks for listening to Going Wild. We're really excited to share the rest of this season with you! You can learn more about season three HERE and catch up on seasons one and two HERE.  If you want to support us, you can follow Going Wild on your favorite podcast-listening app. And while you're there, please leave us a review. It really helps. You can also get updates and bonus content by following me, Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant, and PBS Nature on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook. You can find more information on all of our guests this season in each episode's show notes. And you can catch new episodes of Nature, Wednesdays at 8/7 Central on PBS, pbs.org/nature, and the PBS app. Going Wild is a podcast by PBS Nature. NATURE is an award-winning series created by The WNET Group and made possible by all of you. Views and opinions expressed during the podcast are those of the individuals expressing them and do not necessarily reflect those of THIRTEEN Productions LLC/The WNET Group.

Transcript

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0:00.0

I was actually dealing with the fallout about National Audubon not changing the name.

0:04.9

And my sister happened to text me about something completely unrelated.

0:08.1

And she didn't know about the Audubon controversy.

0:11.7

I texted back to my sister, and I put it in pretty nonpartisan terms.

0:15.7

I'm like, well, you know, Audubon was a slave owner and a racist.

0:20.7

So some people think that it might be time to lose. You know, Audubon was a slave owner and a racist.

0:21.0

So some people think that it might be time to lose his name from the organization.

0:27.4

But National just announced that they decided that they were going to keep the name.

0:33.7

And my sister texted back, fuck that.

0:37.5

And I'm like, okay, so this is what we're dealing with.

0:44.8

I'm Dr. Ray Wyn Grant, and this is a different kind of nature show, a podcast all about the

0:51.1

human drama of saving animals.

0:53.6

This season, we're going to take a journey through the ecological web,

0:57.0

from the tiniest of life forms to apex predators.

1:02.0

We'll hear stories from scientists, activists, and adventurers

1:07.0

as they find all the different ways the natural world is interconnected. And together, we'll

1:12.8

explore our place in nature. This is Going Wild.

1:23.3

Christian Cooper is a birder, conservationist, writer, and nature show host.

1:28.9

And even if you're not a big birder, you've probably heard of Christian.

1:32.6

And there is a man African American who is a bicycle helmet.

1:35.4

He is recording me and threatening me and my dog.

1:37.9

Back in 2020, at the height of the pandemic, he recorded a video of a white woman

...

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