So far in her career, wildlife ecologist Dr. Ray Wynne Grant, has tracked bears, chased after leemers, even lived with lions.

I come from a pretty urban working class black

family and we lived in a lot of big cities a lot of the time. I didn't fall in

love with nature by being in it. I actually fell in love with nature by watching it on TV.

It's Tuesday, May 14th, and you're listening to Science Friday.

I'm Scifry producer Charles Burgghquist. In her new memoir Dr Grant chronicles her childhood watching

nature shows, adventuring in the wild, and earning her dream job, hosting the nature

TV show Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, Protecting the

Wild. Her book is called Wild Life, Finding My Purpose in an Untamed World. She talked about

all that and more with guest host Sophie Bushwick.

Ray, welcome to Science Friday. Oh, thank you. This is exactly where I want to be.

Let's go back to the beginning.

Were you one of those kids who was just chasing lizards and frogs outside or showing up at home with a jar of caterpillars?

You know what, I gosh, I was one of those kids at heart I believe but a lot of my

upbringing was very urban. I you know come from a pretty urban working class black family and we lived in a lot of big

cities a lot of the time. So I did not explore nature necessarily as a kid.

I didn't fall in love with nature by being in it.

I actually fell in love with nature by watching it on TV.

Tell me more about that.

So my parents are super strict when I was a kid and I was a kid in the like early 90s and they would not let

my brother and I just watch anything and you know even like cartoons and stuff that were popular, we could only watch educational

programming and you know nature programs fit into that, right? So everything that was David Attenborough or, you know, like mutual of Omaha's

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