What Next - Wait, China’s Taking Our Pandas Back?
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Slate
3.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 27 September 2023
⏱️ 29 minutes
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Summary
Everybody loves pandas—and China knows it. As we say goodbye to the National Zoo’s pandas, we look back at 50 years of “panda diplomacy” and consider its uncertain future.
Guest: E. Elena Songster, author of Panda Nation: The Construction and Conservation of China’s Modern Icon and professor of environmental history of modern China at St. Mary’s College of California.
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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Madeline Ducharme, Anna Phillips, Paige Osburn, and Rob Gunther.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:49.0 | You are listening to tape from a few weeks back, a Monday morning in August. |
| 0:54.0 | The sun's up, it's getting hot. |
| 0:56.3 | And our producer, Madeline, is about to go to a panda birthday party. |
| 1:00.9 | Hi. |
| 1:01.9 | Can I catch up with you guys? |
| 1:03.9 | I like your birthday hats. |
| 1:05.9 | Okay. |
| 1:07.9 | Madeline's at the National Zoo. |
| 1:09.6 | There are like 50 people here and a whole lot of cameras. |
| 1:13.0 | They're celebrating the fact that Shao Chi-G, the zoo's youngest panda, is one year older. |
| 1:19.3 | He's about to slurp up a cake made out of diluted apple and pineapple juices. |
| 1:24.9 | Did you call yourselves big panda fans? |
... |
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