What Next: Wait, China’s Taking Our Pandas Back? | 2023 In Review

Slate News

Slate Podcasts

News, News Commentary, Politics

4.6 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 26 December 2023

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

While the What Next team spends some time with their families this week, we revisit some of 2023’s biggest, strangest, and best stories. Regularly scheduled programming resumes Jan. 2. 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. Originally aired Sept. 27. If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everyone. Here at what next our job is to ask questions and this year we asked a lot of serious ones about war, politics, fascism, health care. But some of our questions, we're a little less
0:15.9	orthodox. Questions like has pickleball invaded our towns? Do aliens exist?
0:22.1	And is Stephen Spielberg actually cursed?
0:26.0	Since it's the holidays, we're going to take a break from the headlines and listen back to some of our whackier questions.
0:33.0	So if you're on a little vacation from the news right now,
0:36.0	we promise, these shows are going to be like unwrapping a present,
0:40.0	the kind you actually want to get.
0:42.0	Today, while you are hopefully snugging up and enjoying a winter
0:45.9	holiday, we are talking about some of America's favorite cuddly ambassadors, pandas. That's right. I said pandas, and I called them ambassadors.
0:56.0	You'll just have to listen to the show to find out why. You are listening to tape from a few weeks back a Monday morning in August.
1:13.7	The sun's up, it's getting hot.
1:16.0	And our producer, Madeline, is about to go to a Panda birthday party.
1:21.0	Hi.
1:22.2	Can I catch out with you guys? I like your birthday hats. Okay.
1:27.0	Madeline's at the National Zoo. There are like 50 people here and a whole lot of cameras.
1:32.0	They're celebrating the fact that
1:33.8	Shao Chi-G, the zoo's youngest panda, is one year older. He's about to
1:40.1	slur up a cake made out of diluted apple and pineapple juices.
1:44.0	Would you call yourselves big panda fans?
1:47.0	Well, her name's Amanda, so they call her Panda.
1:50.0	My whole life, my nickname's been Amanda Panda. So most of my friends and family call me Panda.
1:55.0	So I'm a big Panda fan.
	...

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