For many of us, Jane Goodall was one of those cultural figures who seemed always to have been around, and on some level, made us feel like she always would be. But of course, no human being lives forever, no matter how widely admired. Goodall made her own departure last fall, in the middle of an American speaking tour, at the age of 91. Just two days thereafter, she appeared as the guest on the premiere of Netflix’s Famous Last Words, a program consisting of interviews conducted expressly to air only after the interviewee’s death. In the clip above, the show’s host, TV writer-director-producer Brad Falchuk, asks her an outwardly simple question: “Who would you say you were?”
Goodall describes herself as “somebody sent to this world to try to give people hope in dark times, because without hope, we fall into apathy and do nothing, and in the dark times that we are living in now, if people don’t have hope, we’re doomed. How can we bring little children into this dark world we’ve created and let them be surrounded by people who’ve given up? So even if this is the end of humanity as we know it, let’s fight to the very end. Let’s let the children know that there is hope, if they get together. And even if it becomes impossible for anybody, it’s better to go on fighting to the end than just to give up and say, ‘Okay.’ ” These are fine words, though it may surprise some of us that they make no mention of chimps.
Though she became famous as a primatologist, and specifically as an expert on chimpanzees, Goodall devoted much energy in her later decades to taking action on broader causes. These included environmental conservation and the security of life on Earth itself, which she saw as imperiled by the actions of certain governments and political actors. When Falchuk asks who she doesn’t like, she expresses her desire to send permanently into space Elon Musk, Donald Trump and “some of his real supporters,” Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Benjamin Netanyahu and “his far-right government.” That answer may get us wondering whether the resulting power vacuums would be filled by more or less savory characters. The entire interview will leave us with another, perhaps more troubling question: who, today, could be suited to assume the place in public life left behind by Jane Goodall?
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Based in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and broadcasts on cities, language, and culture. He’s the author of the newsletter Books on Cities as well as the books 한국 요약 금지 (No Summarizing Korea) and Korean Newtro. Follow him on the social network formerly known as Twitter at @colinmarshall.
