Jane Goodall, In Memoriam — What It Means to Be Human

Jane Goodall, In Memoriam — What It Means to Be Human

October 3, 2025 · 51 min · Episode 1008

About this episode

This episode revisits a conversation with Jane Goodall, reflecting on her life and insights into what it means to be human.

The great primatologist and humanitarian, Jane Goodall, died on October 1, 2025, at the age of 91. It is a joy and a comfort to revisit our last broadcast of her 2020 conversation with Krista. Jane Goodall began her epic work studying chimpanzees in the Gombe forest without even a college degree. The science she proceeded to do recalled modern western science to the fact that we are a part of nature, not separate from it. She spent the last decades of her life on the road, often with the young, tending to human fear and misunderstanding. In this beautiful conversation from pandemic lockdown, she shared the moral and spiritual wisdom that emerged in her extraordinary life — and the hope that, to the end, sustained her.

More episodes of On Being with Krista Tippett

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the On Being with Krista Tippett podcast page.