Introducing: A Show About Animals
CYBER
VICE
4 • 645 Ratings
🗓️ 19 November 2021
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today we are sharing an episode from one of our newest series -- A Show About Animals. This season, we tell the strange and wonderful story of the wildly famous Koko the “talking” Gorilla.
In the early 1970s, a grad student named Penny Patterson set out to investigate a big question: is language unique to humans? So she begins an ambitious experiment -- with the help of a young gorilla named Koko. Pretty soon, Penny says Koko is learning sign language. But, of course, that’s not the whole story.
You can listen to our weekly series, A Show About Animals, in all the places you get your podcasts.
A Show About Animals is hosted and reported by Arielle Duhaime-Ross and produced by Julia Nutter and Pete Lang-Stanton. Our associate producer is Leily Rezvani. Sound design and original score by Pran Bandi, with additional support from Steve Bone.
Annie Aviles is our executive editor. Our executive producer and VP of Vice Audio is Kate Osborn.
Special thanks to Maximo Anderson for fact-checking.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, I'm Ariel Zimros. |
| 0:03.7 | I'm the host of a new podcast from Vice. |
| 0:05.6 | We're calling a show about animals. |
| 0:08.2 | Our first season just started releasing episodes, and in it, we tell the story of the |
| 0:12.8 | uber-famous Coco, the so-called talking gorilla, who learned to communicate through |
| 0:17.3 | sign language. |
| 0:18.5 | She also became friends with a totally random group of celebrities, |
| 0:21.7 | including Robin Williams, Betty White, and Mr. Rogers. And she was at the center of a scientific |
| 0:27.7 | rivalry attempting to bridge the divide between humans and other animals. It's a show about animals, |
| 0:34.8 | which means it's also about us. |
| 0:41.5 | So, of course, it involves sex, drugs, and all kinds of shit. |
| 0:42.6 | Literally. |
| 0:46.7 | The first few episodes are available now, wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:48.9 | And if you like what you hear, subscribe. |
| 0:51.6 | New episodes drop every Wednesday. |
| 0:55.0 | And now, here's the first episode. Okay, Reggie, come up, over here. |
| 0:57.8 | Please. |
| 0:58.8 | Hey, hey, look. |
| 1:00.8 | Up. |
| 1:01.8 | Yes, good job. |
| 1:02.8 | I have a dog, Reggie. |
| 1:04.4 | Reggie is this nine-pound chihuahua, and she has a lot of feelings about everything. |
... |
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