Ted Audio Collective.

Audio Collective.

You're listening to How to Bea

You're listening to How to Be a Better Human.

I'm your host Chris Duffy. I am very much a city boy. For all of my life,

I have lived in places where I am surrounded by humans and where if you say to me something

wild is happening outside. I assume that's like a crime or a flash mob on the subway or an improvised

performance art piece that's blocking traffic. Of course though, just because I live in a city

doesn't mean that there isn't actually wild nature here too.

But until my conversation with today's guest Christian Cooper, that's not something that I'd really

ever paid attention to or been all that conscious of.

Christian is the host of the TV show Extraordinary Birder

and the author of the book Better Living Through Birding.

He's also really well known as a comic book author

who has written for places like Marvel and Star Trek.

But while Christian may express himself creatively in fictional worlds,

I think that he's really a hero of the natural one,

especially that hidden natural world that's all around us every day no matter where we live.

Here's a clip from Christian. I'm walking down 9th Avenue in the middle of

Midtown Manhattan. There's traffic going by there's a construction site. I'm

talking to my friend. Other people are passing by with their conversations, but

that click, click, click, the kestrel cuts right through all of it and I'm like oh there's a kestrel here and my friend is like what are you talking about and I'm like and then my eye starts scanning the rooftops and I'm like over there and there's a kestrel and he's like wait that's the most incredible

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